Any Sign of Virtual School Garden Exchanges? Education for Sustainable Development in School Gardens since 1992: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

A core aim of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is to link local action with global thinking. In this systematic literature review, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed a sample of 158 peer-reviewed articles on school gardening. Our particular interest was in Virtual School Garden Exchanges (VSGEs). In VSGEs, learners plant school gardens and use digital media (e.g., videos, photos, video conferences) to engage in virtual communication about their gardens and related topics. Because this is a new area of research, we approached the broader topic of the ‘school garden’ from three perspectives: (1) the embedding of the global perspective of ESD, (2) the use of digital media, and (3) the establishment of international exchanges between school gardeners. Just 14 articles directly incorporated these three perspectives and were thus analyzed in more detail using a qualitative content analysis. As a result, we identified possible directions for future research on VSGE.