Abstract:
The concept of ‘school gardens’ has become prevalent in P-10 schools in Australia, providing valuable outdoor spaces that contribute to sustainability and environmental education. However, research on the presence of school gardens on social media is lacking, limiting broader discussions about their educational role, and the various cross-curriculum possibilities. This research aims to contribute to the amplification of sustainability and environmental education in Australia as intertwined with the use of digital media tools that invite cross-curriculum learning opportunities. As such, the amplification of school gardens on social media incorporates learning areas across the Australian Curriculum including Media Arts, Health and Physical Education and Design and Technologies. Through the collection and a thematic analysis of public Instagram posts from both Australia and internationally, we explore the visibility of school gardens on Instagram and how it promotes sustainability education. We examine sociodemographic data, including details such as account name, post-date, location, and the type of educational centre (whether it's public, private, or privately funded project with state support) and on public facing accounts aspects such as the account likes, reposts, or the frequency at which posts were shared. Data is de-identified and analysed thematically. This project also includes information about post content, which may comprise text, links, images, videos, and more (or the metadata) and the purpose of the school gardens including the function of the school garden into various categories, such as educational (involving academic content), ecological-environmental, community service, sustainability, and promoting a healthy diet and habits. In addition to this, we explore the learning areas and cross-curriculum priorities in the Australian Curriculum, and compare, where applicable, to other international examples (e.g. Álvarez-Herrero et al., 2021), and the ways in which the amplification of school gardens on social media are incorporated into broader student and wider community learning.