Opening garden gates: Teachers making meaning of school gardens in Havana and Philadelphia

This article examines how garden educators in Havana, Cuba and Philadelphia, United States navigate the challenges and opportunities provided by local school settings and the larger policy and social contexts to think about and explain garden education as valid and valuable pedagogy. Havana and Philadelphia educators explain their own perspectives on school garden programs by drawing on situated pedagogical paradigms about the contributions garden programs make to schools and the schooled individual. In so doing, they build personally relevant meaning and public validation of garden work in institutional and community settings, creating gateways for implementation of school gardens.