SOWING MEANING: THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY GARDENS IN PLACEMAKING AND STUDENTS’ ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY

Abstract

The establishment of community gardens in tertiary educational institutions have been on the rise in Singapore. Community gardens provide multiple social, environmental and educational benefits for communities. This thesis aims to investigate the impacts that local university community gardens (UCGs) have on student gardeners, through two lenses: the contribution of UCGs to placemaking and students’ environmental literacy. Investigating the processes and extent to which UCGs achieve placemaking and development of environmental literacy helps in understanding the contributions that UCGs have to students’ well-being and environmental attitudes, both of which are beneficial for social and environmental-well-being. This thesis involved 21 student gardeners from 6 UCGs, and used conceptual frameworks relating to place, placemaking and environmental learning concepts to frame the study and analyse the findings. This thesis adopted semi-structured interviews with student gardeners and participant observation during gardening sessions to collect data on UCGs’ impacts on gardeners. This thesis finds that UCGs contribute to student gardeners’ well-being by providing therapeutic benefits, building community and are associated with multiple meanings that make them meaningful places for these students, and thus embody placemaking elements. UCGs also have a role in contributing to students’ environmental literacy by contributing to gardeners’ environmental learning and environmental attitudes. The findings can help to inform relevant stakeholders and policymakers on the value of UCGs and ways to improve them. ii