The effects of school gardening on parent involvement in elementary schools

Abstract

Parent involvement is a necessary component in the education of today's children. However, despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of parent involvement, schools often do not have the involvement that they need from all parents. As schools seek to address the barriers to parent involvement, the school climate is one factor that may be improved through the innovative approach of a school gardening program. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a school gardening program on parent involvement in elementary schools. Subjects for this study were parents of third through fifth graders in the Arlington, TX, Fort Worth, TX, and Temple, TX areas participating in the Junior Master Gardener[sm] program at their school. Students participated in the Junior Master Gardener[sm] program during the 2000-2001 school year, and at the end of the school year, parents of those students participated in the research study. A sample of 290 parents completed the School Gardening Survey, a retrospective pretest/ posttest instrument. Statistically significant increases from retrospective pretest to posttest were found in total parent involvement scores, attitude scores, and behavior scores. The mean scores of the participants were higher on the posttest indicating a more positive attitude toward the school and greater parent involvement after implementation of a school gardening program. Statistically significant differences were also found in total parent involvement scores, attitude scores, and behavior scores between each of the income levels categories, each of the ethnicity categories, and each of the education level categories on both the retrospective pretest and the posttest. These scores were generally higher for African Americans and Whites, participants with higher income levels, and participants with higher educational levels. Statistically significant increases in total parent involvement scores from the retrospective pretest to the posttest were seen in participants with incomes below $50,000, Hispanics and Whites, and participants with at least some high school to some college education. The findings suggest that school gardening may be an effective tool for involving White and Hispanic parents and those of the lower incomes levels since those groups exhibited the greatest increase in scores.