Student leadership in school yard revitalization is tied to increased student knowledge, perceived efficacy and positive design outcomesA strategy in green school yard interventions is the early and continuous input of students in the planning, design and implementation process. One such approach known as community based participatory research (CBPR) was utilized by a team of researchers, landscape architects, and environmental educators to implement a school revitalization program in Detroit, Michigan. The East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC) recruited four participant schools from Southwestern Detroit who demonstrated both a need for school yard improvement and a commitment to maintain the physical features that were implemented following conclusion of the project. Each of the selected schools served grades 8-10 and possessed a similar demographic of predominantly African-American students from low socio-economic backgrounds.
The project was implemented in the context of a 16-week course for these teenage students in Detroit that covered several topics within two content areas, urban ecology and cultural connections to landscape. These units were added to the school curriculum in weekly 40-50 minute periods. Students were also given the opportunity to collaborate with “experts” from the intervention team in small focus groups and through field trips to review landscape design features. Additionally students were encouraged to maintain a journal throughout the process with ideas for how to improve their environment. In the design phase of the project, students collaborated in small groups to create 3-D models representing their collective view of an optimal school yard. The project team used these as the foundation for designing the features to be implemented at each school, which also was student-driven and took place over a summer break and or school year and included an entryway, courtyard gardens and garden for meditation.
This example of participatory landscape design illustrates a variety of benefits, including, in this case, a social justice dimension by which teenagers and community members were empowered to make tangible physical improvements to the landscape in their low-income neighborhoods. The process involved collaboration between the students, researchers, education staff and community members and provided an opportunity for a target population to take ownership of an intervention. Respondents to a post-implementation survey reported feeling enthusiastic about being able to see their collaborative designs through to construction.
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