School Gardening in Early Childhood Education in Oman: A pilot project with Grade 2 Students

Abstract

<p>While school gardens are familiar in many Western contexts and research has reported significant pedagogical and affective benefits of these resources, there is limited reporting of their use in non-Western contexts. A pilot school gardening project involving a quasi-experimental mixed method design was undertaken in the Sultanate of Oman with several Grade 2 and Grade 7 classes to determine if this resource might provide benefits in this particular context. This paper reports on the findings for the Grade 2 cohort. While these findings were somewhat mixed and need to be treated tentatively given that the study was a pilot, they did suggest that school gardens in Oman could provide affective and possibly health benefits for students. The potential health benefits could be particularly significant because the Omani population is beginning to exhibit a rapid increase in "lifestyle diseases", most notably diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses. These illnesses appear to be linked to poor dietary habits and a more sedentary lifestyle among the younger generation.</p>