Pairing Autoethnography with Biocultural Diversity in Botanical Gardens

by editor | Dec 29, 2025 | Critical Thinking, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Gardening, Farming, Food, & Permaculture, Indigenous Peoples & Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Dr. David Zandvliet, Ph.D.,
Simon Fraser University
Professor and UNESCO Chair

Chantal Martin
Director, Education & Research
Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association

Poh Tan PhD (UBC, Exp. Medicine), PhD (SFU, Education)
Scientist, Researcher, Educator, Author, Entrepreneur
Research Associate, Institute for Environmental Learning
Founder and CEO, STEMedge Academy

Shaila Shams
Doctoral Student, Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University

Akiko Inui-Ohta
Doctoral Student, Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University

Photos by Tina Chin
(except where noted)

Prologue

I was filled with excitement upon first hearing that the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association would be working with the Institute for Environmental Learning to form a new fellowship opportunity at VanDusen Botanical Gardens and Bloedel Conservatory. It also came with many questions focused on how participatory action research would work between a team of passionate environmental educators and academic fellows, each with their own goals and desired outcomes. Five years later, as Director of Education and Research, I have firsthand observed the evolution of a wonderful partnership between academia and community through the fellowship program, and the far-reaching impacts I could have never predicted.

Introduction

The context for this research program is the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association (or VBGA) a non-profit organization that promotes biodiversity and connections to plants through education in botanical gardens among its many other conservation related functions. With the establishment of  the VBGA fellowship program, VanDusen Botanical Gardens and the Bloedel Conservatory (located in Vancouver, Canada) have become important sites for research on the potential for botanical gardens as diverse and inclusive learning environments.  For the past few years, a number of graduate fellowships have been enacted by the Institute for Environmental Learning (or IEL) undertaking a program of participatory action research in these urban botanical gardens.  In our research, we use a lens of biocultural diversity to frame our work.  Put simply, this idea suggests that the diversity of life is made up of the diversity of plants, animals, habitats and ecosystems, but also of the diversity of human cultures and languages

As joint operating partners of VanDusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory alongside the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the VBGA is a charitable not-for-profit responsible for; education and research, a botanical library, volunteer programs, and fundraising all which supports Garden and Conservatory programs, services, and conservation. The VBGA has a mission to engage people of all ages and walks of life in the importance of biodiversity to our lives, and to foster a lifelong love of plants and gardens by virtue of their participation in our programs and services. Our educational offerings include adult, youth, and family programing, community outreach, and teacher professional development. The VBGA education team is intentional and thoughtful to ensure that our programs are accessible, high quality and have short-term and long-term impacts that fulfill the VBGA’s mission. This is where the research fellows conducting participatory action research (PAR) have helped us flourish.

VBGA Preschool Wonder Walk.

The idea of creating a research program centered on environmental learning activities in (and around) botanical gardens, is a relatively recent phenomenon. This research responds to an educational condition that many botanists refer to as ‘plant blindness’ though recently some scholars have rejected this term as negative preferring the term ‘plant awareness disparity’ for this phenomenon. However termed, plant blindness refers to the largely overlooked idea that plants are essential for human survival. As an example of this line of research in botanical gardens, we examine Sellman and Bogner’s research which evaluated an education program in a European garden, studying the impact of learning on high school students’ (cognitive) achievement. This study demonstrated the potential of urban gardens as an effective learning environment in that it was shown to complement formal school-based learning settings: adding richness to classroom activities both before and after the garden experiences. However, studies like these typically evaluate only a short visitation to one garden and do not describe in detail the context or types of pedagogies utilized . Further, they do not consider implications for longer term, immersive programming in botanical gardens, or the potential for catering to the educational needs of teacher-educators or other types of adult learners.

We sought out answers to our burning questions, the types of questions and answers which fuel our fire as informal environmental educators in a botanical garden. The types of questions that research fellows have the expertise / knowledge to find answers to … the questions that can be answered collaboratively by academics and community organizations exploring STEM education together in a garden.

• How do life experiences / worldviews inform the practice of educators working at a botanical garden?
• How do we cultivate a culture of care for nature / community belonging when delivering our programs?
• How (can we inspire a) long-lasting connection to plants through various pedagogies (or strategies)?

Michael Bonnett’s philosophical stance asserts that responsibility for learners’ incomplete understanding of environmental issues stems from a “technologizing of education” that emphasizes abstract ideas over social processes.

He advocates for a change in teaching and learning environments, where the subject matter is shifted away from standardized material to broader curricula based on creativity, intuition, and values. Others argue further that, what is needed is a focus on interpersonal and community factors that reflect value, fairness, respect, and collaboration . This indicates the importance of continuing to study and do research on community programming in botanical gardens – whether this is offered at the individual or community level.

Similar to the informal context of botanical gardens, zoos and aquaria too have begun shifting their educational focus to some of the unique attributes of their informal learning environments: taking a new role in promoting wildlife conservation and conservation learning among visitors as informal environmental education. Research in these types of settings providing insights into the potential impact of such encounters on visitors’ conservation attitudes and behaviour.

Still, research of this type describing the potential use of botanical gardens for either formal or informal environmental education practices remains relatively undescribed and under-theorized.

In the face of climate crisis and loss of biodiversity, connecting people to plants through education is crucial. I am known to share that I believe you can teach any concept in nature including science, technology, engineering and math. Formal educators often respond with a challenge, “prove you can teach about fractions, or aerodynamics, or architecture with plants” they say. “How about counting the number of pomegranate seeds per fleshy fruit quadrant, or how about testing out the floating power of various maple seeds, or how about learning about biomimicry such as lotus effect treatment for metal to prevent corrosion?” I might reply.

Following my time working with the VBGA research fellows, my answer would now also include “How about teaching environmental STEM concepts through ethnobotany, storytelling, and incorporating biocultural diversity.” PAR has provided academic resources to our organization that contribute to achieving a sustainable future, including new and innovative ways of thinking and sharing STEM concepts. PAR empowers organizations such as botanical gardens, community members, and researchers to act as co-researchers, while contributing lived experience and knowledge to the research process.

Participatory Action Research

In our research, it is recognized that environmental learning processes should be described as both an art and a science. In this, environmental learning programs consider multiple models for teaching and learning, as well as teachers’ own pedagogical content knowledge that forms a unique blend of disciplinary knowledge combined with knowledge about specific learning contexts. For the VBGA fellowship program, the model we selected for our educational inquiry is community-based research that has been termed participatory action research or PAR.

Over the past thirty years or so, researchers have developed at least five different approaches to participatory action research (or PAR) including the following: (1) action research in organizations, (2) participatory research in community development, (3) action research in schools, (4) farmer participatory research, and (5) participatory evaluation.

Storytelling with Kung Jaadee.

Medicine Wheel Ceremony with Phil L’hirondelle.

From traditional Vietnamese storytelling, Hawaiian epistemology, bio-cultural diversity, youth perspectives, using non-anthropocentric approaches and language, and more, Participatory Action Research (PAR) was the creative glue that bonded our diverse perspectives together (in the research). During times of adversity such as the pandemic, PAR allowed the VBGA to continue to engage our community in innovative ways.

Through PAR we have robust community informed evaluations, which allow us to better meet the communities needs and provide high quality effective programming. Through PAR, we work on communicating STEM concepts in approach and language that explores harmonious co-existence of humans and non-humans. In the end, this fellowship has not only provided results, but also built our resiliency and capacity in providing programs for an ever-expanding community.

Conceptually, PAR originates from critical and neo-Marxist perspectives that have been raised in the social sciences over many years. This model stands in stark contrast to traditional approaches in educational research which sometimes is seen as maintaining hierarchical roles for researchers/subjects and teachers/students. PAR questions the unequal power relationships inherent in these traditional models and offers an approach to research that recognizes the inequalities in modern society.

Autoethnography as Method

As has likely become apparent in the presentation of this text, research conducted by the VBGA research fellows is shared in this work using a unique narrative structure and methodology known as autoethnography. In this research method, relevant personal life experiences of participants inform the design of the research program and the activities of the researcher (both as educators and academics). Now as in the past, these processes are continuing to unfold in the VBGA fellowship program and are deeply intertwined. In relating the practice of autoethnography, the research team uses methods in which: “researchers constitute their own object of research so that the knowing subject and the research object become one”. This inquiry also relates to the ‘lived experience’ of the research team as people and as academics, alongside other relationships. Each of these are described here as they relate to the research program and its relationship to other learning outcomes associated with VBGA programs.

Auto-ethnography has similarly been used to examine concepts of pedagogy, and place with environmental educators. Using similar methods, this research highlights research fellows’ experiences within and alongside educators working alongside the VBGA programs. In this, a reflexive process provides an entry point into how ‘place’ might be treated pedagogically in the programs. Narrative discourse is also used to share findings related to the on-going developments with the VBGA and its programming.

Notably, the use of autoethnography and narrative for research in education is increasing, although some researchers believe that its potential for theory and practice has not been fully explored. In this case, the research team used auto-ethnography to relate personal accounts of their experiences to generate key findings about the research program itself. For example, in one method, these data emerge from the interpretation of narrative texts using a technique known as structured vignette analysis.

Autoethnography can also be described as an approach to writing and research that describes and analyzes personal experience to clearly understand cultural experience. This approach challenges traditional forms of research and positions the research as a political and socially conscious act. As attempted here, researchers often use principles of autobiography and ethnography to do and write an autoethnography. Thus, as a method, autoethnography should be considered both a process and product.

A Collaborative Research Narrative

Importantly, auto-ethnography allows researchers to write in a personalized style, drawing on their experience to extend understanding about the social phenomenon under study. As a method, it is grounded in postmodern philosophy and is linked to growing debate about reflexivity and voice in research. The intent of this auto-ethnography is to acknowledge the link between the personal and cultural and make room for nontraditional inquiry and expression around the research program conducted with the VBGA.

Importantly, autoethnography (as a writing style) also borrows from autobiography in making its texts aesthetic by using techniques of ‘showing’, intended to bring readers ‘into the scene’ —particularly into thoughts, emotions, and actions of the author or researcher. In contrast, ‘telling’ is a strategy from ethnography that provides some distance from the events described, allowing for further analysis and/or interpretation. For the purposes of this research, the research fellows use both techniques to elucidate their meanings.

Collaborative autoethnography (or CAE) is a newer (and more social) version of auto-ethnography and is a technique we attempt to illustrate in this paper. CAE is unique in that it involves ‘researchers pooling their stories to find commonalities and differences and then negotiating meaning among these stories to discover deeper understanding of the stories in relation to the socio-cultural context under study in this case, the research and development is undertaken by our VBGA research fellows.

Student studying plants.

Some Projects Emerge

The VBGA runs a number of programs, for example it organizes guided tours and field trips for elementary and high school education, but also prepares and shares teaching kits, especially for elementary teachers, to be used at local schools. The purpose of the nature kits is to introduce students to (nearby) nature and the variety of local plants and species. The project that one of the research fellows (Shaila) undertook was aimed at developing a more holistic perspective with the kits by including Indigenous expressivism described by Deluze and Guttarian posthumanism, and ecofeminism as her guiding philosophies. The goal being to prepare the teaching kits to help young learners develop and nurture a non-anthropocentric philosophy with their learning. This lens enabled the program to adopt a decolonizing perspective toward education and nurture a holistic worldview through the use of non-anthropocentric language.

Congruent with our biocultural lens we understand that language, can shape our beliefs, views, perspectives, and practices. A traditional anthropocentric worldview can be seen as promoting a hierarchical relationship between humans and non-humans that we wanted to disrupt and challenge. For this project, the team developed four nature kits- spring, summer, fall and winter for elementary school students across BC for their science class. We designed activities and inquiry questions for the teachers. All the activities are in alignment with the respective grades’ course curriculum and goal. We further adopted an inquiry lens and incorporated questions and activities using language in a way that promotes Indigenous and holistic understanding of the natural world among the students.

Shaila’s story: Sense of place, belonging and finding connections with nature and relations through introspection and reflection

My journey with the VBGA and the Institute for Environmental Learning is fairly a new one. It started with an initial conversation with the lead researcher (David) and VBGA director (Chantal), and another research fellow (Poh) about building relationships between academic research and community. Their approach to share and mobilize environmental education with the community and not confining research only within academia resonated strongly with me. I was very fortunate to have received the opportunity to join the team as a research fellow and explore ways to forge my connection with the environment and education.

My work as the VBGA research fellow was inspired by a range of spiritualities, philosophies, values, beliefs, and practices from the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island, and from the east and the west about life and education. The key point being conceptualizing education holistically and as a life phenomenon, and not to segregate and confine education within the four walls of classrooms. With that understanding of education and my training in language studies, I aimed to explore how traditional teaching and learning materials promote human centred world views and knowledge, see humans as superior to nature, and how such concepts are embedded in human languages that subconsciously continue to promote anthropocentricism intertwined with the promotion of capitalism in a neoliberal economy. From an ecological perspective, deep environmental awareness and harmonious co-existence with nature is important for sustainable living. The awareness needs to be developed from an early age so that the next generation sees the connection between human and nature and learns to appreciate the value of co-existence for a sustainable future. Thus, the aim of my project was to develop teaching and learning materials for the VBGA that will facilitate young learners develop deep appreciation for the natural world, identify and understand the connections humans share with nature, develop respect for Indigenous holistic perspectives toward life, and lastly, disrupt the human centredness in the current knowledge production system. The goal of the project is well-aligned with British Columbia’s K-12 curriculum that emphasizes understanding Indigenous ways of making sense of the world and knowledge production.

My coming to the understanding of life, our relationship with nature, and holistic education is an ongoing journey that can be traced back to my early life experiences. I grew up in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh at a time when globalization and capitalism had not hit it hard, and it was still a small city with ample greenery and close-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knew each other. I also had the opportunity to travel all over Bangladesh with my family and make frequent visits to my father’s village home where my extended family lives still today. I witnessed the relationship of people with their surrounding nature from an early age; but truth be told, I did not consider it something special back then. Or, it could be said that that was the way of life for people around me and it seemed so natural and normal. I realized the urge and the need to be mindful of our relationship with the environment and nature years later when I felt an alienation which existed in the urban society of Dhaka that grew to be a city of millions by then obliterating the age-old neighbourhoods, community living, and any greenery that was left from the natural environment.

Fast forward two decades, I came to British Columbia, Canada as an international student to pursue my graduate studies. This was the first time I realized the sense of place, physical nature, and what they mean to us. It is true that I did not know any humans here, but it was painful to realize that I was not familiar even with the trees and plants and the physical environment around me. I came to the realization that to grow connection with a place, we need not just human connection but more than that. It was at this point, with all my ideas about education, environment, growing roots in and connecting with a place mish mashed, I had this conversation about the participatory emerging research project with the VBGA and Institute for Environmental Learning at SFU and became a proud and grateful team member.

There were a few defining moments in my journey (to becoming) a VBGA research fellow. Some of them include our conversations about education, research, environment, some of them include my experiencing the garden and the richness it offers, and some of it includes my observation of VBGA’s education programs, all the while my experiences from Bangladesh were in the background. Being a doctoral student in education specializing in language studies, I was faced with the question about my contribution to the team. Upon having extensive discussions with the research team and VBGA’s education team, I thought we could develop educational resources for elementary students adopting a non-anthropocentric perspective and language.

Akiko’s story: A Journey of Growth through the Fellowship Experience

My first encounter with the fellowship was an interview with the lead investigator (David), and the Director of the VBGA (Chantal). During the interview, I was asked about my perspectives on biocultural diversity in Japan, knowing I had grown up there. His question transported me back over twenty years, to a life I had almost forgotten. One vivid memory surfaced: a conversation with my grandfather, a gardener by trade and a man of few words. He once shared a profound lesson with me: Japanese gardeners never shape trees merely to please the owners. Instead, they prioritize the health and natural beauty of each tree. This approach contrasts sharply with some Western gardening styles, where trees are often trimmed into neat, geometric shapes or even animal forms. My grandfather spoke with pride about the gardener’s role in understanding and enhancing the inherent beauty of nature, a philosophy that mirrored the broader Japanese ethos of respecting and coexisting with nature.

Reflecting on this memory after the interview, I realized how deeply it had influenced my views on biocultural diversity. The interview prompted me to think critically about this concept as a research theme and how it related to my personal experiences. After consulting with the research and education team, I decided to focus my fellowship project on evaluating the VBGA’s field trip programs. My background in program evaluations for non-profit organizations and local school boards, particularly for programs supporting refugee and immigrant families in Canada, provided a solid foundation for this task. Familiar with community-based program evaluations, I quickly devised a plan for the steps and data collection needed. As I delved deeper into the evaluation process, engaging with students, teachers, parent chaperones, and various VBGA staff, I began to realize that this fellowship offered far more than I had anticipated. I discovered multiple connections with the garden, immersing myself fully in the experience and the people involved.
The fellowship provided me with opportunities to explore my relationship with nature, biocultural diversity, and environmental education through various roles. Firstly, as a fellow conducting a program evaluation, I enjoyed gathering diverse perspectives on the field trips. The VBGA education team was passionate about providing hands-on learning experiences that complemented classroom education. Teachers valued the field trips despite the logistical and financial challenges, while parents and guardians appreciated the unique opportunities these trips offered their children. The children’s candid feedback, highlighting their joy in observing turtles and learning about trees and insects, was especially heartening.

While I conducted the evaluation as a researcher, I couldn’t ignore how my personal experiences and perspectives helped me understand each participant’s viewpoint. The students’ excitement reminded me of my daughter’s curiosity, the parents’ gratitude echoed my appreciation for nature as a mother, and the teachers’ dedication mirrored the commitment of educators like myself. These connections enriched the evaluation process and made it more meaningful. Beyond the formal project, the fellowship invited me to various enriching experiences. I participated in the VBGA volunteer appreciation day and assisted with Pollinator Days, an event educating visitors about pollinators and their environments. These events showcased how VanDusen’s programs foster biocultural diversity and create opportunities for people to connect through nature.

One of the most personal moments came when I visited the Sakura Days Japan Fair at VanDusen with my daughter, who was in grade three at that time, and our family friends. Sharing the tradition of Hanami, admiring the Sakura blossoms, while explaining its cultural significance, made me realize how much I wanted my daughter to experience this part of her heritage. This was especially precious as we cannot see Sakura in Japan unless we visit during a specific time of the year. Similarly, exploring Bloedel with her and using a new education kit (developed by Poh) allowed us to bond over shared discoveries and stories from different cultures.

These experiences profoundly enriched my fellowship. When analyzing the program evaluation data, I approached it objectively. However, my recommendations were deeply informed by my multifaceted perspectives as a fellow, an educator, and a mother. This holistic view enabled me to understand the participants more deeply and envision how the program could be enhanced to provide meaningful learning experiences, tailored to meet the diverse needs of schools and students. In conclusion, this fellowship was a journey of professional growth and personal discovery. It allowed me to reconnect with my cultural roots, understand the importance of biocultural diversity, and appreciate the intricate ways in which we relate to nature. The insights gained from this experience continue to influence my work and my life, making this journey truly unforgettable.

Poh’s story: Reflections of Malaysia and Vietnam, Hibiscus and Lotus

As I reflect on my most recent research, it’s hard not to feel a sense of awe at the twists and turns in my project, the people I met and collaborated with, and connections with the community that emerged and formed through mutual and authentic commitment to understanding and stewarding our planet. My name is Poh and I am the longest serving of the three VBGA/IEL research fellows. As this story is written, I have been part of the VBGA and Bloedel community for three years. My project is specifically focused on bringing accessible and technology enabled virtual learning experiences to Bloedel Conservatory for educators in the formal / non-formal teaching space to learn about tropical plants and how they play a role in understanding temperate plants in our environment. In my previous fellowship project, I helped plan, create and develop Bloedel’s first virtual field trip experiences. These experiences were created to address accessibility challenges for classroom access to the conservatory and more so, to have access to culturally relevant plant science activities. These experiences had a positive response from teachers, and so in my current fellowship, I focused on an expanded Bloedel experience that included pre-, during, and post- learning prompts for the students.

Poh teaching hula at Bloedel Conservatory

I have many memorable moments during the fellowship that either sparked my curiosity, tested what I thought I knew about certain topics, and engagement with teachers and students from a blended learning approach. There were moments where I brought in my experience with other learning communities like Science World (a local science museum), Hawaiian hula dance family (a group I co-teach and dance with), or my Malaysian-Nyonya heritage to bring together science, culture, Indigenous worldviews, and arts. I had the opportunity to work with a design student who also had a passion for citizen science, and together we designed an activity booklet specifically for Grade 3-5 students to experience Bloedel Conservatory in a more engaged way. My student, Hoang and I worked every week over summer, meeting multiple times at the Conservatory to observe different plants, to listen to the birds’ chirp, to feel the warm and humid air, and to touch the smooth trunk of the banana plant. Hoang and I created Bloedel Conservatory’s first curricular aligned activity booklet with the intention of extending a student’s learning before, during, and after their visit to the Conservatory. These experiences were built in an online platform called ArcGIS StoryMaps, a tool that I stumbled upon during my research studies, that has become a digital storytelling tool used for the Bloedel experiences.

Among the many plants to choose from in the conservatory, the banana plant has been a key plant of focus in the last virtual experiences because of its significance in both Hoang and my own culture. The banana plant and the banana are not only eaten as a treat, but its leaves are used as wraps for cooking, it’s flowers in curries, and the fibre from its trunk is used as rope. After one of our visits at Bloedel, Hoang and I sat down in the shade under a tree just outside of the conservatory to talk about creating an activity booklet for students. As our conversation progressed, we began to talk about the banana plant and similarly our families use the different parts in our culture. I shared a scary story my grandmother told me about the banana plant and this story reminded Hoang of a Vietnamese story about how the shape of bananas came to be. We spent that afternoon talking about the many similarities and differences between the Vietnamese and Malaysia culture.

Although our meetings were focused on the technical task of creating the virtual experience, we learned more about each other’s culture through stories told to us by our grandparents, parents, and community. We learned that even though our cultures are similar, there are significant differences because of historical impacts, environment, climate, and language. I learned that although Vietnam was geographically close to Malaysia, I knew very little about its history or its independence and rise from being a colonial state from France. I also learned that like Malaysia, Vietnam’s national flower is the lotus blossom because it symbolizes purity, elegance and strength. Malaysia’ national flower is the red hibiscus, called Bunga Raya in the local language (Bahasa Melayu), which symbolizes the courage and vitality of the people, and celebrated unity after gaining independence. Working with Hoang has been an eye-opening learning experience on how closely related and vastly different our cultures are. Our home countries are only separated by 680 kilometers of ocean between the two closets cities, but our culture, language, and practices evolved differently over time.

Analysis and Findings

As discussed earlier, collaborative autoethnography (or CAE) is a newer (and more social) version of autoethnography and is a technique we illustrate in this paper. CAE is unique in that it involves ‘researchers pooling their stories to find commonalities and differences and then negotiating meaning among these stories to discover deeper understanding of the stories in relation to the socio-cultural context under study. In this section, we as researchers (and fellows) analyse our experiences in a collaborative way drawing several themes from our work together. These emergent themes include evaluating and valuing experience, using scientific and cultural perspectives, and finally, seeing through a non-anthropocentric lens. Each of these are presented in narrative format (though shared in the passive voice) to emphasize that these findings were collaboratively derived. Each analysis originates from earlier narratives shared by VBGA research fellows.

Teaching plant dyes in VBGA Learning Garden.

‘Evaluating and Valuing’ the Fellowship Experience

Akiko, shares that while reflecting on her experience as a fellow, that facilitating participatory-action research on VBGA field trip programs marked an invaluable and pivotal juncture in her academic career. For her, the endeavour reinforced a commitment to collaborating with diverse local communities to enhance program evaluations aimed at improving lives through education. Typically, Akiko strives to maintain a neutral, third-party perspective in program evaluations to ensure unbiased analysis and equitable engagement with all stakeholders. However, in engaging with VBGA staff, volunteers, teachers, parents, children, and fellow researchers, she increasingly felt integrated into the community — developing a profound connection to diverse perspectives and a shared passion for making the field trip experience enriching and enjoyable for all participants.

Learning Garden Eco Dye Workshop. Photo by Chantal Martin.

Through interviews and conversations with community members, Akiko discerns that each individual harbours a unique relationship with nature, shaped by their distinct backgrounds and experiences. Her role evolved from that of an external evaluator to a community member, tasked with extracting their knowledge and experiences to provide insights on optimizing a community’s visits to the garden. Viewing the project through the lenses of her identities as a mother, immigrant, researcher, and educator, she resonates with the participants’ enthusiasm for nature education and their candid feedback on the field trip program. Unlike typical research endeavours focused solely on data collection, this participatory-action research aimed to enhance the field trip experience for the community. The participants’ willingness to share their observations and suggestions for program improvement is particularly enlightening.

During the fellowship, many parents, especially those with immigrant backgrounds, visited the garden for the first time with their children’s class, mirroring their children’s learning journey in a new country. After a visit to the garden, parents often engage in discussions about the field trip at home, which provides opportunities to share their childhood experiences with nature, akin to conversations Akiko has with her daughter after visits to the garden and the Bloedel Conservatory.

Throughout this process, she recognizes that her role within the community transcended mere research conduct; she is actively contributing to the participatory-action research’s objective of community improvement. This realization fosters a deeper level of engagement and self-reflection throughout the research process, as she attentively listens to participants’ contributions. It is inspiring to contemplate how we can extend our efforts to include those who have not yet visited the garden (due to various challenges) and to integrate their perspectives into future VBGA field trip programs.
Akiko summarizes that overall; her fellowship experience is profoundly fulfilling on both personal and professional levels. It facilitates a reconnection with nature amidst a busy life, prompting reflections on how to live harmoniously with the natural world. It also provides an opportunity to share the joy of being surrounded by nature with her daughter and to revisit childhood experiences with nature in Japan—experiences many children rarely have access to. Further, it enables her to connect with and learn from the participants in an evaluation study, while gaining insights into their collective wisdom and experiences through nature and environmental education. Ultimately, she learns that as a community, we provide the best for future generations by collectively preserving and enhancing our natural environment while supporting field trip programs that serve to facilitate children’s learning in nature.

Scientific and Cultural Perspectives on Plants

Poh shares that in the beginning of this fellowship, she tries starting her research from a structured and scientific methodical approach as she makes an attempt to place a linear understanding of her pedagogical approaches about plants and people. She quickly learns that to understand why and how people form connections to plants requires a more fluid and embodied understanding through story and art — allowing time for these connections to form. As her fellowship continues and throughout the other years she works alongside the education team and other research fellows, she learns the importance of allowing realizations, learnings, and connections to form requires moments of organic reflection — finding the “right” time and timeliness to cultivate meaningful connections between people and plants. In addition to allowing time to flow through story and performance (e.g. her performances of Hawaiian hula dance), it is also important for Poh, as a researcher, that she be aware of and act upon the biases that she holds for certain plants and her special relationship with these plants because of her background as a scientist and her Nyonya heritage. Much like the hibiscus and the banana plant that are key features in her project, she feels and experiences time differently – a non-linear and spiral patterned experience as co-learners and co-participants in these moments of critical meaning.

Poh’s analysis begins with the hibiscus flower which cycles through a circadian-rhythmic process called nyctinasty where this flower opens and closes in response to light and synchronization with its pollinators. It’s beautiful bloom only lasts between 24 – 36 hours before the flower wilts and falls to the ground. She is reminded of this as she shares stories about the hibiscus — and depending on the time of the year, students visiting the Conservatory and experiencing a virtual field trip may not see the hibiscus in bloom. She posits that we could offer a picture of a hibiscus or even attempt to preserve a hibiscus flower for students to see in the flower’s absence, but this would not be the same. As an educator, she asks herself, what is her intention for students when learning about the hibiscus? Was it to see its beautiful colours? Was it to feel its delicate petals and witness its cycles? Yes and no. Although she designs the learning experience with an intention for students to come to the conservatory to learn about the biology of the flower and plant, it is even more important for them to learn about its meaning to different cultures, its role as symbol of strength and courage, and a reminder of the planet’s beauty and its resilience as humans moved this plant species to diverse locations on the planet. At the same time, Poh is reminded that as a Nyonya from Malaysian heritage, the red hibiscus was chosen to be her country’s national flower. Bunga Raya (or Celebratory Flower) signifying the unity and courage of the Malaysian people: its five red petals embodying the spirit, resilience, and bravery of the nation. Through this experience Poh develops a much deeper appreciation and connection to the flower after immigrating and living in Canada for more than 30 years – a connection she notes was starting to fade due to geographical and cultural distance.

Finally, she shares that her time spent at the Conservatory, engaging with diverse narratives and participating in participatory action research, facilitates an organic emergence of patterns and insights, rather than her initial attempts to produce predetermined or expected outcomes. Her relationship and realizations within the education team, with other fellows in the program, and with the plants and animals in the Conservatory, leads her to an enriched understanding of time and patience. These also underscore the importance of capturing pivotal moments of connection far beyond the gardens – into her life as a mother, scientist, educator, and researcher.

Seeing Through a Non-Anthropogenic Lens

Shaila’s deep appreciation for Indigenous expressivism and the use of a non-anthropocentric lens are also key to this analysis. She realizes that these themes are rooted in her childhood memories observing people with a deep connection to nature — to the extent that their food habits were guided by the seasons. Yes, to some extent this is because only seasonal food was available back then — as the agro-economy was local. Still, because people practised this knowledge/wisdom about a connection that our bodies and minds have with the different seasons, that certain foods grow in season, and the reasons to include these habits can enhance our overall well-being. For example, Shaila sees the tradition of picking and cooking certain types of leafy greens together as ‘welcoming in’ a season. These food items were not cultivated but instead grew on their own –here and there – something that we have come to label as weeds (in the Western sense) thanks to modern and urban forms of education. She shares that it was traditionally a women’s duty to collect those leafy greens and though this may seem like a folk ritual — there is a deep meaning and purpose in the harvest. The growth of those leafy greens in a specific season indicates a healthy balance in the ecosystem of a particular place including the idea that a human cultivation system is in balance and does not destroy the natural growth of other species.

Shaila shares that it is women who ensured that this balance was intact – and so a women’s participation and care for the ecology exists where a patriarchal capitalist world denies it. She posits that there is a close and complex relationship between nature and the people who care for it. The relationship that people share with nature and the wisdom they gain from their relationship with the environment is documented and reflected in the knowledge of Ayurveda that focuses on the body, mind, and environment relationship. In her childhood, Shaila saw orchards and forests situated in the villages that were considered community property on which everybody had the right to harvest. Thus, our relationship with nature and our dependence on the environment, impacts people’s concept of property, rights, and ownership. These may seem disconnected observations, but all of these highlight the point that our relationship with nature is one of intricate co-existence and of knowledge production and a complex sharing that anthropocentrism denies.

Shaila sees such cultural practices fading away in Canada (and in her home country) and feels the hollowness created among humans when they become alienated from nature. She further reflects that upon her arrival to Canada, as much as she longed for human connection, she suffered also due to her unfamiliarity with local nature. She did not know which species to plant in which season, when they would bloom, or how she would take care of them. While there is an abundance of nature in BC, she feels fortunate to wake up in the morning and be amazed at the sight of BC’s mountains, and she laments that there was no connection for her in her early years in Canada. Her life experiences learning here in BC are gradually ‘taking root’ and she is learning more about nature and the local environment every day. She now knows the name of ‘that flower’ blooming in spring whose fragrance she used to inhale at night but never knew how to identify, she also learns how to walk on the unceded territories of Canada’s Indigenous nations, and how a summer night in this part of the world feels.

Summarizing all of this, Shaila’s time as a research fellow with the VBGA is a time of exploration, reflection, and understanding. She has encouragement from members of the research team to weave her thoughts and philosophies and to apply these in the creation of educational resources that help children have a more holistic view of nature and to understand that we humans are part of nature, not separate from it. It gives her the opportunity to explore new ideas and connect them with her cultural background and understanding of humans, society, and nature. Finally, she learns about and explores the participatory research method that encourages an organic development of research; a process that deeply resonates with us all as it forces us to rethink our role as researchers and our relationship with our immediate surroundings. Overall, the fellowship opportunity allows Shaila and other researchers a unique chance to experience an urban garden and explore its potential for education in a holistic sense that leads to a shared journey of personal growth and relationship building.

Campers washing harvested beets.

Summary and Conclusions

Analysis of our experiences with the VBGA fellowship program help make a case for the enactment of a more inclusive, ‘ecological’ framework for research in environmental programming. Put simply, this idea highlights an ‘embeddedness’ of humans in natural systems: an idea held by Indigenous cultures worldwide since time immemorial. Ecological frameworks view humans as one part of the natural world and human societies and cultures as essentially an outgrowth of interactions between our species and particular places. Such an approach to learning in the VBGA gardens has allowed educators to consider multiple perspectives on an issue under study. This line of inquiry also allowed our research fellows to more deeply consider the concept of ‘biocultural diversity’ which is central to our work.

Biocultural diversity, as defined by Luisa Maffi, is  ‘the diversity of life in all its manifestations: biological, cultural, and linguistic’ which she shares are interrelated within a complex socioecological adaptive system. Maffi relates that this diversity is made up not only of the diversity of plants and animal species, but also of the diversity of human cultures and languages. This point must be highlighted in our work as our narratives have demonstrated that the cultural backgrounds of each of our research fellows were deeply influential in their research as we worked together to enact participatory methods in our action research conducted in these urban gardens.

VGBA Education team at Grouse Mountain.

Providing quality environmental education in our communities is something the dedicated team of educators at the VBGA holds near and dear to our hearts, after all it is this passion that brings us all together. That passion, however, is formed through our unique life experiences and worldviews. Letting researchers into our world was exciting and new, and with that also came worry. This stemmed from the fear that our team’s unique blend of educator perspectives may be judged, undervalued, or not be truly seen for our successes. We could not have foreseen that not only have our programs improved because of this PAR-based partnership, but we are encouraged in our passion, supported in our uniqueness, and challenged in our complacency. We are better informed by community, we value the evolution of language as a tool for belonging, and we look towards opportunities for growth as individuals, as an organization, and for community. The VBGA and the researchers that work here once seemed to be two separate pieces working alongside each other. Together, we came to see that the researchers, the VBGA, and community members all make up a thriving ecosystem reflective of our own biocultural diversity — collaboratively achieved while working together in these urban botanical gardens.

In all of this, we now regard biocultural diversity as a provocation for narrative forms of research such as this. In our work, we view the concept of bio-cultural diversity as dynamic in nature –taking as a start the local values and practices of different cultural groups (or individuals) as its starting point for doing participatory research. For educators, the idea is to work to preserve or restore important practices and values and to modify, adapt and support diversity in ways that resonate with diverse urban communities as they experience this learning in urban botanical gardens. In our research, bio-cultural diversity is conceived as a reflexive and sensitizing concept used to assess the different values and knowledge of all people – as a reflection on how we may live sustainably now, and in the future.

Endnotes

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