Evaluating university gardens as innovative practice in Education for Sustainability: a Latin-American case study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to define a protocol for evaluating university gardens as innovative practice in Education for Sustainability and to apply it to a Latin-American study case, that of the Agroecological Garden in the Faculty of Biology at the Veracruzana University (Mexico). A comparative evaluation was conducted between two different moments (December 2018 and January 2021) based on sustainability indicators that were adapted from the SAEMETH-G methodology, using three levels of increasing complexity. These levels were the selection of sustainability dimensions, the individuation of the components, and the selection of the appropriate indicators. At the beginning of 2021, the selected Agroecological Garden showed high sustainability, with an accumulated score of 84.04 out of a total of 100 points, with the agro-environmental dimension being the best positioned (93.74), followed by the socio-educational (91.99) and the economic-administrative (66.4) domains. A significant robustness at the socio-environmental level was evidenced. However, it is necessary to address the substantial deficiencies evidenced at the economic-administrative level, especially in relation to financing and institutionalization, in order to make this innovative didactic resource sustainable and thus contribute to education for sustainability among university students.