Presentation short abstract

We explore how the narrow focus on NbS in schoolyard transformations as a “fix” to educational challenges poses an empty signifier while overrunning an emerging relational narrative shift visible in how diverse actors place growing emphasis on care as practiced in schoolyards.

Presentation long abstract

We explore how the implementation of nature-based solutions (NbS) in schoolyard transformations is enabling or blocking transformative change for biodiversity through the case of a municipal schoolyard greening pilot program in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, with the participation of 14 public pre- and primary schools since 2022. The program is framed under the broad and ambitious goals of achieving inclusion, co-education, and sustainability in school environments through a participatory co-design of smaller nature-based solutions and their long-term co-governance together with educational communities. These goals are specifically targeting various structural educational challenges, including school segregation or nature-disconnected, top-down learning. Drawing on a participatory research approach, including document analysis, archival data, and field- and workshop-based research, we explore the mismatch and tensions derived from envisioned ambitious goals and the actual realities of schoolyard interventions through a narrow focus on NbS. Borrowing Broad´s (2016) “magic carrot” metaphor that describes the narrative attached to school garden projects as “magically” solving structural injustices faced by children of marginalized communities by enabling “life-changing” experiences through gardening, our results show how the narrow focus on NbS as a “fix” to educational challenges risks becoming an empty signifier overrunning an emerging relational narrative shift. This shift becomes visible for instance in how diverse actors place growing emphasis on care as learned and practiced in schoolyards — towards peers, place, and non-human species. Such a shift contains the potential for longer and deeper participatory processes, enabling educational communities to influence planning decisions in ways that reflect their lived needs and aspirations.