Urban vegetation, schools, students, and neighborhoods: An outlook from Chile

Join us for the 16th meeting of the International Workshop on Environment, Sustainability, & Education 

Urban vegetation, schools, students, and neighborhoods: An outlook from Chile

Speakers:  Esteban Villalobos- Araya, Ignacio Fernández, Rodrigo Pérez, and Maria Isabel Mattas

Date: Wednesday November 10th, 2021

TIme: 9 AM EST

Register in advance for this workshop

The following presentation introduces a research agenda and empirical work focused on placing schools as infrastructure that can support Sustainable Development Goals, connecting SDGs 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 4 (quality education). We combine approaches and evidence from urban vegetation studies, ecosystem services, and the role of schools, green spaces to improve the quality of llife of students, surrounding communities, and cities. Doing so, we ask, can schools help improve access to green spaces? Can schools reduce inequalities of access to green spaces? And, if so, do schools with better green spaces support healthier and happier students’ school experiences?

Using satellite images to identify schools’ vegetation characteristics and socioemotional indicators of students, we test those questions in schools of Santiago, Chile. To date, it is the first study in the Latin American Region that measures the impacts of school vegetation on students’ socioemotional indicators
across cohorts from primary to secondary students observing important impacts on self-esteem and motivation, school coexistence, and civic participation, but not as much on declared students’ healthier lifestyles. We discuss the results connecting with international and comparative education discussions mostly focused on curricular and pedagogical aspects, resituating the place of schools’ greenery on
students’ psychological and physiological renovation processes, as key for learning. We also argue that improving schools’ green spaces can not only improve students’ learning and social interaction experiences but also potentially help to improve local and city-level access to green spaces.