Borderland Voices and Practices: The Ambiguity of Children’s Participation in School Grounds Greening

Oct 15, 2026

Commentators on children’s experiences in developed countries indicate that publicly accessible open space for children is shrinking due to commercialization, litigation, fear for safety, and lifestyle change, and school grounds are a key example. Evidence comes from a Scottish multiple-case study of 22 school-ground projects, examining how participation goals shape children’s involvement and how adults retain gatekeeping roles. The analysis proposes a typology of utopic practices and argues that project hopes can create multiple, ambiguous, and sometimes conflicting effects, challenging education-for-sustainable-development assumptions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Grounds Change

Participation and gatekeeping roles

Typology of utopic practices

Ambiguous effects on children

Borderland Voices and Practices: The Ambiguity of Children’s Participation in School Grounds Greening Greg Mannion, University of Stirling, Scotland Abstract Commentators on children’s experience (largely the urban experience of the developed countries) indicate that publicly accessible open space for children is being limited due to commercialization, litigation, fear for children’s safety, and changes in lifestyle. One of these open spaces facing change is the school grounds. Evidence is drawn from a Scottish based multiple case study of 22 school grounds projects. One finding is that when participation is a project goal, children can be involved at high levels of decision making and activity but that adults are seen to maintain a strong gatekeeper role. A typology of utopic practice is offered with respect to children’s participation in grounds development. The analysis suggests that different project hopes and expectations can have multiple, ambiguous, and sometimes conflicting effects forchildren—a moot point for proponents of education for sustainable development who consider the need to address real world issues to be a central tenet. Résumé Des commentateurs d’expériences d’enfants (dans une large mesure, l’expérience urbaine des pays développés) indiquent qu’ily a peu d’espaces verts accessibles publiquement aux enfants, dû à la commercialisation, à des contentieux, à lapeur pour la sécurité des enfants et aux changements de style de vie. Une étude écossaise, basée sur une étude de cas multiples, sur 22 terrains d’école, en démontre l’évidence. Une constatation veut que lorsqu’un des buts vise la participation, on peut mettre à contribution les enfants à de hauts niveaux de décision et de participation sans oublier que les adultes doivent assurer un rôle ferme de surveillants. Une typologie de pratiques utopiques est offerte à l’égard de la participation des enfants au développement des infrastructures. L’analyse suggère que les divers espoirs et attentes du projet peuvent avoir des effets multiples, ambigus etparfois conflictuels sur les enfants – un point discutable pour les auteurs d’une proposition d’une éducation pour un développement durable et qui considèrent le besoind’aborder les problèmes du vrai monde comme étant un credo fondamental. Without participating in some form of public as an integral part of schooling, students will leave schools both without the skills to form public spaces and without the desire to form such spaces, since they would not have experienced the shock of active selfhood that comes from “appearing” in a location around a common project. (Schutz, 1999, p. 90, speaking of Maxine Greene’s recommendations about fostering public spaces.) Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 10, Spring 2005 241 Empirical evidence from the field of the geography of childhood encourages us to see how children’s identities and lives are “made and (re)made through the sites of everyday life” (Holloway & Valentine, 2000, p. 18) . Massey (1998) reminds us that spaces are produced through interconnections between local and global social relations. Taking these points together, we can say spaces and identities are co-produced through webs of connections with wider social and global processes. This article seeks to explore how efforts to reshape school grounds are driven by the participants’ hopes for what these spaces should become and what children’s place in relation to adults and the environment might be. In addition, it seeks to offer the view that the opinions of children are important in planning and educating for sustainable development but that when children’s views are taken into account, the process throws up elements that are ambiguous and sometimes contested. Research on children’s use of space indicates there are some trends that might concern us. Children are becoming more car-dependent (Hillman, Adams, & Whitelegg, 1995) with their social and recreational activities being in

FAQs

What factors are said to limit children’s access to public open space?

Commercialization, litigation, fear for children’s safety, and lifestyle changes are identified as drivers of reduced access.

What does the Scottish multiple-case study find about participation goals?

When participation is a project goal, children can be involved at high levels of decision-making and activities, but adults still maintain a strong gatekeeper role.

Why can children’s participation have ambiguous or contested outcomes?

Different project hopes and expectations can produce multiple, ambiguous, and sometimes conflicting effects for children, affecting how sustainable development education plays out in practice.

Oct 15, 2026

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