Author(s)

Nancy Neiman¹, Jean Schroedel²

¹Department of Politics, Scripps College, Claremont, CA, USA.
²Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA.

Through interviews and college student journal data, this article assesses an interdisciplinary food justice education program in terms of a set of connected goals: to create a truly democratic classroom space, to build strong trusting relationships (social capital), to build a sense of community within the classroom and at the school, and finally to leverage all of these goals into political capital that empowers the community to engage in oppositional politics to address environmental and social inequities facing the students’communities. Our investigation of the program suggests it has had positive effects in terms of increasing the self-confidence of students and building a stronger sense of community at the school and the local community. These outcomes appear to hold despite the fact that the majority of college interns struggle to identify oraccept a clear mission for the program. We argue that it is in part this ongoing struggle that underscores the program’s democratic, engaging, and political nature and has contributed to its success.

Critical Pedagogy, Food Justice Movement, Alternative Schools, Environmental Justice, Racial Justice, Community Engagement in Higher Education, Critical Ecology

Neiman, N. and Schroedel, J. (2019) Plant Justice: A Case Study in Radical Pedagogy and Food Justice in an Alternative Education Setting. Creative Education, 10, 1937-1952. doi: 10.4236/ce.2019.108140.