Page 181 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

158 G.E. Glasson

Fig. 1 Elder knowledge about sunken plots

In our initial visit to the primary school in January of 2008 which was located 300
miles south of Freedom Gardens, we noted that there was a stream that would be
used as a water supply. The participating teacher, Timothy, showed us the site for a
future garden, which at that time, was covered with weeds. The month of January
and February in Malawi is the normal warm, wet planting season. As Timothy did
not have full access to the curriculum until mid-March, he was essentially planning
to grow a garden with his children in June–August 2008, which is normally the cool,
dry season in Malawi. Therefore, the use of irrigation and composting for water
retention and fertilization were important considerations in his planning.
During March and April of 2008, Daniel and Timothy began communicating
using the phone through phone calls and posting questions on the website. Due to
initial technical difficulties, Timothy was only able to ask questions using voice
communication and text messaging on the phone; however, Daniel posted his
responses to Timothy’s questions on the project website (see example in Fig. 3).