Cairns, Kate. 2018. Beyond magic carrots: Garden pedagogies and the rhetoric of effects. Harvard Educational Review 88(4): 516-537. Cairns 1 Beyond “Magic Carrots”: Garden pedagogies and the rhetoric of effects KATE CAIRNS Rutgers University In this essay, Kate Cairns considers the implications of assessing garden pedagogies, arguing that a rhetoric of effects assumes an essentialist conception of the child-as-educational-output and bolsters a neoliberal vision of social change rooted in personal transformation. Drawing from ethnographic research with youth gardens in Toronto, Ontario, and Camden, New Jersey, she highlights contextualized experiences of learning and labor that exceed the boundaries of an effects framework. Cairns argues that garden pedagogies must be understood in relation to specific dynamics of racial, economic, and ecological injustice. The essay closes with reflections on how feminist theories of social reproduction might reimagine pedagogies of the garden in a way that attends to young people’s participation in life’s work. Keywords: childhood, youth, gardening, educational practices, feminism, social justice Introduction In 2015, I attended a presentation at my university sharing the work of a local nonprofit organization that provides youth with summer jobs in urban agriculture. The panel featured three youth of color who described the activities they had participated in over the summer, including growing food in urban gardens that they sold in a weekly farmers market, cooking collective meals, and participating in workshops about social and environmental justice. As they spoke with pride of their original hot sauce recipe, insisting they would never reveal the secret ingredient, I was struck by the ease, confidence, and genuine enjoyment they seemed to convey. When it was time for the Q&A, the first question came from a White woman in the audience, who asked, “Do you find you eat differently now?” The youth exchanged glances as the audience looked on expectantly. One of them said, “Yeah, definitely.” Beside him, a boy I later came to know as Ricardo shook his head and said, “Nah, not really.” The youth laughed somewhat nervously as if to acknowledge this wasn’t the answer the audience was hoping for. As I reflected on this panel afterward, and later conducted ethnographic research with youth in the same organization, this interaction stuck with me. The youth had recounted a range of positive experiences, including a paid job growing fresh food to sell for affordable prices in a neighborhood with limited food access, all while developing an analysis of environmental racism and other systemic issues shaping the well-being of their community. Yet, the question of the program’s “impact” was quickly translated into a change in individual food choices. This question appeared to come as no surprise to the youth on the panel, reflecting its hegemonic status as the measure of projects seeking to connect youth with their food. What is lost, I wondered, when we assess pedagogies of the garden through this narrow evaluative framework? At a time when young people’s eating practices are the focus of much collective concern, a range of educational initiatives seek to provide children and youth with hands-on experience growing food. From school gardens to urban farms, such initiatives have been linked to various beneficial outcomes, including improved academic performance, environmental stewardship, and, most notably, more nutritious eating habits. Here I consider the limitations of framing garden pedagogies