Schoolyards as built infrastructure: a feasibility framework for closing environmental education implementation gaps

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) is widely promoted as a response to climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainability challenges, with schools identified as critical settings for fostering children’s engagement with nature. However, despite increasing policy attention and expanding initiatives, the implementation of school-based environmental education remains fragmented and difficult to sustain. This paper argues that these limitations are not primarily pedagogical, but structural, institutional, and spatial, rooted in the everyday built and institutional environments of schools. Drawing on a narrative literature review of school-based environmental education initiatives, the study synthesises reported implementation challenges and organises them into six systemic categories: Professional Capacity Gap, Institutional Integration Gap, Learning Design–Accessibility Gap, Socio-Cultural and Equity Gap, Programme Design–Context Gap, and Evaluation and Evidence Gap. These challenges reveal persistent gaps between environmental education ambitions and the operational, organisational, and spatial realities of schools. In response, the paper presents two connected conceptual frameworks. The first establishes a conceptual enabling conditions framework with six conditions: Realistic Time Demand, Embedded Whole-School Practice, Student-Friendly Learning Design, Context-Responsive Inclusion, Locally Feasible Programme Design, and Observable Practice-Based Evidence, which function as a feasibility filter. The second translates these conditions into built-environment applications, positioning schoolyards and everyday school spaces as strategic infrastructure for sustained engagement with nature. The paper offers a practical lens for educators, school leaders, built-environment professionals, and policymakers to plan, evaluate, and scale more feasible and context-responsive environmental education initiatives.