This study explores the question of how to implement innovative teaching techniques in SEN education. Our case study from Romania shows how a community garden contributes to children with special education needs wellbeing by influencing the learning and social environment. The case study shows how inclusive education can be attuned to learning innovation through experiential learning and gardening projects with NGOs and with the local Hungarian minorities’ community. The results are inspiring. The understanding of community gardens has accelerated when measured by direct impacts. Community gardens truly allocate a unique way to address innovative teaching techniques through experiential learning (Huys, et al. 2017). This case study provides an explication for the cooperation between community gardens and the local SEN school as an approach to promote inclusive education and health. 

Our research questions concern the success and effect of a garden-based model for inclusive education: 1. How does the community garden model impact SEN students? 2. How does the community garden model impact SEN teachers? 3. What impact does the community garden model have on the role of the local Hungarian minority community? The research method of the study is a combination of case study and active research as a systematic process of examining the practical evidence of community gardens. The case study serves as a worthy narrative (Dyer & Wilkins, 1991), meanwhile, the action research method refers to the fact that one of the authors works and teaches in the local Hungarian community, from Romania, Oradea, Bihor County, which has been studied. Action research has a natural affinity in addressing goals of community innovation and social inclusion (Padgett, 2016). The researchers enrolled 16 participants (8 parents, 3 educators, and 5 volunteers) for focus-group interviews using egalitarian dialogue for the case study. The data were transcribed and coded using memos to identify important themes in inclusion.

Garden-based activities in special education create a number of opportunities for pupils with disabilities and create an innovative and recreational environment for learning (Alaimo, et al. 2008; Blair, 2009; Datta & Maree, 2016). Gardening has become well-known and SEN schools can use these currents to enhance inclusive education through experiential learning as well as to enhance the physical activity and the health of students with disabilities. Despite the fact that local communities should play an important role in promoting inclusion, it seems that garden-based activities have been missing from the SEN school program as well as from diversity and inclusion plans in Romania. This study shows that a strategic inclusion plan can help local minority communities make the most of its diversity by creating an inclusive community garden. The research on which this paper is based has been implemented by the LearnInnov Research Group and with the support provided by the Hungarian Educational Research Association (HERA).

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