Student: Kara Scherer
Graduation date: May 2017
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2014
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Summary
Place-based education utilizes the surrounding landscape and culture of an area to situate learning and bring up social and ecological issues relevant to places people actually inhabit (Gruenewald 2003). The “place” in place-based education brings many aspects of a person’s surroundings into consideration, including but not limited to the biota, historical uses, communities, and interpersonal relationships. Combined, these interdisciplinary aspects create a person’s environment. This “environment” is separate from the recent construction of “the environment,” which has become an intangible idea that seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Therefore, “if environment is that which surrounds, the ways we are connected to our surroundings are not universal; they are place-specific” (Proctor 2014). In order to promote a more complete understanding and respect for global issues, perhaps we must first gain a deeper understanding of our specific place in the world.
Place-based education is not new. In fact, it has been around since at least 1897, when John Dewey proposed it in an essay urging people to take multiple disciplines and a community focus into account (Orr 1992). Flash-forward a century, add six billion people, and our priorities seem to have changed. The changing perceptions of the leading world issues shape the direction of our educational practices (Nieto 2005). In an age where social mobility is one of the main focuses of our school systems (Labaree 1997), the individualistic tendencies we know are valued in our society do not teach us to share and respect the place we live, contributing to what Hardin (1968) terms “the tragedy of the commons.” I plan to study place-based education because I think it holds potential as an educational practice that might convey the changing ideas about the goals of education.
Place does not only encompass the natural surroundings of an area, but also the surrounding community. In the United States, “the number of children in our public schools who represent backgrounds other than European American is growing rapidly” (Nieto 2005). With a growing immigrant population, more and more students are uprooted from their hometowns and thrown into a foreign community. I would like to study how this lack of rooted connection to place affects their drive to make a difference in the community. Perhaps by utilizing the social surroundings, students could interview community members who have the potential to play “a critical role in supporting a situated and narrative mode of interpretation and construction of our sense of place and heritage” (Kudryavtsev 2012). Not only is it important to pay attention to the ecological surroundings, but it is also important to take into account the surrounding community and the bountiful resources they hold.
Place-based education is particularly interesting to study in late-industrialized countries because “our lives are lived amidst the architectural expressions of deplacement” (Orr 1992). We live surrounded by shopping malls, skyscrapers, and homogeneous suburban communities that are not unique to a particular location. Consequently, the study of place would need to go deeper than just the physical aspects of a community. Additionally, although late-industrialized countries tend to have greater numbers of students enrolled in higher education institutions, they also tend to have the highest rates of carbon emissions. Although many people hold on to the belief that an educated population will know not to pollute or clear-cut or over-consume, it seems that the current education system falls short of promoting any kind of change in our actions. One possibility might be to incorporate place-based learning into school curriculums. I would like to further study how a rooted sense of place affects students, and if that in turn changes their future actions.
Gruenewald, David. 2003. “The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place.” Educational Researcher 32 (4): 3-12.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162 (3859): 1243–48.
Kudryavtsev, Alex, Richard C. Stedman, and Marianne E. Krasny. 2012. “Sense of Place in Environmental Education.” Environmental Education Research 18 (2): 229–50. doi:10.1080/13504622.2011.609615.
Labaree, D. F. 1997. “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goals.” American Educational Research Journal 34 (1): 39–81. doi:10.3102/00028312034001039.
Nieto, Sonia. 2005. “Public Education in the Twentieth Century and beyond: High Hopes, Broken Promises, and an Uncertain Future.” Harvard Educational Review 75 (1): 43–64.
Orr, David W. 1992. Ecological Literary: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Proctor, James. 2014. “Replacing Nature in Environmental Studies and Sciences.” Submitted for consideration to Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the predominant education strategies used in late-industrialized countries today? What outcomes have been associated with place-based education? How have communities responded in areas where place-based education has been implemented? Which aspects of place are most important to the development of a more rooted sense of place? How long does it take to gain a rooted sense of place? What different purposes does place-based education serve in different communities? Where is place-based education most successful? Where is it least successful, or perhaps unnecessary?
- Explanatory: Why is place-based education being implemented? Do changing perceptions of environmental problems change how effective various educational methods are?
- Evaluative: To what extent does education positively affect a person’s relationship to place? To what extent could place-based education be implemented in various education systems in post-industrialized countries? To what extent should it be implemented? Should it be included in K-12 education, or is it more beneficial outside of school? What reasons do people have to support place-based education, and what are some reservations that people have about it? What benefits can a rooted sense of place offer?
- Instrumental: What steps need to be taken to implement place-based education in the school systems? Where is the most effective outlet for place-based education if not in school systems? How can we provide a more rooted sense of place to immigrant families?
Concentration courses
- ED 205 (Education in a Complex World, 4 credits), Spring 2014. In this class I learned about education reform and various pedagogical methods, as well as how race plays a role in the classroom. I also participated in a service-learning project where I assisted the science education teacher at a local elementary school.
- ED 455 (Science Education in the Twenty-First Century: Why, What, Where, and for Whom? 4 credits), Spring 2016. This class will give me a better understanding of science education in particular, which will help me with the science aspect of place-based education.
- ED 446 (Inquiry Into Teaching/Learning, 4 credits), Spring 2015. This class will provide me with various teaching and learning strategies, as well as a better understanding of various educational theories.
- ENVS 350 (Environmental Theory, 4 credits), Spring 2016. Environmental Theory will give me a broad theoretical framework in which I can situate my future research and unify different ideas.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.