Place-based education has been an interest of mine for a while now, but recently I have felt like I’ve been aimlessly swimming around in the same pool of water with no exchange of ideas. Recently I met with Greg Smith, Jessica Kleiss, and Jim Proctor to throw around ideas for possible thesis research this summer and I’ve brushed up against some new ideas that are exciting to me, as well as some ways to expand the pool I’ve been swimming in.
I’ve written a good deal about my work with Project Lyttelton, but for some reason I never really saw it as a connection to a potential thesis. In terms of scope and a situated context, Project Lyttelton is almost ideal. It’s a community surrounded by the crater of a volcano so it’s a relatively defined community of around two thousand people. I’ve already built a connection with the community and the Project Lyttelton founders, who I imagine would support my work there. It seems a lot more achievable to do a study on Project Lyttelton, and I would also be able to provide to them some potentially important information that could help them. It’s been in front of me this entire time!
The moment I got through the tunnel, I started referring to Lyttelton as a little paradise. I’m interested in exploring Lyttelton in terms of utopias and dystopias, and how that relates to education. I’m not exactly sure what that connection is yet, but I think it adds an interesting aspect of theory into a potential thesis.