Smith, G. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappa International, 83(8). 584-594.
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/20440205

Framed by John Dewey’s observations at his Chicago Lab School in the late 19th century that there is a division between what students experience in the world and what they learn in school, and biologist Gary Nabhan’s comments about schools’s traditional deception of students to have them believe that their own experiences are less valuable than those preconceived, “pre-digested” and presented by others that they are likely to never even meet, Smith presents five thematic patterns distilled from his review of place-based learning efforts.

In each of the five thematic patterns (cultural studies, nature studies, real-world problem solving, internship and entrepreneurial opportunities, and induction into community processes), Smith provides concrete examples of successful models and, in some cases, describes the limitations and challenges faced.  He concludes the article with a discussion of five common thread between the themes and another discussion on challenges expected by educators intending to implement a place-based model of education.

The article makes no mention of place-based identity or the incorporation of indigenous local knowledge.  It is thus somewhat ethnocentric in it’s promotion of traditional aboriginal practice and a return to what was common before the proliferation of schools.