Tag Archives: place based learning

Module 2 – Post 3: The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place, David Gruenewald

Gruenewald, D. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher. (32)4 pp. 3-12. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3700002

In this thorough analysis of the sociological themes and call for revolutionary change from critical pedagogy, and the socio-ecological themes of place-based learning, Gruenewald draws on the research and writings of prominent theorists in each field to demonstrate that these discourses build on the concepts and strengthen the goals of the other in such a way that they can be seen as two sides to the same coin and can be reconceptualized into a critical pedagogy of place. A major goal of his paper is to “ground place-based education in a pedagogy that is socially and ecologically critical” and wrapped in a coherent theoretical framework.

The two fundamental objectives of a critical pedagogy of place are decolonization and reinhabitation, which are mutually supportive themes mirrored in critical pedagogy and place-based learning, respectively, for the purposes of “linking school and place-based experiences to the larger landscape of cultural and ecological politics”. As such, a critical pedagogy of place seeks to find, return to, or reclaim spaces that teach us how to live well in these local environments (reinhabitation), and identify and challenge practice and ways of thinking that exploit people and places (decolonization).

Module 2 – Post 1: Place-Based Education: Learning to Be Where We Are, Gregory Smith

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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.

Research topic: Place-based learning models for contemporary education

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Through the first few weeks of this course, it has become very clear to me that indigenous learning and identity is place-based. However, models of place-based education, though they exist, are not mainstream in contemporary educational settings. Upon initial review, those that do exist appear not to take an aboriginal perspective. These factors may be correlated with trends in many schools that see a disconnect between aboriginal students and their school—which may then contribute to low graduation rates in aboriginal student populations. At this time it is my intention to direct my research toward a clearer understanding of what place-based education and place-based identity are, what educational models exist and how they can be adapted to include a greater aboriginal perspective.

As an extension, I am also synthesizing my learning in this course with that of ETEC 531: Curriculum Issues in New Media Studies. What has come up for me there, is that many contemporary educational models ask students to learn through or demonstrate their learning through new media projects. It then begs the question, “can place-based learning; constructivist, project-based learning; and, new media be combined in such a way that honours each of the theories as well as aboriginal cultures?” I would think that a model that does this would then be an effective one for everyone’s learning and reconnecting aboriginal students.