Upon looking through the possible scholars and concepts I decided I would try and look for information on place-based education. I ended up finding a chapter from “The Handbook of environmental Education” by Gregory Smith that seemed interesting.
Smith describes place-based education as “an approach to curriculum development and instruction that acknowledges and makes use of the places where students live to induct them into them into the discourses of any and all school subjects … that alerts them to the educational potential of phenomena outside the classroom” (213). Although it is not mentioned until later in the article, Smith eventually mentions that in many cases, the basis of place-base education actually stems from Indigenous values and knowledge systems (217).
The main theme Smith is conveying throughout the article is the positive impacts place-based education has on students. According to Smith, place-based education allows for “the development of more engaging forms of instruction, the cultivation of involved citizens, the development of people committed to the wise stewardship and protection of natural resources and areas” (213). He backs this theory up with various case studies that show statistics of academic success, improved engagement, enhanced school experience, and active citizenship. Perhaps the biggest outcome of place-based education is “overcoming the division between the classroom and the community” (220) which John Dewey, an educational reformer, observed was the biggest problem in public schools more than a century ago.
I am haven’t fully decided if I want to use this as my main article in my paper because since it is only a chapter of a larger text there seems to be many questions or topics addressed but then not answered. It would depend if I could find other articles that would maybe fill in those blanks. If it is getting too hard to find valid connections, my next step may be finding a new first text that I will be able to better summarize and make better connections.
Work Cited:
Smith, G. (2012). Place-Based Education: Practice and Impacts. In R. Stevenson (Ed.), International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education. (pp. 213–220). Taylor & Francis Group. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.uregina.ca/lib/uregina/detail.action?docID=1105876.