Space, Place and Education
TAKEAWAYS:
Place education, which holds a creative tension between deep experience and critical awareness, has a central role to play in any practical expression of an ethic of place.
Place responsiveness work in Australia presents the opportunity for constructive intercultural dialogue and embedding new narratives of sustainability in place.
TAKEAWAYS:
Five “dimensions of place” are described that can shape the development of a socio-ecological, place-conscious education: (a) the perceptual, (b) the sociological, (c) the ideological, (d) the political, and (e) the ecological.
The article concludes with an analysis of the possibilities for place-conscious education in an era that defines institutional accountability by standards and testing.
Mannion, G., Fenwick, A., Nugent, C., and I’Anson, J.
TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers’ Experiences and Outcomes: All teachers, whether novice or more expert in teaching out of doors, developed their expertise through working collaboratively on planning and executing excursions to natural environments. Evidence suggested that educational experiences in natural environments could be very purposeful and meaningful for teachers and pupils.
Pupils’ Experiences and Outcomes: In all cases, pupils valued spending time and learning in nature. Excursions and related activities in the classroom helped generate an aesthetic and caring appreciation of the natural environment and new understandings about human-environment relations. Educational experiences in natural environments also brought greater enthusiasm, attentiveness and focus in pupils’ learning, and the potential for improved health and physical ability, and self-esteem in pupils.
Enhancing Provisions: The research indicates that initial teacher education (ITE) and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes dedicated to enhancing the provision of educational experience in natural environments would be advised to include some key activities and take account of some key factors identified in this report. ITE and CPD in this area will also need to take account of the role of the outdoor natural place itself (and how it could be responded to), the teachers’ biographies and dispositions, the role of the teacher when outdoors, the teaching strategies chosen, the school context, and the availability of other wider supports such as transport and finance and curricular relevance.
Planning Place-based or Place-responsive Education:
Ideas for a lesson plan would basically revolve around our school cultural narrative (gifted to us by Mana Whenua - Ngāi Tūāhuriri of Ngāi Tahu) and in regards to 'place' we would visit the following areas to familiarise, experience and appreciate our history of our local area and the significance to our school eg. Kōrepo=Travis Wetlands.
The journey starts in Hikuawa/Well-Spring (yr0-4), as the start of their learning journey into the school system for English medium ākonga. Then as you enter Kaunuku/Running Waters or Stream (yr5-7) where knowledge or learning is fast paced, exciting, learning new things and so on. Kōrepo/Wetlands or Swamp (yr7-10) then becomes the steady flow of the river where you have a chance to spread out from the stream they have been on, start to absorb a lot of knowledge from characters and/or places, start to develop close and trusting relationships with different characters and discover and explore objects and places that can help them navigate through to Ihutai/Estuary (yr11-13) that begins to mix with the sea, where our ākonga are getting ready to leave our safe harbour and journey out into their own ocean.
Cameron, J. I. (2003b). Educating for place responsiveness: An Australian perspective on ethical practice. Ethics, Place & Environment, 6(2), 99–115.
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654.
Mannion, G., Fenwick, A., Nugent, C., and I’Anson, J. (2011) Teaching in nature. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 476.
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