Place-Based Education

Place-based education, sometimes called pedagogy of place, place-based learning, experiential education, community-based education, education for sustainability, environmental education or more rarely, service learning, is an educational philosophy developed largely by Professor David Sobel, Project Director at Antioch University New England [http://www.antiochne.edu] though educators have used its principles for decades. Place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local--the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place [http://www.ruraledu.org/site/c.beJMIZOCIrH/b.1073935/k.EBFA/Placebased_Learning.htm] --that is, in students’ own “place” or immediate schoolyard, neighborhood, town or community. According to this pedagogy, grade school students often lose what place-based educators call their “sense of place” through focusing too quickly or intensely on national or global issues. This is not to say that international and domestic issues are peripheral to place-based education, but that students should first have a grounding in the history, culture and ecology of their surrounding environment before moving on to broader subjects.

Place-based education is often hands-on, project-based and always related to something in the real world. Thus students embarking upon a unit about the Vietnam War might interview veterans of that war, collecting their stories for a radio-spot, newspaper article or educational brochure. In this case, the use of local people to support students’ learning would not only lead to greater comprehension of the Vietnam War, but also to understanding more about the history of their community and the people in it.

In a larger sense however, place-based education seeks to help communities through employing students and school staff in solving community problems.

Resources

* [http://adopt-a-watershed.org/?p=pbl Adopt-a-Watershed Place-Based Learning page]
* [http://www.ruraledu.org/site/c.beJMIZOCIrH/b.1073935/k.EBFA/Placebased_Learning.htm Rural School and Community Trust Place-based Learning page]
* [http://www.promiseofplace.org/ Promise of Place website and resource base]
* [http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/ The Heritage Project]