​What is meant by "place" in the context of the study?

​Place can be any teaching or learning space that has become familiar to you or to students. This study will no doubt attract educators who engage in land-based learning, field experiences, immersion in nature, and other forms of outdoor education, but there are many other places outside the classroom that form special bonds and opportunities for learning. These places are the "where" of teaching and learning, which also happens to be the title of a research study by my colleague Dr. Hart Banack at UNBC.

​What does "place-responsive" mean?

​I see "place-responsive" as a way of being in the world that is open to the possibilities of place – for a relationship that sees land as teacher, for reciprocity with the more-than-human world, and for making connections to place as the basis of culture, language, and knowledge. Place-responsiveness is a mindset that educators bring to their learning activities, from nature play to stream monitoring, from paddling to soundwalks, from leaf pressing to urban mapping, from collecting loose parts to building community inventories, from field interviews to checking traplines. For me, it is a more finely tuned alternative term to "place-based" which can sometimes feel like the land or designated places are simply just sites where we carry out our lessons, rather than a place to learn from and with. My colleague Dr. Hilary Leighton has invested some serious time and leaf into this topic. One example of place-responsive teaching and learning is the collection of practices described in the Education Outside the Classroom "EOTC" document (see below). Another example are the beliefs described in the Six Touchstones for Wild Pedagogies document (see below).
Picture
Treebeard, an elder resident at Ancient Forest / Chun T'oh Whudujut. Photo: Glen Thielmann, 2022

​What does "lifeworld" mean?

​Lifeworlds are people's everyday experience, sometimes taken for granted in research, and closely connected to the senses. This is a key term in phenomenology, which is the study of consciousness and experience, or, put another way, an interpretive study of human's direct experience through perception and observation, and how these lifeworlds are the basis of meaning, in contrast to the view that meaning exists outside of our experience, minds, and bodies.

Resources for Place-Responsive Learning

These are some references and resources pertinent to the research study. For student activity suggestions related to place-responsive storywork, check out https://www.thielmann.ca/place-responsive-learning.html.

Selected references for Place-Responsive Learning

  • ​Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. Random House Vintage Books.
  • Altman, I., & Low, S. (1992). Place attachment. Plenum.
  • Anderson, D., Comay, J., & Chiarotto, L. (2017). Natural curiosity, a resource for educators (2nd ed.). The Labratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study.
  • Andruss, V., Plant, C., Plant, J., & Wright, E. (Eds.). (1990). Home: A bioregional reader. New Society Publishers.
  • Archibald, J.-A. (2008). Indigenous storywork: Educating the heart, mind, body, and spirit. UBC Press.
  • Archibald, J.-A. (2011). Elders’ teachings about Indigenous storywork for education. In C. Voyageur, D. Newhouse, & D. Bevon (Eds.), Hidden in plain sight: Contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian identity and culture (Vol. 2)(pp. 160–176). University of Toronto Press.
  • Banack, H., & Trembrevilla, G. (n.d.). “Not elsewhere specified”: A case study of preservice teachers’ perceptions and practices of outdoor learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, pending pu.
  • Barfoot, R. (2021). Education outside of the classroom. British Columbia Teachers’ Federation. https://www.bctf.ca/whats-happening/news-details/2021/01/30/education-outside-the-classroom
  • Basso, K. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press.
  • Battiste, M. (2013). Decolonizing education. Purich Publishing Ltd.
  • Blenkinsop, S. (2018). Six touchstones for wild pedagogies in practice. In Jickling et al. (eds), Wild pedagogies: Touchstones for re-negotiating education and the environment in the Anthropocene (pp. 77–107). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bowers, C. A. (2001). Educating for eco-justice and community. University of Georgia Press.
  • Bowers, C. A. (2008). Why a critical pedagogy of place is an oxymoron? Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 325–335.
  • Clark, D. (2008). Learning to make choices for the future: Connecting public lands, schools, and communities through place-based learning and civic engagement. The Center for Place-based Learning and Community Engagement
  • Derby, M. W. (2015). Place, being, resonance: A critical eco-hermeneutic approach to education. Peter Lang.
  • Drengson, A., & Taylor, D. (2009). Wild foresting: Practicing nature’s wisdom. New Society Publishers.
  • Environmental Educators Provincial Specialist Association. (2019). Position statement on education outside the classroom (EOTC).
  • Fallon, G., VanWynsberghe, R., & Robertson, P. (2017). Conceptions of sustainability within the redesigned K-12 curriculum in British Columbia, Canada: Mapping a disputed terrain. Journal of Sustainability …, 16(December). http://susted.com/RATS_2.3/UploadsFinalPDFs/459_2018-01-08 17.16.31_Fallon et al JSE Fall 2017 General PDF.pdf
  • Farrell, T., & Waatainen, P. (2020). Face-to-Face with Place: Place-Based Education in the Fraser Canyon. Canadian Social Studies, 51(2), 2–17.
  • Fettes, M., & Judson, G. (2011). Imagination and the cognitive tools of place-making. The Journal of Environmental Education, 42(2), 123–135.
  • First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC). (n.d.). First Peoples principles of learning. http://www.fnesc.ca/learningfirstpeoples/
  • First Nations peoples of British Columbia map. (2020). Indigenous Peoples Resources. https://indigenouspeoplesresources.com/products/canada-first-nations-peoples-of-british-columbia-map
  • Friedel, T. L. (2011). Looking for learning in all the wrong places: Urban Native youths’ cultured response to Western-oriented place-based learning. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(5), 531–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2011.600266
  • Greenwood, D. (2013). A critical theory of place-conscious education. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 93–100). Routledge.
  • Gritzner, C. F. (2002). What is where, why there, and why care? Journal of Geography, 101(1), 38–40.
  • Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 3–12.
  • Holloway, S. L., Hubbard, P., Jöns, H., & Pimlott-Wilson, H. (2010). Geographies of education and the significance of children, youth and families. Progress in Human Geography, 34(4), 583–600.
  • Illich, I. (1988). Ecopedagogia. In J. Mortiz (Ed.), Alternativas II. Planeta.
  • Jickling, B. (2009). Sitting on an old grey stone. In M. Mackenzie, P. Hart, H. Bai, & B. Jickling (Eds.), Fields of green: Restorying culture, environment and education (pp. 163–173). Hampton Press Inc.
  • Jickling, B., Blenkinsop, S., Timmerman, N., & Sitka Sage, M. (Eds.). (2018). Wild pedagogies: Touchstones for re-negotiating education and the environment in the Anthropocene. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Judson, G. (2010). A new approach to ecological education. Peter Lang.
  • Judson, G. (2015). Engaging imagination in ecological education: Practical strategies for teaching. Pacific Educational Press.
  • Judson, G. (2018). A walking curriculum: Evoking wonder and developing sense of place (K-12).
  • Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
  • Knickerbocker, S. (2021). Ecopoetics: The language of nature, the nature of language. University of Massachusett Press.
  • Koehn, D., Sailor, T., & Ho Younghsband, C. (2020). People, place, and land: Finding a sense of belonging through shared learning. WestCAST 2020 (Paper Presentation).
  • Langley Forest School. (2021). The Fraser Valley’s first forest school. https://langleyforestschool.com
  • Latremouille, J. (2016). A modern hunting tradition. In J. Seidel & D. W. Jardine (Eds.), The Eecological heart of teaching: Radical tales of refuge and renewal for classrooms and communities (pp. 36–42). Peter Lang.
  • Leighton, H. (2014). Wild (re)turns: Tracking the epistemological and ecological implications of learning as an initiatory journey toward true vocation and soul [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Victoria.
  • Leighton, H. (2020). Rendering (of) self through a body of work. In E. Lyle (Ed.), Identity landscapes: Contemplating place and the construction of self (pp. 197–209). Brill.
  • Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
  • Macfarlane, R. (2016). Landmarks. Penguin Books.
  • Malpas, J. (2018). Place and experience: A philosophical topography (2nd ed.). Routledge.
  • Massey, D. (1991, June). A global sense of place. Marxism Today, 24–29.
  • McVittie, J., Webber, G., Hellsten, L.-A. M., & Miller, D. (2020). Pathways and pedagogies: Conversations with teacher educators about the role of place-based learning. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 23(1), 33–49.
  • Mullins, P. M. (2013). Conceptualizing Skill Within a Participatory Ecological Approach to Outdoor Adventure. Journal of Experiential Learning, 37(4), 320–334.
  • Noble, M., Leighton, H., & Dale, A. (2021). Stepping toward a sense of place: a choreography of natural and social science. In W. Filho, A. Lange Salvia, & F. Frankenberger (Eds.), Handbook on Teaching and Learning for Sustainable Development (pp. 406–417). Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Nolan, E. A. (2015). A phenomenological, qualitative study of place for place-based education: Toward a place-responsive pedagogy. Arizona State University.
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  • Schafer, R. M. (1993). The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Simon & Schuster.
  • School District 62 Sooke. (2021). Nature Kindergarten. https://www.sd62.bc.ca/schools/registration/nature-kindergarten
  • Seidel, J., & Jardine, D. (Eds.). (2016). The ecological heart of teaching: Radical tales of refuge and renewal for classrooms and communities. Peter Lang.
  • Sheridan, J. (2001). Mythic ecology. Canadian Journal of Education, 6(2), 194–205.
  • Sheridan, J., & Longboat, R. D. (2006). The Haudenosaunee imagination and the ecology of the sacred. Space and Culture, 9(4), 365–381.
  • Simard, S. (2021). Finding the mother tree: Discovering the wisdom of the forest. Allen Lane.
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  • Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Zed Books.
  • Sobel, D. (2005). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. The Orion Society.
  • Stevenson, B. (2008). A critical pedagogy of place and the critical place(s) of pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 353–360.
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  • Thiem, C. H. (2009). Thinking through education: The geographies of contemporary educational restructuring. Progress in Human Geography, 33(2), 154–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508093475
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  • Wallin, D., & Peden, S. (2020). Onikaniwak: Land-based learning as reconcilACTION. In M. Corbett & D. Gereluk (Eds.), Rural teacher education (pp. 245–256). Springer Nature.
  • Wattchow, B., & Brown, M. (2011). A pedagogy of place: Outdoor education for a changing world. Monash University.
  • Wildcat, M., McDonald, M., Irlbacher-Fox, S., & Coulthard, G. (2014). Learning from the land: Indigenous land-based pedagogy and decolonization. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(3), I–XV.
  • Wilson, E. O. (1984). Biophilia. President and Fellow of Harvard College.
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  • Young, A. E. (2015). Indigenous elders’ pedagogy for land-based health education programs: Gee-Zhee-Kan’-Dug cedar pedagogical pathways. University of British Columbia (Vancouver).
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  • Zeni, M. (2022). School gardens, outdoor classrooms, education outdoors, and playful learning. https://meganzeni.com

EOTC from EEPSA

TOUCHSTONES FOR WILD PEDAGOGY

​Wild Pedagogies: a movement to "renegotiate what it means to be human in relationship with the world by engaging in deep and  transformational change through the use of educational practices" (https://wildpedagogies.com). Often expressed in terms of six touchstones.

FIRST PEOPLES PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

TOPOPHILIA WAYPOINTS