What is Place-Based education?

 

Place-based education (PBE) immerses students in local heritage, culture, ecology, landscapes, opportunities, and experiences as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects (CITE). The key phrase within this definition is as a foundation – learning is rooted in one or more contexts to make learning authentic, relevant, and useful to students across all grades and subject areas.  

John Dewey is credited with coining the notion of place-based education in 1899 when he observed that school and society were disconnected: what students were learning at school was not relevant to lives outside of school, and the lives that students lived were not brought into the school setting. Even today, this disconnect is still present, and one can argue that it is even more prevalent in some instances. Connecting a student’s learning to life is something our society has grappled with for generations now, and at UCS we seek to solve this challenge as best we can.

How is place defined?

 A place-based education model seeks to connect classroom learning to the real-life context of a        student’s place – the physical location and region the student lives and understands. As infants our sense of place is very small and focused on understanding ourselves and the important people around us. As we age, we understand more about where we are living and growing up. We can understand the intricacies of local, regional, state, national, and international contexts as we get older, thus growing our sense of place. As we understand this scale, we can observe unique differences in other places compared to our own, while also recognizing that what we know and grapple with may not be too dissimilar from other people and places around the world. 

At UCS, we study this through a local-to-global context for learning. How is what we are learning relevant to us in Livingston, Alabama? How does this compare to Sumter County, Alabama? How does this particular event or decision impact us in Alabama compared to other states and locations? How is the event occurring in (insert foreign location) affecting us locally? 

These are questions and mindsets that help deepen discussions and make

connections between classroom learning and various lenses and layers of place here at home and abroad. Without this intentionally, learning can stay siloed and disconnected from present and future relevance… but through PBE, this connection is always made and is decided first to help influence the overall design and delivery of information to students. 

A student who understands place understands the relationship between the people, the history, the culture, the economy, and the ecology of the area. The student grows to understand and evaluate how these relationships have evolved, and how these relationships need to look and feel in the future. 

These are the unique ingredients that give a place its unique identity. With a place-based education model, students not only learn to make connections between places but also learn how to impact their sense of place, making it bigger and better than it used to be. Students become active citizens who can champion change and who can compete in a global world.