Place and Community-Based Education 

Place-Based Education  

Place-based education operates as a resistance to colonial structures of education as it seeks a reorientation of pedagogy that "challenges the isolation of schools and classrooms from their social and ecological contexts and the isolation of academic subjects from one another" (Israel 2012, p.79, Gruenewald 2007, p.3). Place-based education puts key concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science in conversation with the local community and environment. Students become immersed in real-world learning experiences, which creates stronger ties to the community and natural world (Sobel 2004). They develop a meaningful relationship with place. 

We learn from the land. Land-based learning is a component of Place-based education. "For Indigenous peoples, land-based learning refers not just to the physical elements of being out on the land, but also the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual well-being of individual community members -- which creates a shared responsibility for the care of the land and each other" (Obed 2017, p.18). In contrast, Eurocentric conceptions of sustainability and preservation come from domination -- to extract and protect materials for human consumption. Studying place and "land from a Eurocentric perspective ignores if not justifies 'settler occupation of stolen land'… and reinforces practices and perspectives that are 'only accountable to settler futurities.'" (Lake 2018, p.11). 

While Indigenous ways of knowing differ across nations, these Eurocentric notions undermine Indigenous concepts of reciprocity and care in relation to everything. In Marie Battiste's literature review on Indigenous Knowledge and Pedagogy in First Nations Education, she says:

...Knowledge is not secular. It is a process derived from creation, and as such, it has a sacred purpose. It is inherent in and connected to all of nature, its creatures, and human existence. Learning is viewed as a life-long responsibility that people assume to understand the world around them and animate their personal abilities (2002, p.14). 

Land-based education addresses the consequences and history of settler colonialism and acknowledges that Indigenous futures can exist outside and beyond colonialism. 

A way in which place-based education can be seen in practice is through Treaty education. Treaty education can be seen as "peacebuilding education" efforts with Indigenous people to unpack myths of Canadian history of First Nations people (Tupper 2014). Peace education "aims to empower learners as transformative change agents who critically analyze power dynamics….opportunities for students…with the potential to disrupt foundational bodies of knowledge that shape particular epistemologies" (p.470). The purpose of treaty education is for institutions to not just focus on the past "but in relation with the past, acknowledging the claims that the past has on the present" (p.148).

This is an important distinction because it acknowledges the evolutions of collective communities and individual peoples. It reiterates the fact that we are not situated in a post-colonial world and gives agency to the multiplicity of identities that Indigenous people have (Smith 2012). A framework for students is offered that allows them to think about their shared histories and the impact it may have on their beliefs about the nation and issues about citizenship (Tupper 2012). With treaty education, teachers are encouraged to help their students examine their place in history by considering the content and way they teach. 

Community-Based Education

Community-based learning (CBL) and education is a teaching tool that incorporates meaningful community engagement in an experiential manner that is coupled with teaching instruction. It "tends to focus specifically on the social and political dimensions of place; it centers learning within the community by incorporating local knowledge, issues, landmarks, and events" (Lake, 2018,p.13). Reflection oftentimes comes with community-based learning models to create awareness around reciprocal relationships and to learn in community with others. Communities are in the broad terms of  "local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and natural environment" (Glossary of Education Reform). The goal is for students to apply their studies and understand the conditions of the world and society. 

Community-Based Learning (CBL) is a pedagogical approach based on the premise that the most profound learning often comes from experience that is supported by guidance, context-providing, foundational knowledge, and intellectual analysis. The opportunity for students to bring thoughtful knowledge and ideas based on personal observation, social interaction and scholarly arguments brings depth to the learning experience for students and the course content. The communities that we are a part of can benefit from the resources of our faculty and students. At the same time, the courses can be educationally transformative in powerful ways (Gupta 2022). 

Students ultimately grow more of an attachment to the subject matter because they have a personal investment in their community’s interests and advancements tied to the longevity of relationships fostered by community-based education models. As Heather Lake states in their dissertation titled, Knowing Place: Examining the Integration of Place-Baed Learning in K-12 Formal Education, “Michael Umphrey (2007), advocates for community-based education as a means to re-engage students and re-orient public education to align with the needs and strengths of local communities, states: ‘one of life’s central purposes is to make the places we live better and it is a purpose that can only be achieved through intelligent communion with reality’” (p. xx) (Lake, pg.13).