A Case Study of Critical Pedagogy of Place in Urban Science Education

• In Event: Pedagogical Spaces and Places for Teacher and Student Agency

Abstract

This paper provides a case study of critical pedagogy of place in an environmental science classroom in an urban high school. I utilize the case to further examine the outcomes of a critical pedagogy of place. Drawing upon the voices of youth and their teacher, the paper highlights how urban park restoration provided a context for reinhabitation and critical consciousness in which youth leveraged deep understandings of local ecology to restore the parks and transform dominant cultural ideas and practices. Ultimately, I explore the potential and complexity of engaging in a critical pedagogy of place within the context of formal, urban science education and consider the outcomes of CPP in light of the case study.

Author

• Alexandra Schindel Dimick, University at Buffalo - SUNY