A Preservice Curriculum of Place: Researching the Facilitation of Place-Based Education Within a School-University Partnership

• In Event: Developing and Strengthening School-University Partnerships

Abstract

The purpose of our research is to investigate how educators’ experiences in field studies with community partners can inform an interdisciplinary teacher education program (STEM) based on a curriculum of place. Emerging research suggests that place-based education is limited because it does not critique colonial legacies in theoretical frameworks of place. Indeed, many Indigenous scholars are replacing the term place with land and argue that land-based pedagogies promote the decolonization of education by recognizing the intimate relationship that Indigenous peoples have with land. One challenge with land-based pedagogies is the role non-Indigenous peoples have in this approach to the decolonization of education. Our research, explores this tension as we seek to close this gap by considering varying perspectives of place.

Authors

• Kevin O'Connor, Mount Royal University

• Gladys Sterenberg, Mount Royal University