Beyond the Field Trip: Multimodal, Place-Based Learning Enhances Learners' Experiences With Indigenous Lands

• In Event: Toward More Just Futures: Media and/as/for Social Justice

Abstract

This paper explores place-based, multimodal learning in partnership with a K-6 public charter school. Place-based learning presents opportunities for learners to go beyond the classroom, while multimodality encourages learning through different modes (e.g., video, photos, music) in increasingly digital classrooms. Through the “Cultivating Connections” project, we collaboratively redesigned and employed a place-based approach to understand how learners’ outdoor experiences are translated in classrooms in a multimodal way. From an ecological frame, we trace the dimensions of learning throughout the experience. By highlighting interactions between young learners, space and place on Indigenous lands, and multimodal meaning-making with Indigenous issues, we explore how these techniques can assist learners in developing skills for critical inquiry and community connection including empathy and perspective-taking.

Authors

• Devon S Isaacs, Utah State University

• Lili Yan, Utah State University

• Melissa Tehee, Utah State University

• Breanne K. Litts, Utah State University

• Stuart Baggaley, Edith Bowen Laboratory School

• Jennifer Jenkins, Edith Bowen Laboratory School