Student Transformation Through Place-Based Education's Windows, Mirrors, and Doorways

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Curricular Inquiries in Precarious Times: Student Agency, Transformations, and Place

Abstract

Research has found that place-based education (PBE) has potential for student transformation, but few studies have examined how place-based curriculum promotes transformative learning. In the present study, instructor descriptions of five elements of PBE instruction (Wright et al., 2021) offered in a place-based environmental learning project embedded within a STEM enrichment program were found to provide students transformational learning opportunities through windows, mirrors, and doorways (Bishop, 1990; Style, 1996). Student transformation was associated with curricular windows that drew connections to system impacts; mirrors that elicited emotional responses; and doorway activities of collecting data, creating research projects, and presenting research findings. These findings may help educators design place-based environmental learning curriculum that helps students envision themselves as tomorrow’s agents of change.

Authors

• Kim Megyesi-Brem, Claremont Graduate University

• Guan Saw, Claremont Graduate University

• Ryan Culbertson, Texas Tech University

• Paola Rosenberg, Claremont Graduate University

• Jesus Gonzalez, University of Texas - Pan American