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Apr

26

New Film: Lessons from the Real World

Filed Under Citizen scientists, Place-based Education, Service learning, Videos | Leave a Comment

Lessons From The Real World, a one hour documentary about innovative education in Portland Schools, will air on all Oregon Public Broadcasting television stations on Friday, May 6, at 11:00 PM.

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Mar

2

Reassessing the value of place-based learning: an online discussion

Filed Under David Greenwood, Gregory Smith, Perspectives, Place-based Education | Leave a Comment

The following is part of an on-line discussion between Greg Smith, Associate Professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, and David Greenwood, Associate Professor at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada.

gregsmith

Dear David,
I’ve been puzzling over an issue to raise with you for another blog entry, and I’ve found myself coming back to the impact that hierarchies of knowledge and skill have on the use of learning opportunities encountered in local communities and places.  I recall this issue coming up with a friend in Madison, Wisconsin, more than a decade ago when his daughter was junior at the city’s most academically competitive high school—probably the same one you went to.  She was interested in enrolling in a “chemistry in the community” course that would have allowed her to experience a more hands-on and problem-solving approach to science education.  Her counselor discouraged her from doing so on the grounds that the kinds of colleges she was interested in attending would see this as a deficit.  Jim, a biology professor committed to learning in the field, disagreed and wrote to academics at around a dozen colleges similar to those his daughter hoped to apply to and asked whether they agreed with the counselor.  None did.  His daughter enrolled in the course and ended up going to Earlham.  Most students and parents, however, seem unlikely to challenge the counselor’s advice because of the way it represents common understandings about prestigious (theoretical and text-based) knowledge and less prestigious (applied and practical) knowledge.  This seems like a fundamental issue we’ve got to address if we hope more educators begin to incorporate lived experience into the forms of instruction they share with students. Read more

Feb

17

A While in the Wild: Educating for Environmental Empathy

Filed Under Place-based Education, Programs | Leave a Comment

Experiences in wild nature, the leadership of a significant adult, and the educational support of the classroom offer powerful tools in shaping students toward lifelong leadership in environmental stewardship.

In the grassSMby Fay Mascher M.Ed., Cayley School
Jonas Cox Ph.D., Gonzaga University
Charles Salina Ph.D., Gonzaga University

On a visit to the coulee, a startled owl exploded off of a nest that we thought was empty. On the bus ride back to school, one boy reached for my hand, “Feel my heart,” he said. “It’s still going really fast.” –from the Cayley School action research project

Since the 1980’s, researchers in environmental education have explored this basic question: Why do some people care about the natural environment enough to protect it, while others do not?  Current environmental education, taught as a unit of instruction within the science curriculum, tends to assume that imparting information about the environment will inspire students to care for it. But a generation of young people educated in this way has not yielded a generation of adults committed to caring for the natural world. Read more

Dec

15

Kennedy High School: Turning stragglers into leaders

Filed Under Place-based Education, Programs, Resources, Service learning | Leave a Comment

Kennedy+cons+2010+0062

Exploring Place-based Education Programs in the Pacific Northwest

by Becs Boyd

A visit to Kennedy High School in Cottage Grove, Oregon on 18 November, turns out to be one of the most uplifting days I have spent in a school, perhaps ever.

Formally known as AL Kennedy Alternative High School, the school was founded in 1998 by a forestry teacher who wanted to help students aged 15 to 18 who were struggling in mainstream education. By 2008, when current principal Tom Horn took over, the school was sinking under an attendance rate sometimes as low as 23%, serious drug problems and alarming drop out rates. Now, little more than two years on, Tom’s vision, and the perceptive and caring approach to the students which shines through the principal and his team of committed and talented staff, have completely transformed the culture of the school. Attendance rates are around 90% and the drop out rate has fallen dramatically, while test results show an upward trend. The school serves a maximum of 75 students, but there are 190 further students waiting for a place. Read more

Oct

19

Critiquing place-based education

Filed Under Blogs, David Greenwood, Gregory Smith, Place-based Education, Resources | Leave a Comment

Part two of an on-going discussion

The following is part 2 of an on-going discussion on place-based education topics between Gregory Smith of Lewis and Clark College and David Greenwood of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario (formerly of Washington State University). You are invited to participate in this discussion and can add your comments through the reply box at the bottom of the post. Read part 1 here.

gregsmith
Dear David,

When you wrote your 2003 article about a critical place-based education, you rightly criticized those of us who had been writing about this approach for being under-theorized.  Jan Nespor and others have continued that criticism.  I’m becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of not anchoring place-based education in a more explicit critique of industrial civilization.  In some respects, place-based education can mean almost anything people want it to—much like the term sustainability.  Once ideas gain some currency, they take on a life of their own.

I’m seeing this happen with the way school gardens are becoming synonymous with place-based education.  There is nothing wrong with the creation of school gardens—in fact, helping young people learn how to grow their own food and develop more of an affinity with agricultural practices seems essential.  Wendell Berry would applaud such efforts.  But school gardens, Read more

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