Topic: Place-Based Pedagogy

Place-Based Pedagogy

Place-based pedagogy is an approach to education that emphasizes authentic connection to local contexts, environments, cultures, and histories. It engages students in real-world experiences that form the foundation for lessons across academic subjects, using approaches including field trips, service projects, and visits from community members. It can be used in formal or informal education, including distance learning, and is related to educational approaches like experiential learning, democratic education, multicultural education, and inquiry- or project-based learning. It is often used in biology, environmental, and climate science education by bringing students into nearby nature.

Advocates for place-based pedagogy argue that it can advance students’ academic achievement while strengthening connections between schools and communities. It can promote civic engagement and activism (see youth climate activism) by helping students develop a sense of responsibility and agency within their communities: for example, students can design and carry out a project meeting a local need, such as starting an urban garden. Community members can become part of students’ education, promoting intergenerational learning. Place-based pedagogy can recognize local knowledge that may be missing from a “standard” curriculum. For example, some approaches to place-based pedagogy incorporate different ways of understanding the world, including Indigenous worldviews. It can challenge neoliberal views of education like over-emphasis on the individual or the idea that education should only focus on employment.

Critics of place-based pedagogy argue that it may romanticize the idea of the local, endorse the status quo, and ignore larger contexts and systems. By over-emphasizing the importance of local action and volunteerism, place-based pedagogy can leave out the ways that state-, national-, and international-level organizations and policies can deflect responsibility away from those who have caused harm and onto those who have been harmed. This can limit its usefulness for helping students understand complex topics like climate literacy. Additionally, teachers may not have the training or time necessary to use place-based pedagogy effectively.

©2025 ClimateLit (Caitlin Brecklin)

Related Terms:

• • Existing entries: Climate Literacy, Collective Climate Action, Local Food Movement

• • Currently undefined: Deflection, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Worldview, Nearby Nature, Neoliberalism, Urban Gardens, Water Protectors, Youth Climate Activism

Web Sources:

• • Center for Place-Based Education. (2024). “Learning within the local community.” Antioch University. https://www.antioch.edu/centers-institutes/center-place-based-education/

• • Connolly, F. (2020). “Integrating place-based education into classroom or distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Institute of Education Sciences: Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/pacific/blogs/blog33_integrating-place-based-education-into-classroom.asp

• • Fester, J. (2020). “Place-based learning: Exploring and unpacking the world from anywhere.” National Geographic Education Blog. https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2020/07/30/place-based-learning-exploring-and-unpacking-the-world-from-anywhere/

• • Getting Smart. (2024). “Power of Place.” https://www.gettingsmart.com/series/power-of-place/

• • Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. (2024). “Getting started with place-based education.” https://www.michigan.gov/leo/boards-comms-councils/mistem/stem-toolbox/place-based-education#WhatPBE

• • Promise of Place: http://promiseofplace.org/

• • Whitmore, G. (2016). “A student’s perspective on place-based learning.” Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/students-perspective-place-based-learning-grace-whitmore

Other Sources:

• • Gonzalez, F. H. (2023). “Exploring the affordances of place-based education for advancing sustainability education: The role of cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural learning.” Education Sciences (13).

• • Gruenewald. D. A. (2003). “Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education.” American Educational Research Journal 40(3), p. 619-654.

• • Gruenewald, D.A. (2003). “The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place.” Educational Researcher 32(4), p. 3-12.

• • Nespor, J. (2008). “Education and place: A review essay.” Educational Theory 58(4), p. 475-489.

• • Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities. Orion.