Preschoolers have different experiences in different environments. These experiences can stimulate children's imaginations. This longitudinal study examines the impact of preschool children's three-year experiences in early childhood institutions, which are their primary educational environments. The question 'Do preschoolers imagine different…

The following qualitative study analyzed pre-service teachers' reflective essays during an introductory place-based educational experience class. The analysis examined how racial identity is an integral component of preservice teachers' professional identity development. Using Helm (2007) and Howard's (2016) racial identity developmental model,…

Place-based education focuses on leveraging places, contexts, and environments to connect students meaningfully with their own communities and those they are studying. Guided by place-based learning theory within the context of language learning, this study examined how 154 US-based K-16 language educators perceived place and space, and how they…

This book offers an innovative framework and set of pedagogical pathways for deepening college student learning through critical engagement with place. Though the "what" and "how" of teaching and learning rightly take center stage in research of best practices, this book argues that the "where" of education deserves…

In many schools and districts, students of color living in low-income communities are told in simple and covert ways every day that they must leave their communities if they want to be successful. The message may be well-intentioned, but the leave to succeed (L2S) mindset is a dangerous narrative that affects students' sense of self. Students…

The degree to which Universities could nimbly and effectively respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on their local communities depended upon the structure and orientation of their community engagement infrastructure. Institutions that support a hyperlocal form of place-based engagement were uniquely positioned to harness their extensive…

Academic and government-directed research is generally portrayed as a benign problem-solving enterprise. There is a long record of important theories, discoveries, and solutions to sticky problems that research has produced. But alongside this list of important advances in knowledge, there has been a record of damage to individuals and to…

Many key concerns require engagement with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge. Consider the complexity and nuance of climate change, energy policy, health and medicine, and data security. Informed voting or decision-making on such issues is no easy task; effective participation in our society requires considerable…

This article shares the outcomes of a collaborative project between multimedia writing students and a local history center in which students created online exhibits about an important event in labor history: the Battle of Blair Mountain. The main outcome discussed is the enhancement of place-based literacy, including complication of simplistic…

Development, smartness, and equity are often defined through cosmopolitan perspectives. Schools and communities from rural regions in Portugal must develop additional measures to compensate for structural disadvantages. These measures often serve to achieve urban models and standards with which comparisons are made. This article explores rural…

Place-based initiatives often use resident surveys to inform and evaluate interventions. Sampling based on well-defined sampling frames is important but challenging for initiatives that target subpopulations. Databases that enumerate total population counts can produce overinclusive sampling frames, resulting in costly outreach to ineligible…

Recognizing that our preservice teachers are experiencing a euro-centered teacher preparation curriculum, this study aimed to explore Chicana preservice teachers' interactions with an array of criticalities focused on a bioregional context that highlighted critical and resistant resources. Chapter 1 surveyed the literature on growing critically…

Education policy scholars must consider spatial theories and related methodologies. Spatial theories encourage rich understandings of education policy because education and place are intimately connected. This article shows how scholars can use "spatial imaginaries" to enhance knowledge of place and education policy. We explain these…

Walking-creating was adopted to probe orientations towards communities, while early career teachers were on clinical placement in the remote South West Peninsular of England. The aim of carrying out walking-creating events was to elicit whether and if so, the extent to which, early career teachers were sensitive to the communities where they had…

The new curriculum for Wales advocates place-based learnings and has a commitment to future human and planetary wellbeing. It aims to give teachers more autonomy to design their own curricula based on localised contexts and concerns. Cynefin is a key word in the new curriculum for Wales, yet it is a word that has no direct English translation. It…