In this reflective essay I examine the activity of a bus tour, organized as the result of an ongoing university and city partnership. I illustrate how riding the bus is not only symbolic for positionality in our society, but also how it can be a viable mechanism for initiating boundary spanning and promoting opportunities for place-based learning…

This article presents a selected view of a research project developed in Brazil. The focus of the project was to investigate the modus operandi of 18 NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and their relationship to the development of educational curricula and practices in music. Further, it provides an analysis of NGOs as an opportunity to learn…

Realizing that ESOL students often do not integrate naturally into their new communities, we developed a reading class that focuses only on topics such as history, culture, arts, nature and entertainment that pertain to Portland or Oregon. In addition to readings, we asked that students go out and "live" what they learned through a…

Many young people today are enacting rich literacies in their lives through the use of digital technologies. While this may be so, there is a narrowing of literacy instruction under neoliberal reforms at a time of increasing informational and digital technologies. In this article, the author draws on an ethnographic study of high school multimedia…

This article explores shared space at the University of Minnesota's Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center (UROC), located four miles off campus in a community strong in assets, but facing inequality, disinvestment and racism. UROC's mission promotes university-community collaboration to solve critical urban challenges. We…

Preparing successful teacher candidates in urban schools requires educator preparation programs to integrate the exploration of community and cultures into the curriculum. Understanding the importance of community, interpreting and analyzing cultural implications, and creating new perceptions and understandings of urban students are essential for…

In recent years, geography educators have sought to make their pedagogy relevant to pressing social and environmental issues, but these efforts have largely imported pedagogies from outside of geography. In place-based education, in contrast, place--one of geography's defining themes--serves as a central organizing principle for a socially…

This ethnographic case study examines how Black educators at an urban middle school enacted critical place pedagogies in order to create a sense of community--that is, a sense of belonging to the place of school--and mutual nurturing between people and space in an attempt to transform how their Black males experienced school. Educators at Starks…

This article provides a close reading of Meg Rosoff's award-winning novel "How I Live Now". It argues that an understanding of the text can be extended through an application of ideas found in contemporary spatial discourse concerning place. Reading the novel within this context allows a discussion of ways in which it draws on…

There is increasing international interest in learning outside the classroom; place-based education is one manifestation of this. In this article, some conceptualisations of place are considered and attention drawn to alignments with habitus at micro, meso and macro levels. I develop a concept of cultural density as an explanatory tool to theorise…

Educators hope that the impact teaching and curriculum have on students extends far beyond the classroom, making practical connections to daily life. Powerful myths about where art happens, who participates in the art world, and the communities that judge art, however, can cause feelings of exclusion, where even formally trained artists can feel…

The overall question addressed in this article is,"What kind of philosophy of education is relevant to educational policy makers?" The article focuses on the following four themes: The meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by philosophers themselves; the meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by policy…

This article examines the ways in which settler colonialism shapes place in the social studies curriculum, producing understandings of land and citizenship in educational settings. To do this, the author uses the emergent framework of land education to move forward the important projects of place-based education, especially its potential for…

Few studies take up the question of how to teach pre-service or current teachers to practice integrated, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based methodologies. In this literature review, scholarly research is explored to examine approaches to teacher education based in progressivism. Place- and community-based education is considered as an important…

Recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers in rural schools is a persistent struggle in many countries, including the U.S. Salient challenges related to poverty, geographic isolation, low teacher salaries, and a lack of community amenities seem to trump perks of living in rural communities. Recognizing this issue as a complex and hard to…