{"id":38,"date":"2019-07-05T14:11:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T14:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/?p=38"},"modified":"2025-10-30T04:53:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T04:53:39","slug":"a-pedagogy-of-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/a-pedagogy-of-place\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pedagogy of Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Relph <\/a>(1976), Tuan <\/a>(1974) and Buttimer <\/a>(1976)\u00a0developed \u201chumanistic\u201d approaches for understanding\u00a0place organised around “human experience.”\u00a0In other words, how does our experience of place contribute to our construction of it? Understanding place seems straightforward, but in incorporating a \u201chumanistic\u201d perspective, place emerges as a complex and sophisticated concept. This is illustrated well by\u00a0Kissling (2012),\u00a0who\u00a0writes\u00a0\u201cplace is landed in a physical sense, imagined in a psychological sense, felt in an emotional sense, storied in a historical sense, enacted in a cultural sense, constructed in a social sense, and sure it \u2018is\u2019 in many other senses as well (p. 111).\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Following the work of Relph and others, the WISERDEducation multicohort study<\/a> asked 831 pupils to list up to three words that best describe the places where they live. This produced nearly 3000 responses that were organised by themes and given a positive, neutral or negative value – values representing the evaluative nature of the pupils’ responses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Overall, 62.7% of the pupils surveyed used positively oriented words to describe the areas where they live. As\u00a0a curriculum theorist, I was intrigued by the difference between\u00a0\u201cofficial\u201d curricular\u00a0representations of Wales\u00a0found in the national curriculum and\u00a0Cwricwlwm\u00a0Cymreig\u00a0(a policy\u00a0I\u2019ve critiqued\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>)\u00a0and\u00a0the language pupils used\u00a0in their responses.\u00a0The\u00a0Cwricwlwm Cymreig<\/a>\u00a0was concerned with helping pupils appreciate living in Wales and in them developing their own sense of \u201cWelshness.\u201d Curricular guidance provided case studies of how this could be accomplished through highlighting aspects of Welsh culture. However,\u00a0evidence from this research<\/a>\u00a0(also available here<\/a>) shows most\u00a0pupils construct their “place images” through\u00a0expressions\u00a0of social relationships, and not necessarily through representations found in the curricular guidance, such as mining, music, devolution, dragons, language and sport.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As Pioneer Schools began their deliberations on the curriculum proposed in\u00a0Successful Futures<\/a>, some were charged with\u00a0how to promote and maintain a \u201cWelsh dimension and international perspective\u201d in schools.\u00a0In other words, what might\u00a0a pedagogy of place\u00a0for Wales look like and how do we achieve it?\u00a0When I use the term \u201cpedagogy,\u201d I\u2019m specifically referencing the theorisation\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the philosophical consideration, of teaching and learning. Recent usage of the term has focused on instruction and method, and\u00a0in my\u00a0opinion\u00a0this has robbed\u00a0\u201cpedagogy\u201d\u00a0of its theoretical strength and intellectual character.\u00a0Therefore,\u00a0a pedagogy of place is a theoretical consideration of how place informs our thinking about teaching and learning in schools across Wales.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the Pioneer School meetings, I suggested working towards the aims of the\u00a0Cwricwlwm\u00a0Cymreig\u00a0through\u00a0emphasising\u00a0place and pupils\u2019 relationships to it. Eventually, a conceptual model was produced wherein pupils would start with their local context and work outwards to their community, country and \u201cthe world.\u201d As Pioneer Schools continued their curricular work, other contributors, including\u00a0Dr Sara Morse<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Dr Daniel Evans<\/a>, extended the idea of a pedagogy of place by introducing\u00a0Cynefin<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>which loosely translates into \u201chabitat,\u201d but may be more appropriately thought of as one\u2019s placement or \u2018situatedness\u2019 within a\u00a0particular geographical, social, political and cultural context(s).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Welsh government has released the first draft of the new curricular framework for\u00a0public consultation<\/a>, and as people discuss and debate its content, some worry a focus on the local will diminish pupils\u2019 engagement with the rest of the world. This is a legitimate concern. A pedagogy of place should not limit learning to just the local context, nor should it undermine exposure to knowledge learned from experiencing new people, places and ideas. Instead, it should inspire teachers and pupils to perceive education as the means through which young people come to understand themselves as individuals located in, and connected through, multiple contexts and identities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A pedagogy of place can help young people gain a better understanding of the dimensions of\u00a0being\u00a0<\/em>in a \u201cplace\u201d (e.g. citizenship, cultural identity and personal identity) and how constructions\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>place (e.g. home, Wales, the world) are produced, understood and promoted. If we don\u2019t understand our own \u201cplaces,\u201d then how can we come to understand the relationships of others and their \u201cplaces?\u201d In our current social, cultural, political and even environmental climate, a pedagogy of place might not only be beneficial in helping young people appreciate living in their \u201cplace\u201d and developing a sense of \u201cplaceness,\u201d it may also help them to understand how our \u201cplace\u201d and \u201cplaceness\u201d intersect and relate to the \u201cplace\u201d and \u201cplaceness\u201d of others.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Reflective Questions\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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  1. How might a pedagogy of place help pupils and teachers observe and develop empathetic connections with each other? With others?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      \r\n
    1. How might a pedagogy of place lead to social, political and cultural action?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
        \r\n
      1. How might a pedagogy of place contribute to young people acting as cultural producers rather than consumers?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do pupils\u2019 own words reveal about how they see the places they call home? This post looks at new research on young people\u2019s \u201cplace images\u201d in Wales and considers what it means for curriculum design. From Cwricwlwm Cymreig to Cynefin, it explores how a pedagogy of place can deepen understanding of belonging, identity and connection in classrooms across Wales.","protected":false},"author":1081,"featured_media":174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Curricular and pupils' perceptions of place can often be incompatible. However, \"pedagogies of place\" can empower young people to better understand their understanding of and relationship to their \"place.\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,11,17,18,10,19],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational-research","tag-curriculum","tag-cymru","tag-pedagogy","tag-place","tag-wales","tag-wiserd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/570\/2020\/05\/signposts-3857766_1280.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/drkevinsmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}