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http://www.jstor.org The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place by DavidA. Gruenewald
Takingthe position that "criticalpedagogy" and "place-basededu- analyzinghow economicand politicaldecisions impact particu- cation" are mutuallysupportive educationaltraditions, this author lar places (Berry, 1992; Haas & Nachtigal, 1998; Orr, 1992; arguesfor a conscious synthesisthat blendsthe two discourses into Theobald,1997). Place,in otherwords, foregrounds a narrative of local and that is attunedto the a critical pedagogy of place. An analysisof critical pedagogy is pre- regionalpolitics particularities of wherepeople actually live, and that is connectedto globalde- sented that emphasizesthe spatialaspects of social experience. This velopmenttrends that impactlocal places.Articulating a critical examinationalso asserts the general absence of ecological thinking pedagogyof place is thus a responseagainst educational reform demonstrated in critical social analysisconcerned exclusively with policies and practicesthat disregardplaces and that leave as- humanrelationships. Next, a discussionof ecologicalplace-based ed- sumptions about the relationshipbetween education and the ucation is offered. Finally,a criticalpedagogy of place is defined.This politicsof economicdevelopment unexamined. Unlike critical which evolves from the well- pedagogyseeks the twin objectives of decolonizationand "reinhab- pedagogy, establisheddiscourse of criticaltheory (Aronowitz& Giroux, itation" criticaland A through synthesizing place-basedapproaches. 1993; Burbules& Berk,1999; Freire,1970/1995; Giroux, 1988; of all educators to reflect on the criticalpedagogy place challenges McLaren,2003), place-basededucation lacks a specifictheoretical relationshipbetween the kindof educationthey pursue and the kind tradition,though this is partlya matterof naming.Its practices and of places we inhabitand leave behindfor future generations. purposescan be connectedto experientiallearning, contextual learning,problem-based learning, constructivism, outdoor educa- tion, indigenouseducation, environmental and ecologicaleduca- tion, bioregionaleducation, democratic education, multicultural "Place+ people = politics."-Williams (2001, p. 3) education,community-based education, critical pedagogy itself, as n this article I analyze and synthesize elements of two distinct well as otherapproaches that areconcerned with contextand the literatures, critical pedagogy and place-based education, and valueof learningfrom and nurturing specific places, communities, argue that their convergence into a critical pedagogy of place or regions. In recent literature,educators claiming place as a offers a much needed framework for educational theory, research, guidingconstruct associate a place-basedapproach with outdoor policy, and practice. Place-basedpedagogies are needed so that the (Woodhouse & Knapp, 2000), environmentaland ecological education of citizens might have some direct bearing on the well- (Orr, 1992, 1994; Sobel, 1996; Thomashow,1996), and rural being of the social and ecological places people actually inhabit. education(Haas & Nachtigal, 1998; Theobald, 1997). One re- Critical pedagogies are needed to challenge the assumptions, prac- sult of theseprimarily ecological and ruralassociations has been tices, and outcomes taken for granted in dominant culture and in that place-basededucation is frequentlydiscussed at a distance conventional education. Chief among these are the assumptions fromthe urban,multicultural arena, territory most often claimed that education should mainly support individualistic and na- by criticalpedagogues. If place-basededucation emphasizes eco- tionalistic competition in the global economy and that an edu- logical and ruralcontexts, criticalpedagogy-in a near mirror cational competition of winners and losers is in the best interest image-emphasizes socialand urbancontexts and often neglects of public life in a diverse society.' The current educational re- the ecologicaland ruralscene entirely.As leadingcritical peda- form era of standards and testing that began nearly 20 years ago goguesMcLaren and Giroux(1990) themselvesobserve, this em- with the publication ofA Nation at Risk is perhaps reaching a cli- phasisrepresents a "profoundirony": max in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. One result of new Whilecritical pedagogy in itsearly stages largely grew out of theef- federal mandates for accountability is an increasing emphasis on fortsof PauloFreire and his literacycampaigns among peasants in standards, testing, and classroom pedagogies that "teach to the ruralareas of Brasiland other Third World countries, subsequent test" while denying students and teachers opportunities to expe- generationsof NorthAmerican teachers and cultural workers in- rience critical or place-based education.2 fluencedby Freire'swork have directedmost of their attentionto Currently, educational concern for local space is overshad- urbanminority populations in majormetropolitan centers. Very owed by both the discourse of accountability and by the dis- littlewriting exists that deals with criticalpedagogy in the rural course of economic competitiveness to which it is linked. Place schoolclassroom and community. (p. 154) becomes a critical construct not because it is in opposition to eco- By pointingout distinctiveemphases of eachtradition, I do not nomic well-being (it is not), but because it focuses attention on mean to set up a falsedichotomy between them or to chargeei- thercamp with a narrowvision of appropriatecontext. Certainly EducationalResearcher, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp.3-12 beforeand since McLarenand Giroux (1990) were "struck"by
Z AY2O3Z~I the ironyof Freirean,rural pedagogy taking a chieflyurban turn, to reflecton how thesetwin agendas,and the critical,place-based educatorshave applied constructs and approachestypically asso- traditionsthey represent,challenge all of our work. ciated with critical to examinerural education pedagogy (e.g., Critical Pedagogy's Sociological Context Theobald, 1990).3Especially with the recentgrowth of interest With roots in Marxistand neo-Marxistcritical theory, critical in migranteducation, issues of race,class, gender, and corporate pedagogyrepresents a transformationaleducational response to hegemonyhave become centralto interrogatingrural commu- institutionaland ideologicaldomination, especially under capi- nity life and education (Lopez, Scribner,& Mahitivanichcha, talism.Burbules and Berk(1999) write that criticalpedagogy is 2001; Weyer,2002). Similarly,some place-basededucators are undoubtedlyFreirian "cultural workers" (Freire, 1998); these ed- aneffort to workwithin educational institutions and other media ucatorsoften embraceurban contexts and areinvolved in ecolog- to raise questions about inequalitiesof power, about the false andabout the icalprojects such as redressingenvironmental racism, organizing mythsof opportunityand merit for many students, belief become internalizedto the where indi- communitygardens, and initiatingother communitydevelop- way systems point viduals and abandon the very aspirationto question or ment activitiesthat make urbanand rural,social and groups ecological changetheir lot in life.(p. 50) connections(Hart, 1997; Smith, 2002; Smith& Williams,1999). However,despite clear areas of overlapbetween critical pedagogy The leadersof the movement, including Freire,Giroux, and andplace-based education (such as the importanceof situatedcon- McLaren,insist that educationis alwayspolitical, and that ed- text and the goalof socialtrans- ucators and students should formation),significant strands become "transformative intel- exist within each traditionthat lectuals" (Giroux, 1988), "cul- do not always recognize the Place-based pedagogies tural workers" (Freire, 1998) potential contributionsof the capable of identifying and re- other. On the one hand, criti- are needed so that the dressing the injustices, inequal- cal pedagogy often betrays a ities, and myths of an often sweepingdisinterest in the fact oppressiveworld. that human culture has been, education of citizens For Freire (1970/1995), crit- ical with rec- is, and alwayswill be nested in pedagogy begins that human ecological systems (Bowers, ognizing beings, might have some direct and learners, exist in a cultural 1997, In a 2001).4 parallelstory context: of neglect, place-basededuca- bearing on the well-being tion hasdeveloped an ecological People as beings "in a sit- and ruralemphasis that is often uation," find themselves insulatedfrom the culturalcon- of the social and rooted in temporal-spatial flicts inherent in dominant conditionswhich markthem Americanculture. Additionally, and which they also mark. ecological places people They will tend to reflect on in its focus on local, ecological their own "situationality"to experience, place-based ap- actually inhabit. the extent that they are chal- proachesare sometimes hesitant lenged by it to act upon it. to link ecologicalthemes with Human beings are because criticalthemes such as urbaniza- they are in a situation.And tion and the homogenization of culture under global capitalism they will bemore the morethey not only criticallyreflect upon their (see, e.g., Harvey, 1996, chap. 6). In short, both critical peda- existencebut criticallyact upon it. (p. 90) gogy and place-based education have through these silences Freiredoes not the of missed opportunities to strengthen each respective tradition by Though thoroughlyexplore spatialaspects this fromhis seminal borrowing from the other. The point of this article is to invite "situationality," passage Pedagogyofthe Op- demonstratesthe of or to critical theorists, researchers, and practitioners to deepen and expand pressed importance space, place, in a situationhas a their work by consciously blending approaches from these pow- pedagogy'sorigins. Being spatial,geographi- erful traditions. cal, contextualdimension. Reflectingon one's situationcorre- I analyze aspects of each tradition that are relevant to con- spondsto reflectingon the space(s)one inhabits;acting on one's structing a critical pedagogy of place. This discussion will high- situationoften correspondsto changingone's relationshipto a light the strengths of both traditions, tensions within and between place.Freire asserts that actingon one'ssituationality, what I will them, and raise issues that cannot be neglected as educators de- call decolonizationand reinhabitation,makes one morehuman. velop critical, place-based educational theory and practice. Fol- It is this spatialdimension of situationality,and its attentionto lowing this presentation, I will generalize that critical pedagogy socialtransformation, that connects critical pedagogy with a ped- and place-based education each make fundamental contributions agogy of place. Both discoursesare concernedwith the contex- to a critical pedagogy of place: specifically, while critical peda- tual, geographicalconditions that shapepeople and the actions gogy offers an agenda of cultural decolonization, place-based ed- people taketo shapethese conditions.5 ucation leads the way toward ecological "reinhabitation." The The purposeof criticalpedagogy is to engagelearners in the article concludes with a call to the entire educational community act of whatFreire calls conscientizacao, which hasbeen defined as
4 11EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER "learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradic- tory" and "marginality" can be construed so that resistance to tions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of real- and transformation of oppression becomes possible. Connect- ity" (Freire, 1970/1995, p. 17). A critical pedagogy of place has ing his vision to the multicultural pedagogy of McLaren and the same aim, and identifies "places" as the contexts in which Giroux (1990), Haymes advocates "critical narratology" and these situations are perceived and acted on. In order to promote "critical multiculturalism" as a means for urban Blacks to reflect conscientizacaoand at the same time teach the reading and writ- and act on their situationality. These expressions of critical ped- ing that are so important to it, Freire advocates, "reading the agogy focus on the importance of people telling their own sto- world" (1998; Freire & Macedo, 1987) as his central pedagogi- ries (reading the world) in a place where people may be both cal strategy. Reading the world radically redefines conventional affirmed and challenged to see how individual stories are con- notions of print-based literacy and conventional school curricu- nected in communities to larger patterns of domination and re- lum. For critical pedagogues, the "texts" students and teachers sistance in a multicultural, global society. Like other critical should "decode" are the images of their own concrete, situated pedagogues, Haymes seeks a "language of possibility" (Giroux, experiences with the world. According to Freire, "reading the 1988) through which relations of domination and colonization are transformed. world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world" (Freire & Macedo, 1987, Similar to other place-basededucators who write from a White, p. 35). In other words, reading the world is not a retreat from rural perspective (e.g., Haas & Nachtigal, 1998; Theobald, reading the word. Instead, the two intertwined literacies rein- 1997), Haymes worries that (Black, urban) community life is force each other and are directed toward conscientizacao.Through being undermined by capitalistic development patterns (e.g., reading the world (or the places in the world that one knows) as gentrification) that work against the creation of public spaces where communities can and construct the "political texts," teachers and students engage in reflection and analyze, envision, of for themselves. action-or praxis-in order to understand, and, where neces- meaning development Haymes' (1995) peda- of aims to and create sary, to change the world (Freire, 1970/1995; McLaren, 2003). gogy place identify development patterns that build Black he what he These two interrelated goals represented by Freire's notion of up communities; specifically rejects of "black conscientizacao-becoming more fully human through transform- calls "assimilationist" and "Afrocentric" models capi- ing the oppressive elements of reality-are at the center of criti- talism," which may reproduce the colonizing tendencies of cal pedagogical practice. They are also, significantly, central to White consumer culture. Citing bell hooks, Haymes charges that place-based education, though each tradition sometimes inter- the culture of individualistic consumption in Black life "under- prets these goals and the practices they imply quite differently. I mines our capacity to experience community" (p. 127). In sum, will discuss these differences, and potential territory for conver- Haymes promotes a pedagogy of place as the means through gence, by first reviewing the work of one critical pedagogue ex- which Black communities can evaluate their own situations and plicitly interested in the construct of "place." build solidarity in the struggle for racial, economic, and political democracy. Critical and Urban, Multicultural Place Pedagogy Haymes' pedagogy is central to this analysis because it emerges In Race,Culture, and the City:A Pedagogyfor BlackUrban Strug- from a context that other place-based educators often avoid: rad- gle, Haymes (1995) explores a "pedagogy of place" for the "inner ical multiculturalism. Though Haymes focuses on Black urban city." His perspective on place-based pedagogy is especially im- struggle,the multiculturalismhe advancesis also a response against portant to the urban contexts that ecological place-based educa- Whiteness as a hegemonic power that oppresses for any reason tion often avoids. Haymes claims White culture equates the of difference or otherness (hooks, 1990; Marable, 1996). Criti- urban with race, and race with Blackness; accordingly, "in the cal pedagogy's emphasis on the dynamics of race, power, and context of the inner city, a pedagogy of place must be linked to place, as exemplified by Haymes, can challenge other place-based black urban struggle" (p. 129). Building his pedagogy on the approaches not to neglect these critical, multicultural, urban framework of a racialized critical geography, Haymes adopts a themes. pedagogy of place as a way for colonized Blacks to name and The Critical transform-or decolonize-their own geographical situational- Ecological Challenge ity. He writes that a pedagogy of place must begin by "estab- Haymes (1995) makes a valuable contribution to a critical ped- lishing pedagogical conditions that enable blacks in the city to agogy of place by examining the socio-political significance of critically interpret how dominant definitions and uses of urban urban space in the project of decolonizing Black urban experi- space regulate and control how they organize their identity ence. Like other critical theorists focused on recreating the urban around territory, and the consequences of this for black urban landscape, however, Haymes is silent about the connection be- resistance" (p. 114). Haymes' pedagogy is grounded in a spa- tween cities and the ecological contexts in which all human, and tialized critical social theory (e.g., Harvey, 1996; Massey, 1994; non-human, communities are rooted. The ecological challenge Soja, 1989) that recognizes how relationships of power and to critical pedagogy is to expand its socio-cultural analyses and domination are inscribed in material spaces. That is, places are agendas for transformation to include an examination of the in- social constructions filled with ideologies, and the experience of teractions between cultures and ecosystems. Just as critical ped- places, such as the Black inner city or the White suburbs, shapes agogy draws its moral authority from the imperative to transform cultural identities. With other critical theorists interested in systems of human oppression, critical ecological educators posit the relationship between place and oppression (e.g., hooks, that an ecological crisis necessitates the transformation of educa- 1990; McLaren, 1997), Haymes seeks a pedagogy where "terri- tion and a corresponding alignment of cultural patterns with the
MAY2003 I sustaining capacitiesof naturalsystems (Bowers, 1993; O'Sullivan, ogy (Luke, 1999), and the traditional ecological knowledge of 1999; Orr, 1992). indigenous groups (Cajete, 1994; Esteva & Prakash, 1998).7 Em- For well over the last decade, Bowers (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001) bracing these traditions is essential to the development of a crit- has been the leading theorist critiquing the absence of concern for ical pedagogy of place because of their dual, if sometimes uneven, ecological matters in education and in the critical tradition led by commitments to social justice and ecological concerns. Bullard Freire,McLaren, and Giroux. Bowers claims that criticalpedagogy (1993) speaks to the fundamental difference between these tra- can work to reinforce cultural beliefs, or "root metaphors," that ditions and the mainstream environmental movement: underlie ecological problems and that are reproduced throughout The crux of the problem is that the mainstreamenvironmental conventional education: namely, individualism, the belief in the movement has not sufficientlyaddressed the fact that social in- nature of and Bowers fur- progressive change, anthropocentrism. equalityand imbalancesof powerare at the heartof environmental ther repudiates critical pedagogues for their tendency to "repre- degradation,resource depletion, pollution and even overpopula- sent themselves as the only group concerned with issues of tion. The environmentalcrisis can simplynot be solvedeffectively gender, race, and economic poverty" (Bowers, 1993, p. 111) and without socialjustice. (p. 23) challenges these emancipatory educators to broaden their cul- Taken the of dissident traditions tural critique to include an analysis of ecological systems and the together, insights ecological a critical of with a socio- problems of promoting an ever expanding consumer economy. help provide pedagogy place challenging ecological framework, a framework focused on cultural conflict Bowers even questions the privileged status critical pedagogues in a multicultural, global society and attuned to the political as- attach to their own and students' voices, claiming that the saults on both human and biotic diversity in particular local Freirean act of"naming the world" anew can contribute to indi- places. Informing a critical pedagogy of place with the insights vidualistic, anti-ecological thinking. For Bowers, the emancipa- of these traditions responds to Bowers' (1993) challenge for a tion that transformativeintellectuals seek runs the risk of turning critical pedagogy that is "radical enough" (p. 115) to entertain its back on traditionalcultural knowledge (e.g., indigenous knowl- ecological analysis. edge, elder knowledge, ethnic knowledge, and local knowledge) as Educational theory that synthesizes ecological and social justice a form of moral authority. Critically embracing such knowledge, concerns is, however, still in an early stage of development. Sig- Bowers insists, is essential to conserving and creating cultural nificant tensions between socially critical positions like Haymes' patterns that do not overshoot the sustaining capacities of nat- (1995) and ecologically critical positions like Bowers' (2001) re- ural systems (Bowers, 2001; see Daly, 1996, for an ecological main unresolved. If, for example, the environmental crisis can- analysis of the growth economy). not be solved without social justice, then ecological educators Although leading proponents of education for equity and so- and critical pedagogues must build an educational framework cial justice commonly neglect the ecological dimension of a deep that interrogates the intersection between urbanization, racism, cultural analysis, Bowers' latest work attempts to articulate an classism, sexism, environmentalism, global economics, and other educational that is to the interconnectedness theory responsive political themes. What makes this so difficult is that diverse so- of cultural and life. Now to with the ecological claiming agree cial experiences produce diverse and sometimes divergent per- critical on most social issues (Bowers, 2001, pedagogues justice spectives toward cultural and ecological politics. Geographical 33), Bowers advocates as a critical framework for p. "eco-justice" location, race, gender, class-permutations of these and other educational and has four main theory practice. Eco-justice fo- cultural locations mean social and ecological problems are often cuses: the between and (a) understanding relationships ecological perceived and prioritized differently by different groups. For ex- cultural systems, specifically, between the domination of nature ample, around Earth Day in 1970, while White middle-class rad- and the domination of oppressed groups; (b) addressing envi- icals were denouncing resource depletion and waste and while ronmental racism, including the geographical dimension of so- environmentalism was being promoted as a "non-class issue," cial injustice and environmental pollution; (c) revitalizing the urban African-American families were focused instead on "lack non-commodified traditions of different racialand ethnic groups of jobs, poor housing, racial discrimination, crumbling cities, and communities, especially those traditions that support eco- [and claimed that] their main environmental problem was Richard logical sustainability; and (d) re-conceiving and adapting our Nixon" (Harvey, 1996, p. 117). This does not mean to suggest lifestyles in ways that will not jeopardize the environment for fu- that African Americans are not concerned with resource deple- ture generations.6 Like critical pedagogy, eco-justice is centrally tion and waste but to demonstrate that the locus of environ- concerned with the links between racial and economic oppres- mental care may shift depending on one's social and geographical sion. Yet its critique explicitly recognizes that the subjugation of position. Thus the need for a critical pedagogy of place: People people-urban or rural-is further linked in the global economy must be challenged to reflect on their own concrete situational- to the subjugation of lands, resources, and ecosystems. The am- ity in a way that explores the complex interrelationships between bitious aim ofeco-justice is to develop an ethic of social and eco- cultural and ecological environments. logical justice where issues of race, class, gender, language, politics, Ecological Place-Based Education and economics must be worked out in terms of people's relation- ship to their total environments, human and non-human. Critical place-based pedagogy cannot be only about struggles In his formulation ofeco-justice, Bowers lays groundwork for with human oppression. It also must embrace the experience of an approach to education that is responsive to the "dissident" being human in connection with the others and with the world ecological traditions (Gruenewald, in press-a) of environmental of nature, and the responsibility to conserve and restore our justice (Bullard, 1993), ecofeminism (Warren, 2000), social ecol- shared environments for future generations. Some socially criti-
L EDUCATIONALRESEARCHER cal thinkersmight dismiss as "essentialist"or "homogenizing" munity, they must identify and confront the ways that power the idea that connectionswith the naturalworld are an impor- works through places to limit the possibilitiesfor human and tant part of being human. Place-basededucators embrace this non-humanothers. Their place-basedpedagogy must, in other connectionfor a varietyof spiritual,political, economic, ecolog- words,be critical. ical,and pedagogicalreasons. Though the ecologicallygrounded Comparedto criticalpedagogy, the rhetoricof place-baseded- emphasisof theseplace-based educators differs from the socially ucationis not nearlyso oppositional,"messianic" (Bowers, 2001), groundedemphasis of criticalpedagogy, taken together, a criti- or stridentlypolitical. However, this does not mean that place- cal pedagogyof placeaims to evaluatethe appropriatenessof our based pedagogy is less devoted to social change than critical relationshipsto each other, and to our socio-ecologicalplaces. pedagogy. Ecological place-basededucators, for example, are Moreover,a criticalpedagogy of placeultimately encourages teach- committedto fosteringecological literacy (Orr, 1992; Smith & ers and studentsto reinhabittheir places,that is, to pursuethe Williams,1999; Thomashow, 1996) in a citizenrycapable of act- kind of socialaction that improvesthe socialand ecologicallife ing for ecological sustainability,a goal that ultimatelyentails of places,near and far,now and in the future. monumentalchanges in lifestyle,politics, and economics (see In their surveyof literatureon what I term ecologicalplace- Huckle& Sterling,1996). However,some ecologicalplace-based basededucation, Woodhouse and Knapp(2000) describeseveral educatorshave learnedthat over-politicizingpedagogy can be a distinctivecharacteristics to this developingfield of practice:(a) it strategicmistake: If politicalperspectives are introducedat the emergesfrom the particularattributes of place,(b) it is inherently wrongtime, for example,they can createanxiety, fear, and hope- multidisciplinary,(c) it is inherentlyexperiential, (d) it is reflec- lessnessin learnersthat makes them lesscapable of takingsocially tive of an educationalphilosophy that is broaderthan "learning or ecologicallyappropriate action. In BeyondEcophobia, Sobel to earn",and (e) it connectsplace with self and community.Per- (1996) warnsagainst the "prematureabstraction" often used to hapsthe most revolutionarycharacteristic of place-basededuca- addressout-of-reach global crisessuch as exotic speciesextinc- tion-one that connects it to the Freireantradition of critical tion, rainforestdestruction, acid rain,and globalwarming. The pedagogy--is that it emergesfrom the particularattributes of idea here is not that educatorsshould avoid the realitiesof these This place. idea is radicalbecause current educational discourses human-createdcrises, but that we should pursue pedagogical seek to standardizethe of studentsfrom diverse experience geo- strategiesthat honor a learner'sdevelopmental readiness for en- and cultural so that in the graphical places they may compete gagingwith complexecological themes. Through analyzing a va- Sucha dismissesthe ideaof globaleconomy. goalessentially place rietyof researchand practice in the developmentof environmental as a or educationalcontext, it with primaryexperiential displaces values,Sobel concludes,"what's important is that childrenhave traditionaldisciplinary content and skills,and aban- technological an opportunityto bond with the naturalworld, to learnto love dons places to the workingsof the global market.Place-based it, beforebeing askedto heal its wounds"(p. 10). educatorsdo not dismissthe importanceof content and skills, Though Sobelfocuses on the ecologicaleducation of children, but arguethat the study of placescan help increasestudent en- the researchhe uses to supportthis conclusionlooks at the de- gagementand understandingthrough multidisciplinary, expe- velopmentof environmentalvalues in adults.Sobel (1996) writes, riential,and intergenerationallearning that is not only relevant but potentiallycontributes to the well-beingof communitylife Mostenvironmentalists attributed their [political] commitment to (Gruenewald,2002; Haas & Nachtigal, 1998; Smith, 2002; a combinationof two sources:"many hours spent outdoorsin a Theobald& Curtiss,2000). keenlyremembered wild or semi-wildplace in childhoodor ado- By promoting a pedagogyfor student engagementin com- lescence,and an adultwho taughtrespect for nature"[Chawla, munitylife, place-basededucators embrace aims beyond prepar- 1988].Not one of the conservationistssurveyed explained his or her dedicationas a reaction to an environ- ing studentsfor marketcompetition. This generalizationabout againstexposure ugly ment. (p. 10) place-basededucation signals both similarityto and difference fromcritical pedagogy. First, like criticalpedagogues, place-based The implicationhere is that the valuesof ecologicallyliterate and educatorsadvocate for a pedagogythat relates directly to student politicallymotivated adults are shaped by significantlife experi- experienceof the world,and that improvesthe qualityof life for ences that fosterconnection-in this case connectionwith the people and communities.However, unlike criticalpedagogues, naturalworld.9 The idea that people need to developmutually not all place-basededucators foreground the studyof placeas po- enhancingrelationships with naturebefore they will act on its be- liticalpraxis for socialtransformation. Indeed, Woodhouse and half is not a new idea. However,many educators still rushto in- Knapp(2000) call place-basededucation "a recenttrend in the formstudents of the latestecological, and social,catastrophes. In broadfield of outdooreducation" (p. 1) and locateit as a cousin fact,one could arguethat the environmentalmovement itself has of environmentaleducation.8 However, recognizing that place- attemptedto educate citizens mainly by focusing on tragedy, basededucation can benefitfrom the socio-culturalperspectives malfeasance,and ignorance.In response,Sobel wants to "reclaim centralto criticalpedagogy, Woodhouse and Knappcall Haymes' the heart"in place-basededucation, to createexperiences where (1995) place-based,urban pedagogy "a much needed comple- people can build relationshipsof carefor placesclose to home. ment to more conventionaloutdoor/environmental curriculum This focus on experiencewith placeis a responseagainst both a and instruction"(Woodhouse & Knapp,2000, p. 2). Human "gloomand doom"approach to environmentaleducation and a communities,or places,are politicized, social constructions that conventionaleducation that keeps studentsindoors and think- often marginalizeindividuals, groups, as well as ecosystems.If ing aboutoutdoor places only in the abstract.In his classicessay place-basededucators seek to connect place with self and com- "TheLand Ethic," Leopold (1949/1968) reflectson the need in
MAY2003 7 educationfor the kind of bondingwith the land that Sobel and valuedlearning experiences in themselvesand becausethe con- othersurge: nections they nurturelead to inquiry, action, and knowledge aboutplaces that are grounded in firsthand,shared experience of It is inconceivableto me thatan ethicalrelationship to landcan the home existwithout love, respect, and admiration for the land, and a high range. Like criticalpedagogy, place-basededucation aims to em- regardfor its value .... The mostserious obstacle impeding the evolutionof a landethic is thefact that our educational and eco- power people to act on their own situationality.Sobel's (1996) nomic systemis headedaway from, ratherthan toward,an intense commenton this point, however,is worth noting as it shiftsthe consciousnessof land.(p. 223) emphasisfrom a discourseof revolutionarychange (i.e., critical pedagogy)to a discourseof rooted,empathetic experience (i.e., Empathy, Exploration,and SocialAction in Places place-basededucation): "Ifwe want childrento flourish,to be- In orderto developan intense consciousnessof placesthat can come trulyempowered, then let us allowthem to love the earth lead to ecologicalunderstanding and informedpolitical action, beforewe askthem to saveit" (p. 39). Fromthe perspectiveof a place-basededucators insist that teachersand childrenmust reg- criticalpedagogy of place,the point is not that theseaims should ularlyspend time out-of-doorsbuilding long-term relationships be seen separately,but that the call to transformoppressive con- with familiar,everyday places. The kinds of educativeexperi- ditionsthat is so importantto criticalpedagogy must be balanced ences studentsand teacherspursue depends on the distinctive with experiencingan empatheticconnection to others,human characteristicsof the placesthey inhabit,as well as on whatlearn- and non-human.Ecological place-based educators urge all edu- ing objectivesand strategiesthey employ.Sobel (1996) describes cators to ask themselveswhether their curriculaallow for this a developmentalframework for place-basedcurriculum that be- kind of connectionand suggestthat anyone might beginlooking gins with fostering empathy for for and creatingnearby places the familiar, moves out toward to experienceit. exploration of the home range, With standardsand testing and leads to social action and In place of actual dominatingtoday's educational reinhabitation. Though de- discourse,the suggestionthat signed for ecological contexts, with the educatorsshould createcurric- Sobel's framework might also experience ula designedto fosterempathy apply to the problematic social and allowfor the explorationof environments that are typically phenomenal world, local places challengescurrent the concern of critical peda- policy and practice-especially gogues. Where in a community, educators are handed, when the suggestionis for reg- for example, might students and ular,coordinated K-12 experi- teachers witness and develop and the ences.Such a goal is usuallynot forms of empathetic connec- largely accept, part of a teacher'sjob descrip- tion with other human beings? tion nor do teachereducation How might these connections mandates of a programsprepare teachersto lead to exploration, inquiry, teach this way. In place of ac- and social action? standardized,"placeless"?? tual experiencewith the phe- Curriculum geared toward nomenal world, educatorsare exploring places can deepen handed,and largelyaccept, the empathetic connections and ex- curriculum ... mandates of a standardized, pand the possibilities for learn- "placeless"curriculum and set- ing outward. Sobel (1996) tle for the abstractionsand sim- explains,"[place-based] curriculum can mirrorthe expanding ulations of classroomlearning. Though it is true that much scopeof the child's[or adult's] significant world, focusing first on significantand beneficiallearning can happenhere, what is most the home and school, then the neighborhood,the community, striking about the classroomas a learning technologyis how the region,and beyond"(p. 19). Such explorationsamount to a much it limits, devalues,and distortslocal geographicalexperi- guided, ecologicalapproach to a Freireanreading of the world. ence. Place-basededucation challengesall educatorsto think For Sobel, however, providing guided experiencesthat allow abouthow the explorationof placescan becomepart of how cur- learnersto connect, explore,and discovertakes precedence, at riculumis organizedand conceived.It furtherchallenges educa- least for a time, over representingand processingexperience tors to considerthat if educationeverywhere does not explicitly throughcritical dialogue for the purposeof socialaction. Sobel promote the well-being of places, then what is educationfor (1993) is particularlyinterested in the role of"children'sspecial (Orr, 1992)? places,"such as forts and dens-or any place that childrencare to maketheir own-to the developmentof identityand a com- A Critical Pedagogy of Place: mitmentto placesin middlechildhood. He also advocatesmap- Decolonization and Reinhabitation ping as a learningactivity that helps learnersdevelop multiple At the most general level ... a critical pedagogy must be a peda- perspectivesand broadentheir view of the world (Sobel, 1998). gogy of place,that is, it must addressthe specificitiesof the expe- In sum, empathyand explorationare pursuedbecause they are riences,problems, languages, and histories that communities rely
•] EDUCATIONALRESEARCHER upon to constructa narrativeof collectiveidentity and possible explorehow humanity'sdiverse cultures attempt to live well in transformation.(McLaren & Giroux,1990, p. 263) the age of globalization,and what culturalpatterns should be conservedor transformedto promotemore ecologicallysustain- Givencritical pedagogy's sociological focus and place-based ed- ablecommunities (Bowers, 2001). Orrelaborates a bioregionalist ucation'secological emphasis, it needsto be stressedthat each dis- meaningof livingwell by drawinga distinctionbetween inhabiting coursecarefully attends to conceptsand goals that are fundamental and residingin a place: to the other. Perhapsthe two most significantintersections be- tweenthese traditions are place-based education's call for localized A residentis a temporaryoccupant, putting down few roots and socialaction and criticalpedagogy's recognition that experience, investinglittle, knowing little, and perhaps caring little for the im- or Freire's(1970/1995) "situationality,"has a geographicaldi- mediatelocale beyond its abilityto gratify.As botha causeand ef- mension.Acknowledging that experience has a geographicalcon- fectof displacement,the resident lives in anindoor world of office text opens the way to admitting critical social and ecological buildingand shopping mall, automobile, apartment, and subur- ban house and watchesas much as four hours of televisioneach concernsinto one's understandingof place,and the roleof places The in "dwells"... in an or- in education.This is the of a critical of One day. inhabitant, contrast, intimate, goal pedagogy place. and witha Good of for this is that ganic, mutuallynurturing relationship place. in- my purposes naming convergence place-based habitanceis an art requiringdetailed knowledge of a place,the in its diverse is lessa education, incarnations, currently pedagogy capacityfor observation, and a sense of careand rootedness. (p. 130) per se and more an alternativemethodology that lacksa coher- ent theoreticalframework. In other words, the goal here is to While Orrderides residency for requiringonly "cashand a map" groundplace-based education in a pedagogythat is sociallyand (p. 130), the "goodinhabitance" he advocatesmay also require ecologicallycritical. economic and politicalresources, and even revolutionarysocial Pedagogyis a term used loosely in educational discourse. change,especially for those living in urbanenvironments or in Simon (1987) writesthat "talk about pedagogy is simultaneously manykinds of poverty,or forthose whose "dwelling" and cultural talk about the detailsof what studentsand othersmight do to- way of beingis underthreat from global economic development. gether and the culturalpolitics such practicessupport. In this However,acquiring detailed knowledge of a placeis certainlyan perspective,we cannot talk about teaching practiceswithout appropriatebeginning for thosewishing to developmutually en- talkingabout politics" (cited in McLaren,2003, p. 187). A crit- hancing relationshipswith their environments.Wherever one ical pedagogyof placeembraces the link betweenthe classroom lives, reinhabitationwill dependon identifying,affirming, con- and culturalpolitics, and further,it explicitlymakes the limits serving,and creatingthose forms of culturalknowledge that nur- and simulationsof the classroomproblematic. It insiststhat stu- tureand protectpeople and ecosystems(Bowers, 2001). dents and teachersactually experience and interrogatethe places In manyways decolonization describes the undersideof rein- outsideof school-as partof the schoolcurriculum-that arethe habitation;it may not be possible without decolonization.If local contextof sharedcultural politics. Of course,critical peda- reinhabitationinvolves learning to live well sociallyand ecolog- gogy has alwaysaimed to addressthe educativeimpact of expe- ically in places that have been disruptedand injured, decolo- riencewith culture in places outside the school building. The nizationinvolves learning to recognizedisruption and injuryand challengeposed by place-basededucators is to expandschool ex- to addresstheir causes. From an educationalperspective, it means perienceto fosterconnection, exploration, and action in socio- unlearning much of what dominant culture and schooling ecologicalplaces "just beyond the classroom"(Knapp, 1996). teaches, and learning more socially just and ecologically sus- tainableways of being in the world.In theiressay on the spatial- Decolonization and Reinhabitation izedvocabulary of culturalpolitics, Smith and Katz(1993) write, A criticalpedagogy of place,moreover, proposes two broadand "Decolonizationbecomes a metaphorfor the processof recog- interrelatedobjectives for the purpose of linking school and nizing and dislodgingdominant ideas, assumptions and ideolo- place-basedexperience to the largerlandscape of culturaland gies as externallyimposed" (p. 71). Similarly,hooks (1992) ecologicalpolitics: decolonization and reinhabitation. These goals definesdecolonization as a "processof culturaland historicallib- broadlymirror the thematicemphases of criticalpedagogy and eration; an act of confrontation with a dominant system of ecological place-basededucation, respectively.They are pre- thought"(p. 1). However,as Bowers(2001) points out, decolo- sentedhere separately (and in no hierarchicalorder) for the pur- nizationas an act of resistancemust not be limited to rejecting pose of articulatingthe twin socialand ecologicalobjectives of a and transformingdominant ideas; it also dependson recovering criticalpedagogy of place. One should keep in mind, however, and renewingtraditional, non-commodified cultural patterns that they arereally two dimensionsof the sametask. such as mentoringand intergenerationalrelationships. In other Reinhabitationis a majorfocus in ecologicalplace-based edu- words,reinhabitation and decolonizationdepend on eachother. cation,especially in its expressionas bioregionalism(McGinnis, A criticalpedagogy of placeaims to (a) identify,recover, and cre- 1999; Sale, 1985; Traina& Darley-Hill, 1995). Bioregionalist ate materialspaces and placesthat teach us how to live well in pioneers Berg and Dasmann (1990) define reinhabitationas our total environments(reinhabitation); and (b) identify and "learningto live-in-placein an areathat has been disruptedand changeways of thinkingthat injureand exploitother people and injuredthrough past exploitation" (p. 35). Similarly,Orr (1992) places(decolonization). writes,"The study of place..,. has a significancein reeducating As mentioned previously,these two goals can be associated peoplein the artof livingwell where they are" (p. 130). Of course, with place-basededucation and criticalpedagogy, respectively. the meaningof"living well" differs geographically and culturally. Thesetwo educationaltraditions offer additional metaphors that A politicized,multicultural, critical place-based education would help clarifythe distinctive,socio-ecological emphasis of a critical
9 MAY2003 pedagogyof place:transformation and conservation.Posed in and necessary,that culturaland ecologicalcontexts are always terms of questions,critical pedagogues insist on asking,What two partsof the same whole, that decolonizationand reinhabi- aboutsituationality, both in termsof the livedexperience of peo- tation are mutuallysupportive objectives, that outragetoward ple and the often oppressivesocial structuresthat shapeexperi- injusticemust be balancedwith renewingrelationships of care ence, needs to be transformed?Place-based educators, on the for others-human and non-human-and that the sharedexpe- otherhand, often ask,What about localplaces, both in termsof rienceof everydayplaces promotes the criticaldialogue and re- ecologicallysustainable cultural patterns and human and biotic flection that is essentialto identifyingand creatingcommunity diversity,needs to be conserved?Of course, this reductionof well-being. discoursesis and one could to exam- complex problematic point Conclusion ples in place-basededucation and in criticalpedagogy where at- tention is given to both transformingand conservingcultural A criticalpedagogy of placeaims to contributeto the production practices.The point of the comparisonis to show the broad of educationaldiscourses and practicesthat explicitlyexamine rangeof inquiryposed by place-basedand criticalpedagogies. the place-specificnexus betweenenvironment, culture, and ed- Becauseof criticalpedagogy's strong emphasis on transforma- ucation. It is a pedagogylinked to culturaland ecologicalpoli- tion, the questionof what needsto be conservedtakes on special tics, a pedagogyinformed by an ethic of eco-justice(Bowers, significanceto a criticalpedagogy of place.This questiondoes not 2001), and othersocio-ecological traditions that interrogatethe implypolitical and ideologicalalignment with those typicallyla- intersectionbetween cultures and ecosystems. beled "conservatives."Instead, it makes this political category The chief implicationof a criticalpedagogy of placeto educa- problematicby challengingeveryone, from radicalsto reaction- tionalresearch is the challengeit poses to all educatorsto expand aries, to specifically name those the scope of their theory, in- aspects of cultural, ecological, quiry, and practiceto include and community life that should the social and ecologicalcon- be conserved, renewed, or revi- Classroom-based texts of our own, and others', talized (Bowers, 2001). inhabitance. Classroom-based Identifying what needs to be researchon teachingand learn- conserved requires the kind of research is inadequate to ing that focuses on teacher deep critical reflection and dia- skillsand studentperformances logue that form the foundation the larger tasks of and takesfor grantedthe legiti- of critical pedagogy. Only now, macy of a standards-basedpar- critical thought is employed to cultural and adigm of accountability is name and recover those aspects ecological inadequateto the largertasks of of community life that truly culturaland ecologicalanalysis contribute to the well-being of analysis that that reinhabitationand decolo- all people and the places they nization demand. Further,the inhabit. Should, for example, reinhabitation and heavy emphasisin educational the genetic diversity in ecosys- researchon school and class- tems and agriculture be con- decolonization demand. room practicesreinforces insti- served in the era of mass tutional practices that keep extinctions and biotechnology? teachersand students isolated Should constitutional rights be from placesoutside of schools. conservedas governmentsand corporationsdevise new methods Critical approachesto educationalresearch, such as criticaleth- of surveillanceand manipulation?Should public placesbe con- nography, discourse analysis, and other deconstructive ap- servedand restoredas the landscapeincreasingly falls under elite proachesare needed, yet these methodologies must providea privateownership and control?Should face-to-face,intergener- theoretical rationale to connect schools with the social and ationalhuman contact be renewedas schoolsand dominantcul- ecological dimensions of places. Researchin servicelearning, ture continue to idolize technology and marginalize and community-basedaction research,and school-communitycol- segregateboth youth and elders? laborationcan offer direction, but the partnershipsthese ap- Criticalpedagogues might respond that conservingand re- proachesimply need to be conceivednot as tangentialto core newing culturalpractices that contributeto the well-being of school curriculum,but as structuresand practicesthat help re- people and placesmay often requiretransforming existing prac- thinkthe classroomas the fundamentalsite of teachingand learn- tices. Race,gender, and classoppression, as well as ecologically ing. Educationalresearch that evaluatesthe efficacyof critical, damagingcultural patterns, need to be transformedin the faceof place-basedapproaches to educationalso need to be developed, those people and structuresthat would conservethem. Still, de- though the meaningof successfulpractice must challengecon- cidingwhat shouldbe conservedsuggests a trajectoryfor critical ventionalnotions of achievement;definitions of school achieve- inquirythat may be missedwhen transformationis pedagogy's ment must begin to take account of the social and ecological paramountgoal (C. A. Bowers,personal communication, Sep- quality of community life. Developing a criticalpedagogy of tember18, 2002). The criticalsynthesis posed by a criticalped- place meanschallenging each otherto readthe textsof our own agogy of place posits that the questions of what needs to be lives and to ask constantlywhat needs to be transformedand transformedand what needs to be conservedare equally critical what needsto be conserved.In short,it meansmaking a placefor
I EDUCATIONALRESEARCHER the cultural,political, economic, and ecological dynamics of places enizingcurriculum of standardsand testingthat claimsto be applicable wheneverwe talkabout the purposeand practice of learning. "anytimeand anywhere"(p. 165). In his recentarticle, "Place-Based Education: Learning To Be 3 The ERIC Clearinghousesfor RuralEducation and Small Schools WhereWe Are,"Smith (2002) writes,"Because place-based ed- and for MigrantEducation collect many resourcesaddressing issues of and economic See ucationis by its naturespecific to particularlocales, generic cur- race, class, gender, development. http://www.ael. ricularmodels are 587). Smithdoes, however, org/eric. inappropriate"(p. While this is true in the Freire,Giroux, and McLarentradition in offerfive to that can focus edu- 4 approaches place-basedlearning the United States,it is not trueof the criticaltraditions in GreatBritain, cationalresearch into localcultural place-basedpractices: (a) stud- Australia,and Canada(see, e.g., Fien, 1993; Huckle & Sterling,1996; ies, (b) local naturestudies, (c) communityissue-investigation O'Sullivan,1999; Salleh, 1997). and problem-solving,(d) local internshipsand entrepreneurial 5 See Soja(1989) and Gruenewald(in press-b)for a discussionof the opportunities,and (e) inductioninto communitydecision mak- reciprocalnature of the personand placerelationship. ing. As Smithobserves, when studentsand teachersbecome cur- 6An upcomingspecial issue of the journalEducationalStudies, which riculum creatorsin any of these areas,"the wall between the KateWayne and I are co-editing,will featurearticles and reviewsthat school and the communitybecomes much more permeableand explorethese dimensions ofeco-justice. See the EducationalStudies web- is crossedwith frequency.. . . The primaryvalue of place-base site at http://www3.uakron.edu/aesa/publications/ej.html. educationlies in the way that it servesto strengthenchildren's 7 As Harvey(1996) observes,such traditionsemphasize that "the'en- [andadults'] connections to othersand to the regionsin which vironmentalissue' necessarilymeans such differentthings to different that in it there theylive" (pp. 593-594). Informedby critical,place-based peda- people, aggregate encompassesquite literallyeverything is" (p. 117). Pleasesee http://www.hensonscales.com/erlinks.htm,re- gogies,educational research can likewisehelp to strengthenthese gardingenvironmental justice, and http://www.ecofem.org, on ecofem- connections and communities of learnersconserve and help inism, for two extensivebibliographies. What is significanthere is that transformtheir living environments. though socio-ecologicaltraditions such as thesehave a significantliter- No doubt, Smith's (2002) descriptionof the purposesand aturebase, therehave been few comprehensiveefforts to developedu- practicesof place-basededucation represents a huge challengeto cationaltheory that is responsiveto their analyses.Along with Bowers many educators'assumptions about the way teachersand stu- (2001), comparealso O'Sullivan(1999). dentsshould conduct teaching and learning.A criticalpedagogy 8 See Gruenewald(in press-a)for a critiqueof environmentaleduca- of placedeepens the challengeby bringingcultural and ecologi- tion, its failureto problematizeconventional education, and for its lack cal politicsinto the centerof place-baseddiscourse. It would be of attentionto issuesof socialjustice. difficultto underestimatethe messycomplexity of thesepolitics. 9 The influenceof positivesignificant life experienceswas so impor- Interrogatingthe links betweenenvironment, culture, and edu- tant to researchersin environmentaleducation that in 1998 a special volumeof EnvironmentalEducationResearch (Tanner, 1998), the field's cation is an intellectualchallenge that few educationaltheorists leadingresearch journal, was devotedto the theme. have undertaken(e.g., Bowers,2001; O'Sullivan,1999). From the standpointof educationalresearch and practice,this work is REFERENCES furthercomplicated by the uniquenessand diversityof cultural Apple,M. (2001). Markets,standards, teaching, and teachereducation. and ecologicalinteractions as theyare produced and experienced Journalof TeacherEducation, 52, 182-196. in particularplaces. However, the traditionsof criticalpedagogy Aronowitz,S., & Giroux,H. (1993). Educationstill undersiege. 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Critical pedagogy and rural educa- Department of Teaching and Learning, Washington State University, tion: A challenge from Poland. PeabodyJournal of Education, 67(4), Pullman, WA 99164-2132; [email protected]. His research and 154-165. teaching aim to bridge inquiry into environment, culture, and education. McNeil, L. (2000). Contradictionsofschool reform:Educational costs of standardized testing. New York: Routledge. Manuscriptreceived February5, 2002 O'Sullivan, E. (1999). Transformativelearning: Educational vision for Revisionsreceived December 17, 2002 the 21st century. London: Zed Books. Accepted January14, 2003
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