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Demarest, Amy B.

College of Education and Social Services

2008

Ed. D.

The focus of this research project is to examine how teachers use place-based education (PBE) in K-12 classrooms. PBE is a robust approach to curriculum where teachers and students develop partnerships with specific locales, community organizations, enterprises and individuals that provide the context for content acquisition, engaged learning and meaningful community service. This qualitative research presents the practices of exemplary teachers who situate curriculum in the context of students' lives and the local environment, using what is "seen and felt and loved" (Dewey, 1902). Data, gathered through interviews, observations, student focus groups and document review, offer rich descriptions and opportunities for analysis of teachers' decisions, aspirations and perceptions in regards to curriculum design. By presenting the complexity of how teachers implement this practice in the current climate, this study offers teachers insights and a "way in" to similar choices and opportunities. Teachers who position themselves to teach in this way are making choices that are different than the standard curriculum common to most textbooks, district expectations and traditional professional development. The adoption of PBE as a pedagogy rests on how one views places and the stories they have to tell. How teachers see that worth in relation to the demands of the subject area(s) they teach, their vision of the purpose of education and the needs of their students all influence how an individual teacher or district might organize the curriculum. How and why they are managing to employ PBE as a curricular tool in the "few crawl spaces that exist within today's tightly controlled school world" (Smith, 2006) is the focus of this research.