Intricate waters: A critical literature review of place-based education

Abstract

This Masters thesis introduces and problematizes place-based education for practitioners and scholars. A critical literature review explores the foundations of place-based education to reveal key concepts, debates, and unresolved issues in the field. Engaging the metaphor of a watershed, literature representative of outdoor education, non-formal education, experiential learning, critical pedagogies, place-based education and land-based education literature is synthesized. Place-based education literature is analyzed and ordered chronologically and thematically to conceptualize the field. Key findings consider the main confluences within place-based education literature including: social and ecological analysis, curricular implications, the effect of linguistic and critical frameworks, connections to Indigenous education as well as directions for future scholarship.