Sense-of-Place Dimensions: Examining how Students, Educators and Administrators Perceive Place as Influencing K-12 Sustainability Education in Rural and Urban School Districts
Date
2022-09-14
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-6454-7505
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
Sustainability education is vital for elementary and secondary students to appreciate and think critically about the well-being of interconnected social, environmental and economic issues. The ways that students, whether rural or urban, learn to think about sustainability will influence their actions as both local and global citizens. Thus, connecting “place” and sustainability is vital to understanding sustainability in an educational context because place permeates social life and serves as a backdrop through which all social life occurs. As a way to understand the relationship between place and sustainability education, place has been conceptualized by sustainability education scholars as operating through dimensions; and these are the biophysical, sociocultural, political-economic and psychological dimensions of place. My research seeks to, first, learn what aspects of place – biophysical, sociocultural, political-economic and/or psychological – students, educators and administrators perceive as influencing K-12 sustainability education in rural or urban contexts; and second, to identify which biophysical, sociocultural, political-economic and/or psychological strategies promote sustainability learning for students. My analysis uses a qualitative, multiple-case study methodology to understand what sense-of-place dimensions are perceived as being more or less important across rural and urban contexts. The analysis identified the influential themes mentioned by students, educators and administrators, and found that the most emergent themes were the political-economic and biophysical for students and the biophysical and sociocultural dimensions of place for educators and administrators. Most importantly, my point of analysis became more significant when comparing 1) administrators/educators to students, and 2) rural students to urban students. I found that two dimensions cut across both cases (i.e., rural and urban) and participant types: biophysical and political-economic. My research adds empirical evidence for understanding the connection between rural and urban contexts and the dimensions of place in sustainability education and offers practical curricular recommendations for educators seeking increased place-based inquiry and land-based education.
Description
Keywords
dimensions of place, sustainability education, environment, rural, urban, land
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
School of Environment and Sustainability
Program
Environment and Sustainability