Diverse Pedagogies of Place ― Educating Students in and for Local and Global Environments

Diverse Pedagogies of Place presents eight original place-responsive pedagogies that address a question of paramount importance in today’s world: how do we educate the next generation of students to confront the challenges of global climate change and the on-going degradation of natural environments? Each place-responsive pedagogy is a result of innovative environmental educators’ long-term engagement with particular places, and demonstrates that personal connectedness is crucial to effective environmental education.

Professional learning and teacher collaboration is an important theme throughout the book, and the editors discuss how teachers could adapt the learning activities and teaching strategies found in the book in order to create their own place-responsive pedagogies. Each case study provides a rich account of how students can learn to be attentive and draws upon a common analytical framework derived from recent theorisation of place that highlights the centrality of stories-in-place, embodiment, and contestation. The authors present detailed and persuasive evidence that place-responsive pedagogies enable students to construct their own identities, as well as develop commitments and a deeper knowledge of the environments that surround them.

A work of international relevance, Diverse Pedagogies of Place will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of environmental education and sustainability, place-based education, outdoor learning, professional learning and teacher development, as well as policymakers and environmental educators.

Peter Renshaw (PhD) is Professor of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research draws on sociocultural theory to address issues of pedagogy, social justice and inclusion. In the past decade he has collaborated with Ron Tooth to research environmental education and place-responsive pedagogies. He is Senior Editor of the Routledge/AARE book series Local/Global Issues in Education.

Ron Tooth (PhD) is Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, and founding Principal of the Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre, Australia. His experience at the Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre has given him an extended history of professional engagement with teachers and students. Ron has also worked as a consultant for local councils and schools to lead the design of environmental programs based on a narrative pedagogy called Storythread.