Navigating Place-Based Learning: Mapping for a Better World [1st ed.] 9783030556723, 9783030556730

Citation preview

Navigating Place-Based Learning Mapping for a Better World Elizabeth Langran · Janine DeWitt

Navigating Place-Based Learning

Elizabeth Langran · Janine DeWitt

Navigating Place-Based Learning Mapping for a Better World

Elizabeth Langran Marymount University Arlington, VA, USA

Janine DeWitt Marymount University Arlington, VA, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-55672-3 ISBN 978-3-030-55673-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Alex Linch/shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To our students… Long may you roam

Foreword: Toward Mapping for a Better World

Yet, not “forward,” but backward in time, since to understand a place, we must consider it as a place in time: the logics of time—the chronological pasts that have constructed it: in other words, the Geologic Hydrologic Geomorphologic Climatologic Meteorologic Ecologic Paleologic Archaeologic Anthropologic and finally its current Sociologic phenomena, such as settlement patterns, routes along water: outward to and from it; its drainage patterns, interruptions, and their impact on habitats and human settlements, high and low elevations, and relationships to production, economics, and power. Therefore the maps that represent the preexisting and current conditions must be consulted in order to construct a “deep map.” The “deep map” provides the spatiotemporal context that allows for deeper reflection on the power and potential of change that is of course, inevitable. While the list of “logics” may seem irrelevant to the current sociological conditions, the knowing of those preexisting conditions compose the critical knowledge the powerful own and that the

vii

viii

FOREWORD: TOWARD MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

dispossessed need, to understand the positioning of current events; and therefore to provide a basis for better decision-making. How did humans know where to go? Since we must have water, we must follow water. Water may lead humans upstream or downstream, north, south, east, or west; to its source or its eventual destination as it flows. The tributaries of a river drain mineral, animal, and vegetable resources to its sediments, depositing new soil, expanding valleys of new land, and continually doing so until the source waters meet the sea. These are the lifelines humans must inhabit. Having inhabited them, humans construct cultural landscapes upon the river and its deposits that give them life. Understanding the necessary role of water—potable water— must precede any other interpretation of any place. Who, how, when, and why was the river bridged, diverted, dammed? Where is it polluted? Where, then, is the source water of each city? How, when and by whom was it settled? How did it become a center of activity for the area? For there are the geology, the layers of occupation, the ultimate resources of that place. Understanding the underlying geology and infrastructure is critical to understanding the current conditions of a place. The sources that become constructed as “resources” must be presented. Where are the water lines, the roads, the schools, the churches, the health services? How did these shape the settlement and subsequent history of those who came to this place, and when, in what order, by which strokes of history did the place become populated, and what were their relationships? What do the historic maps of the region reveal about the constraints upon who lives where? Pre-Columbian coastal Peruvian city-states were built on the coastal plain (once much more extensive to the Pacific) as the rivers that drained the once-glaciers deposited gold, copper, and other minerals that became wealth. Farm communities up the slopes of the city-states’ Andean elevations, known as Tierras: Caliente, Templada, Fria, Helada, & Nevada established patterns that endure today. Post-glacial flooding and mudslides attacked the downstream cities. But the gold? Some artifacts remain, but the 95-year Incan Empire’s expansion into northern Peru and Ecuador amassed the gold from the captured city-states, only to be offered by Atahualpa, the Incan heir, as his ransom to Pizarro and Spain by 1533. Geologic events both fed and destroyed those cities who, in response to the floods, had sacrificed hundreds of humans. In a 1999 middle school project on pre- and Civil Rights Era Raleigh, NC, historic maps showed students the raw mapping of segregation in

FOREWORD: TOWARD MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

ix

the city’s historic Sanford insurance maps. While these students still lived in the designated southeast part of town, they began to understand what had come before that, and while by then school choice gave them other options, the de facto residential patterns persisted. In the following chapters, the investigations of “place” focus largely in cities as landscapes of cultural activity. Whose? When and how did these evolve? How did settlement expand from the central water source by its inhabitants? Who lives “in the Heights?” Who lives in the dense and low elevations where flooding occurs and services are absent? In Chapter 3, the concept of Critical Place-based Inquiry is presented, using Bednarz’ 1994 basic geographic inquiry process of: • • • •

Ask Geographic questions Acquiring geographic resources (or information) Visualizing geodata Cognitively develop and process knowledge and produce or process geodata • Answer geographic questions • Present the results of geographic inquiry. Pushing further from these results, students are asked to develop a critical lens using Freire’s concept of of “Reading the world”; taking a critical stance on what is uncovered through this process, for example, • What are the best features of our community? What could make it better for all? What follows is an articulation of a Critical Place-Based Inquiry Model to stretch beyond the surface toward the social context and dynamics of the location using “City as Text” and other resources with specific considerations, suggested devices and strategies as well as recommended assessments, rubrics, and interpretive strategies such as D.I.V.E.: Describe, Interpret, Validate, Evaluate. Many other design and strategies and analytical tools and processes are introduced to support this type of inquiry. Specific attention and safety precautions are offered under “Inclusive Mapping: Different Learners Experience Different Challenges,” where there is an admirable discussion of adapting this type of inquiry for all students.

x

FOREWORD: TOWARD MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

In the not-so-distant last century, the year 2020 was seen as a future time when all problems would be solved, the earth a healthier planet than it was then, and when all things would be possible. Instead, we inherit a confounding and insidious pandemic, the continued and heightened awareness of racial injustice and its persistence, and continued political impotence for righting the wrongs incurred on the planet. There’s been plenty of research, enough data to hold down library shelves worldwide, yet the shining moment predicted as the time we would be better continues to elude us. There isn’t even a new (impossible?) deadline yet. In the twentieth century, GIS educators led place-based investigations in middle and high schools that challenged water quality issues in Flint, Michigan (only being addressed today), challenged historical race issues in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Ground Truthed local land areas’ permeability for improved remotely sensed data land classifications for their USGS partner in Fairfax, Virginia, among other projects. At the time, the Freireian approach was labeled “Problem-based learning.” During their work on this volume, authors Langran and DeWitt articulate the potential of “Critical Place-Based Pedagogy” in the unusual context of COVID-19 social distancing. In the upheaval of canceled faceto-face classes, one student found COVID-19 data from Johns Hopkins and analyzed it with social vulnerability data. Students were learning to access types of data that were almost immediately picked up by news outlets in near real time, clearly demonstrating its critical nature. In this century, the ubiquity of digital image and data-based mapping options has increased and become more compatible among platforms and media of all kinds. Cell-phone technologies have proliferated and made these kinds of studies and learning more productive and sharable. This volume brings these platforms to the practices of mapping and spatial literacy from a local-to-critical issue focus incorporating spatial literacy-tocritical pedagogy, providing articulate discussions and examples of instructional and educational technology solutions for such critical place-based inquiry. In this once future landmark year, the authors responded to unimaginable constraints realizing and demonstrating in the doing of Critical Place-based investigations, the continued need for “mapping for a better world.” Cape Cod, USA June 2020

Marsha Alibrandi

Preface

Common Ground: Our Love for Learning Adventure When the two of us first met, we quickly discovered several common interests that were to shape our lunchtime conversations for years to come. We enjoyed experimenting with the teaching potential of new technologies and we craved opportunities for getting students outside the four-walled classroom! Coming from two different disciplines (education and sociology), we found common ground in place-based learning. And although our formal training was not in the discipline of geography, we were drawn to geospatial questions out of curiosity and a spirit of adventure. We took a leap and decided to “play” at teaching—and learn by doing. Our first joint venture involved applying for a Provost’s grant at our university—we tested several mobile mapping devices. Although we found the project intuitive, other faculty at our university questioned the value of testing a variety of tablets for the purpose of connecting the classroom with field excursions. Their doubts were not the only challenges we faced. Like many pilot projects we found that the expense associated with purchasing enough equipment for an entire class was prohibitive. After that point we each ventured into different directions—globally networked learning for Janine and mobile device learning for Elizabeth. In spite of taking different paths, the classroom activities we designed continued to pull in place-based inquiry. And we often suggested that our colleagues

xi

xii

PREFACE

add a spatial component to their assignments. Without realizing it, we had discovered the added value of using spatial tools to promote critical reasoning. We began to consider how spatial analysis could make visible complex social phenomena. And so—our journey, that started as “just lunch,” led us to this book. Arlington, USA

Elizabeth Langran Janine DeWitt

Acknowledgments

Writing a book was as hard as I expected. If it weren’t for the encouragement of my family, I probably would have surrendered long ago. Thanks to each of you for putting up with this reluctant writer. There are a number of gifted educators who helped me imagine how to teach outside a four-walled classroom. Carolyn Oxenford supported our first project when others couldn’t imagine where we were headed. I learned how to structure meaningful student excursions by planning global classrooms with Victor Betancourt, the Director of MU’s Center for Global Education. My colleagues, Delario Lindsey and Matt Bakker, sent me home to write on more than one occasion. You shaped my thinking about critical pedagogy more than you realize. Seeing the world through the eyes of my students taught me the value of multiple perspectives. Elizabeth—you are a great travel companion in every sense of the word, whether we are en route to Paris or just imagining a new classroom excursion. Through good times and bad, laughter and tears, you remained steady and certain that we could harness the potential of place-based learning—you are a blessing my friend, thank you for inviting me along for the ride. —Janine DeWitt

xiii

xiv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is with deep gratitude that I want to acknowledge the many people who have offered support during this process: First, I wish to thank my family and Bruce for their support and patience as I worked on this for several years. I’m sorry I could not finish this in time to present my father with a copy—I know he would have been proud. Thanks to Marsha Alibrandi, for roping me into her world of geospatial technology in the first place. We surmounted so many challenges in those early days! I’d like to acknowledge Esri’s education team, especially Tom Baker and Joseph Kerski, as we pushed the boundaries on the technology until we found a way to tell the stories of place the way we wanted to. I am grateful for my students, who creatively tried out these new technologies. We appreciate the patience and support of our editors at Palgrave Macmillan as we worked to complete this manuscript through several personal challenges. I keep having new discoveries that I want to add to this book, but it is time to send it off. Finally, thank you Janine for going on this adventure with me. I know the strength of this book is due to your thoughtful approach and willingness to embrace inquiry in your own life. —Elizabeth Langran

Contents

1

Place-Based Learning, Geospatial Literacy, and Maps What Is Place-Based Learning? Geospatial Literacy Mapping The Role of Place in Your Classroom Chapter Conclusion: The Case for Place-Based Education References

1 2 7 10 19 20 21

2

How and Why Placed-Based Learning Works Spatial Thinking The Human Brain: Designed to Learn “On the Go” From Life to Classroom, and Classroom to Life Situated Learning as Learning in Place Critical Pedagogies of Place Chapter Conclusion: The Major Tenets of a Critical Pedagogy of Place Approach References

25 26 27 30 32 41

The Design of Critical Place-Based Inquiry A Critical Approach to Place-Based Inquiry General Design Considerations Assessment

55 57 64 82

3

48 50

xv

xvi

CONTENTS

Chapter Conclusion: Designing for Success in Critical Place-Based Inquiry References 4

5

6

7

Facilitating Student Learning Facilitation Strategies Inclusive Mapping: Different Learners Experience Different Challenges Chapter Conclusion: Tensions, Challenges, and Avoiding Detours References

85 87 91 93 110 113 114

Place-Based Inquiry in Action Leveraging Technology with Place-Based Learning Tools Place-Based Inquiry: Projects for Inspiration Place-Based Inquiry in Focus Chapter Conclusion: New Possibilities for Place-Based Inquiry with Emerging Technologies References

117 117 124 129

Conclusion: Mapping for a Better World Purposeful, Authentic Learning Community Partnerships Chart the Path for Student Activism The Ethical Boundaries of Critical Place-Based Inquiry Place-Based Inquiry for ALL Learners: Access, Positionality, and Equity Chapter Conclusion: Final Thoughts References

141 142

Afterword Critical Place-Based Pedagogy in the Contemporary Context References

155 155 160

Index

135 139

144 148 151 152 153

161

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 2.1

Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

3.1 4.1 4.2 5.1

Mobile mapping: gravesite of P.T. Barnum (Photo by E. Langran) Cone of experience as adapted to place-based activities (Source Image by Dewitt & Langran, adapted from Dale, 1969) Critical place-based inquiry model (DeWitt & Langran) Early attempt challenges Esri Survey 123 mobile app Student engaged in place-based learning (Photo by J. DeWitt)

16

31 59 92 103 118

xvii

List of Tables

Table Table Table Table Table

1.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

Table 3.5 Table 3.6

Suitability for place-based learning Critical place-based inquiry activities and assumptions Planning process for place-based inquiry activities Place-based learning course planning worksheet Student tasks for field exploration: before, during, and after Sample mapping & information literacy rubric (Modified from Dursi & DeWitt, 2012) Sample single-point rubric for community exploration

20 65 67 68 82 84 86

xix

CHAPTER 1

Place-Based Learning, Geospatial Literacy, and Maps

Place is more than where you go, it’s also why you are there An excited group of students receive directions to meet at a mysterious destination at a specific time. The students arrive at a cemetery after dark! Their excursion is an introduction to a class being offered by The Pioneers Learning Lab (http://www.thelearninglab.nl), an innovative educational program associated with the University of Amsterdam. “We go literally on a journey in which we do not know what the end station is,” explains the instructor, Thiel Besselink (Smit & van Doorn, 2011, 6:20). Once on location, Besselink instructs the students to spend their time as they choose: “You are pioneers. So you decide what you do with your time…What are you going to do with your time? And life is short. It’s really short. Tick tock tick tock. So what we’re doing is trying to stretch the boundaries of education, inside and outside of the classroom…inside and outside of your life” (Besselink, as cited in Smit & van Doorn, 2011, 7:15). Taking flashlights, they explore the cemetery and then return for a large group reflection on the activity. Many of the students make profound connections between this introductory experience and the goals of the Pioneer program which they are about to begin. In this example, the location of study—the cemetery—becomes part of the learning journey. Imagine this same activity where the students were shown slides of a cemetery or simply asked to think about being in a cemetery.

© The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_1

1

2

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Besselink designed this experiential activity to shift the students’ focus from a teacher-directed to a student-initiated classroom, modeling the experience of going to an unknown rather than prescribed final destination. Being on location played an important role in communicating the purpose of learning. The connections to the learning outcomes of this activity are made clear to the students through the instructor’s facilitation of the group discussion.

When we blur the boundaries of a classroom and expand the locations where learning occurs, as educators, we create opportunities for students to explore place as an important dimension in and of itself. The end result is that students and educators are inspired to imagine adventures that allow for the transfer of learning from an abstract discussion to a concrete exploration with “real” world connections. In this chapter we look at what is known about geospatial literacy and explore the different traditions from which place-based learning emerged.

What Is Place-Based Learning? Place-based learning is a type of experiential pedagogy that puts students in a physical location outside of the school building, allowing the community to become the “classroom.” By engaging with the people or the environment, the students experience learning that is not easily replicated within the walls of a traditional classroom space. The actual process of exploration enables students to establish connections with a site, developing a sense of place. In this approach to learning, the location, whether it is rural, urban, or in-between, is integral to the desired learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are not simply getting to know a geographic location; place-based learning can be a vehicle for learning other academic content. Beyond learning about a place, academic coursework related to biodiversity, language, civic education, design, or sound can be integrated into the experience. Smith (2002) identifies five themes in place-based education that can be adapted to different settings: cultural studies; nature studies; real-world problemsolving; internships and entrepreneurial opportunities; and induction into community processes. In all of these areas, regardless of the setting, our ultimate goal is to transform the way that students interact with their world as well as their willingness to “promote a more just and sustainable world” (Israel, 2012, p. 76).

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

3

Long before internet access brought the world into our classrooms, the places where learning occurred were not always limited to the confines of a four-walled room dedicated to the purpose of schooling. Students ventured into their neighborhoods to explore, describe, and analyze, whether it was leaving the one-room schoolhouse out on the prairie or by taking an urban excursion. As we go back to the writings of John Dewey, who was advocating “progressive education,” we see a call for teachers to become “intimately acquainted with the conditions of the local community, physical, historical, economic, occupational, etc. in order to utilize them as educational resources” (Dewey, 1938, p. 40). The value of place-based knowledge and experiences outside of school is noted by many who suggest having students apply lessons from school to everyday life (Buxton & Provenzo, 2011). Both John Dewey (1938) and Paolo Freire (Freire, 2011; Freire & Campos, 1990) noticed that what children learn outside of school is often devalued. The key difference between these two educators is that Freire links the observation to an analysis of power and privilege. He notes that children from different social classes will come to the classroom with different sets of experiences, with educational systems privileging certain knowledge and skills. Sobel’s work on place-based education (2004) offers a foundation for understanding how this pedagogy can take advantage of the local community and environment “as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subject areas across the curriculum” (p. 6). Through these hands-on, real-world learning experiences, the students: • Develop stronger ties to their community; • Enhance their appreciation for the natural world; and • Have a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. By actively engaging local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources, Sobel advocates for a place-based learning that contributes to community vitality and environmental quality. Sobel’s concern for the stewardship of our natural environment is part of several educational movements connected with outdoor education. The term was coined to be in-opposition to “indoor” education (i.e., a classroom) and primarily focused on learning about the natural environment.

4

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Over time, the field evolved to include a range of names and a variety of purposes: environmental education, camping education, and conservation education, as well as experiential and place-based education (Quay & Seaman, 2013). While these approaches share the common feature of learning in settings beyond the classroom, some of them are closer to “adventure” education that focus on the personal growth benefits from overcoming uncertainty and obstacles (Ewert & Sibthorp, 2014). Others foster students’ connection to place by viewing the community as a classroom and encouraging students to “read” the landscape. Courses that have service or community-based learning (Anderson, 2017), field trip, or study abroad components are naturally suited to place-based learning because they often assume an obvious link to the physical environment. To be effective, these experiences require a thoughtful pedagogy that anchors student learning in a specific place and facilitates the connections between conceptual material and geospatial location. In order to make these learning environments meaningful, a clear synergy needs to be created between out-of-classroom and inclassroom or online experiences. Otherwise, students become academic tourists, passing through their destinations without making connections or gaining an appreciation for the significance of the place. To address this need for making these learning environments meaningful, some educators have developed place-based activities. The pedagogy of place-based learning is applicable across disciplines and emerged from several different areas. Surprisingly, many of these developments occurred outside of the field of geography (Israel, 2012). An early attempt to reach across disciplines was City as Text, which originated within the Honors Education community. Developed by Dr. Bernice Braid (Braid & Long, 2000) and shared through workshops held by the National Collegiate Honors Council, this technique involves the recursive process of mapping, observing, listening, and reflecting (Machonis, 2008). Resulting excursions involve an extensive planning process, which includes identifying a location and theme, selecting background materials (texts), and creating several participant assignments. More than just exploring a city, the goal for City as Text participants is the critical thinking process that requires students to hone their observational skills and generate questions that require locating additional information. While analyzing a city “as text” is more likely to produce deep learning, it also requires a significant time investment on the part of teachers creating experiences as well as students participating in these experiences.

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

5

In Shatter the Glassy Stare (2008), Machonis devotes an entire section to ideas for using the City as Text approach on a college campus to build community among a specific cohort of students or to promote positive “town and gown” relationships. The Language of Place-Based Learning Before going further, we should clarify how we are using the terminology that is associated with place-based pedagogy. Because this approach spans a number of disciplines, we find a variety of terms used, with the most popular reference being to place-based education (PBE). Here we will use the terms place-based learning and place-based education interchangeably. The term “place” will be used to denote more than the physical location or space as indicated by geographic or map coordinates. Consistent with the discussions found among geographers (Agnew, 1987; Cresswell, 2004; Semken, 2005) and social studies educators (Resor, 2010), we consider two additional dimensions that make it possible to identify the meaning associated with physical locations: locale and sense of place. Locale refers to the setting, which could include a listing of prominent objects such as the number of schools in a town, trees in a yard, or traffic cameras at an intersection (Resor, 2010). A sense of place denotes “the meanings of and the attachments to a place held by a person or group” (Semken, 2005, p. 149). This term involves a more “sentimental” and subjective notion of a particular geographic location; one person might stand on a corner and observe a vibrant shopping area, and another person might stand on the same corner and see the loss of a community as the result of gentrification. The same physical location is experienced by various individuals differently, depending on that person’s previous experiences and social location. Sociologists often refer to a person’s social location within a given community, meaning a person’s relative position to others in their community. Social location is usually based on group memberships (i.e., race and ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation) and can shape how a specific location is experienced by individuals. Semken, Ward, Moosavi, and Chinn (2017) and Ardoin (2006) extend our understanding by noting how many different ways that meanings can be attached to place:

6

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Place is defined by meaning, and many diverse forms of place meaning — including, but not limited to, aesthetic, economic, recreational, or spiritual value; familial or kincentric rootedness; and cultural, historical, political, or scientific significance—can be associated with the same place, as different individuals and communities will experience it and know it in different ways. (Semken et al., p. 544)

Indeed, all of our life experiences “from cultural traditions to natural phenomena” are defined by the power of place (de Blij, 2008, p. 234). While most efforts at place-based education take into account these contextual factors, we suggest that educators integrate an understanding of how the social, political, or economic power structures define communities, impact the environment, and inform the spatial narratives that our students bring to the classroom when planning course activities. Learning activities that are designed to take into account these power structures are referred to as part of a critical pedagogy of place. In this book, we will advocate taking into account a critical perspective by acknowledging the importance of: • the elements of the social context, recognizing that historical and contemporary power structures can and do shape our local communities and the natural environment, • our students’ initial spatial narratives (Elwood, 2004), and • reflection on how maps are socially constructed (Crampton, 2001; Elwood, 2004; Monmonier, 2018). Not only should place-based learning recognize these power structures, but learning activities should also actively promote “social and ecological justice rather than merely learning about the place” by empowering students to become actively engaged participants in their own communities (Israel, 2012, p. 77; Gruenewald, 2003). Place refers to a geographic location, a sense of place, and a locale (Agnew, 1987). These are all observable from being in a place, but how do we display the things that we observe? Maps allow us to visualize placebased information and data, provided that as map readers we are familiar with basic map reading skills. Indeed, interpreting maps requires its own form of literacy.

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

7

Geospatial Literacy The term geospatial, or sometimes simply spatial, describes something with a geographic or topographic component: Think maps (it comes from the Greek geo, meaning “earth”). Geo-referenced or geolocated data refer to data that range from numerical statistics or photos to tweets, and are tied to a location on the earth’s surface. Geological or built structures, social or animal behaviors, or even wildlife can all be studied as geolocated data. Engaging in spatial thinking requires that students use the concepts of space, the tools of representation, and processes of reasoning. The ability to imagine three-dimensional shapes from two-dimensional architectural drawings and to visualize DNA structure as a double-helix, or to rotate a geometric object in your head are all examples of how spatial thinking plays an important role in many different disciplines (National Research Council, 2006). Spatially literate students: • have the habit of mind of thinking spatially—they know where, when, how, and why to think spatially; • practice thinking spatially in an informed way—they have a broad and deep knowledge of spatial concepts and spatial representations, a command over spatial reasoning using a variety of spatial ways of thinking and acting, and well-developed spatial capabilities for using supporting tools and technologies; and • adopt a critical stance to spatial thinking—they can evaluate the quality of spatial data based on its source and its likely accuracy and reliability; can use spatial data to construct, articulate, and defend a line of reasoning or point of view in solving problems and answering questions; and can evaluate the validity of arguments based on spatial information (National Research Council, 2006, p. 4). Here, we focus on a specific kind of spatial literacy, that of geospatial literacy. Any information or data with a geographic component—meaning it is tied to a physical location—is the type of geospatial data that can be visualized on a map. Geospatial literacy is what we use “to visualize and interpret location, distance, direction, relationships, change, and movement over space” (Sinton, 2012). This means that students are able to “read” geographic information and make connections to where

8

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

and when these data occur, and to explore the complexity and interconnectedness of how economic, political, social, or ecological relationships shape experience. Because the role of place—the actual physical location—is important in place-based learning, we need to help our students develop their geospatial literacy, which includes the skills needed to create, analyze, and interpret map-based data. By asking guiding questions such as, “Where do the locations occur on a map?” “What is nearby?” “Who lives there?” “What physical features are present?” “What social or environmental patterns can be observed?” we can develop a foundation for more complex analysis. The pedagogy of place-based learning asks that students make observations, collect data, and develop a sense of place about a specific physical location. Placing this information on a map enables students to visualize a two-dimensional representation of our three-dimensional world. The role of geospatial literacy includes having students recognize shapes and patterns from among the “clutter” of the data. These are skills that can be learned; just as a radiologist learns how to look at an image to detect an abnormality, we can help our students to develop their own spatial thinking skills to look for patterns in the data. Geospatial technologies allow users to utilize critical thinking skills to locate, display, and analyze geographic information, and make sense of the increasing amount of place-based data that are emerging. With advances in geospatial technologies (geographic information systems, global positioning satellites, remote sensing, and image analysis, for example), more and more geolocated data are being generated all the time, including soil erodibility and other environmental conditions; sidewalk and transportation access; posts to social media such as Twitter and Instagram; and traffic congestion. This increases the need to teach students the skills to make sense of these data; visual representations of patterns require new visual and geospatial literacies to see interconnections and how actions in one area can impact another. Geospatial technology tools and the understanding these tools can afford users is central to enabling students to become engaged, globally competent citizens (Langran & Baker, 2016). Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies have also evolved dramatically in recent years, increasing the ability for students to access GIS tools through a browser and use these tools to analyze geolocated data without specialized training. Anyone with basic skills to visually interpret images can see that there are more instances of an event on one part of the map than on another part of the map, or that this area on the

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

9

map is darker than that area on the map. While there is a certain intuitive aspect to map interpretation, a specific kind of literacy is required to spatially think about the relationships between data points. The best way to represent information on maps requires some level of visual interpretation. While the location of data may be fixed, the way that we choose to array that data must be intentionally designed to communicate the intended message or observation. In order to facilitate geospatial thinking, we need more information on how people learn to interpret locations, their characteristics, their distances, or their changes over time. For example, do we know whether how people interpret their location influences their relationships with the environment, or with other people? To begin addressing these gaps between what we know about geospatial thinking and geospatial technologies, a research agenda identified three broad research areas that are needed: student learning and outcomes; teacher training; and technical development (Baker et al., 2015). The second of these areas is teacher training where a key question involves the best ways to train teachers and teach students about geospatial literacy. In subsequent chapters, we will discuss ways to structure place-based learning activities that take advantage of what we already know about using geospatial technologies for learning. Some of the key course components that promote geospatial literacy include capturing and communicating knowledge in the form of a map; recognizing and interpreting patterns; understanding geographic concepts of neighborhood, spatial interaction, competition for space, territory, migration, and spatial context; the ways in which humans express themselves visually as they describe and record the world using coordinate systems, data, and map projections; and seeing the value of geography as a basis for organizing and discovering information, not just as a list of places on the Earth’s surface (Goodchild, 2006). There can be multiple opportunities to develop spatial thinking as we ask students to consider actions performed in space, thinking about space, and thinking with space: Walking to school, taking a shortcut to avoid a traffic jam, playing a team sport such as football, or packing a suitcase—actions that are performed in space—all require spatial thinking in a real-world or environmental context. The second type of spatial thinking, thinking about space, is typically employed when individuals learn factual information, organized as facts and generalizations, about how the world works. The third type of

10

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

spatial thinking, thinking with space, is more abstract yet a powerful tool. Spatializing non-spatial data or using space as an organizing framework to conceptualize problems and make decisions is an effective cognitive strategy used frequently in problem solving. (Emphasis added, Bednarz & Kemp, 2011, p. 20)

Together, spatial literacy provides us with the abilities needed to work and reason in a spatial world and make a picture “truly worth a thousand words” (Goodchild, 2006, p. 5). Maps are one such picture that requires a sufficient level of geospatial literacy.

Mapping Central to place-based learning is contextual learning , and maps are a tool that can visualize and scaffold this type of understanding. We can take the conceptual ideas being learned in environmental studies, urban planning, language learning, or other academic areas, and apply them to real-world venues. When academic concepts are presented abstractly, it is up to the learner to make connections to the world where they will live and work. When course instructors help make these connections by providing learning in the context of real-world applications and engaging authentic learning environments, students can better internalize these concepts (CORD, 2016). Maps can serve the learner as they explore an area with the intent of making connections between classroom knowledge and the real world. Mapping contributes to critical, multidimensional thinking, specifically: categorizing and interpreting information; analyzing and evaluating; and making inferences (Sinton & Bednarz, 2007). When we anchor the analysis of a place using mapping, students develop the skills and habits of perceiving, evaluating, and analyzing visual information (questioning assumptions and points of view; using evidence to reason; and illustrating the visible) (Sinton & Lund, 2007). A good map tells a story. Maps are essentially telling the story of a community; you can illustrate the story of a place over time, provide portraits of the people who live there, explain conflicts, inspire action, compare data, depict a journey, with having protagonists, struggles, resolutions… many of which are the same evidence you would find in any compelling narrative. More importantly, “A good map teaches you to ask a better question” (Frye, as cited in Kerski, 2016). These questions might include What if I classified the data differently? What if I added this variable?

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

11

and other “what-if” questions (Kerski, 2016). Today, the ease of using mapping tools and access to online mapping have made maps collaborative and shareable in new ways. Zooming out helps us to connect our local community to the region and the globe. But as web-based maps have become easy to generate and share, the need for critical thinking increases. We must be asking, “Who made that map?” and “What kind of data did they use?” Not only should we be asking inquiry questions about the map, but about the data that goes into the map being used for analysis (Kerski, 2019). Thematic maps are important ways to tell stories, but taking a three-dimensional world and making it into a two-dimensional representation requires decisions on projections, scale, and symbolization. Just like any data visualization, they can be inaccurate or misleading, derivative maps can repeat bad data, and the adage “garbage in, garbage out” applies. How to Lie with Maps author Mark Monmonier (2018) refers to the “cartographic mischief” that can be from “electronic blunders” (p. 2) or be deliberate—either for clarity, or in order to deliberately deceive the viewer. Thus questioning mapmakers’ expertise or motives becomes an important component of developing students’ geospatial literacy. Mapping is not an objective activity. Blair (2011) reminds us that there are “methodological hazards of reductionism and interpretation in the mapping exercises” (p. 52). As we seek to encourage students to look for patterns, we also risk that they may make generalizations. It is important to spend time helping students to see these risks and understand the pitfalls of such activities and interpretations. In the next chapter, we will discuss the critical place-based pedagogies that have addressed many of these issues. Who Is Involved in Creating Maps? Collaboration, Participation, and Beyond In addition to analyzing map, let’s turn our focus to those who are making the maps, and how map contributors can add geolocated or georeferenced data using technology. Different individuals or groups can contribute to the construction of maps through drawings, digital illustration, or online GIS maps where our own field-collected data is combined with other available online base maps or data sets to tell our own story of a place. The various ways that these data are collected often depend on who is making the map (whether they be individuals or groups), where

12

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

the map is being created (urban, suburban, rural), and in what context (academic course, study abroad, informal learning). Mapping Together The advances in online mapping, especially online GIS, have made it possible for groups of people to contribute to a common map. Similar to citizen science, collaborative mapping is a type of mapping activity that uses “volunteered geographic information” or crowdsourcing to populate a map with geolocated data. Similar to collaborative mapping, participatory mapping is a type of mapping activity that uses data from multiple people, though here specifically through contributions of and collaboration with community stakeholders, with the intended goals of empowerment and inclusion of people who might otherwise be simply regarded as the objects of study (Solís, McCusker, Menkiti, Cowan, & Blevins, 2018). Having students engage in participatory mapping can facilitate the abstract conceptualization of spatial connections. Emmel (2008) describes this interactive group process as a research method used to uncover local knowledge and provide an understanding of the relationships between people, place, and community over time. By generating maps, participants must focus their attention on features of a specific place. This resulting map serves as a tangible reference point for discussing abstract concepts that emerge from concrete descriptions. Using the same process, students move from concrete descriptions to abstract conceptualization as they portray their understandings of the subject being studied. Participatory mapping often includes social goals. By calling upon multiple groups of stakeholders and allowing volunteers to interact when creating maps together, participatory mapping (PM) can locate assets in a community, involve local citizens in area decision-making about development, and identify endangered animals and trees. “A consistent aspiration of PM has been to engage and empower marginalized groups in society through the use of spatial technologies” (Brown & Kyttä, 2018, p. 1). For example, university “youth mappers” in Uganda are using digital maps to display microfinance locations in the rural areas outside of their city to help local residents find these largely unmarked services. Students in Costa Rica were mapping locations where they spotted trash in order for the municipal government to decide where to place trash cans. Arlington County in Virginia, USA surveyed the public with a map to identify where commuters and residents felt bike routes were most needed.

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

13

With the advances in and the ubiquity of mobile devices, public participation in mapping projects has become even easier. No longer does a person need to sit down at a computer to indicate something they saw in their neighborhood—they can do it right away when they spot something in public. The final product is a map co-owned with the community. Using Participatory GIS (PGIS) has a lot of potential, but participants’ possible lack of understanding of the technology and geospatial literacy can be a limitation in using the PGIS approach (Brown & Kyttä, 2018). There is an assumption that those involved in participatory mapping are the people who are local to that area, but the students can be defined as “outsiders” to an area where they are mapping. In these situations, outside participants may be viewed with distrust; they may encounter language and communication barriers; and the resulting ownership of the data can be unclear (Brown & Kyttä, 2018). “The challenge of building and maintaining trust with participants is important across all PM [participatory mapping] domains, but especially important in indigenous/rural/community mapping because the process is typically sponsored by individuals outside the community of interest” (Brown & Kyttä, p. 6); additional challenges stem from using a broad, one-size-fitsall participatory mapping approach due to the differences in how this type of mapping is used in the global south with indigenous peoples versus urban residents in Western countries, thus underscoring the need to take social context, lived experiences, and perspectives of the community into account. Critical Mapping Whether it is “critical cartography” (Allen & Queen, 2015), “critical GIScience” (Solís et al., 2018), or the broader fields referred to as the “critical pedagogy of place” (Gruenewald, 2003), this group of pedagogical approaches questions the “assumptions, practices, and outcomes taken for granted in dominant culture and in conventional education” (Gruenewald, 2003, p. 3). That process of challenging assumptions involves two phases, according to Gruenwald. First we need to “identify, recover, and create material spaces and places that teach us how to live well in our total environments (reinhabitation)” and second, we need to “identify and change ways of thinking that injure and exploit other people and places (decolonization)” (Gruenewald, 2003, p. 9). We will be discussing this critical approach to place-based education and mapping throughout this book.

14

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Mapping for Study Abroad Blair (2011) refines the idea of place-based learning by incorporating urban mapping as an experiential learning pedagogy in study abroad programs. One reason that place-based learning works well for study abroad programs is because students often find themselves in surroundings that are unfamiliar, which prompts a closer examination particularly when what they expect to see or what they consider to be “normal” is missing. Like City as Text, Blair’s approach requires that students use observation skills to create maps that are annotated with personal photographs to anchor the conceptual understanding they gained from course readings in the authentic context of urban neighborhoods. Recognizing the importance of developing a conceptual map to frame their experiences, Blair creates directed excursions that guide students through the streets of Paris, increasing the likelihood that they will successfully master the targeted course outcomes. By completing a series of excursions, which were created to focus on particular aspects of the social and urban fabric of Paris, students gain a much deeper understanding of the course material that is anchored in place. Mapping Cities, Suburbs, and Rural Areas Cities become classrooms in place-based learning. Mapping cities provide opportunities to observe and analyze the use of urban space; social relationships; and decision-making, planning, and renewal around growth, change, and diversity. Whether investigating decisions that impact people’s lives, focusing on the distribution of resources, or partnering with the local community, a sense of responsibility, and stewardship can be fostered by these types of activities. One type of mapping that works particularly well in urban areas is food mapping . Participants consider local access to food and identification of possible “food deserts” while considering health, economics, and ecological impacts associated with access to food in an urban area (Wight & Killham, 2014). Cities have their own landscapes that can be “read,” mapped, and analyzed for their human activity and environmental characteristics. Blair (2011) describes a city as “a collective, social, and living intervention itself shaped by historically contingent economic, political, and cultural forces, which, if one has the appropriate maps, guides and mental dispositions, can indeed help reveal the human rationality and internal logic that determined the city’s shape, life, and meaning” (p. 37). While we often think of urban places as spaces for human activity, these human

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

15

activities have an impact on the environment through pollution, energy consumption, etc. Nature exists in cities too—these natural habitats can serve as locations for urban habitat mapping activities, encouraging participants to respect nature in urban contexts (Swayze, 2009). Suburban mapping can provide a useful comparison point for cities, by asking access questions such as the location of parks, the quality and price of food, or ease of using public transportation. Comparisons between older or newer suburbs can prompt a discussion of social change over time. Examining the drivers of change can lead to discussion of displacement, diversity, homeownership, gentrification, and the identity of place. Many students, and particularly those from small towns or suburbs where they may not have needed to use maps would benefit from some extra instruction on how to make use of maps for navigation purposes (Blair, 2011; Kelly, 2009). Mapping rural spaces provides wonderful opportunities to incorporate areas such as geology, watershed studies, landforms, and environmental education, but has its own challenges. Huffling, Carlone, and Benavides’ (2017) response to a study by Zimmerman and Weible (2016) explored place-based learning as a tool to help students who, despite learning about the local watershed, were struggling with how to propose collective, action-oriented strategies to address poor water quality. These authors highlight the increasing need for science and environmental educators to re-envision effective pedagogy for rural communities as “economic instability amidst dwindling natural resources brings into sharp relief the tensions between historical, economic, indigenous, cultural, agricultural, recreational, and social uses of land” (Huffling et al., 2017, p. 34). Mobile Mapping The way that we are able to record geographic information has changed dramatically in a short period of time. Years ago, GIS was confined to desktop applications in which inserting non-numeric data collected in the field, such as images, was challenging. More than ten years ago, when teaching a course that used images collected as data during place-based learning, the students used handheld GPS units to mark waypoints, and took photos with the GPS unit appearing in the foreground, with the historic building or monument in the background (Langran & Alibrandi, 2008). This, of course, led to some fuzzy images (Fig. 1.1).

16

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Fig. 1.1 Mobile mapping: gravesite of P.T. Barnum (Photo by E. Langran)

Back in the computer lab, we would compile the data into spreadsheets by hand, make shapefiles, and several steps later, we would be able to use our networked GIS software to have the geolocated images and other data appear in the onscreen map. Now, with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, these data can be directly added to the map from the field in a new era of what we refer to as “mobile mapping.” Mobile devices can stimulate learning by supporting students in the field as they craft their own analysis. In this type of inquiry pedagogy, students identify a location of interest, and capture geotagged voice notes and photos on location. Students can engage in the wonder of asking questions and discovering answers (Dodge, 2011). Mobile devices support the integration of place-based learning back into the classroom, where the instructor can guide student discussions, modeling the process of analysis. The Open University Innovation Report (Ferguson et al., 2019) named place-based learning on its 2019 list of innovating pedagogies, not because it is a new method, but because of the new possibilities provided by mobile technologies to support place-based learning. Both the ubiquity of mobile devices, as well as the comfort level and ease of use among a wider range of people, make this technology easier to integrate

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

17

into instruction. Many people are already using location-aware applications and navigational aids from mobile devices for personal uses and informal learning experiences, so leveraging these geospatial tools makes sense. How mobile learning bridges the gap between the classroom and exploring communities When we use the term “mobile learning,” we are referring to using mobile technology (such as mobile phones, tablets, and other portable digital devices) for learning anywhere and at any time. This technology makes it possible to use smartphones and tablets outside of the classroom for place-based learning. Across the globe, this form of place-based learning has helped transcend limited infrastructure, bringing internet access to communities that will never have access to fixed-line computer labs and in contrast to a desktop computer, offering an affordable alternative. Mobile learning makes it possible to use smartphones and tablets outside of the classroom for place-based learning. Estimates put the number of people who own mobile phones at 5 billion, with half of the devices being smartphones (Silver & Cornibert, 2019). While the growth has not necessarily been distributed equally around the globe, the hope is that more people now have access to educational content in places where books may be scarce. The UNESCO Mobile Learning Policy Guidelines (2013) articulate several affordances that mobile devices provide in learning: • These customizable personal devices facilitate personalized learning and assist learners with disabilities, in part because they are owned by individuals and carried around throughout the day; • The interactive features of mobile devices and the ability to automate distribution to devices provide immediate feedback and assessment; • Because people carry the devices with them, they enable anytime, anywhere learning; • They enable students to listen to lectures or study at home, ensuring the productive use of time spent in classrooms and improve communication and administration; • They build new communities of learners; • Location-aware devices move learning to new settings, sometimes using augmented reality, and support situated learning; • Access to cloud storage enhances seamless learning and bridge formal and informal learning;

18

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• It has been successful to minimize educational disruption in conflict and disaster areas and helps maximize cost-efficiency. The ability to use mobile devices on location to conduct mapping activities advances the potential for engaging students and structuring their experience with place-based learning. GIS has for many years depended on desktop computing. We are finally at a time when mobile devices can be used to collect data out in the field, sending information seamlessly to an online map for analysis. Mobile mapping uses a smartphone or tablet to collect data that are tied to a physical location on earth and feeds the information to an online map. These data can include photographs, sounds, a numerical count of physical features, and descriptive attributes. Mobile learning in formal educational environments requires new pedagogical approaches to leverage the affordances of the technology. Additionally, there are several components that must be in place: “(1) material support, (2) logistical support, (3) instructional support, (4) curriculum support, and (5) community support” (National Research Council, 2006, p. 219). These are important considerations for planning place-based learning.

Informal Learning Informal learning occurs when we explore national parks or move into a new neighborhood. In our pursuit of developing a skill, and in answering a question or solving a problem, we have a spontaneous and learner-driven experience that often takes advantage of collaboration, bringing together communities of learners who share tips, expertise, and lessons learned. This type of informal learning generally occurs outside of classroom education and training. While it diverges from place-based education in that it lacks instructor-assigned learning objectives and structure, it shares the value placed on experiential learning in authentic settings. As we seek to develop lifelong learners and professionals who are able to transfer classroom knowledge to real-world situations, an inquiry-based and placebased project can borrow from informal learning literature and from what we have learned from observing popular location-based and locationenabled gaming applications, such as Pokémon Go and Wizards Unite. Alternate reality games that are location dependent demonstrate how a story-driven transmedia platform can engage players to interact with place and other players. Being at a particular location triggers an event in the mobile application.

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

19

Geocaching was an early location-based gaming activity, using handheld GPS devices. With the advances in augmented reality uses of smartphones, the opportunities for new location-based activities increase. While none have yet reached the popularity of Pokémon Go or longevity of geocaching, there are numerous small projects that allow people to develop location-based mixed reality games and activities on mobile storytelling platforms. For example, LocoMatrix (http://www.locoma trix.com) develops location-based games for schools that allow players to move through “virtual archeology” and use the application to “discover” and “dig” a Roman villa from their school field. Museums and parks, which have already been informal learning sites, are also looking to leverage the ubiquity of GPS-enabled devices such as smartphones.

The Role of Place in Your Classroom When considering whether place-based pedagogy is appropriate, the central question becomes, “How could place-based learning contribute to an understanding or deeper knowledge of the subject?” Steven Semken’s work in the field of geoscience generated a list of five core characteristics of place-based education that have been used to distinguish this approach as unique from others: 1. The content is focused explicitly on the attributes of a place (e.g., geology, climate, ecology, culture, economics, history). 2. The activity acknowledges, and usually explicitly incorporates the diverse meanings that place holds for the instructor, the students, and the community (e.g., locally situated traditional knowledge; toponymy). 3. The activity takes advantage of authentic experiences in that place, or in an environment that strongly evokes the place (e.g., experiential learning, fieldwork, service learning, immersive virtual field environments). 4. The activity promotes, and ideally supports, pro-environmental and culturally sustainable practices and lifeways in the places that are studied. 5. The activity enriches the sense of place held by students and instructors alike (Semken et al., 2017, p. 545).

20

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Table 1.1 Suitability for place-based learning Differing roles of place-based inquiry

Sample investigations

Inquiries best only undertaken when anchored in place. The lesson is about where a phenomenon occurs or about attributes of place

Impact of climate change: • on sea level in coastal areas, and • on rainfall in agricultural regions • temperature variations by continent Access to healthy food in walking distance from public housing complexes Distribution of health care services relative to transportation routes Comparison of storefront windows featuring multiple languages in two different parts of the city Comparative analysis of the plot lines in two novels Archive of LatinX murals created by political dissidents

Inquiries that are enhanced by spatial knowledge. Although spatial tools are used, the location data is not the main focus of these lessons Inquiries not suited to spatial exploration. Spatial tools are not necessary to accomplish the task at hand

Note All of these could have a spatial attribute added but don’t as stated here

These characteristics help us differentiate between the type of topics in which geospatial knowledge is the focus of the intended learning and those that may use geospatial technology as a tool to learn about something else. In Table 1.1, we offer a few examples of investigations that are well suited to place-based learning as well as investigations that are not:

Chapter Conclusion: The Case for Place-Based Education The calls for place-based education have spanned many decades. Whether these calls are based on privileging the knowledge each student brings to the classroom or on an interest in engaging with the local community, all suggest that place-based pedagogy is an effective strategy. In the chapter that follows, we will take a closer look at why this may be the case, and focusing on critical place-based inquiry. As we were completing our work on this book, COVID-19 wreaked havoc around the world. Writing about place-based learning during a pandemic underscores both the potential as well as the challenges associated with place-based learning. The spread of the coronavirus highlighted

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

21

the many ways that where we live and work shapes the differential opportunities and challenges experienced by our students. Proximity to health care services like testing or emergency care and residential density were closely associated with infection rates. And those who could afford to stay home and self-isolate had a lower chance of contracting the virus than those who served on the front line. As teachers and students across the U.S. (and around the world) attended school on virtual platforms, the pandemic offered a striking example of how place matters in our daily lives.

References Agnew, J. (1987). Place and politics: The geographical mediation of state and society. Boston: Allen and Unwin. Allen, T., & Queen, S. (2015). Beyond the map: Unpacking critical cartography in the digital humanities. Visible Language, 49(3), 79–98. Anderson, S. (2017). Bringing school to life: Place-based education across the curriculum. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Ardoin, N. M. (2006). Toward an interdisciplinary understanding of place: Lessons for environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 11, 112–126. Baker, T. R., Battersby, S., Bednarz, S., Bodzin, A., Kolvoord, B., Moore, S., … & Uttal, D. (2015). A research agenda for geospatial technologies and learning. The Journal of Geography, 114(3), 118–130. Bednarz, S. W., & Kemp, K. (2011). Understanding and nurturing spatial literacy. In Y. Asami (Ed.), International Conference: Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Sciences (pp. 18–23). Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences. https://unigis.at/schnuppermodul/modul_gisintro/html/lek tion9/media/bednarz-2011.pdf. Blair, S. (2011, Spring). Study abroad and the city: Mapping urban identity. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 20, 37–54. Braid, B., & Long, A. (2000). Place as text: Approaches to active learning. National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series. Brown, G., & Kyttä, M. (2018). Key issues and priorities in participatory mapping: Toward integration or increased specialization? Applied Geography, 95, 1–8. Buxton, C., & Provenzo, E. (2011). Place-based science teaching and learning: 40 activities for K-8 classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Center for Occupational Research and Development. (2016). What is contextual learning? Retrieved from http://cordonline.net/CTLtoolkit/downlo ads/What%20Is%20Contextual%20Learning.pdf.

22

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Crampton, J. W. (2001). Maps as social constructions: Power, communication and visualization. Progress in Human Geography, 25(2), 235–252. Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: A short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. de Blij, H. J. (2008). The power of place. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Touchstone Books. Dodge, B. (2011, June). WonderPoints: A structure for engaging curiosity about the outdoors with mobile devices. Presentation at the International Society for Technology in Education conference, Philadelphia, PA. Elwood, S. A. (2004). Experiential learning, spatial practice, and critical urban geographies. The Journal of Geography, 103(2), 55–63. Emmel, N. (2008, July). Participatory mapping: An innovative sociological method: Real life methods toolkit no. 3. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester. Retrieved from http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/540/2/2008-07-toolkit-par ticipatory-map.pdf. Ewert, A., & Sibthorp, R. J. (2014). Outdoor adventure education: Foundations, theory, and research. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Ferguson, R., Coughlan, T., Egelandsdal, K., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hillaire, G., … Whitelock, D. (2019). Innovating pedagogy 2019: Open University innovation report 7 . Milton Keynes: The Open University. Freire, P. (2011). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group (Original work published 1970, New York, NY: Herder and Herder). Freire, P., & Campos, M. D. (1990). Reading the world. The Unesco Courier, 43(12), 4–9. Goodchild, M. F. (2006). The fourth R? Rethinking GIS education. ESRI ArcNews, 28(3), 1–7. http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall06articles/ the-fourth-r.html. Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654. Huffling, L. D., Carlone, H. B., & Benavides, A. (2017). Re-inhabiting place in contemporary rural communities: Moving toward a critical pedagogy of place. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12, 33–43. Israel, A. (2012). Putting geography education into place: What geography educators can learn from place-based education, and vice versa. Journal of Geography, 111, 76–81. Kelly, D. (2009). Lessons from geography: Mental maps and spatial narratives. In E. Brewer & K. Cunningham (Eds.), Integrating study abroad into the curriculum: Theory and practice across the disciplines (pp. 21–40). Sterling, VA: Stylus. Kerski, J. (2016). A good map teaches you to ask a better question. ArcUser, 19(3), 60–61.

1

PLACE-BASED LEARNING, GEOSPATIAL LITERACY, AND MAPS

23

Kerski, J. (Producer). (2019, July 1). Thinking spatially [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.josephkerski.com/why-get-excited-about-webmaps/. Langran, E., & Alibrandi, M. (2008). Creating digital media for a universitymuseum partnership. In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 4909–4912). Chesapeake: AACE. Langran, E., & Baker, T. R. (2016). Geospatial technologies in teacher education: A brief overview. Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education, 16(3). Retrieved from https://www.citejournal.org/volume-16/issue-3-16/ editorial/geospatial-technologies-in-teacher-education-a-brief-overview. Machonis, P. A. (2008). Shatter the glassy stare: Implementing experiential learning in higher education—A companion piece to place as text: Approaches to active learning. Lincoln, NE: National Collegiate Honors Council. Monmonier, M. (2018). How to lie with maps (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. National Research Council. (2006). Learning to think spatially. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Quay, J., & Seaman, J. (2013). John Dewey and outdoors education. Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers. Resor, C. W. (2010). Place-based education: What is its place in the social studies classroom? The Social Studies, 101(5), 185–188. Semken, S. (2005). Sense of place and place-based introductory geoscience teaching for American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduates. Journal of Geoscience Education, 53(2), 149–157. Semken, S., Ward, E. G., Moosavi, S., & Chinn, P. (2017). Place-based education in Geoscience: Theory, research, practice, and assessment. Journal of Science Education, 65, 542–562. Silver, L., & Cornibert, S. (2019). Smartphone ownership is growing rapidly around the world, but not always equally. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/02/05/smartphone-own ership-is-growing-rapidly-around-the-world-but-not-always-equally/. Sinton, D. S. (2012, July 25). How would you define spatial literacy? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://dianamaps.com/2012/07/25/howwould-you-define-spatial-literacy/. Sinton, D. S., & Bednarz, S. W. (2007). About that G in GIS. In J. J. Lund & D. S. Sinton (Eds.), Understanding place: GIS and mapping across the curriculum (pp. 19–34). Redlands, CA: ESRI Press. Sinton, D. S., & Lund, J. L. (2007). Critical and visual thinking. In J. J. Lund & D. S. Sinton (Eds.), Understanding place: GIS and mapping across the curriculum (pp. 1–18). Redlands, CA: ESRI Press.

24

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Smit, J., & van Doorn, V. (2011). The Pioneers lab: A learning laboratory [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.thelearninglab.nl/?page_id=29835. Smith, G. A. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584–594. Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society. Solís, P., McCusker, B., Menkiti, N., Cowan, N., & Blevins, C. (2018). Engaging global youth in participatory spatial data creation for the UN sustainable development goals: The case of open mapping for malaria prevention. Applied Geography, 98, 143–155. Swayze, N. (2009). Engaging indigenous urban youth in environmental learning: The importance of place revisited. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 59–73. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2013). Policy guidelines for mobile learning. Paris: UNESCO. Wight, R. A., & Killham, J. (2014). Food mapping: A psychogeographical method for raising food consciousness. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 38(2), 314–321. Zimmerman, H., & Weible, J. (2016). Learning in and about rural places: Connections and tensions between students’ everyday experiences and environmental quality issues in their community. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12(1), 7–31.

CHAPTER 2

How and Why Placed-Based Learning Works

Educators can draw upon several bodies of literature to uncover how and why place-based learning offers an effective way to engage students. This chapter integrates these diverse literatures by outlining the process of spatial thinking and how student learning occurs within situated contexts. We consider the scholarship that addresses why place-based pedagogy can create transformative learning environments and focus on what is known about the learning process as well as the contextual issues associated with inclusion, equity, and empowerment of students from underrepresented or marginalized groups. Existing research suggests that students construct knowledge through interactions with teachers, their peers, and their environments. Engaging learning activities can be designed to draw on an abstracted conceptual scenario constructed by the teacher or an authentic scenario defined by the boundaries a physical location. Place-based exploration gives students access to situated learning environments that afford opportunities for students to analyze complex phenomena from multiple angles of observation. Here, we consider the critical pedagogy of place literature that examines how students’ different histories and life experiences impact the many ways they understand the same place-based learning environment. Our goal is to look across existing disciplinary literatures to develop a critical, integrative approach to place-based inquiry.

© The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_2

25

26

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Spatial Thinking Speaking to a broad audience in The Harvard Business Review, Goldsberry (2013) makes the case for expanding students’ exposure to spatial thinking in our educational system. He begins by noting that the Geography Department was the only program ever eliminated at Harvard University since its founding. Similar closings at other universities followed, which Goldsberry contends is ironic because soon thereafter technological developments like Google Maps increased the everyday use of geospatial technology. The result of the geography department closings was that fewer students learned spatial reasoning skills such as reading maps. Of greater concern however is the fact that fewer students were learning to create maps and analyze spatial data sets, despite the advances in online GIS (Alibrandi & Baker, 2008). Like many others, Goldsberry concludes that we need to recommit to the type of curriculum that develops “a generation of great data visualizers who can tackle our challenges” (Goldsberry, 2013, para 8). While Goldsberry certainly was not the first to make this observation, publication of the Harvard Business Review article suggests that a broader conversation was needed about spatial education. Meanwhile, conversations about spatial literacy were well underway within many academic circles of educators such as those from the honors community, geoscience, environmental studies, or K-12 social studies. These conversations rarely took place across disciplinary domains and often stopped short of generating a comprehensive understanding of how spatial thinking could be taught. An early exception resulting from collaboration is the National Research Council’s Learning to Think Spatially (2006). This NRC report summarized the analytical processes that make up spatial thinking and the need for systematically developing students’ spatial reasoning skills. Children develop mental maps based on direct experience with their environment such as the routes they take from home to school or the playground. In the process of their daily lives, they relate these experiences to their own relative position. As children grow, they add indirect experiences such as the knowledge gained from video, images, and text about places, and develop a geocentric view that sees how places are connected (Kimerling, Buckley, Muehrcke, & Muehrcke, 2009). Without spatial reasoning, the resulting mental maps and cartographic maps may not necessarily match. Place-based learning is among the ways to connect

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

27

direct experience with a geospatial representation. Our brains learn better when presented with authentic challenges that are grounded in a particular location and context. In the next section of this chapter we will look at what is known about how the brain works and why this information suggests place-based learning environments are optimal learning environments.

The Human Brain: Designed to Learn “On the Go” Although research on how particular learning conditions are better than others is still evolving, we know that where we learn matters. Humans have obviously been learning outside of a classroom much longer than within in classrooms. Developmental molecular biologist Dr. John Medina describes the “human performance envelope”—the conditions under which the brain most efficiently and accurately processes information. According to Medina, “The human brain appears to have been designed to solve problems related to surviving in an outdoor setting, in unstable meteorological conditions, and to do so in near constant motion” (Medina, 2008, pp. 4–5). These conditions are very different from the static environment of a classroom. Classrooms are designed the way they are because of tradition and convenience, not because they offer an ideal physical environment for learning. While classrooms are clearly a more practical and climatecontrolled way of educating large numbers of students, it is important to recognize that teaching students how to exist in the world by working in an enclosed room is not an optimal situation. In fact, we know that when children are learning outdoors, they naturally “encounter opportunities for decision making that stimulate problem solving and creative thinking because outdoor spaces are often more varied and less structured than indoor spaces,” and “induce curiosity and the use of imagination” (Burdette & Whitaker, 2005, p. 48). So, it is not just learning, but specifically problem-solving, planning, and organization, executive function, visual thinking, pattern recognition, and working memory that are given a boost by outdoor environments (Jarrett, 2019; Pica, 2014). We should design learning experiences that take into account these optimal learning conditions from neuroscience research. While it is not practical for students to be schooled entirely outside of a classroom setting, there are times when we can integrate activities that take advantage of optimal learning conditions. As new brain research is being

28

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

published, we learn more about how the physical environment impacts brain functioning, from space design to the temperature of the learning environment (Cheema & Patrick, 2012). The University of Exeter’s Medical School is heading up a large-scale study on the positive mental impacts of green and blue spaces, such as parks and beaches (Bratman et al., 2019; University of Exeter, 2017). This study builds on previous research conducted by the European Center for Environment & Human Health. Many educators who tout the benefits of outdoor education point to how outdoor education programs provide learning pathways to “tactile and other sensory-driven modes of inquiry” (Auer, 2008, p. 7). Although we may not have complete information about how to design an optimal learning environment, the current evidence suggests first that movement is good, and second, that the stimulation from being outdoors also is good. The Link Between Movement and Learning There is a connection between where we learn, what we do when we are learning, and the amount of learning that occurs. Admittedly there is a lot we do not know about the brain, but we have evidence that there is an important connection between movement and learning: movement generates neural pathways, effectively changing the neurons in our brains. Hannaford (2005) explains how movement leads to learning by reminding us about how the brain develops. Each stage of a baby’s progression of learning to move involves taking in sensory input, balancing, and coordinating limbs. This movement develops neural pathways that are essential for learning. For example, crawling, a movement which activates development of nerve pathways between the cerebral hemispheres, becomes the basis for the visual coordination needed for reading (eye teaming). Coordinated muscular activities stimulate the production of neurotrophins, triggering the growth of existing nerve cells. This process increases the number of new nerve cells and neural connections in the brain (Hannaford, 2005). In this way, physical activity stimulates the brain more than seat learning. We have some evidence of the correlation between higher levels of fitness and academic test scores (California Department of Education, 2002). More and more studies are finding that physical exercise is important for a healthy brain (Adami et al., 2018; van Dongen, Kersten, Wagner, Morris, & Fernández, 2016; Weinberg, Hasni, Shinohara, & Duarte, 2014) and what we refer to as “brain plasticity”—our ability to reorganize and create new neural pathways.

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

29

It is not simply movement that can give students a boost in learning in ways that will help them succeed both inside and outside the classroom. Consideration of the learning environment can also boost learning. Both experiences and sensations form the basis of our understanding of the world, so “sensory enriched environments” are important for the learning process throughout our lives (Hannaford, 2005, p. 53). Traditional classrooms are often characterized by valuing, testing, and spending time describing the experience or sensation through lecture or reading. While this helps our verbal thinking, it does not necessarily engage our brains’ other capacities in areas such as intuition, image formation, and pattern recognition that are needed in the “real world.” Indeed, the: …final goal of any learning experience should be the creation of meaning. Real knowledge occurs as we take in our rich sensory environment and piece it together in our own unique way to give us a picture of the world… The process by which we integrate our experience into a growing understanding of the world should be the prime concern of the educational system… The whole system must be active in order to take in information, select what is important about that information, integrate it with existing patterns and finally, to anchor it with movement. Thinking and learning are anchored by movement…The final outcome of this process is meaning. (Hannaford, 2005, pp. 98–99)

Keeping this end goal of meaning-making in mind when we design placebased educational experiences, educators can focus on providing authentic learning experiences and the skills that are needed to transfer acquired knowledge to new contexts. Without connection to “concrete, empirical and personal experience,” concepts that are presented at a general level or abstract terms will not result in meaning-making. What Vygotsky refers to as “everyday reasoning” is limited when it is not connected to “scientific concepts” (Favier, 2011, p. 43; Renshaw & Brown, 2007; Vygotsky, 1987). Learning environments need to recognize the importance of providing both theory and practice. Students create their own “database” and improvise with that information to obtain deeper understanding (Medina, 2008).

30

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

From Life to Classroom, and Classroom to Life Transferring what we learn from the classroom to “real life” is a challenge, regardless of the subject matter. It comes as no surprise that the same is true of spatial skills where effective transfer is dependent on “going from concrete content to the abstractions that cut across domains” (National Research Council, 2006, p. 46). Educators often approach this challenge by scaffolding that process of applying abstract ideas, intentionally making connections between classroom discussions about conceptual ideas and concrete, everyday experiences. Building on Jerome Bruner’s (1966) three modes of representation model (action-based, image-based, and language-based), Edgar Dale suggested that direct, firsthand participation similar to what has been developed for place-based inquiry provides a foundation for creating “pictorial representations” and ultimately for understanding “purely abstract symbolic expressions” (Dale, 1969, p. 108). Dale created the Cone of Experience as a “visual analogy” that portrays the different types of instructional materials contributing to this progression of learning. Dale’s Cone of Experience arrays types of instructional materials from abstract to concrete. When Dale was writing in the 1960s, most classroom experiences began with text-based activities such as readings; these appear at the top of the cone. This type of text-based learning requires a high level of abstract understanding. Dale advocated expanding the materials used to incorporate different types of concrete, experiential learning (e.g., reallife excursions in the community) which is located at the foundation of the cone. Dale’s Cone of Experience offers insights about how placebased inquiry activities can contribute to effective learning, incorporating abstraction, observation, and direct, purposeful experiences. In Fig. 2.1, we present an adapted version of the Cone of Experience by including references to place-based activities. While subsequent interpretations of Dale’s classification system have proclaimed the effectiveness of one type of instructional material over another, there is no conclusive research indicating this is the case. Dale’s original notion, simply stated, was that powerful learning experiences result from combining the different types of instructional materials that appear on the Cone (Dale, 1969; Kovalchick & Dawson, 2004). In fact, Dale cautioned against what he referred to as the “twin hazards of getting ‘stuck in the concrete’ and of moving to the abstract without an adequate foundation of concrete experience” (1969, p. 134). Dale’s visual analogy

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

31

Fig. 2.1 Cone of experience as adapted to place-based activities (Source Image by Dewitt & Langran, adapted from Dale, 1969)

offers us a frame of reference for understanding how place-based field experiences can be combined with more abstract information (readings, class discussions), toward the end result of enhancing the process of placebased inquiry. As a form of experiential learning, place-based activities can bridge the gap between abstract conceptualizations at the top and experiential activities at the bottom of the pyramid. In short, relying on one type of instructional material, be it field experiences or course readings about place, is less likely to yield the more effective results that a combination of these instructional materials might yield. Whether students are building on the spatial narratives that they bring to the classroom or are formulating their ideas from their observations in their local community or natural environment, these place-based experiences create a foundation for understanding spatial representations such as maps as well as more abstract spatial concepts.

32

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Deploying technology to situate place-based learning Mapping strategies with handheld devices can be an effective way of enabling students to move fluidly between concrete experience and the process of conceptualization. Writing about their experience in an undergraduate human geography course, Pánek and Glass (2018) report on students’ experiences exploring several Pittsburgh neighborhoods using handheld devices to collect and share data with Collector ArcGIS. The exercise was intended to introduce students to a “sense of place.” In the process of evaluating their experiences, the researchers provide specific recommendations regarding how this approach might be used to study neighborhood change. Of particular interest is the researcher’s candid discussion regarding the challenges associated with using handheld devices. Students were anxious to visualize the data in real time, but issues of workflow and software configuration meant that some students experienced a delay after entering data. Overall, the researchers shared two lessons learned: 1. When using this type of technology, be sure to train the students before you send them into the field to avoid creating a “digital divide” between those who are comfortable using technology and those who are not. They underscore that ideally this type of technology should help students grasp a sense of place: “to help students convey a sense of place requires the technology to be a bridge and not a block in their learning process” (Pánek & Glass, 2018, p. 614). 2. Not only did handheld data collection from the field help students describe social and cultural dimensions of neighborhoods, but students were able to examine neighborhood change as well. They conclude that more attention needs to be paid to integrating “new technology with analogue methods in order to evoke a deeper research engagement with a sense of place, and to help students create individual and shared understandings of their research environments” (Pánek & Glass, 2018, p. 614).

Situated Learning as Learning in Place Place-based inquiry makes it possible to situate observation and complex problem-solving in authentic settings when our ultimate goal is preparing students for life outside the classroom. Situated learning refers to the type of instructional setting that successfully bridges the gap between classroom learning, which is often abstract or conceptual, and the practical application of knowledge that is grounded in an authentic real-life

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

33

context. This pedagogical approach contends that learning is a social process best grounded in the context of lived experience or “‘real’ environments that are appropriate to the subject. For example, these learning environments might include horticulture taught in a garden or greenhouse, or field trips organized to engage learning with a particular practice in the ‘real world’” (Wallace, 2015, p. 278). Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) argue that the value of instruction is limited when what is being taught is not “situated” or presented as “a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used” (p. 32). The key dimensions of situated learning that are directly related to place-based inquiry include: stories; reflection; cognitive apprenticeship; collaboration; coaching; multiple practices; articulation of learning skills; and technology (McLellan, 1996). Information about place can include a reference to the physical location, the sense of place, or a locale (Agnew, 1987). All of these instances offer compelling ways to “situate” the learning process. Here we look at the dimensions of situated learning to explore what is known about how this approach can enhance place-based inquiry. Stories In spite of the fact that for centuries, stories have been used to transmit knowledge and help people remember what they hear, we are just now looking more closely at the way that stories can play a significant role in helping students learn and inspiring action (Zak, 2015). For example, creating maps is a form of storytelling that situates learning. A great map tells a story; mapmakers make decisions about which data to include on it and how to spatially organize that data in a way that visually conveys a narrative that includes place, people, or events. The act of “telling” stories connects the storyteller with the audience. The process of creating the story such as selecting the images, sounds, and other data to include on a map helps the storyteller to remember the content. Elwood (2004) raises important questions about how students’ sense of place informs their individual learning experience, how these spatial stories and spatial narratives 1 are constructed, and how to structure experiential learning to “enable more nuanced and socially and politically complex learning by our students” (p. 57). Elwood’s work parallels discussions in the digital humanities about the deep map, described as “a finely detailed, multimedia depiction of a place and the people, animals,

34

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

and objects that exist within it and are thus inseparable from the contours and rhythms of everyday life” (Bodenhamer, Corrigan, & Harris, 2015, p. 3). Deep maps are a dynamic way to situate “multiple voices, views and memories,” making it possible to examine “an alternate view of history and culture through the dynamic representation of memory and place, a view that is visual and experiential, fusing qualitative and quantitative data within real and conceptual space” (Bodenhamer, 2015, p. 5). When place-based inquiry integrates stories or narratives, the learning experience highlights the relevance with hopefully meaningful results for students. Researchers are developing more systematic ways to mine the power of stories and develop techniques which hold potential for offering authentic learning environments in the classroom. One methodology, referred to as geo-narratives, emerged as a way to situate the analysis of GIS data by integrating an understanding of people’s lived experiences with the quantitative data commonly used in spatial analyzes (Kwan & Ding, 2008). Like deep maps, the geo-narrative methodology leverages the power of spatial narratives, building multimedia representations that portray life paths and perceived spatial constraints as well as the differing ways that urban environments are experienced by local residents (Kwan & Ding, 2008). Reflection The situated learning model is among many learning models and classroom practices that stress the importance of reflection. As John Dewey is credited with saying, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.”2 Sending students into the field to complete activities in a particular location without a well-planned reflection component is unlikely to result in the desired learning outcomes because both experiential learning and reflection are vital components of place-based inquiry. Braid (2018) talks about the importance of reflection for situating learning within the City as Text approach. Framing her observations with author Marcel Proust’s idea of “seeing with new eyes,” Braid explains the role that reflection plays in making sense of field observations: My argument here is that seeing… cannot produce understanding unless an act of synthesis—of integrating disparate and sometimes contradictory information—has taken place… What encourages [students] to examine

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

35

their own way of looking to see if it has produced what they think they have witnessed? The best scientists must employ these self-reflective skills all the time, though even they can occasionally be faulted for overlooking evidence that does not confirm their hypotheses. But I argue that all of us need to practice such self-reflection if we are ever to develop the “new eyes” Proust talks about. (Braid, 2018, p. 94)

Beyond making observations about the patterns observed or describing a given location, students should be challenged to ask questions about how place matters. What did we observe? What did we learn? Each excursion must be followed up with time to reflect upon field observations as well as the field observation process. What worked? What didn’t work? And most importantly, why? “Conscious, thoughtful time to stand apart from the work itself—is an essential activity that must take place at key points throughout the work” (Hands On, 1990, p. 10). Using the idea of life landscapes, Perez (2019) shifts the discussion to consider the importance of reflecting on how identity is shaped by the places. For Perez, landscape literacy results from spatial analysis of the “people, places, and spaces that act to shape identities, values, and worldviews across time” (p. 150). By reflecting on the “social relations, spatial arrangement, and material objects that make up school, neighborhood, and town settings,” Perez notes that it is possible to uncover “commonly unexamined dimensions of lived experiences” (p. 150). Cognitive Apprenticeship This component of situated learning is related to authentic activities and collaborative social interaction (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). Learning tasks should provide a sense of engagement by allowing learners to directly experience the environment and tools utilized in real-world situations. Having students work collaboratively to directly interact with a place is a type of cognitive apprenticeship; one example is the YouthMappers project, which was initiated by USAID. At present there are 5000 university students from a range of disciplines who belong to 175 campus chapters located in 45 different countries participating. Their goal is to “build mappers;” using “web-based open geospatial technologies, and a network of universities around the globe, our mission is to cultivate a generation of young leaders to create resilient communities and to

36

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

define their world by mapping it” (YouthMappers, n.d.). Student volunteers contribute to a range of projects by reading satellite images and mapping the results online. These projects situate learning when teams of students analyze authentic data that address fairly complex problems such as the spread of malaria, flood vulnerability, or food security. Their efforts contribute to the ongoing work of the professionals in the field. Collaboration Directly related to cognitive apprenticeship are the dimensions of small group work and collaboration, where each student is needed for the success of the project. When each student contributes to a common map to tell the story of a community, they not only construct new knowledge, they also learn teamwork and communication skills. Meaning-making comes from learning in a community of practice (Altomonte, Logan, Feisst, Rutherford, & Wilson, 2016; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Mapping projects illustrate how these communities of practice can play a critical role in place-based inquiry. Participatory mapping 3 situates learning by soliciting input from diverse community groups, incorporating their respective views as a group rather than as individuals (Forrester & Cinderby, 2011). Gordon, Elwood, and Mitchell (2016) took this approach, using interactive digital mapping pedagogies to engage students in their urban neighborhoods. Students developed critical spatial thinking skills by linking social and spatial histories to consider how they might become engaged in civic action. In another study, when Literat (2013) evaluated participatory mapping as a pedagogy, she concluded that by taking part in the project, students gained “a further degree of social and spatial empowerment, as well as a sense of ownership over the cities they call home” (p. 213). Community mapping initiatives also engage students’ work with each other as well as with local residents. Many of these initiatives have as their goal inclusive decision-making at the community level. Amsden and VanWynsberghe (2015) describe a community mapping project that involved students from local high schools in the evaluation of health services. By doing so, both the researchers as well as policymakers were hoping the end result would be increased levels of civic participation in local planning and decision-making processes. In all of these examples, authentic learning environments enabled students to apply place-based inquiry as a way to

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

37

situate their learning. While none of the projects tested the activities relative to a control group, all concluded that the pedagogical approach was effective. Coaching As with the inquiry model, for situated learning environments the instructor serves as the “guide on the side” while students engage in self-directed problem-solving. Instructors closely monitor students, stepping in when needed and providing the structure and scaffolding that will assist students in exploring. However, the students assume responsibility for much of the learning. This coaching becomes particularly important when students experience authentic/unfamiliar learning environments that often include complex dynamics and can create sensory overload, such as those found in place-based inquiry. Embedding support within place-based activities is difficult, and most accounts of these activities focus on describing the activity rather than revealing how the instructor supported student learning. Notable exceptions include Lehigh University’s work on the Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Curriculum (see https://eli.lehigh.edu/), as well as that of Favier and van der Schee (2014) and Sack and Roth (2017). Responding to the challenges posed by the constant emergence of new interactive and open web-based technologies, Sack and Roth (2017) suggest that the integration of scaffolding can be an effective way to support students as they learn GIS mapping skills. They describe their approach to scaffolding in the following way: Initially, the instructor may demonstrate partial solutions to the problem and break the task down into highly structured and simplified steps that students can complete. Over time, lessons on the subject are progressively more generalized to require less structure and assistance – a withdrawal of the scaffold. When students have moved out of the zone of proximal development by adequately mastering a particular skill or topic, a new, more challenging topic may be introduced. (Sack & Roth, 2017, p. 7)

Sack and Roth found that the students’ abilities and confidence in using the online mapping tools grew significantly and attributed it to the curriculum scaffolding. While a good beginning, additional research is greatly needed to document the effectiveness of embedded support and coaching.

38

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Multiple Practice Students need to have more than one opportunity to engage in authentic tasks that we ask them to master. By utilizing a gradual release approach, they have multiple chances to practice, test, refine, and extend their skills in a “web of increasing expertise in a social context of collaboration and reflection” (McLellan, 1996, p. 11). Thus skills are developed and can be transferred to new situations. Giving the students the opportunity to practice their mapping and observation skills on a small scale first will prepare them for larger place-based learning activities. Effective place-based activities slowly ease students into the learning process that they will experience, whether it’s becoming familiar with reading maps or learning to make observations that challenge assumptions. This is true for both student activities as well as faculty training. Take for example the NCHC Faculty Institutes that offer experiential training in City as Text pedagogy. In these workshops, faculty become students. Writing about her experience, Ochs (2008) describes how multiple practice can be an effective way to uncover more abstract spatial relationships that could otherwise be difficult to observe … initial disorientation primed us for the City as Text excursion on the second day… On the second day of the institute, our task was to move from the disorientation of not knowing to the responsibility of finding out for ourselves…We first had to map our area by defining the boundaries and parameters of the space. The boundaries are not simply geographical; we looked at things like patterns of usage (what defines this as a residential rather than a commercial space?), demographics (is this an integrated or segregated neighborhood? High income or low income?), and design (does this space have a coherent sense of place, or is it fragmented?). Next, we made observations and listened to residents in order to discern the significance of the place. Patterns not immediately obvious from the mapping exercise emerged… The disorientation of not knowing primed us to be receptive to our subjects, to see them in unanticipated ways. (Ochs, 2008, p. 28)

When teachers become the students, such as through the City as Text Faculty Institutes, they are sensitized to the complexity presented by place-based inquiry as well as a reminder that it is important to plan for the multiple practice opportunities of new material.

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

39

Articulation of Learning Skills The situated learning model suggests that separating out the component skills helps students learn those skills more effectively. It’s also important for students to articulate their knowledge, reasoning, or problem-solving processes (McLellan, 1996). To facilitate this process, the instructor breaks down a learning goal into smaller skills that need to be mastered. Rather than sending new students out into the field to accomplish a very large learning goal, giving students the opportunity to first master smaller skills on a more reasonable scale will allow for more effective learning. In addition, it’s important for students to articulate their thinking, which furthers their knowledge construction. With place-based inquiry, the starting point is identifying spatial skills that are needed to complete a given exercise. Activities that are grounded in place can require the mastery of at least five different kinds of skills: • Navigation and wayfinding skills for field activities • Observation skills • Technology skills for assigning physical location or identifying patterns by location • Teamwork • Communication skills such as sharing findings using maps, creating conceptual diagrams of spatial distributions (tables, charts, or graphs) Providing students with a list of the skills that are required for each activity is helpful. Often students who are uncomfortable with one skill, such as reading a map, will focus their attention on that and become more consumed with navigational challenges than on the observing whatever the substantive focus of the lesson might be. Bednarz (2004) has been an advocate for integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) skills in a way that supports the development of students’ spatial skills. She generated a master list of skills, linking spatial skills as well as those needed for using GIS; computer, database, geographic, cartographic, and visualization skills can be articulated and developed, in addition to more general teamwork and communication skills (Bednarz, 2004). This master list becomes an important reference point in developing place-based learning activities.

40

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Technology Technology serves a central role in the situated learning model because of its ability to “expand the power and flexibility of the resources that can be deployed to support the various components of situated learning” (McLellan, 1996, p. 12). To consider how geospatial technologies and mobile learning devices are integral to place-based pedagogy, consider The Tree Investigators project, which was designed to develop place awareness by walking arboretum visitors through the process of observing trees like a botanist; Zimmerman and Land (2014) developed an instructional design model to facilitate learning using mobile devices for coaching students as they developed location awareness. In their project, they connect three place-based education goals with the associated design guidelines and mobile computing strategies, outlining the connections between the learning goals and the place-based instructional activities with mobile devices that promote the development of spatial skills and location awareness: • When their learning goal was to explore “the diverse meanings and history of a place,” they used mobile technology as a way to structure students’ exploration of place in a way that was personally meaningful and that took advantage of the students’ prior knowledge. • When their learning goal was to “support culturally-appropriate norms and pedagogies,” mobile technologies were used to “amplify observations ” by focusing on specific aspects of a location and adding contextual information to the images. • When their learning goal was to “incorporate fieldwork, inquiry, authentic artifacts and representations,” mobile learning technology was used for “connecting local experiences to those of general, disciplinary concerns through exploring new perspectives, representations, conversations, or knowledge artifacts ” (Zimmerman & Land, 2014, p. 78). This type of systematic use of technology makes it possible for the educator to situate place-based experiences and maximize student learning. As an example, one of their stated goals is to review the diverse meanings and the history of a place. To accomplish this goal, they pair it with the mobile design guideline of facilitating “participation in

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

41

disciplinary conversations within personally-relevant places” and support by two mobile computing strategies that apply technology to structure information around the idea of place (Zimmerman & Land, 2014, p. 77).

Critical Pedagogies of Place The idea of applying critical pedagogy to the understanding of place appears in the literature of multiple disciplines. Educators from sociology, urban studies, geography, geoscience, and environmental education, to the humanities and honors education consider how differing life experience among students outside the classroom can serve to advantage some students more than others. A critical pedagogy framework takes into account this social context of schooling. These educators note that social, political, and economic factors privilege the experience of some students, while increasing the number of challenges that are experienced by others. Many of them seek a process of education that empowers all learners (McLaren & Crawford, 2010). In fact, Gruenewald (2003a) argues that “consciousness of place fundamentally challenges assumptions and conventions associated with schooling” (p. 621). Advocates of critical pedagogy focus on the way that privilege outside the classroom translates to advantages inside the classroom. Freire’s seminal observations in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2011) sparked many of these conversations. Like Dewey and Bruner, Freire notes that a great deal of learning occurs outside the classroom, and the knowledge students bring with them to the classroom are key to realizing student learning (Freire, 2011; Freire & Campos, 1990). Freire’s basic observations serve as the foundation for later debates within place-based education. We’ll examine the key ideas from this foundational work as well as the more recent discussions that have emerged. For example, environmental educators expressed differing views on the extent to which a critical pedagogy should guide place-based education (Bower, 2008; Greenwood, 2008; Gruenewald 2003a, 2003b; Stevenson, 2008). In contrast to simply recounting these discussions, here our goal is to highlight the key factors that will inform the critical pedagogy inquiry model we outline in the next chapter.

42

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Foundational Concepts in the Critical Pedagogy of Place Freire’s observations shape our understanding of how students experience learning inside and outside the classroom. He advocated that students have opportunities to pose problems and, in the process, challenge power relationships, which can be the rationale for many place-based projects. In this way, instructional activities can prepare and empower students to take an active role as engaged members in their communities. For Freire, that empowerment necessarily involves students and teacher learners who share a mutually reflective relationship and instructional content that builds on the knowledge that students bring with them to the classroom (Freire, 1985, 2011). Reading the World Children come to school accomplished at making sense of their surroundings well before they start learning how to read and write (Freire & Campos, 1990). Freire refers to this process as “reading the world,” observing that the process is integral to a student’s cultural identity. Unlike the knowledge that is taught in classrooms, the knowledge gained from lived experience is often devalued in school settings. Instead, Freire suggests that teachers adapt instruction to consider a student’s place in the world—their “home, locality and town.” Elaborating on the importance of place, Marcio d’Olne Campos (Freire’s research associate) describes the role of valuing natural and cultural environments: “We have been obliged to give pride of place, as our starting point, to notions of space and time, which, in each case, provide a different framework and colouring to our natural and cultural environment and thus form the whole basis of our presence in the world” (Freire & Campos, 1990, p. 18). While many educators accept that knowledge of our place in the world serves as a foundation for our day-to-day lives, the incorporation of this understanding of place is not routine in most classrooms. Schools have traditionally discounted or “disdained” the knowledge that students bring with them to the classroom. Freire advocates that educators use their understanding of reading the world to create an optimal learning environment: Teaching should always take into account the differing levels of knowledge that children bring with them when they come to school. This intellectual baggage is an expression of what might be called their cultural identity and

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

43

this, of course, is linked to the sociological concept of class. The teacher must take into account this initial ‘reading of the world’ that children bring with, or rather, within them. For each child, this has been fashioned within the setting of his or her own home, locality and town, and is strongly influenced by social origins. (Freire & Campos, 1990, p. 5)

A culturally responsive classroom recognizes the lived experiences that our students bring with them to our classrooms. Indeed, the key to designing effective place-based learning environments is to build instructional activities that take advantage of our students’ ability to read the world. The critical pedagogy of place literature is attempting to reconnect students with their communities and create learning experiences that realize the value of reading the world. Situationality Freire observes that not only are we influenced by our own place in the world, we also can have an influence on that world when we are empowered to take action. He refers to the interactive process of being shaped and shaping as situationality, or how someone’s location in place and time influences what they do as well as what they believe is possible. Freire states, “We must realize that [students’] view of the world, manifested variously in their action, reflects their situation in the world” (Freire, 2011, p. 96). This idea of situationality is very similar to the idea mentioned earlier of recognizing how one’s social location within a given community, or a person’s relative position to others, can shape the way a specific place is experienced differently by individuals. Place-based instructional activities must take into account the students’ individual relationship to the location being studied, the instructor’s relationship with the students, and the multiple perspectives of those who live within the communities that are studied. It is important to note that in some cases our students may be members of the communities studied, in other cases they are not. This will present some interesting ethical dilemmas for instructors to be discussed in Chapter 6. Gruenewald (2003a) advocates that educators take into account this process of social construction by “recognizing that places are what people make them–that people are place makers and places are a primary artifact of human culture–suggests a more active role for schools in the study, care and creation of places” (p. 627). The history of colonization should inform studies of place by integrating a critical pedagogy perspective:

44

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

I do believe that people’s relationship with the land is an area of study worthy of everyone’s interest. It may be that only by understanding how places have been shaped in the past by culture, power, and politics can the current inhabitants of a place participate in their shaping now and in the future. When educators turn their attention to the relationship between people and place, a critical perspective demands that the history of colonization be fully acknowledged and explored. Not to explore this history is to ignore the body in the middle of the room. (Greenwood, 2010, p. 358)4

The extent to which the process of reading the world and the notion of situationality should be incorporated in the classroom becomes the subject of heated debate, paralleling similar exchanges about the role of education as a social force for change based on realizing student empowerment. Place-Conscious Education More than others, Gruenewald (2003b) codified a critical pedagogy of place for students and teachers to “read the texts of our own lives” and “ask constantly what needs to be transformed and what needs to be conserved… it means making a place for the cultural, political, economic and ecological dynamics of places whenever we talk about the purpose and practice of learning” (pp. 10–11). These ideas were very similar to Freire’s notions of reading the world and situationality. Reviewing insights on “place-conscious education” from many disciplines, Gruenewald challenged educators to examine their own assumptions about the relationship between schools and where we live. For Gruenewald (2003b), the concepts of reinhabitation and decolonization were key factors that should be instructionally integrated. By reinhabitation, he meant that students and teachers should find spaces and places that teach us to live well in our environments; decolonization considers how people and places are injured and exploited. This idea of decolonizing learning recently appeared on Open University’s 2019 Innovating Pedagogy Report, where they note that decolonizing learning is about more than what is or isn’t studied: “it’s about considering multiple perspectives and making space to think carefully about what we value” (Ferguson et al., 2019, p. 4).

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

45

Building from work in the field of critical geography, Elwood (2004) makes a similar case when she observes that students bring spatial narratives about place and identity with them. She suggests that educators integrate the ideas, information, and meanings that students attach to urban locations when designing place-based activities. When place-based activities are designed to take into account how these “pre-existing urban spatial narratives are constructed and how they vary,” as well as how these narratives are “shaped by students’ identities, life experiences, family histories, and urban, suburban and rural places of residence” (p. 55), it becomes possible for students to develop a deeper understanding of the course material as well as play a transformative role in their local communities. Elwood also notes the importance of recognizing how multiple aspects of a student’s identity (intersectionality) plays a role in their learning experience. As a result, Elwood contends it is “imperative to incorporate analysis of how students’ spatial stories, practices and learning intersect with and are shaped by negotiation of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality and other identities” (Elwood, 2004, p. 57). In the next chapter, we will consider the strategies for taking into account the social construction of place and challenging students’ preconceptions when designing experiential learning activities. Although Gruenewald’s case for a critical pedagogy of place had critics, the source of those debates seemed to hinge on the way social dynamics in communities are incorporated. Speaking to environmental educators, Bowers (2008) contended that the critical pedagogy of place is an oxymoron. He suggests that the pedagogy relies on abstract theories and assumptions around Western ideology and consumer-dependent practices. According to Bowers, Gruenewald’s critical pedagogy of place fails to take into account the cultural traditions of each locality: “Places have a long and culturally varied history, while the language of a critical pedagogy of place has a specific history that carries forward the tradition of ignoring the diverse ways in which more ecologically centered cultures and community practices have contributed to long-term habitation of place” (2008, p. 333). In the same issue of Environmental Education Research, Stevenson (2008) suggests that the position taken by Gruenewald and that taken by Bowers be “treated as pedagogical space for engaging in critical analysis and authentic learning, drawing on rich or thick descriptions of the places students inhabit” (p. 358). Underlying this debate among environmental educators was a difference of opinion concerning the extent to which the social dynamics of the

46

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

study of location, as well as the extent to which students’ life experiences should be an explicit concern of place-based learning. While most educators recognize the social construction of place, they express differing views on how the social, political, and economic dynamics shape the communities in which we live. For those who adopt a critical pedagogy of place approach, these dynamics become a central component of placed-based study, shaping both teachers and students experience, as well as the places that are being studied. Positionality: The Power of Spatial Stories A key benefit of the critical pedagogy of place perspective is broadening our knowledge of the places we live, work, and play. When the mapreader seeks patterns and interprets the map according to their own knowledge, the analysis of maps can also can lead to oversimplification. Recognizing the positionality of both the mapmaker and mapreader are important; because the mapmaker makes choices about how to generalize and simplify data, maps can be persuasive. In 2009, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009) gave a talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, & Design) Global conference called The Danger of a Single Story. In her talk, she discussed the power of stories, including the danger of knowing only one story about a person, country, or community. A single narrative cannot represent an entire community. Key to understanding a place is considering the multiple stories that can be told about that place, as well as recognizing the multiplicity of perspectives, including our own, and how our storytelling can both give voice to and silence perspectives. Huffling, Carlone, and Benavides (2017) note that in addition to increasing environmental awareness, educators should not only encourage students to consider the information they can gather, but also have purposeful discussions to question the information and stories that are missing. In an effort to learn from differing perspectives that come from experience, some working in digital humanities are generating deep maps to collect spatial stories and spatial narratives that give voice to multiple groups and offer “an alternate view of history and culture through the dynamic representation of memory and place, a view that is visual and experiential, fusing qualitative and quantitative data within real and conceptual space” (Bodenhamer et al., 2015, p. 5).

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

47

Critical Consciousness of Race Within the critical pedagogy of place literature, there is a need for understanding the way the social construction of race has reinforced dominant spatial narratives that often produce negative outcomes for students. In an early discussion of these issues, Haymes (1995) argues that the social construction of race generates powerful urban myths that need to be considered when designing a critical pedagogy of place: Critical pedagogy in the context of black city life has a crucial role to play… [A] ‘pedagogy of place’ … must be understood in terms of establishing pedagogical conditions that enable blacks in the city to critically interpret how dominant definitions and uses of urban space regulate and control how they organize their identity around territory, and the consequences of this for black urban resistance” (p. 114).

These dominant definitions have a long-standing tradition in cartography as well. Winlow (2009) examines the mapping of race history, noting that the practice of mapping racial differences dates back to medieval times. Maps were used to “reinforce ideas of racial hierarchy, support imperialism and legitimate nationality claims,” based on the assumption that racial categories can be easily described and spatially anchored (pp. 10–11). Applying a critical consciousness of race framework can yield insights on how students of color experience learning, taking into account both the social location of students as well as the role of the educator’s background. Acknowledging that power shapes the social construction of knowledge, Hughes (2016) points out that critical race theorists focus on the ways that racism results from systemic structures rather than individual actions. Critical race theory contends that the “largely White academy is configured around practices which normalize White experience, contributing (often unconsciously) to outcomes that are advantageous to White students” (p. 461). What kind of assumptions do we bring to our teaching practice that may unwittingly discriminate “based on practices of normative whiteness?” (Hughes, 2016, p. 461). Failure to take race into account can systematically disadvantage some students. As Miller (2018) points out, without taking race into consideration, place-based activities can unintentionally: • privilege [the instructor’s] own ways of knowing in local settings, • rely on ‘grit’ narratives as mechanisms for mediation of racism, and

48

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• send nonwhite students home having learned that they cannot effect meaningful change for sustainability (Miller, 2018, p. 845). Not only race, but learner diversity need to be considered when planning, recognizing that some students may not thrive in outdoor settings. Educators must acknowledge that each individual student draws from … a unique developmental background, emotional understanding and specific way of processing new information. Each [synthesizes] their understanding into skills and thought patterns uniquely their own…The unique set of connections which each of us makes from the very first moment we encounter the world, shapes our understanding of the world and of ourselves. Indeed, these connections are ourselves, constantly moderating our experience of the world, constantly changing as experience is integrated with connections we have already made.” (Hannaford, 2005, p. 79)

Since the time that Hannaford was writing, additional work in the area of neurodiversity has underscored the importance of following principles of universal design for learning when developing place-based learning activities (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). By integrating multiple means of engagement, methods of presentation, and ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge, instructors can promote accessibility and reduce barriers to learning.

Chapter Conclusion: The Major Tenets of a Critical Pedagogy of Place Approach The major tenets of a critical pedagogy of place approach include: • The sense of place that each person has, relative to a physical location, will differ based on that individual’s own social location and life experience as well as on the spatial narratives that individual holds relative to the physical location. • Every physical location is shaped by the social context of that location, which includes social dynamics which may or may not be readily visible. Not only do these social dynamics shape the social and economic inequalities and development of the physical locations, but also the spatial narratives shared and the sense of place that results. This idea was referred to as “situationality” by Freire (2011).

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

49

• The experience of “knowing” a place—the way we selectively record, observe, or measure place, as well as the overall importance of a given physical location—is influenced by the assumptions we make resulting from our own our sense of place. • Reflection and collaboration are integral social processes that contribute to realizing the potential of a critical pedagogy of place. These social interactions among individuals, who are speaking from different social locations, enable a more holistic understanding of the phenomena that is being investigated. The literature around place-based learning gives us a good idea about why we ought to do place-based learning; it tells us considerably less about how to put these tenets into practice. Once students leave the quiet confines of a classroom, the structure of assignment and tools used to facilitate learning can enable students to deal with sensory overload and multiple distractions they will encounter. Students must move from observing and recording the attributes of place in the field to the analysis of data in the classroom. This analytical process is very well suited to place-based excursions, which is the focus of our next chapter.

Notes 1. Some take exception to using the terms spatial story and spatial narrative interchangeably; Harris (2015) contends that a spatial narrative is a “neutral recounting of a series of sequential events,” while a spatial story includes the storyteller’s point of view which is “relayed through story content, writing style, or emotion. The positionality of the storyteller is thus critical in terms of whose story is being told, to whom, and for what purpose, for ultimately the storyteller seeks to deliver a message to the reader” (p. 41). According to Harris, spatial stories recount multiple realities and “give voice to multiple groups” which make it possible to challenge single stories, metanarratives, and universal truths. 2. No one seems to cite an exact source for this quotation, though attributing it to Dewey is commonplace. 3. The definitions of these terms vary across literatures as well as in popular use. For further discussion, see Forrester and Cinderby (2011) and Mapping for Rights’ website, https://www.mappingforrights.org/participa tory_mapping. 4. David A. Gruenewald also published under the name David A. Greenwood.

50

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

References Adami, R., Pagano, J., Colombo, M., Platonova, N., Recchia, D., Chiaramonte, R., … Bottai, D. (2018). Reduction of movement in neurological diseases: Effects on neural stem cells characteristics. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, 336. Adichie, C. N. (2009). The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_s ingle_story. Agnew, J. (1987). Place and politics: The geographical mediation of state and society. Boston: Allen and Unwin. Alibrandi, M., & Baker, T. R. (2008). A social history of GIS in Education, 1985–2007. In A. Milson & M. Alibrandi (Eds.), Digital geography: Geospatial technologies in the social studies classroom (pp. 3–37). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Altomonte, S., Logan, B., Feisst, M., Rutherford, P., & Wilson, R. (2016). Interactive and situated learning in education for sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 17 (3), 417–443. Amsden, J., & VanWynsberghe, R. (2015). Community mapping as a research tool with youth. Action Research, 3(4), 357–381. Auer, M. R. (2008). Sensory perception, rationalism and outdoor environmental education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 17 (1), 6–12. Bednarz, S. W. (2004). Geographic information systems: A tool to support geography and environmental education? GeoJournal, 60, 191–199. Bodenhamer, D. (2015). Narrating pace and place. In D. J. Bodenhamer, J. Corrigan, & T. Harris (Eds.), Deep maps and spatial narratives (pp. 7–27). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Bodenhamer, D., Corrigan, J., & Harris, T. (Eds.). (2015). Introduction: Deep maps and the spatial humanities. Deep maps and spatial narratives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Bowers, C. A. (2008). Why a critical pedagogy of place is an oxymoron. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 325–335. Braid, B. (2018). Majoring in the minor: A closer look at experiential learning. Honors in Practice, 14, 91–98. Bratman, G. N., Anderson, C. B., Berman, M. G., Cochran, B., de Vries, S., Flanders, J., … Daily, G. C. (2019). Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. Science Advances, 5(7), eaax0903. Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, MA: Belkapp Press.

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

51

Burdette, H., & Whitaker, R. (2005). Resurrecting free play in young children: Looking beyond fitness and fatness to attention, affiliation, and affect. Archives Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 159, 46–50. California Department of Education. (2002, December 10). State study proves physically fit kids perform better academically [Press release]. Retrieved from https://americansportsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Physicall yFitKids.pdf. Cheema, A., & Patrick, V. (2012). Influence of warm versus cool temperatures on consumer choice: A resource depletion account. Journal of Marketing Research, 40, 42–47. Dale, E. (1969). Audiovisual methods in teaching (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Elwood, S. (2004). Experiential learning, spatial practice, and critical urban geographies. The Journal of Geography, 103(2), 55–63. Favier, T. T. (2011). Geographic information systems in inquiry-based secondary geography education (Doctoral dissertation). Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Favier, T. T., & van der Schee, J. A. (2014). The effects of geography lessons with geospatial technologies on the development of high school students’ relational thinking. Computers & Education, 76, 225–236. Freire, P. (1985). Reading the world and reading the word: An interview with Paulo Freire. Language Arts, 62(1), 15–21. Freire, P. (2011). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group (Original work published 1970, New York, NY: Herder and Herder). Freire, P. & Campos, M. D. (1990, December). Reading the world. The Unesco Courier, 43 (12), 4–9. Ferguson, R., Coughlan, T., Egelandsdal, K., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hillaire, G., … Whitelock, D. (2019). Innovating pedagogy 2019: Open university innovation report 7 . Milton Keynes, UK: The Open University. Retrieved from https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2019.pdf. Forrester, J. & Cinderby, S. (2011). A guide to using community mapping and participatory-GIS. UK: Tweed Forum. Retrieved from http://www.tweedf orum.org/research/Borderlands_Community_Mapping_Guide_.pdf. Goldsberry, K. (2013, September 30). The importance of spatial thinking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/09/tea ching-and-learning-visualiz. Gordon, E., Elwood, S., & Mitchell, K. (2016). Critical spatial learning: Participatory mapping, spatial histories, and youth civic engagement. Children’s Geographies, 14(5), 558–572. Greenwood, D. (2008). A critical pedagogy of place: From gridlock to parallax. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 336–348.

52

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Greenwood, D. A. (2010). Education in a culture of violence: A critical pedagogy of place in wartime. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 5(2), 351–359. Gruenewald, D. A. (2003a). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654. Gruenewald, D. A. (2003b). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12. Hands On. (1990, Spring/Summer). The Foxfire approach: Perspectives and core practices. Hands On: A Journal for Teachers, 9–10. Hannaford, C. (2005). Smart moves: Why learning is not all in your head (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City, UT: Great River Books. Harris, T. (2015). Deep geography–Deep mapping: Spatial storytelling and sense of place. In D. J. Bodenhamer, J. Corrigan, & T. Harris (Eds.), Deep maps and spatial narratives (pp. 28–53). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Haymes, S. N. (1995). Race, culture and the city: A pedagogy for the black urban struggle. Albany, NY: State University of New York. Huffling, L. D., Carlone, H. B., & Benavides, A. (2017). Re-inhabiting place in contemporary rural communities: Moving toward a critical pedagogy of place. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12, 33–43. Hughes, A. (2016). Exploring normative whiteness: Ensuring inclusive pedagogic practice in undergraduate fieldwork teaching and learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 40(3), 460–477. Jarrett, O. (2019). A research-based case for recess: Position paper (2019). US Play Coalition, American Association for the Child’s Right to Play, & the Alliance for Childhood. Retrieved from https://usplaycoalition.org/wp-content/upl oads/2019/08/Need-for-Recess-2019-FINAL-for-web.pdf. Kimerling, A. J., Buckley, A. R., Muehrcke, P. C., & Muehrcke, J. O. (2009). Map use: Reading and analysis (6th ed.). Redlands, CA: ESRI Press. Kovalchick, A., & Dawson, K. (2004). Education and technology: An encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Kwan, M. P., & Ding, G. (2008). Geo-Narrative: Extending geographic information systems for narrative analysis in qualitative and mixed-method research. The Professional Geographer, 60(4), 443–465. Lave, G., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Literat, I. (2013). Participatory mapping with urban youth: The visual elicitation of socio-spatial research data. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2), 198– 216. McLaren, P. L., & Crawford, J. (2010). Critical pedagogy. In C. Kridel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of curriculum studies (pp. 148–149). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

2

HOW AND WHY PLACED-BASED LEARNING WORKS

53

McLellan, H. (1996). Situated learning perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Medina, J. (2008). Brain rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press. Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning: Theory and practice. Wakefield, MA: CAST Professional Publishing. Miller, H. K. (2018). Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story. Environmental Education Research, 24(6), 845–858. National Research Council. (2006). Learning to think spatially: GIS as a support system in the K-12 curriculum. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Ochs, J. (2008). You’re not typical professors, are you? Reflection on the NCHC faculty institute in Miami and the Everglades. In J. Macionis (Ed.), Shatter the glassy stare (pp. 28–30). Birmingham, AL: National Collegiate Honors Council. Pánek, J., & Glass, M. (2018). Gaining a mobile sense of place with collector for ArcGIS. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 42(4), 603–616. Perez, A. (2019). Landscape literacy: Teaching to read the world through curricular-spatial analysis. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 10(1), 141–158. Pica, R. (2014, May 15). Why movement matters [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2014/whymovement-matters. Renshaw, P., & Brown, R. A. J. (2007). Formats of classroom talk for integrating everyday and scientific discourse: Replacement, interweaving, contextual privileging and pastiche. Language and Education, 21, 531–549. Sack, C. M., & Roth, R. E. (2017). Design and evaluation of an open web platform cartography lab curriculum. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41(1), 1–23. Stevenson, R. B. (2008). A critical pedagogy of place and the critical place(s) of pedagogy Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 353–360. University of Exeter. (2017, September 22). Can spending time in parks, woodlands and beaches improve our mental health? Retrieved from https://med icine.exeter.ac.uk/news/archive2017/articles/title_609282_en.html. van Dongen, E. V., Kersten, I. H. P., Wagner, I. C., Morris, R. G. M., & Fernández, G. (2016). Physical exercise performed four hours after learning improves memory retention and increases hippocampal pattern similarity during retreval. Current Biology, 26(13), 1722–1727. Vygotsky, L. (1987). Thinking and speech. In R. W. Reiberm & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, Volume 1: Problems of general psychology (pp. 73–285). New York: Plenum.

54

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Wallace, S. (2015). Situated learning. A dictionary of education. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/ acref/9780199679393.001.0001/acref-9780199679393-e-927. Weinberg, L., Hasni, A., Shinohara, M., & Duarte, A. (2014). A single bout of resistance exercise can enhance episodic memory performance. Acta Psychologica, 153, 13–19. Winlow, H. (2009). Mapping, race and ethnicity. In R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (Eds.), International encyclopedia of human geography. Oxford: Elsevier Science. YouthMappers. (n.d.). https://www.youthmappers.org/. Zak, P. J. (2015). Why inspiring stories make us react: The neuroscience of narrative. Cerebrum, 2. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/PMC4445577/. Zimmerman, H. T., & Land, S. M. (2014). Facilitating place-based learning in outdoor informal environments with mobile computers. TechTrends, 58(1), 77–83.

CHAPTER 3

The Design of Critical Place-Based Inquiry

Learning by accident versus learning by design Imagine two study abroad programs. In the first course, students are given a series of readings about the history of the church, a list of churches, and an itinerary of their destinations. Upon arrival, they visit one church a day and receive a tour from a local guide who points out many of the architectural features that distinguish the period during which this particular church was built. In the second course, students are given the same information in addition to a map of the city with the location of several churches marked. Students are asked to think about why churches are located where they are relative to the rest of the city. They read about how the city changed over time, and why the contemporary neighborhoods in which these churches are located may be different today than when the church was originally built. As they navigate their way to each identified location on the map, the students are directed to consider the meanings associated with place and human–environment interactions surrounding the church. They may also be asked to look for clues that might tell them whether those who worship at the church are longtime residents of the surrounding area or may be recent migrants depending on the demographic composition of the neighborhood. After visiting each church and respective community, students

© The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_3

55

56

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

compare regional differences in church architecture and how those differences might reflect the relative wealth of those communities as well as the natural resources that were available when the church was constructed. In the first example, the study abroad class just happens to use place in another country as part of their assignment. Students could undertake the same activities from home. In the second example, the question of how place matters is the organizing focus for the class.

Place-based learning does not occur automatically because students spend time in a particular location. The potential of place-based learning is realized only when instructional activities are intentionally designed to guide students toward the desired learning outcomes. Students need to personally connect the instructional material with their own understanding of place. Therefore, the design of place-based inquiry should take into account critical assumptions about the places in which students learn as well as their previous experiences in similar locations. Critical place-based inquiry differs from simply sending students on scavenger hunts or asking students to visit an assigned area. There are two design considerations associated with a critical place-based inquiry that distinguish this pedagogy from others. First, instructional activities make an explicit connection between the intended course content and a student’s lived experience. Each student approaches place-based inquiry in a different way, depending on their previous experiences, their own spatial stories, and their social location within the community. Second, the contextual factors (social, political, and economic dimensions) that shape our understanding, experiences, and knowledge about place are addressed throughout the process of instruction. Prior histories of exploitation or of historical inequality become an integral part of all place-based inquiries. Because a student’s response is based on both of these factors, formative assessment becomes a valuable way for instructors to customize activities to individual learning needs, directing student attention toward the desired learning outcomes. Applying what is known about the process of inquiry learning, we can create activities that support the learning for all students. Systematically structuring the scope and sequence of place-based activities increases the chances that students proceed toward the learning goal with a modest amount of trial and error. We say “modest” here because there is a tension between giving students enough space to explore and develop

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

57

inquiry skills and offering a foundation of instructional guidance to ensure students reach the intended outcome. This tension presents a delicate balancing act for faculty who must decide how much or how little to structure a student’s experience. Through framing, instructional prompts, and front-loaded content, faculty can design integrative learning environments that help students relate to and navigate the unknown as well as transfer their learning to new situations. When students connect abstract concepts to a physical map or compare location-specific observations, they are using critical reasoning skills that contribute to geospatial literacy. In the last section of this chapter we consider how assessment can offer a way for instructors to determine the best combination of facilitation strategies based on the needs of students in their class.

A Critical Approach to Place-Based Inquiry The inquiry approach to place-based learning that follows was proposed by Bednarz and others as part of the United States National Geography Project in 1994. The phases of the inquiry outlined at that time were very similar to those found in a general inquiry process, in which students: • • • •

Ask geographic questions Acquire geographic resources (or information) Visualize geodata Cognitively develop and process of knowledge about the world around us and externally process geodata • Answer geographic questions • Present the results of geographic inquiry (Bednarz et al., 1994, p. 42). This basic inquiry model is a good starting point for place-based inquiries but we suggest going beyond this basic model as well as similar inquiry approaches that casually reference a student’s positionality or the context of study such as GeoInquiries (https://www.gisetc.com/geoinquiries/), WonderPoints (Dodge & Bober-Michel, 2011), or City as Text (which will be explored later in this chapter) (Braid & Long, 2000). We contend that a critical understanding of the world should frame the design of place-based activities and enhance learning by considering both the social context of communities or locations being explored as well as the

58

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

student’s social position (their positionality) relative to the place-based learning outcome at hand. Vasquez, Janks, and Comber (2019) describe how critical literacy can form the lens through which students view the world. Applying their view of critical literacy to the design of place-based activities, we make three observations. First, our experience of place as well as the maps we read are social constructions.1 Exposing students to this idea of a social construction makes it possible for them to formulate their own understanding of place and eventually, to reframe their understanding of place and roles in their communities (Elwood, 2004). Second, when we integrate a student’s previous experience and knowledge into placebased activities, we create an inclusive curriculum that gives students the chance to develop a sense of agency and to become engaged community members (Vasquez et al., 2019). Toward this goal, it is important to scaffold the process of place-based learning, especially since student-initiated inquiries tend to be more meaningful than teacher-directed inquiries. Third, when studying a place, students assign meaning based on their previous experiences and their social location. This means that place-based learning necessarily involves elements of the social context, whether we address them explicitly or not. Instructional activities must make sense of how these dominant social and political dynamics structure our lives. For example, examining the impact of colonization is one way that students can gain a critical understanding of the contexts in which we live. Students need to learn how to question these inequalities if they are to become actively engaged citizens. In the section that follows we show how this approach is consistent with the assumptions we made about learning in Chapter 2. We will examine four components (read the world, understand place, leverage technology, and tell stories from multiple perspectives) that distinguish our critical inquiry approach to place-based learning. We discuss the planning aspects related to these components, including the importance of integrating student experience as well as demonstrating respect for the communities that we explore (Fig. 3.1). Read the World Anchoring student investigations in the real world gives students the chance to connect with the course content. Here students gather information, make observations, and pose questions about their community or

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

59

Fig. 3.1 Critical place-based inquiry model (DeWitt & Langran)

the environments that are being studied—to borrow a phrase from Freire, students are “reading” the world around them (Freire & Campos, 1990). In addition, students are initiating data analysis. As Elwood (2004) notes, “it is important to structure field experiences in ways that actively involve all students as critical knowledge producers and that create opportunities for them to reconstruct their knowledge through experiential practice” (p. 62). Learning activities that are structured in this way make it possible to build connections between the students’ existing knowledge and the desired learning outcomes. Guiding questions play a central role in the learning process. McInerney, Smyth, and Down (2011) outline the following series of critical questions that can be used to guide student inquiry but importantly, these same questions should be considered during the design phase: • What are the best features of our community? What could be done to make it a better place for all? • What do monuments and public architecture tell us about the heritage that is most highly valued in this community? What groups are under-represented or rendered invisible? • What might we do to ensure a more inclusive and accurate record of community heritage in our school and community? • What is the quality of our local environment—the air, water, soil, native flora, and fauna? What might we do to conserve our environment and resources to achieve a more sustainable future? • To what extent does our school model and promote good environmental practices?

60

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• What are the social, economic, and cultural assets of our community? How fairly are they distributed? What can we do to work for a more just community? • Who gets to make the decisions in our community? Whose voices are largely unheard? What might we do to achieve a more democratic society? (p. 12) Place-based learning can incorporate an understanding of the connections between the local, the regional, and the global contexts as well as linking past to present inequalities. For example, examining the history of colonialism that shapes many contemporary communities can empower students not only to question but to connect with their community. The Open University’s Innovating Pedagogy 2019 report suggested that by decolonizing learning, educators can ensure that all students are more likely to experience success, particularly when that success is challenged by the structural privileges of dominant groups within society (Ferguson et al., 2019). Uncovering these patterns of privilege can be initiated by asking students to consider how they might feel if someone they didn’t know moved into their neighborhood and began making decisions without consulting them. “The transition of education from local to global can and should change the nature of learning … By reimagining education as an activity that serves the needs of local communities, including indigenous populations, the impact of learning can be expanded, making it more inclusive and more valuable to us all” (Ferguson et al., 2019, p. 17). When writing about place-based learning in Canadian Aboriginal/Indigenous education, Scully (2012) makes an insightful observation regarding why incorporating an understanding of colonialism leads to deeper levels of engagement and understanding, not only for students from marginalized groups but for all students: Places are the literal common ground. Exposing the ways that a different experience of a place and the signifiers that make meaning out of place can create rich dialogue and understanding across perspectives. A complex and rich understanding of place can change the view from where one is standing. …Sharing perspectives on literal common ground means shared points of reference seen in a whole new way—a whole new set of relations to people and to place… This process begins with an acknowledgment of one’s own location. (p. 152)

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

61

By integrating a more comprehensive understanding of the community into place-based learning, we make it possible to imagine a future place that includes all members of that community. Whether students are prompted to recognize how some community groups are underrepresented in the built environment, or given information about how environmental pollution tends to be located closer to communities of color, a critical approach should be infused throughout the learning process. Guided inquiry questions that are posed through a critical lens make it possible to frame the initial discussions and prepare students for “reading” the world. Understand How Place Matters To gain an understanding of place, students need to constantly reflect on their observations and interpret those observations. They are encouraged to notice what they can see as well as what is missing. In addition, students need to reflect on how their own perspective or social location might influence their observations. Like readings of text, readings of place are based on our understanding of how the world works and this understanding stems from our previous experiences. It’s important to “unpack” these observations (Vasquez et al., 2019). For this reason, learning activities should be designed in a way that compels students to confront the assumptions they make based on their previous experiences. This type of disorienting class activity requires students to challenge their assumptions, offering an ideal opportunity for student growth. It is this “rupture between story and practice [that] creates an important opportunity for critical learning” (Elwood, 2004, p. 58). In some cases, the process of constant reflection will lead to the refinement of the original inquiry questions. In other cases, students will need additional information to further focus their observations. This process of analyzing data and reflecting on inquiry questions makes it possible for students to develop their understanding of place. Often, the process involves disrupting preconceived notions about place. As McInerney et al. (2011) note, a “critical pedagogy of place not only interrupts the insular and prejudicial views of people but more importantly involves students in a political process of understanding and shaping communities” (pp. 11– 12). Doing so is much more difficult than one might think. Our students often come from different walks of life, so it is essential that we assess their preconceived notions at the outset of place-based inquiry activities.

62

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Leverage Technology With the ubiquitous presence of mobile devices, students have endless opportunities to capture many forms of data that can be “geotagged,” or linked to a physical location. Photos, audio recordings, and notes can all be integrated for analysis using a variety of technology tools, including maps. Favier (2011) explores the potential of using technology such as GIS software as a way to improve the effectiveness of place-based inquiry, noting that “GIS has the ability to change the way geography is taught and learned, and geography education with GIS can be seen as an educational innovation” (p. 20). But the integration of these technologies is far from automatic. Research by Favier and van der Schee (2012, 2014) found that the integration of geospatial technologies improved the effectiveness of geography instruction. However, when it came to geospatial relational thinking, the researchers also found that the integration of geospatial technologies required that teachers significantly modify their instruction by teaching more deeply and interacting with students to co-create knowledge: The statement ‘less is more’ definitely also applies to teaching with GIS: teaching a few subjects deeply is more worthwhile than teaching a wide range of subjects superficially. It also implies that teachers should be willing to engage more in dialogical teaching with their students, and to construct theoretical knowledge together with their students. This is a difficult task, as it requires teachers to be able to transform their own geographic knowledge and make it accessible for students. (Favier & van der Schee, 2012, p. 676)

We agree when Favier and van der Schee say that teaching with geospatial technologies can be “a complex kind of teaching” (p. 676)—one that requires additional considerations, especially for students who may be unfamiliar with using technology. Take the example of mobile devices, which allow our students to engage in ground truthing and spatial information analysis. Ground truthing is a term used in geography for the onsite inspection of a geological feature to determine the accuracy of data collected remotely. We can use mobile devices in the same way. Information, photos, and videos can be mapped online by taking advantage of the metadata that is embedded in what is posted from GPS-enabled phones. For example, photos taken from your smartphone will have a geographic information

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

63

“geotag” about where (and when) the photo was taken. When the photo is uploaded, it can be automatically mapped, creating opportunities to visualize place-based data. Students need to master using geographic tools, so it is best to not ask them to do complex thinking when they are also learning a new technology such as mobile mapping. Because our students seem to be constantly connected to their mobile devices, it is easy to overestimate their technological abilities and assume that all students are equally comfortable troubleshooting new uses of technology. It is a good idea to accompany the students on initial excursions when possible, or at least to make trial runs in the parking lot to practice together with the devices before sending them into the field. By separating out the process of learning about a technology and using that technology, we can ensure we don’t create an uneven playing field for those who may not have regular access to technology. Tell Stories of Place from Multiple Perspectives In the last chapter, we saw how spatial stories or narratives can shape the way we experience a place as well as the way students engage in place-based learning. The process of constructing these stories requires students to organize their findings, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings to others. As these stories are shared with others, students can reflect on how one’s personal perspective might influence the results of the inquiry process. Spatial narratives about particular locations can have a powerful influence, whether students have been to a neighborhood or not. “Spatial narratives about place and identity are powerful conceptual frames that influence the meanings that students attach to particular places” (Elwood, 2004, p. 59). Sometimes these narratives were influenced by personal experiences and other times they were not. The process of sharing these narratives makes it possible to compare similarities and differences, moving “students toward a stronger understanding of place as socially constructed, [providing] an understanding that they must have in order to be able to revise and add to their spatial knowledge through experiential learning” (Elwood, 2004, p. 60). This iterative cycle of reflection and the producing new knowledge makes it possible to develop a deeper understanding of place. In fact, scholars in the digital humanities continue working with GIS technologies to represent these multiple layers of

64

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

personal experience through time that can be anchored spatially on a deep map (Bodenhamer, Corrigan, & Harris, 2015). Critical Place-Based Inquiry Model To review, the following Table 3.1 summarizes the assumptions about place-based learning that support the critical place-based inquiry model that we are proposing in this book.

General Design Considerations The instructional design process for critical place-based inquiry begins with a series of decisions that are made well before students arrive. Planning for this type of inquiry must incorporate the necessary support for learning by systematically structuring the scope and sequence of field excursions. Place-based inquiries can be short-term or span an entire semester, depending on the intended educational goals. We will walk through design considerations, starting with how to make an explicit connection between a given activity and the intended destination or learning goal. Additional considerations include taking into account: student readiness for inquiry-based learning; the level of structured or open inquiry; the amount of scaffolding necessary to guide all learners; and the students’ and teacher’s comfort level with technology tools and navigating a neighborhood or local environment. What Is Your Learning Destination? When we embark on a trip, we usually have a destination in mind. If we use technological assistance to navigate our journey, the first thing we need to enter in the GPS or mobile app is where we want to go. Only then can the application suggest the best way to reach our destination. Starting with this end goal in mind helps us effectively plan learning experiences as well. Before we think of the activities of what students will do as part of a class, we should first identify what we want them to be able to do at the end of the class, project, or course, and then determine the best path to get there. This approach is referred to as “backwards design.” The concept outlined in the Understanding by Design framework of Wiggins

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

65

Table 3.1 Critical place-based inquiry activities and assumptions AssumpƟons about place-based learning The sense of place that each person has rela ve to a physical loca on will differ based on that individual’s own social loca on and life experience as well as on the spa al narra ves that individual holds rela ve to the physical loca on. Every physical loca on is shaped by the social context of that locaƟon, which includes social dynamics that may or may not be readily visible. Not only do these social dynamics shape the social and economic inequali es and development of the physical loca ons, but also the spa al narra ves shared and the sense of place that results. This idea was referred to as “situaƟonality” by Freire (2008). The experience of “knowing” a place -- the way we selec vely record, observe or measure place, as well as the overall importance of a given physical loca on -- is influenced by the assump ons we make that result from our own sense of place. Reflec on and collabora on are integral social processes that contribute to realizing the poten al of a cri cal pedagogy of place. These social interac ons among individuals, who are speaking from different social loca ons, enable a more holis c understanding of the phenomena that is being inves gated.

CriƟcal place-based inquiry Read the world -

Gather informa on Make observa ons Pose inquiry ques ons Analyze preliminary data Iden fy contextual connec ons between the local and the regional or global; the legacy of past inequali es such as slavery or colonialism; present inequali es such residen al segrega on or proximity to environmental pollu on to communi es of color.

Understand how place maƩers -

Reflect on data: what’s included, what’s missing Reflect on observer’s social loca on (posi onality) Refine inquiry ques ons Gather addi onal informa on to focus observa ons Analyze data Reflect on inquiry ques ons

Leverage technology

-

Mobile mapping GIS analysis Media-rich storytelling

Tell stories of place from mulƟple perspecƟves -

Organize findings Draw conclusions Communicate findings Reflect

66

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

and McTighe (1998) asks us to design instructional activities by identifying the desired results first. The key question becomes, “What will students know and be able to do as a result of this activity?” Begin with the learning goals for the course or project. Is the goal for students to build a sense of community? Or have students become familiar with an area? To introduce the course themes? The goal that is selected will guide the design of that assignment. For example, if the intent is to familiarize students with an area, plan excursions that prompt students to generate their own spatial map of the area. One strategy is to focus on ways that students can define the boundaries/edges of that location such as important landmarks, transportation routes, or physical barriers. If the goal is for students to refine their observation skills, limit the distances they travel so that they focus their field experience time on observation. If this is the first time students are engaging in place-based learning, then consider having more than one excursion into the area so that during the initial excursions, students can focus on building their navigating skills. The smaller and more measurable the objectives, the easier it will be to observe whether the students have mastered them, making it possible to proceed to the next step. In addition to the initial learning goal, determine the level of analysis that students will achieve. Consider the example of analyzing a city as a text. This approach differs from being a tourist who is exploring the city. In the first case a deeper analysis provides revelations about the city and the explorer; the exploration yields insights on this specific geographical/cultural location as well as how students might navigate the unknown. In contrast, a tourist is less engaged in the process of analysis, passing through space and observing what is easily viewable and accessible without benefit of insights from other scholars or historical documents; the experience yields impressions of the area without a great deal of in-depth background knowledge. It helps to consider what specifically students will be able to do as a result of this place-based experience—frame each outcome as: “Students will be able to…” The following Table 3.2 outlines the planning process that can be used when developing place-based inquiry activities. Often the information that appears in syllabi is very general, such as the information that appears in the left-hand column of the previous table. By connecting the more specific information in the right-hand column to the broader course goals, additional transparency is provided to students as they navigate their way through the course, and this helps communicate

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

67

Table 3.2 Planning process for place-based inquiry activities

Learning Goal or Purpose of the Acvity

Learning Outcome Students will be able to… (list specific skills, level of analysis)

Using mapping tools

Place 10 images with descripons on a map in the correct locaon.

Connecng abstract concepts with concrete observaons (e.g., idenfy examples of global connecons in the local community)

Locate 3 public noces or signs that reflect an economic connecon with a community or group of people who live in another country (excluding large corporaons such as McDonald’s or Starbucks).

Observaonal survey

Idenfy and photograph as many different plants as possible located within the boundaries of the designated area in a specified me.

Teambuilding and collaborave mapping

Coordinate with team members to collect and transfer data (e.g., “Idenfy and photograph as many different plants as possible”) to a shared online map in a short amount of me; present findings to the class.

why the course, assignments, and activities are structured the way they are. Not only should the course designer have the learning destination in mind, but students as well. Course Planning Worksheet During the process of design, it is helpful to visually track the intended learning goals and associated place-based skills with the actual course activities. As instructors, we often use these conceptual frameworks to develop our course activities. Placing the information in a table, such as the one that follows makes it possible to ensure these different aspects of our courses line up and also increases the transparency for students who want to know why they are undertaking assignments (Table 3.3). Although we can plan place-based activities as though everyone will start and end at the same point and proceed at the same pace, we need to adjust our instructional activities so that students who come to the

68

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Table 3.3 Place-based learning course planning worksheet Course content goals related to place-based learning project: Specific place-based skills that need to be mastered:

Skill 1

Appropriate location for teaching this skill: (Is this an initial excursion or mastery excursion?)

Skill 2

Appropriate location for teaching this skill:

Skill 3

Appropriate location for teaching this skill:

Final product

classroom with differing levels of preparation or different life experiences can thrive. In the next section, we’ll look more closely at how to plan by keeping in mind how to differentiate the levels of support that are needed for place-based inquiry. Student-Initiated Inquiry: The Continuum of Learning A key component of taking a critical approach to place-based learning is recentering instruction from the teacher to the student in a way that connects each student’s different understanding of place. Some students will have prior knowledge of the social context associated with each location, and others may not (Elwood, 2004; Miller, 2018). Some may make assumptions about the given location, based on the dominant spatial narrative or the controlling images2 that come from media coverage

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

69

of different locations. For this reason, it is important to begin placebased learning activities with the assessment of the students’ spatial understandings and preconceived notions. In addition, each student will come with differing levels of comfort associated with undertaking the inquiry process itself. Banchi and Bell (2008) describe four levels of a continuum of inquiry learning: confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry, and open inquiry. These levels differ in the amount of information that is provided to students, such as the guiding question, procedure, or expected results, and how much guidance is provided by the teacher. In the case of a confirmation inquiry, the teacher provides a guiding question and the procedure, and knows the expected results. In the case of open inquiries, students determine the questions. For example, GeoInquiries (https:// www.gisetc.com/geoinquiries/) provide guiding questions and step-bystep procedures that the teacher can use with students. At the other end of the continuum, WonderPoints (Dodge & Bober-Michel, 2011) and City as Text (Braid & Long, 2000) provide for more open inquiry, requiring that students independently engage in the inquiry process by making observations, collecting data, and reflecting on those observations. Placebased inquiry pedagogies that are student-driven differ from taking a deductive approach and testing specific hypotheses that are formulated in a classroom. Instead, students make initial observations and gather evidence before they pursue an identified outcome or task. In this way, students generate their own questions, which is an important element of inquiry-driven learning. We’ll look more closely at these three examples in the section that follows. Emerging within the geography education community, GeoInquiries were designed to complement the standards of learning used in U.S. K-12 schools. GeoInquiries shifted the focus of place-based assignments beyond simply getting right answers to inspiring students to explore questions using GIS (Baker, 2015). Our second example that focuses more on student-generated questions is WonderPoints, the main focus of which is to ask why things exist where they do. Bernie Dodge proposed this student-driven inquiry process that includes collecting data (Dodge & Bober-Michel, 2011). Like GeoInquiries, the strength of WonderPoints is stimulating the students’ curiosity based on concrete observations, though the WonderPoints model provides for learning on location. Students utilize the inquiry process by following an identified sequence:

70

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

(1) Identify a plot of ground; (2) Go out as a class to capture voice notes and geotagged photos; (3) Propose interesting questions; and (4) Post questions and rate them based on level of interest, and then find the answers (Dodge, 2011). Emerging from the honors community, the City as Text or Place as Text approach pioneered by Bernice Braid (Braid & Long, 2000) challenges students to “read” places much like they read a written text, an idea that is similar to Friere’s idea of reading the world. Be it a local neighborhood or a natural environment, the place as text approach stimulated conversation about place-based inquiry in many disciplines within higher education. Braid and Long reference the investigations of urban planners such as William Foote Whyte and Jane Jacobs, suggesting that students make systematic observations and map patterns of social interactions. To focus their exploration of urban areas, Braid and Long incorporate Jacobs’ general habits of thought, which were outlined in her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities: 1. Think about processes; 2. Work inductively, reasoning from the particulars to the general, rather than the reverse; and 3. Seek the ‘un-average’ clues involving very small quantities, which reveal the way larger and more ‘average’ quantities are operating (Jacobs, 1992, p. 440). To facilitate these habits of thought, City as Text (CAT) activities are usually designed around four strategies that structure the students’ onsite inquiries: mapping, observing, listening and reflecting (see the text box that follows). CAT strategies generally follow Jacob’s inductive approach of moving from specific observations to observe more general trends (Braid, 2018; Braid & Long, 2010). Let’s take a closer look at the combination of inquiry strategies that make the City as Text methodology distinctive. Students begin the process with the standard approach of mapping or creating their own mental construction of the study location, by looking at the “kinds of buildings, points of interest, centers of activity and transportation routes” (Long, 2014, p. xi). At this point in the process, students are looking for visible patterns such as types of building use, traffic flow, or social activity, many of which do not appear on readily accessible maps (Long, 2014).

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

71

In the second step of the CAT process, students make observations, looking for what they can see as well as looking for what is missing, and uncovering any assumptions that they might hold about the study location. They are challenged to observe the unexpected as well as the expected, the familiar and the unfamiliar, the old and the new. Students are prompted to observe characteristics of the built environment such as “details of architecture” or “landscaping” as well as characteristics of the people who live in a particular location, i.e., “clothing, possessions, decoration, signage, and advertising” (Long, 2014, p. xi). The following series of inquiry questions focuses student attention on patterns of social interactions: • • • •

Does everybody seem to belong? Do some people seem lost or out of place? Why? Who talks to whom? In what ways is social interaction encouraged or discouraged? (Long, 2014, p. xi).

In addition, during this phase students initiate the reflection process by assessing their perceptions on how the people being observed might feel: “Are they stressed, purposeful, interesting, lonely?” (Long, 2014, pp. xi). While these first two components (mapping and observations) of the CAT are commonly found in many place-based inquiry approaches, the third component, listening, is distinctive. Here students are instructed to listen and talk with local residents: Listening—You will want to talk to as many people as you can and to find out from them what matters to them in their daily lives, what they need, what they enjoy, what bothers them, what they appreciate. Strike up conversations everywhere you go. Imagine yourself as somebody looking for a job or a place to live (try to find a local newspaper), and ask about such matters as where to find a place to live, where to find a cheap meal (or an expensive one), what the politics of the neighborhood are (do people like their neighborhood organization? the mayor? do they like working or living here?), what the history of the neighborhood is, what the general population of the neighborhood is like (age, race, class, profession, etc.), what people do to have a good time. An important strategy is eavesdropping: How are people talking to each other? What language(s) are

72

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

they using? What are they talking about? How are they connecting to (or disconnecting from) their surroundings as they converse? (Long, 2014, pp. xi–xii)

The final component of the City as Text methodology askes students to reflect more broadly about the patterns that they observe, to consider how all that they have noticed makes it possible to understand the study location. Importantly, at this point, students are asked to reflect on their own biases, and assess how those assumptions affect their research. The City as Text strategies engage students in gathering information from the field to identify patterns or themes. This distinctive feature of CAT may present a limitation for students who are in need of greater guidance in the inquiry process. CAT activities are intended to maximize student-initiated inquiries. Wolfensberger (2012) notes that this greater degree of freedom is a key characteristic of honors education. Flexibility serves the learning preferences of some students in many honors programs. Yet it is important to note that similar levels of freedom may overwhelm those students who have limited content knowledge, who have yet to develop observational skills, or who lack the sense of self-confidence needed to explore the unknown. In summary, for the inquiry approaches discussed thus far, a student’s previous experience may become part of the assignment. However, in most cases this information is not explicitly selected or evaluated as part of the planning process. Similarly, the contextual factors that shape a given location, such as economic inequality or historical injustice, may not be integral components of the learning activities described in this section. In models such as CAT, students may consider their own biases or their position relative to the community as a last step, after the investigation is completed. The critical inquiry approach to place-based learning differs from these examples because it draws on a student’s previous experience as well as the contextual factors that shape communities and natural environments. In the next section we’ll talk about how to design placebased activities taking into account the level of student readiness for those excursions.

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

73

Level of Student Readiness: Initial Excursions Versus Mastery Excursions Place-based learning requires mastery of four different kinds of knowledge: technology, navigation or wayfinding, observation, and the written and visual communication of findings. It would be overwhelming to expect students to be able to master all of these simultaneously without any previous experience. Therefore, the design of place-based learning activities must offer students the opportunity to learn each of the required skills incrementally, rather than requiring students to master multiple skills simultaneously (i.e., using a new technology while also mastering new observation skills and navigation at the same time). When considering how to break down specific spatial skills, it is helpful to consult instructional resources such as TeachSpatial (see http://teachspatial. org/), created in conjunction with the National Digital Science Library. These online modules include learning objectives, teaching resources, and weblinks, all indexed using spatial concepts and cross-referenced to standards of learning. In this section we talk about the design considerations that are associated with supporting learning, such as scaffolding assignments. Scaffold the Assignment We want to help support our students’ deeper learning, beyond simply placing objects on a map. To achieve this depth in understanding, it is important to design opportunities for students to acquire and practice the skills needed for mastery-level place-based learning: • Break down the skills and introduce them sequentially. • Provide students with information about the context in increasing levels of depth or specificity. • Select readings and support resources that highlight the learning objectives. These readings will form the basis of the students’ conceptual map as the activities unfold. • Review reading selections for disciplinary jargon—look for material that is directed to a general audience. Once students are engaged in an investigation, the instructor’s role will assist students in making connections between these conceptual materials

74

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

assigned such as scholarly readings and what they experience in the field. This process of making connections requires a “bridge” or scaffolding provided by the instructor. During the design phase, be sure to select the instructional materials in such a way that enables students to create mental structures (maps) for themselves. As instructors, we often select readings based on our own understanding of the course content and lose sight of the fact that the information is new to our students. The foundational readings selected for place-based learning activities should be reviewed with accessibility in mind. Those with a great deal of abstract conceptual content may require a great deal of discussion prior to application. An exemplary initiative for examining the scaffolding of studentcentered inquiry can be found in Bodzin and Beerer’s environmental literacy teacher development programs (2003, 2004). A product of that work includes the Science Teacher Inquiry Rubric (STIR), which offers a helpful way for teachers to evaluate their activities for the scaffolding needed to support the various stages of inquiry process. The goal is to design activities that shift the focus from teacher-centered to learner-centered, evaluating the following five dimensions: 1. Learners are engaged by scientifically oriented questions. 2. Learners give priority to evidence, which allows them to develop and evaluate explanations that address scientifically oriented questions. 3. Learners formulate explanations and conclusions from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions. 4. Learners evaluate their explanations in light of alternative explanations, particularly those reflecting scientific understanding. 5. Learners communicate and justify their proposed explanations (Bodzin & Beerer, 2003, p. 41). Scaffolding the technologies used during place-based learning is equally important. The curriculum developed for the Environmental Literacy and Inquiry project at Lehigh University (see https://eli.lehigh.edu/ sesi/instructional-framework) developed geospatial learning activities that explicitly reference the software and hardware components, and design initial GIS uses to be quick and intuitive for both teachers and students. Schlemper and Steward advocate scaffolding the inquiry learning process “to promote learning of geographic content and skills to prepare students

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

75

to actively engage in their communities, and make connections to career paths” (2019, p. 97). Sack and Roth (2017) illustrate the value of scaffolding with their “spiral curriculum approach” to open source cartography. Applying a constructivist approach, they structured a series of short lessons on mapping skills that included tutorials, lab assignments, and a final project. They identify a series of threshold concepts that were likely in need of reinforcement. As students proceed through Sack and Roth’s curriculum, the level of instructional support gradually decreases, making it possible for students to develop their proficiency: Initially, the instructor may demonstrate partial solutions to the problem and break the task down into highly structured and simplified steps that students can complete. Over time, lessons on the subject are progressively more generalized to require less structure and assistance – a withdrawal of the scaffold. When students have moved out of the zone of proximal development by adequately mastering a particular skill or topic, a new, more challenging topic may be introduced. (2017, p. 7)

Applying Vygotsky’s (1978) idea of the zone of proximal development (ZPD)3 to the design of place-based instruction holds great promise as an area of research, particularly for critical place-based inquiry. We know that students come to the classroom from so many different places and with so many different life experiences. The challenge is designing curriculum to serve all students, regardless of their starting points or their particular mix of experiences. Key Design Decisions The most effective assignments guide students toward the learning goals by highlighting the key concepts of the project and reinforcing those concepts at multiple points of the inquiry process. For example, course readings or class discussions can be used to frame classroom discussions; when students leave the classroom, they can later use the ideas in those readings to focus their observations and data collection. There are seven key decisions that help structure these critical place-based learning experiences: • WHERE students observe • WHAT students examine

76

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• HOW you (the instructor) will design your activities to meet learning objectives • WHY this place-based activity is being conducted • WHICH technologies will be used • WHO is participating in the mapping • WHOSE community is being mapped. Where During the planning phase, survey the locations that would make it possible to highlight the intended learning outcomes and situate the learning process. The physical as well as social dimensions of that location are important considerations. For example, the historical background of locations and the contextual factors that have shaped that particular location should be evaluated relative to the learning outcomes at hand. In selecting the geographic location to be explored, start small for initial activities when students are learning how to navigate outside the classroom. If students are learning to use technology to make observations about their environment, consider planning an excursion to the library or an on campus location to provide the opportunity for practicing these skills. Once students have demonstrated their proficiency in observation skills and then recording the observations, the planned activities can move to neighborhoods or even larger areas. Initial excursions should be framed or limited in some way. For example, students can build different geospatial skills by exploring on campus locations, familiar neighborhoods, a specific bus route, a park, a building lobby, specific blocks of a shopping street, or a public library. On initial excursions, ask students to focus on concrete learning outcomes, like observing what kinds of stores are present, or using mobile devices to geotag locations. Mastery excursions can expand to larger areas of exploration (such as neighborhoods, zones of a city, or student-selected locations) and incorporate more abstract themes for exploration (such as religious symbols or community borders). Consider the safety and comfort level of students, as well as their ease of access to the location of study. Prepare students to deal with community members or members of the general public, who may have questions about how and why they are being observed. Sending students into communities or natural environments can introduce the chance of

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

77

them being in danger. For example, should they be hiking along a nature trail, they could be exposed to poison ivy or a meandering snake. If they are exploring an urban area, they need to be mindful of crossing streets and navigating traffic. In both of these situations when students enter into communities, unless they are residents, they will be considered “outsiders”—and need to be sensitized to the associated responsibilities that come with navigating the terrain. It is possible that students will explore areas that are unfamiliar to them. Students may speak a different language or wear different clothing than the local residents. Or local residents may register concern when they observe students taking photos and video or recording data. Students are likely to have different comfort levels when exploring unfamiliar locations, so it is important to provide them with the type of foundation knowledge before entering the field and have discussions about how to respectfully collect data. Why “Why are we making this map? What will we do with the finished product? How can I help make the world a better place with this map? Can I be a ‘maptivist?’” Don’t automatically assume that students know the answers to questions like these. When designing place-based excursions, students need reminders of why they are learning outside of a classroom. Sometimes activities are intended to develop skills—in those cases let students know why building these skills is important. Will the product of this activity be used by future students? By community members? Or by the school? How will their efforts make a contribution to a community? All of these questions should be addressed when designing activities. Initial excursions that are intended to learn skills seldom yield results that will live outside of the classroom, or have a lasting community impact. These initial efforts generally take advantage of information that is provided by the instructor, or can be gathered easily through observing and recording specific information. As excursions proceed toward the mastery level, students are provided with less information and are required to work more independently. Mastery excursions could involve classroom products that have an audience beyond the classroom, or will be builtupon by future classes. For example, during an initial excursion students could be given a specific item to count such as the number of oak trees along a designated stretch of a creek bed. After mapping the location of the trees, they may return to the area to see if there are any other trees that grew in close proximity to the creek bed. In contrast, for a mastery

78

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

excursion students may be asked to contribute to a local citizen effort to identify and map the different flora and fauna growing within a local resource protection area. What What will the students do? What will they observe? Using the identified learning outcomes, frame the place-based activity. The purpose of placebased activities could be community building, developing observation skills, moving from specific observations to generalizations, or an exploration of themes or metaphors. In all cases, students will need practice in the beginning, so the focus should be simple. Once students have demonstrated a basic level of proficiency you can introduce a more complex, student-driven excursion. Initial excursions could be walking through a shopping mall and counting the number of times a different language is overheard. A mastery excursion might include documenting examples of economic, political, cultural and environmental global connections. More advanced excursions could ask students to select and collect the data that they believe they need to answer their own inquiry questions. Differentiate between initial and master excursions, concrete versus abstract thematic observations, virtual versus actual walking tours or integrative versus disciplinary investigations. How How the intended objective is accomplished depends on the combination of the instructional design variables that are selected. When designing an activity, control the amount of information that is “given,” recognizing that this does not mean the students will automatically “own” the information. Consciously decide the balance between how much information is provided relative to how much students need to figure out. By varying the amount of information provided and the instructional support offered as well as the type of information that provided, it is possible to guide students toward the intended goals. When the “text” students work with moves from the print on a page (one dimension) to the real world (multisensory), remember to factor in all the logistics required to engage with such a dynamic learning environment. Initial excursions might involve a student answering specific questions that are designed by the instructor. Mastery excursions might entail students determining the data needed to answer their own inquiry questions.

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

79

Which Technologies? During the planning phase, a decision needs to be made about which technologies will be used for the assignments. While it is possible to conduct place-based learning activities or create maps without technology, the evolution of geospatial technology has made it possible to tell the story of a place in dynamic ways. Geospatial technologies typically include geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing, image analysis, and related location-based technologies. We are now at a moment when both desktop and mobile computing have easy-to-use (and many free) geospatial technologies available which can be used without explicit training (Langran & Baker, 2016). The devices selected depend on the data to be collected. A smartphone or web-enabled tablet can capture images, audio and video, and location, and upload them to an online map from the field. However, it can also be done by capturing the photos/videos using a digital camera or non-connected tablet, and writing the description while noting the exact location to upload the data from the field once returning to internet connectivity, and possibly from a desktop computer. Initial excursions could involve training to use a mobile device by uploading a photo taking on campus to an online map. A mastery excursion would build on training that has already occurred, focusing on collecting field data and then analyzing the data back in the classroom. Who Who is participating in the place-based learning? Our students are exploring local communities or environments. In addition our students, we need to consider all those who become involved in place-based learning activities when we leave the confines of a classroom. The design process necessarily considers the various perspectives being represented in planned activities. Ask what perspectives should be included, but also consider if their perspectives are missing from the planned activities. Students should be prompted to consider how their own perspective influences the end product. Are the students “outsiders” in the community they are exploring? If they are outsiders, how might you take into account the view of those who live or work in the communities that are being observed? And finally, who owns the data that are collected during place-based activities? Learning to collaborate is a goal that is often stressed in twenty-first Century Learning Design. In addition to being an important skill, we

80

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

need to consider that this new knowledge is constructed, not transmitted. If we follow some of the learning theories such as situated learning, the interdependence of group work and conversations that occur as a member of a group is critical to the success of constructing new knowledge. The role of peers in cooperative learning experiences is to help process the information and experiences. In addition, group work can motivate students to apply knowledge and take responsibility for their learning. While group excursions may present scheduling challenges and the need for some refereeing by the instructor, it is important to monitor each group, guiding group dynamics as they unfold. It is helpful to spend some time prior to any group work, going over team building, group roles (such as the Six Hats model [de Bono, 1985]), as well as building in accountability in the form of self and peer evaluations. Reserve some class time for reflection and discussion on the group process to help mitigate these issues. Having small group excursions can also give another resource for troubleshooting technical issues. When one student is alone and trying to collect data but is thwarted by the technology (whether because of user error or technology malfunction), the excursion can be a bust. However, with another person to help troubleshoot or with an additional device, the chances of this are lowered. Initial excursions can occur with an entire class venturing into the field, and mastery excursions can divide up the investigations so that students work in small groups or pairs. Whose Community? Social Location and Community Impact If the mapping is to be done in an area populated by people, we need to consider whose community is being mapped, and how they might feel about living within the focus of our investigation. Are the residents or passersby aware of being observed? What kind of trust or mistrust might exist based on previous experiences with outsiders in the community? What kinds of historical patterns exist? Is there a discourse with the local community? Place-based projects that focus on ecosystems and habitat of flora and fauna, of course need to respect the integrity of the local environment, taking care not to disturb the area. This may present challenges should students leave established trails.

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

81

Other Considerations when Planning for Placed -based Learning Enabling location services on a mobile phone or tablet will allow students to easily locate themselves, navigate, and post the geolocated data to a shared online map. However, there are two important considerations while requiring students to complete this type of assignment. First, enabling location devices and posting to the online map from the field require transmitting data. Depending on the students’ data usage plan, this type of assignment may represent a cost that is too much for some students. Second, locational privacy may be a concern for some students. With location services turned on, the phone will serve as a beacon to transmit their location to the phone company and app developers who can collect location data in real time or retrospectively (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2020). Rather than viewing this as a barrier, use this as an opportunity to discuss with students their awareness of location tracking on their phones, and the ability to limit or turn off these services. While it is convenient to have the local weather show up automatically, be able to search for nearby restaurants or the nearest bus stop, or have an app know the closest store for ordering coffee, having a conversation with students about awareness of these business practices can help them become privacy advocates. If there are some students who either don’t want to or cannot post data from the field, then it is possible to have them collect whatever data they need, record their exact location, and post it once they have access to a computer and internet. In the next section, we take a closer look at the preparations needed before field exploration as well as the reflection process during and after the field exploration. Field Exploration: Before, During, and After Going out into the field is a multistep process, with decision-making tasks that need to occur before, during, and after the excursions. While the items in the list in Table 3.4 are intended to be completed by the students, it is important to consider these during the design phase to make sure time for each step is built into the course. Because for some students these may be new and unfamiliar tasks, it can help to model the processes the first time through by performing “think alouds,” verbally walking the students through your thought process behind each decision. Task lists such as this can be helpful for students to organize their learning. As students experience place-based inquiry, assessment can also be used as a tool that guides students, and helps students stay the

82

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Table 3.4 Student tasks for field exploration: before, during, and after Before you go into the field

● ● ●

●

● ● ●

When you are in the field

● ● ● ●

When you return

● ● ●

Reflect on goal of the journey Locate where you are going Reflect on your personal connecons between the desnaon and your previous experiences or knowledge. Be sure to separate your assumpons from actual observaons or experience. Contextualize the locaon of invesgaon. Consider how the social context was shaped by economic inequalies or paerns of historical injusce may have shaped this locaon. Generate inquiry quesons Collect any needed informaon to use your me more effecvely Clarify expectaons regarding what you should do while on the journey Formulate guiding quesons Use the instruconal prompts or guiding quesons to focus your observaons. Record your observaons List any addional quesons that you would like to research upon return to the classroom Synthesize Organize Re-frame

course. In the next section, we discuss how assessment plays a key role in ensuring students don’t wander off task or feel overwhelmed by the endless possibilities that are presented by place-based inquiry.

Assessment In place-based learning environments, assessment can be used to intentionally guide learning. These can include formative (think “assessment for learning,” smaller assessments that help teachers and students monitor learning), summative (e.g., “final products”), and transformative (“institution-level:” Wehlburg [2008] advocates for transformative assessments that are integrated at both the institutional level as well as within the classroom that reinforce student-centered learning). In addition to evaluating final products (summative assessment), formative assessment techniques as well as rubrics can offer additional guidance when the walls of the classroom disappear. Field-based learning presents an opportunity for students to wander off-task and explore tangential paths that

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

83

delay reaching the intended educational objectives. When we take this into account we can minimize the amount trial and error our students experience by building in guidance during the design process. Researchers suggest that formative assessment can support meaningful learning in geography (Bijsterbosch, van der Schee, & Kuiper, 2017; Lane & Bourke, 2017). They caution against overreliance on one type of assessment, noting that many teachers often focus on measuring terminology or factual knowledge. Indeed, the potential of formative assessment has yet to be fully realized in many classrooms. Educators can offer some of the guidance during field excursions by scaffolding the introduction of difficult concepts sequentially through a spiral curriculum approach similar to that used by Sack and Roth (2017). They designed a web cartography curriculum around “threshold concepts” or those ideas that students found most problematic. By scaffolding instruction so that students were exposed to these concepts repeatedly with varying levels of instructor guidance, the researchers were able to support student learning by creating a path for the mastery of mapping skills. In a similar way, instructors can design place-based learning excursions that support student learning in the field by providing students with rubrics that help focus their attention on the desired learning outcomes, thereby reducing the impact of information overload that is found in experiential learning environments. When students first explore a given location, providing them with confirmation that they are using the right process is an important form of instructional support. This type of support shifts attention from looking for the right answer and guessing what the teacher is “looking for” to developing their observational skills. By restating the key aspects of the observation process, assessment tools can offer confirmation that the activities they are undertaking should yield the intended educational benefits. In addition, rubrics can guide students toward the intended learning goal by highlighting what students should be learning and providing transparency in the grading process. For example, Janine worked with a librarian, Marcia Dursi, to develop this rubric for assessing an information literacy assignment that involved collecting and mapping images of a community. This rubric can be useful for both the instructor and the students to get a sense of where each student is in the learning process. The criteria in the left-hand column are connected to Information Literacy and Visual Literacy standards (Table 3.5).

84

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Table 3.5 Sample mapping & information literacy rubric (Modified from Dursi & DeWitt, 2012) Mapping Maps provide an image of the connecon between people and place (the physical seng, social interacons, and cultural meanings) Criteria

Introductory Level

Intermediate Level

Advanced Level

Student needs detailed instrucon and scaffolding from the instructor

Student needs moderate instrucon with several models and examples to complete assignments

Student understands instrucons with lile explanaon, scaffolding, or modeling from instructor to complete assignments

Student defines and arculates the need for informaon (InfoLit 1 PI 1)

Student explores general informaon sources to increase familiarity with the topic only at the urging of the instructor

Student explores general informaon sources to increase familiarity with the area before suggeson by instructor

Student explores general informaon sources provided by the instructor and adds new sources independently

Student idenfies a variety of images (Vislit 1 PI 2)

Student has limited map reading abilies

Student can locate an area on a map

Student knows how to use a map and all its features

Student uses informaon effecvely to accomplish a specific purpose (Infolit 4)

Student applies provided informaon to create a mapping sequence

Student applies new and prior informaon to create a mapping sequence

Student arculates knowledge and skills transferred from prior experiences and incorporates new knowledge to create a mapping sequence

Student idenfies informaon relevant to an image's meaning (Vislit 3 PI 1)

Student is told what to view

Student looks carefully at images, details, relaonships among things but fails to noce key components

Student looks carefully at images, details, relaonships among things and recognizes when more informaon is needed

Student idenfies the physical, technical and design components of an area (Vislit 3 PI 3)

Student idenficaon of the area's buildings and green spaces, pedestrian and vehicle traffic flow, and social acvity is superficial

Student idenficaon of the area is less superficial due to the use of informaon provided by instructor

Student idenficaon of the area is detailed drawing on instructor provided informaon and addional informaon provided by the student.

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

85

If the intention of the rubric is to give targeted feedback to the student, a more open-ended approach such as the single-point rubric may be appropriate. This type of rubric is different because it only describes how to meet the level of “proficient” (listed in the Table 3.6 rubric in the column labeled “Yes”); teachers use it because it offers more flexibility for students to go above the level of proficient since it does not specify how to go above, and does not contain the same boundaries as the traditional analytic or holistic rubric. It takes less time to create, and while it may take more time to give written feedback with this type of rubric, the feedback is more targeted and can provide students with a better sense of where they are. The rubric in Table 3.6 was used for a community exploration assignment in a teacher education course that used Esri StoryMaps.

Chapter Conclusion: Designing for Success in Critical Place-Based Inquiry Inquiry-based learning may appear to have an emergent course design, where much of the track of course assignments is directed by the students’ own questions and decision-making. In reality, the instructor is much more than a “guide on the side;” careful course design is required for effective critical place-based inquiry experiences that give students a sense that they are leaving your course with the skills and motivation needed to “map for a better world.” Once the course is designed, the instructor still has an active role to play to facilitate the learning, which is the topic of our next chapter.

Notes 1. The classic work on the social construction of reality was conducted by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann titled The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1967). 2. The term controlling image was introduced by Patricia Hill Collins in her chapter titled “Mammies, Matriarchs and Other Controlling Images” from her 2000 book, Black Feminist Thought. 3. The ZPD is “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).

86

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Table 3.6 Sample single-point rubric for community exploration Criteria

Not Yet…

Yes

Yes, and…

This column is inially le blank, and later filled in for each student with feedback on how to improve for next me/areas that need work.

This column lists the criteria to be considered “proficient.”

This column is inially le blank, and later filled in for each student with feedback on how the student exceeded the level of “proficient.”

Geolocated Photos

8-10 photos are located on a StoryMap

Descripon of community

Each photo has an accompanying descripon of who lives there (physical signs, linguisc cues, dress, food, gathering places, etc.)

Descripon of your personal experience during your visit

Somewhere within the StoryMap, a descripon is included of where you felt on the connua of comfortable/uncomfort able, included/excluded, interested/disinterested

Sense of Place

The StoryMap tells the story of a neighborhood predominantly inhabited by one group, and uses a variety of indicators of contextual factors (social, polical, historic, and economic dimensions)

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

87

References Baker, T. R. (2015). GeoInquiries: Maps and data for everyone. The Geography Teacher, 12(3), 128–131. Banchi, H., & Bell, R. (2008). The many levels of inquiry. Science & Children, 46(2), 26–29. Bednarz, S. W., Bettis, N. C., Boehm, R. G., DeSouza, A. R., Downs R. M., Marran, J. F., … Salter, C. L. (1994). Geography for life: National geography standards. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. Beerer, K. M. & Bodzin, A. M. (2004). How to develop inquiring minds. Journal of Staff Development, 25(4), 43–47. Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Bijsterbosch, E., van der Schee, J., & Kuiper, W. (2017). Meaningful learning and summative assessment in geography education: An analysis in secondary education in the Netherlands. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 26(1), 17–35. Bodenhamer, D., Corrigan, J., & Harris. T. (Eds.). (2015). Introduction: Deep maps and the spatial humanities. In Deep maps and spatial narratives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Bodzin, A. M., & Beerer, K. M. (2003). Promoting inquiry-based science instruction: The validation of the science teacher inquiry rubric (STIR). Journal of Elementary Science Education, 15(2), 39–49. Braid, B. (2018). Majoring in the minor: A closer look at experiential learning. Honors in Practice, 14, 91–98. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1 177590. Braid, B., & Long, A. (2000). Place as text: Approaches to active learning. National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series. Braid, B., & Long, A. (2010). Place as text: Approaches to active learning (2nd ed.). Lincoln, NE: National Collegiate Honors Council, NCHC Monograph Series. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED566722.pdf. Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge. de Bono, E. (1985). Six thinking hats: An essential approach to business management. New York, NY: Little, Brown & Company. Dodge, B. (2011, June 29). WonderPoints: A structure for engaging curiosity about the outdoors with mobile devices [Conference presentation]. Philadelphia, PA: International Society for Technology in Education. Dodge, B., & Bober-Michel, M. (2011). Architectures for mobile learning. In M. Koehler & P. Mishra (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International (pp. 3057–3060). Chesapeake, VA, USA: AACE.

88

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Dursi, M., & DeWitt, J. (2012, July 10). Designing urban excursions: Visual and information literacy [Conference presentation]. Brooklyn, NY: International Visual Sociology Association. Electronic Frontier Foundation. (2020). Locational Privacy [webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/issues/location-privacy. Elwood, S. A. (2004). Experiential learning, spatial practice, and critical urban geographies. The Journal of Geography, 103(2), 55–63. Favier, T. T. (2011). Geographic information systems in inquiry-based secondary geography education. Doctoral dissertation, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Favier, T. T., & van der Schee, J. A. (2012). Exploring the characteristics of an optimal design for inquiry-based geography education with Geographic Information Systems. Computers & Education, 58, 666–677. Favier, T. T., & van der Schee, J. A. (2014). The effects of geography lessons with geospatial technologies on the development of high school students’ relational thinking. Computers & Education, 76, 225–236. Ferguson, R., Coughlan, T., Egelandsdal, K., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hillaire, G., … Whitelock, D. (2019). Innovating pedagogy 2019: Open university innovation report 7 . Milton Keynes, UK: The Open University. Retrieved from https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2019.pdf. Freire, P. (2011). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group (Original work published 1970, New York, NY: Herder and Herder). Freire, P., & Campos, M. D. (1990, December). Reading the world. The Unesco Courier. Jacobs, J. (1992). The death and life of great American cities. New York, NY: Vintage. Lane, R., & Bourke, T. (2017). Assessment in geography education: A systematic review. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 28(1), 22–36. Langran, E., & Baker, T. R. (2016). Geospatial technologies in teacher education: A brief overview. Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education, 16(3). Retrieved from https://www.citejournal.org/volume-16/issue-316/editorial/geospatial-technologies-in-teacher-education-a-brief-overview. Long, A. (2014). Writing on your feet: Reflective practices in City as Text™: A tribute to the career of Bernice Braid. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Monographs Series, 24. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcmo no/24. McInerney, P., Smyth, J., & Down, B. (2011). ‘Coming to a place near you?’ The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 3–16.

3

THE DESIGN OF CRITICAL PLACE-BASED INQUIRY

89

Miller, H. K. (2018). Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story. Environmental Education Research, 24(6), 845–858. Sack, C. M., & Roth, R. E. (2017). Design and evaluation of an open web platform cartography lab curriculum. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41(1), 1–23. Schlemper, M. B., & Steward, V. C. (2019). Cultivating student citizens: Using critical pedagogy of place curriculum to enhance spatial thinking, civic engagement and inquiry through student-generated topics. In E. E. Shin & S. W. Bednarz (Eds.), Spatial citizenship education: Citizenship through geography (pp. 88–115). New York, NY: Routledge. Scully, A. (2012). Decolonization, reinhabitation and reconciliation: Aboriginal and place-based education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 17, 148–158. Vasquez, V. M., Janks, H., & Comber, B. (2019). Critical literacy as a way of being and doing. Language Arts, 96(5), 300–311. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wehlburg, C. (2008). Promoting integrated and transformative assessment: A deeper focus on student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Wolfensberger, M. V. C. (2012). Teaching for excellence: Honors pedagogies revealed. Munster, Germany: Waxman Publishing Company.

CHAPTER 4

Facilitating Student Learning

Vignette: When students rant and when they rave Sometimes things don’t go as planned. That would be an understatement when it came to our first effort to send students with tablets into the field. We received a university grant for using mobile technologies to engage students in an inquiry-driven, place-based learning project. This grant was awarded when the university was encouraging faculty to use the local community as a classroom. We spent a great deal of time carefully planning our respective assignments, and even more time configuring the mobile devices and creating the platforms for logging data. Like most pilot projects, once we finished the semester we had a list of planned improvements. We were optimistic about the potential of this pedagogy and felt the course activities went quite well (Fig. 4.1). Imagine our surprise when we accessed the course evaluations at the end of the semester! While most students had something positive to say, some students responded to mapping activities in contradictory ways. One student found that mapping activities made it possible to “categorize things so it made it easy to see where globalization or interconnectedness occurred” while another student claimed that the assigned neighborhood “is not global and the assignment felt nearly impossible to complete.” Yet another student thought the assignment gave “a reason to visit an area, though I was born here, [it was] an entirely new experience” while another student wished that “we could look around more and fill in gaps later, we missed a lot trying to edit and collect.” (Student course evaluations, SOC 203 & ED 526, 2013; Reflections, J. DeWitt & E. Langran)

© The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_4

91

92

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Fig. 4.1 Early attempt challenges

Divergent student responses such as those described above underscore the importance of developing a robust set of facilitation strategies for place-based learning, including differentiating instructional activities. What works for some students does not work for others! While this observation is not breaking news and certainly applies to all types of instruction, the range of student responses that are expressed when undertaking placebased experiential learning often vary dramatically. Any type of inquiry learning can be a step outside of the comfort zone of students who are new to this type of student-initiated process. Not all students will be able to move from concrete to abstract conceptualization without significant support. Identifying where a knowledge gap exists is crucial if we are to assist all learners in these environments. This process is of course more complicated when students are in the field rather than sitting in the same classroom. We observed that many of our students lacked the inquiry skills needed to transfer knowledge from classroom presentations to fieldwork, and were uncomfortable structuring their fieldwork independently. In fact, some students voiced a preference for more traditional course activities like writing papers rather than exploring the local community. Strengthening students’ skills and motivation for inquiry will help our students to build confidence and the autonomy or self-regulation needed to conduct fieldwork. Out in the field, students are bombarded with information and must hone in on that which is key for accomplishing their objective. Place-based experiential learning environments present students with information from multiple sources (i.e., sights, sounds, or smells) that can lead to sensory overload. Some students might pursue interesting tangents unrelated to the intended learning outcomes, wandering off-task and falling

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

93

short of expectations. While this sort of exploring can be productive, or even desirable, these are unfamiliar learning environments for many. In these situations, students need a clear understanding of the teachers’ expectations—what they are supposed to be doing while in the field. Even when the intended learning objective is open-ended exploration, students benefit from a well-defined purpose that serves to focus their activities while in the field. In this chapter we will consider different facilitation strategies that can maximize the effectiveness of a critical approach to place-based inquiry, as well as the tensions and challenges that must be approached intentionally. Some students handle the challenge of staying focused and being task-oriented easily—they are comfortable prioritizing information relative to a given goal. Other students do better when facilitation strategies constantly guide them toward intended learning during field activities. For most students, realizing the potential gains of a place-based learning environment depends on a unique combination of factors that includes the students’ learner profile, previous learning experiences, the structure of the assignment, and the facilitation strategies used by instructors. In addition, place-based inquiry assignments must be designed to take into account what students have learned outside the classroom setting. As Elwood (2004) notes, students bring “spatial narratives” that may be limited or inaccurate and must given the opportunity to reflect on how the social context shapes the present and the past of the locations they explore.

Facilitation Strategies In the last chapter, we discussed how to design the learning activities and assessments for place-based learning. As students explore a given location and then move toward analysis, the instructor’s use of the following strategies assists students in the process of connecting their field experiences with the identified goals of learning. 1. FOCUS the assignment on key concepts or course themes. 2. SEQUENCE contextual information and use background resources sparingly.

94

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

3. ALIGN the type of information resource with the desired learning outcome. 4. INTERACT with students as they record information. 5. FRAME field assignments to scaffold the process of making connections. 6. READ THE WORLD as an individual and in a group. 7. TELL THE STORIES from multiple perspectives. In the sections that follow, we discuss each strategy and give examples from our own classroom experiences. Strategy #1: FOCUS the assignment on key concepts or themes that students should learn prior to sending them out for exploration; this process of making connections often requires scaffolding. As the instructor, you will (or certainly should!) have a vision for what students should be able to do as a result of the fieldwork and how that connects to the big ideas and essential questions of the course. Keep in mind that students may not automatically make these connections without explicit articulations that occur frequently throughout place-based inquiry (one approach Elizabeth uses in her classes is to write a section of the lesson plans titled WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?”). Help students understand why they are being asked to complete an activity by articulating big ideas, essential questions, and themes. Constantly reiterating this focus will help guide students during their field investigations, particularly when the assignment allows students a choice of destinations in the field. The assignment directions should provide students with a way to connect their field activities to these key concepts or themes. Example of Strategy #1: The Béziers Challenge. Scavenger hunts can be an engaging way to jump-start place-based learning field activities, but without connecting to the bigger picture, these activities do not automatically lead to understanding. Having students well-versed in the course themes prior to fieldwork can facilitate learning by allowing them to build a conceptual framework for understanding exploration outside the classroom. In a study abroad program titled “Diversity, Community and The Church,” Janine developed this first-day activity modeling to connect field experience with course themes. Students were given a scavenger hunt list that required them to read a map and look for clues at a series of designated destinations. The first-day onsite, students were given a map and a list of locations to visit. In preparation for the trip, readings focused their attention on a series of course themes that would be constantly referenced

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

95

throughout the trip. Students were provided with the following guidance in preparation for their fieldwork: The readings that we do before our trip provide you with the foundation for a cross-cultural understanding of the diverse groups who live in the French communities we visit. You will also become familiar with the research methods we use while in those communities. As you read, highlight any connections to the following themes: • Continuity versus change: How have the unique combination of historical events in France shaped social life in the communities within Béziers and Paris today? For example, how has the changing relationship between Catholic Church and French state influenced community life over time: de-Christianization, secularization, laïcité, meaning of cultural symbols such as the fleur-de-lis? • Diversity: How has France dealt with diversity within their national borders? Is this similar or different from the way we approach diversity in the United States? During our trip, we will focus on religious diversity in France: Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM), WWII, 2004 ban on conspicuous religious symbols? • Community: How well do the ideas of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim describe social life in the communities of Béziers and Paris today (ideas like social facts, social solidarity, shared values, social order, individual and community, comparison of societies)? How did the RSHM congregation adapt over time to serve the needs in their local communities around the world? • Boundaries of belonging: What visual research methods can we use to observe social boundaries in the communities of Béziers and Paris? What are some the cultural symbols used to designate insiders from outsiders, or believers from non-believers? What about tourists from locals? (Assignment excerpt, SOC 361-GC: “Diversity, Community, and The Church,” J. DeWitt, 2015)

Before their fieldwork, students develop a conceptual framework, as well as a vocabulary for discussing the concepts of the course. Focusing the concepts and themes of the course does not mean the students need to be given all of the information prior to exploration; by carefully sequencing access to that information, teachers can make sure students are not overwhelmed beforehand.

96

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Strategy #2: SEQUENCE background knowledge and decide what information is absolutely necessary before students head into the field. In the previous example, students were given readings that focused on the main course themes prior to the excursion because this was a study abroad course. Exercise discretion—it is not necessary to frontload all of the course information. Consider cognitive load to decide what can be introduced when students return from their field experience. Sequencing the availability of information increases the chance that students are able to make connections and remain focused on the main objective of the assignment. In several learning approaches, such as problem-based learning, the students are exposed to the problem before they are given a model or theory (Drennon, 2005). Although providing information about the course themes prior to fieldwork is a useful tool for focusing instruction, there are times when it may be better to immerse students without a great deal of information—remember our vignette in Chapter 1 when students were instructed to arrive in a cemetery? For some field experiences, it may be better to leave room for wondering and reflection by selectively sequencing background knowledge, depending on the course objectives. Example of Strategy #2: Albuquerque Walkabout. The following is an example from Janine’s experience as a student taking the City as Text workshop, “Arts, Music, Literature: Cultures and Identity in Albuquerque and Santa Fe,” offered by the National Collegiate Honors Council. Participants were given an extensive list of readings about cities (some of which addressed the local history and development of Albuquerque and Santa Fe). They were asked to answer a series of questions, and to keep a journal reflecting our experiences. Notice that Janine was knowledgeable about the course themes, but still had room to ask questions. Walkabout…compendium of impressions, questions, and thoughts about whether or not this is a “city” and if it is, what kind it seems to be As I completed the readings, I wrestled with the ideas presented in Jane Jacob’s essay, “The kind of problem a city is…” Although I really like her notion of recognizing different kinds of problems, I wasn’t sure I really understood the claims being made. What does it mean to consider a city as “a problem?” How was she defining a city? Was she referring to a city as a “thing” in the same way many refer to “society?” Was my disciplinary

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

97

lens getting in the way of appreciating her insights? I don’t think of a city as a “what”—not a thing, but a series of relationships between many groups of people, communities… some are organized, some conscious of one another, some interact with intention and others not. How would I see the difference between disorganized and organized complexity—by observing the particular, by using inductive observations like an ethnographer? Probably overthinking, better to just go experience, take it all in and then reflect… When on our initial walkabout, I put the readings on hold to stay focused on our immediate task—continuously reaching for those guiding questions to help me sort through the overwhelming amounts of information presented by our city as text (Albuquerque). In the process of observing anything and everything that could provide greater insights on Albuquerque there was an excitement in exploring the unknown, excitement necessarily directed by purpose. This is the type of focus and discipline scholars learn over time, but students must be taught if we hope their results are meaningful. (Journal entry excerpt, J. DeWitt, 2011)

The previous example illustrates the importance of sequencing background knowledge and anchoring the information provided by making explicit connections to the field excursion activities. The sequencing of technology also needs to be considered. Rather than asking students to utilize a new app while applying a new conceptual framework to an unfamiliar location which could lead to cognitive overload, consider scaling back in one or more of those areas. For example, if students are asked to use a technology with which they are already familiar, such as taking a photo on the first excursion, then they are more able to focus on the other new tasks, which might include exploring a new location or making connections to a newly introduced course theme. When introducing a new technology, such as an app for collecting data for GIS mapping, try reusing a familiar or previously visited location. By sticking with the application of a conceptual framework model that was already used in a previous excursion, it becomes possible to learn new technology skills. Even when tasks are carefully sequenced, testing out the technology together during class is critical for ensuring success. The image from the email Elizabeth wrote at the top of this chapter had a subject line titled “trainwreck” because of so many unforeseen obstacles while setting up the

98

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

technology. We encountered a series of challenges during the configuring of the new tablets that we were loaning to some students. The app we were planning to use was incompatible with the latest update on some of our mobile devices. On top of the technical glitches, the weather was terrible. We did learn a lot about the technology we were using, and Elizabeth was glad to have the opportunity to test out the devices with the students so that she could teach and help troubleshoot the use of the app we were using. The testing process meant that the students became comfortable with the tools they would be using in the field. Had we tried to send them out without working together during our class time, there is no doubt we would have received a lot of emails from students who were having problems and encountering frustration. Even though young adults seem to be quite facile with their phones, they do not necessarily have a similar comfort level with troubleshooting technology. Strategy #3: ALIGN the type of information resource with the desired learning outcome. Many professors assign readings from textbooks or academic journals, both of which present ideas in an abstract format. Remember Dale’s Cone of Experience from Chapter 2? When possible, select a range of resources that includes popular media, video, visuals, and audio resources. While information from scholarly journals or textbooks is valuable for understanding a particular activity, relying solely on these types of text-based resources makes it more difficult for students to engage in place-based inquiry. Better is to include realworld discussions of the subject at hand. Often the traditional texts that many faculty rely on as background information present material at an abstract level. When students first engage in place-based learning, their field observations will necessarily be specific and concrete. Students need support shifting between these different types of information resources and different levels of analysis. Example of Strategy #3: The Global Village. The following example is from a course that Janine co-taught with Loes Damhof, her colleague in the Netherlands. Their Global Village course shows how students were prepared to go into the local community in search of evidence of globalization. After completing course readings, teams of students in the USA and in the Netherlands took a virtual tour of an assigned neighborhood areas using Google Maps or Google Earth. They were looking for observable features (signscapes) that were mentioned in a journal article that provided background information.

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

99

Use the research conducted by Hall and Datta (2010) to take a deeper look at your assigned shopping street by reading the “signscapes.” Consider how these signscapes might reflect the migration stories of those living in each community. According to these researchers, signscapes can offer evidence of global connections, such as the connections between: • migrant entrepreneurs and the different clienteles they serve in each community, • the colonial pasts of your community and postcolonial present of that community, • the ordinary local and the cosmopolitan global city, and • everyday livelihoods and economic exchanges (Hall & Datta, 2010, p. 71) Review this article to refine your group’s guiding questions. These guiding questions will focus your observations while in the field. The first step in applying this research to your project is to “translate” the conceptual language that these authors use to describe their research. Note that this is a complex article to read because the authors use a lot of terminology that is used by other scholars who study migration and globalization. As you read the article, identify the main ideas—work as a team to be sure everyone on your team is able to answer the following questions: 1. WHAT is included in a signscape? If you were to examine signscapes, list all the kinds of things you could observe in a particular location. 2. The authors use the term “translocal.” How is this idea related to the process of globalization? What about migration? What visual evidence might you see of translocal connections? 3. HOW can we read signscapes to tell us about migration patterns in specific communities? (Assignment excerpt, SOC 203, “The Global Village,” J. DeWitt, 2017, adapted from Hall & Datta, 2010)

In this example, the students used Google mapping visualizations to supplement their understanding from the readings. This background research provided the foundation for later field excursions. There is an increasing number of online spatial resources available for viewing geolocated data that can serve as a bridge to help students move from the abstract concepts in assigned readings as they develop spatial thinking and take advantage of real-world examples. If students are ultimately going to create their own map, then getting them to start thinking about how to

100

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

represent data on a map by showing examples from early in the course will help build these spatial thinking skills. Strategy #4: FRAME the field experience. Earlier we talked about the importance of focusing the assignment on key concepts or themes prior to entering the field. This conceptual framework can become a guide during the place-based inquires by offering scaffolding as students make connections between the background knowledge gained from classroom instruction or course readings and new field experiences. As students are embarking on their fieldwork, providing them with a clear link back to your course themes will provide them a sense of which lens or selective criteria they should use as they sort through the many possible observations presented within the location of study. Example of Strategy #4: The Béziers Challenge. Referring back to the example offered before of Janine’s study abroad trip to Béziers, the field assignments were designed so that students could transfer the conceptual framework to the field. On the day of the assignment, students were given paper copies of a map and a handout that they could refer to during their quest. Before departure we reviewed the map by identifying all the locations that were on our list, including our beginning and end points. During this discussion before departing, a few students observed that some of the streets in Béziers seemed to wind around quite a bit, while others appeared on more of a planned grid. Although we acknowledged that the question was an interesting one, we left it unanswered initially—hoping that students would revisit this question as they explored the city. In the passage that follows the framing for this field excursion is presented: The Béziers Challenge The purpose of your inquiry today is to learn your way around and look for clues that would tell you about different communities in Béziers. Visit as many of the following destinations as possible. Begin your day by consulting your map to determine the best route before leaving the hotel lobby. Keep in mind you must arrive at the final destination on this list no later than 2:45 pm. During your journey identify connections to our course themes. Look for cultural artifacts that offer evidence of the communities of people who lived in Béziers long ago or who currently live in Béziers. Take a photo of your team on location and record where

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

101

you are on the map when capturing the photo. Based on your adventure, make a list of questions you might ask someone who lives in Béziers. (Assignment excerpt, SOC 361-GC: “Diversity, Community, and The Church,” J. DeWitt, 2015)

In this activity, students visited selected sites that held significance relative to the course themes. The prompts provided to students helped them connect each location to the overall course themes. For example, included on the list were a number of churches, because we were considering the central role that churches played in early medieval cities. The following prompt was provided for students who were exploring Église St. Jacques in Béziers: Today you will visit a number of churches. Photo-document any exterior details that would allow you to identify this church later. Notice any religious symbols, statues, or signage. In each case, use your map to think about where the church is located relative to the center of town in terms of both the historical and contemporary neighborhoods. See if you can find clues about those who live in the community surrounding this church today. Take your photo in front of the church. (Assignment excerpt, SOC 361-GC: “Diversity, Community, and The Church,” J. DeWitt, 2015)

Fieldwork, particularly in study abroad situations like the one described previously, can immerse students in a sea of sensory input—new sights, smells, sounds, traffic patterns, etc. Although we can encourage students to be curious and remain active participants in their inquiry experience, we also want to avoid overwhelming them to the extent that they shut down or withdraw from the experience. Using facilitation strategies that help students focus on the relevant information improves the likelihood of success. Framing the experience by constantly referencing course themes and concepts can provide that needed scaffolding and keep students focused. Strategy #5: INTERACT with students as they record spatial information or at least develop systems that can guide students as they explore. When faculty are able to accompany students during the exploration, they can serve as a “guide on the side,” as if a small bird were sitting on their shoulder, whispering in their ear. For example, when

102

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Janine visited the National Museum of African-American History with her Global Village students, she would accompany them through the exhibits and ask questions that helped them make connections to the concept of globalization. Because it is not always possible to be present while groups are exploring a location, consider ways to structure the process of observation so that students stay focused and on task. There are both paper-based and technology methods of doing this. Example of Strategy #5: Logging Sheets. Using some type of form can structure the process of observation, with the prompts guiding students to connect the conceptual framework of the assignment to the process of making observations. While seeming a very simplistic tool, logging sheets provide a form of scaffolding in the field. Introductory activities should include more detailed information regarding what to observe. As the students progress, they can construct these forms, logging sheets, or observation guides themselves. Sample logging sheet: Shooting guide for photographic survey of an urban neighborhood 1. Location: Where is it? (GPS Coordinates; Landmarks; Types of signs) 2. Appearance: What does it look like in a general sense? (Types of buildings; Terrain: hilly, flat? Street layout: straight/curvy?) 3. Types of buildings (Short/tall; New/historic; Well-maintained?) 4. Organization: What are the components of the neighborhood? (Businesses; Public places; Religious institutions) 5. Functions: How is the neighborhood used? 6. People: Who lives here? Who comes here? 7. Transportation: How do people get around? 8. Residential areas: What do they look like? (Adapted from Collier & Collier, 1986, pp. 41–42)

Technology can also be used to focus students on the tasks at hand. There are now apps for mobile devices that can have a form, created by the instructor or by the students, for collecting the data and placing it on a map. For example, we used Esri’s (2020b) Survey123 app with questions we designed, and that enabled students’ data to automatically appear on a shared map, ready for GIS spatial analysis (Fig. 4.2). The ability to populate an online map from the field and focus specifically on the questions they need to answer can help some students from getting off-track and overwhelmed. While we don’t want to have students

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

103

Fig. 4.2 Esri Survey 123 mobile app

experience the location solely through the lens of their phone, the question prompts that enable a student to populate the app can become a form of cognitive offloading, where the technology reminds students of the data that need to be collected. In addition, by contributing to a shared online map, everyone is able to collaborate and build off of the data collected by the entire class—and even from past semesters’ classes. Take the following assignment from Janine’s Social Inequality course that was designed to scaffold the use of the app:

104

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

EXAMPLE: Mapping inequality in Arlington: Food deserts and affordable housing (Survey 1-2-3 and ArcGIS Collector surveys). • Map access to affordable, healthy food within walking distance of affordable housing complexes. • Compare your results with the information available on food deserts in the USDA Food Access Research Atlas. • Identify the other services that are available within close proximity to affordable housing complexes (financial services such as banks, pawn shops, MoneyGram)? • Use a hand-held device to collect visual data in the field and contribute the class map “Mapping Arlington.” We will use this map to record the data you collect and look for patterns that are not easily observed when in the field. • Develop a series of more specific research questions that could guide the investigation of social inequality for future classes. In this way, the instructor can facilitate without being physically present to guide the students. Giving students tools to guide their own inquiry can help them to be more efficient in the field. Importantly, when using an app that is posted to a shared online map, the instructor can monitor the students’ progress and can anticipate any gaps that need to be addressed right away. Whether in-person, using paper, or through technology, the instructor needs to monitor and interact with the students during the process of observation and interpretation. The process of generalizing from concrete experience can be made transparent by gently but constantly questioning the students’ basis for formulating their interpretations of their observation. In addition, this is where the formative assessments we discussed in the previous chapter, as well as continuously connecting back to the rubric, provide guidance to the students throughout the process. Strategy #6: READ THE WORLD as an individual and in a small group. Capturing observations from multiple perspectives can assist students in developing a nuanced understanding. We often make a decision about whether students work individually or in groups by focusing on the question of how that group collaboration will benefit learning on a given assignment. This same decision-making process applies to placebased learning, although there are a few additional dimensions that come

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

105

to play for the fieldwork data collection (e.g., role of collaboration in knowledge generation). While not all place-based assignments need to be conducted in groups, when we send students into real-world environments, a review of the setting should guide decisions regarding the appropriate number of students in a group. In addition to providing input from multiple perspectives, students working together can help each other with troubleshooting technology, and having more than one mobile device means that there is a backup in case someone’s device is malfunctioning. Since there are potential gains from having them work in groups, it is worthwhile considering how to overcome the barriers that might be in place to group excursions (graduate, part-time, athlete, commuter, or evening division students may have particular schedule barriers to getting together at the same time due to employment, family obligations, distance, etc.). These constraints may require some extra flexibility on the instructor’s part regarding the configuration and size of a group, the amount of time needed to complete the assignment, or whether the assignment is done during the regularly scheduled class time. Regardless of the size of groups going out on location (or if groups are used at all for collecting data), small groups can be used for analysis. The collaborative process of both creating maps and analyzing maps has real-world application of participatory mapping. This type of community mapping brings together members of a community and stakeholders to share their views and make decisions about their community. In Participatory GIS (PGIS), data are gathered in interviews, focus groups, and paper maps, and then transferred to GIS software to be queried and shared (Forrester & Cinderby, 2015). What we notice from PGIS is a consideration of the role that collaborative knowledge plays in generating, displaying and understanding location-based information, particularly when this approach has been embraced in marginalized communities or infused by nongovernmental or nonprofit organizations in remote locations where community members still struggle with a legacy of land ownership that originated during colonial times (Cadasta, 2019; Rainforest Foundation, 2020). The development of online GIS tools has been incredibly useful for collaboration, allowing group members to work together remotely and in real time to see where things are and how they relate, look for patterns, etc. Whether data are collected using paper or mobile devices, putting the data into GIS allows for spatial analysis. Esri (2020a) has identified a workflow for spatial analysis:

106

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• • • • • • •

Ask questions Explore and prepare data Analyze and model Interpret results Repeat or modify Present results Make decisions.

When students are working together as a group to conduct a spatial analysis, think about how to structure the team assignments for content and accountability. Consider both individual contributions as well as group outcomes. Will there be a division of labor, with identifiable individual tasks and roles? Will success be determined by interdependence among group members? Will the group stay intact for the duration of the course or will new groups be formed for each place-based inquiry? How will individual versus team contributions be measured? Rezaei (2018) identified the groupwork strategies suggested by the literature in this area: • Carefully explain to students how groups will operate and how students will be graded. • Introduce group work early in the semester to set clear student expectations. • Establish ground rules for misconduct, cheating, and plagiarism. • Establish ground rules for participation and contributions. • Help students develop the skills they need to succeed in doing group activities. • Plan for each stage of group work. • Incorporate self and peer assessments for group members to evaluate your own and others’ contributions (p. 6). Putting these careful plans in place can help ensure that the process, not just the product, is valued, and that there is time for both individual reflection and group analysis. Example of Strategy #6: Community Connections. In this activity from Elizabeth’s Cross-cultural/International Curricula course, students are invited to explore one of our many neighborhoods that is predominantly inhabited by one race or ethnic group (when possible, accompanied by

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

107

a member of that community) for a “Community Connections” assignment. Each group created an annotated GIS map with photos and other data they collected, and answered a series of group and individual questions. Students had an opportunity to engage in individual reflections as well as group analysis. Group questions: • What physical signs are there that indicate which group lives in that area? • What linguistic cues (in verbal speech) do you hear? How did you communicate with the community on your visit? • What cultural centers do you see? • How are people dressed? Is the clothing similar to or different from your own? • What types of food are available? Do people eat on the street? In restaurants? In homes? • What religious institutions (if any) are present? • How do people gather? (e.g., in small groups, pairs, alone?) Individual questions: Consider how your visit made you feel. Use the following continua to start thinking about your interaction with the neighborhood. (Note: Use the terms as ends of a continuum rather than as dyadic opposites. It is more likely that you would feel varying degrees of both descriptors at different points in your exploration.) • Did you feel comfortable uncomfortable? • Did you feel included excluded? • Were you interested disinterested? (Assignment excerpt, ED 526: “Cross-cultural/International Curricula,” E. Langran, 2018, adapted from Langer de Ramirez, 2006, p. 43)

Regardless of how much collaboration is planned during the field portion of a place-based excursion, be sure to plan time for each group to synthesize their observations prior to sharing with others when they return to the classroom. Although it is possible for group members to share information while navigating the city, unless you specifically designate time for this purpose, it is more likely that students will focus

108

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

on gathering information than processing that information collaboratively. Because there are many distractions along the way, and each group member will have differing levels of focus or motivation, the extent to which an individual student stays on task can vary dramatically. This is particularly true when the team experiences a challenge—the tenacity of each member will vary and impact the ability of the group to achieve their intended objectives. Like other types of group assignments, reflecting on the group process can yield additional information for place-based learning. The facilitator needs to talk with each group about how they processed their tasks when exploring and how each individual member responded when trial and error was required. It is important to get students to reflect on this group process and take charge of it, rather than allowing group dynamics to become a subtext that undermines a place-based learning experience. Providing opportunities for periodic peer reviews helps to place value on the process, not just the product. Some students may feel uncomfortable with reviewing peers, but this can be done anonymously and with a focus on the ability to reflect. For example, Elizabeth asks her students to complete a self-reflection on their contributions to the group work, and then use our learning management system to have the group members conduct an anonymous peer review on the individual’s self-reflection. She assigns the grade according to the quality of the self-reflection, and the quality of the comments made on the peer reviews, which allows students to avoid fearing the consequences for their teammates if they don’t give each other a perfect “score.” Revisiting the situated learning model discussed in Chapter 2 reminds us of why group discussions are important to the learning process. Beyond just generating collective knowledge, what is being generated becomes a more accurate and holistic representation because we have insights from varying viewpoints, which help us as we try to tell the stories of a place from multiple perspectives. Strategy #7: TELL THE STORIES from multiple perspectives. How do we tell the story—or rather, the many stories of a place? By looking at multiple descriptions of a place, such as those provided by observers who come from many different social locations, we can begin to construct a comprehensive understanding of place that takes into account members of multiple communities. The initial step in this process is being able to move from analysis to storytelling and differentiating between

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

109

description and interpretation. Students may need help responding to the ambiguity of describing what they see literally and interpreting what those things mean by making some assumptions to fill in the gaps. Later they need assistance to recognize that a particular location can be observed or experienced from multiple perspectives—highlighting or focusing on some features, while ignoring others. Example of Strategy #7: The D.I.V.E. Model was developed as a tool for intercultural learning. Janine uses this approach in several courses as a helpful way to encourage students to suspend judgment while making observations in new settings. D.I.V.E.—Describe, Interpret, Validate, & Evaluate Describe: What do you see? Make concrete observations and limit your description to what you see happening in this location. Try to be objective. Avoid using adjectives, and don’t make assumptions. Interpret: Generate multiple explanations. Write at least three possible interpretations of what you are observing, considering the particular way the activity appears in the location. Use descriptive phrases packed with adjectives. This step usually requires that you make guesses regarding motivation and emotions. Validate: Think about the assumptions that were made in the last step. Identify ways that you can validate one particular interpretation. Be sure to consider both multiple sources of information including scholarly research, further field observations or informal conversations that could help you verify the accuracy of your interpretations. Be as specific as possible in this step. Explain/Evaluate: Now that you have described, thought of different interpretations, and have a way of validating your interpretation, what is your opinion of what is happening in this location? (Adapted from Hansel, 2011 and AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc, 2016)

The observations of each individual student will be based on the spatial narratives that they bring to the inquiry and informed by their previous experiences. In some cases, during the reporting, students will share observations that are primarily based on stereotypes or preconceived notions. At this point the role of the facilitator is key in reframing the experience by uncovering how stereotypes, generalizations, and preconceived notions come about. The instructor has to keep the focus of

110

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

discussion on the preliminary objectives for this phase of the work while challenging preconceived spatial narratives. It can be tricky to ask students to look for patterns (one of the requirements of spatial thinking), and at the same time be cautious about making generalizations based on unsupported assumptions. In the latter case, it’s all too easy to reduce a place to a “single story.” Managing with this tension requires a clear statement about the relationships, particularly power relationships, that are represented within the mapped area. Students should be challenged to search for multiple perspectives, taking into account that not all members of the community are likely to share one perspective or to be equally represented. In fact, this facilitation strategy can offer the groundwork for more complex multilayered stories of place that are achieved by deep mapping as described by Bodenhamer, Corrigan, and Harris (2015) (see Chapter 2). In sum, there are facilitation strategies that are key if we want students to get the most out of critical place-based inquiry. When students explore a given location, the instructor’s use of the facilitation strategies makes it possible to connect their field inquiry with the identified goals of those activities.

Inclusive Mapping: Different Learners Experience Different Challenges In classrooms, we serve learners who have many different strengths, learner profiles, and abilities. Place-based pedagogy can be particularly difficult for some differently-abled learners who experience physical challenges or sensory overload, so it’s important to approach our assignments with flexibility and creativity. Here we will discuss facilitation strategies that can assist with students who may be particularly affected by the requirements of fieldwork during place-based learning. Physical Challenges Not all of the students in our classrooms are comfortable physically navigating a local neighborhood or forest. In some cases, these physical challenges are clearly noticeable, such as a student whose mobility depends on braces or a wheelchair. In other cases, mobility limitations may be subtle or less noticeable. For example, during study abroad field trips, students must often walk long distances for much of the day. Some

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

111

may not be used to walking as their main form of transportation, so in addition to the exercise, steep inclines and cobblestone streets present an additional challenge which may distract them from the task at hand. Students might show up wearing “fashionable” footwear which is less than ideal for navigating uneven terrain. Whether it’s wearing comfortable shoes or having a more significant accommodation, discussing the physical demands associated with place-based excursions should be part of the routine preparation for field excursions. For students with significant mobility limitations, the instructor should conduct a pre-departure screening of the terrain at the study location. In some cases, you may decide that it’s not possible for all students to travel to the identified destination. Should that be the case, consider whether a change of venue is appropriate, or how those students might contribute to the learning activity by taking a different angle of observation or examining a different source of data (i.e., digital, historical). Students who are unable to go to the field could be placed in charge of coordinating and then recording observations from multiple groups. Regardless of the student’s contribution, it is critical to construct roles in such a way that all members of the class contribute significantly to the final class product. For students who have partial or total hearing loss, or who have low vision or visual impairment, they can still participate in the group field activities to the extent that they feel comfortable. Generally, if you are very familiar with the terrain, you should be able to describe the location to the student(s). Describing the study site is not as easy when you are not familiar with the location. For example, this may be the case on a study abroad trip where you haven’t had the opportunity to vet the location as you would for an excursion within your local area. If a student has visual impairment, consider how that student might participate in the analysis experience which is typically designed as a visualheavy activity. Langer de Ramirez (2006) describes how a Spanish teacher did a map activity for a student without sight; she used various textures (wax sticks, wool, coins) to create a tactile map. As an alternative, teachers with access to an embossed printer, 3D printer, or Braille embosser might create maps that are more accessible. This technology is developing all the time—for example, haptic maps use ultrasound technology to enable users to experience a map by touch (Roczniak, Indurkhya, & Fujinami, 2018). To support students with limited fine motor control, low vision, color blindness, and other visual disabilities, choose an online GIS platform

112

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

that has been designed following common web standards. Some platforms allow map makers to preview the map in color-blind mode, which uses higher contrast and some use of patterns instead of just colors for histograms. Those who need screen readers may find exporting GIS data into a table easier. Online map makers who use images, such as with Esri’s StoryMaps, should carefully describe images using the alt text feature (Crosson, 2020; Kayaarasi-Rodriguez & Morris, 2016). For students with visual limitations working in groups, or at least with a partner, is especially important during the analysis phase of the assignment. If there is a student with hearing loss, give guidelines to the group with reminders to speak one at a time, face the student(s) while speaking, and take turns to speak. Sensory Overload While some students will find field-based activities easier and more engaging than sitting in a classroom, there are those for whom this will be stressful. Those students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD), or anxiety disorders could find that the break from routine, uncertainty, noise distractions, and other sensory input contribute to sensory overload. Even if a student does not have a diagnosed label, they may be nervous about walking around an urban area, visiting a forest, or being in a public space where they differ in appearance from other individuals there. There are some strategies that can help reduce anxiety that results from uncertainty or sensory overload: • Let students know what to expect. This might include using Google maps streetview or other images to preview the route. • Ask a peer mentor to walk with the student, or allow the students to work in small groups. An exception would be a student with social anxiety works better alone. If safety permits, allow that student to conduct field work solo. • Find places where the student can find refuge in the area and rest for a few quiet moments. • Consider if shorter excursions would be more appropriate. Most importantly, a willingness on the part of the instructor to be flexible can help make this a more positive learning experience. Any

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

113

class will have represented within it a range of neurological differences among students who have different strengths and challenges; no single learning environment allows all students to develop to their potential and maximize their strengths. While we discussed in Chapter 2 how neurotypical learners may benefit from the place-based learning approaches we outlined, providing a differentiated approach means that the content, process, product, or environment can be modified to enable all students to succeed, according to their readiness, interests, and learner profile (Tomlinson, 2014). Supporting neurodiverse students may require a shift in teaching approaches or workarounds, yet it is still possible to maintain academic rigor while avoiding inflexible learning environments. For some, the psychological cost of field-based excursions would outweigh the benefit for them, so for these students, telling the story of a place without fieldwork could rely on “remote sensing” that includes satellite images, GIS datasets, and even data provided by fellow students who are populating a shared online map.

Chapter Conclusion: Tensions, Challenges, and Avoiding Detours While as educators we do not control everything, there are ways that we can manage tensions and minimize the negative impact of the challenges when students are out in the field. Our initial work to find the path from mapping a neighborhood to analysis in the classroom was one with many detours (and some dead-ends) resulting from weather, technology issues, and student frustrations. We collected data on our undergraduate and graduate university students using mobile devices for place-based learning, and our research indicated that in a first-run experience of the project, the learning objectives were met unevenly, and that some students had a better experience with the project than others (Langran & DeWitt, 2015). While our ability to control weather and technology issues is limited, most of the issues that arose could have been avoided with some specific design considerations that we have outlined in this chapter, and have been utilizing with success in our subsequent iterations of place-based learning.

114

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

References AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. (2016). Tools to suspend judgement. ICL for AFS and Friends, 18. Retrieved from https://woca.afs.org/education/p/iclfor-afs-and-friends. Bodenhamer, D., Corrigan, J., & Harris, T. (Eds.). (2015). Introduction: Deep maps and the spatial humanities. Deep maps and spatial narratives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Cadasta. (2019). Cadasta: About us [webpage]. Retrieved from https://cadasta. org/about-us-3/. Collier, J., & Collier, M. (1986). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Crosson, S. (2020, February 6). Writing accessible story map content [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-sto rymaps/constituent-engagement/writing-accessible-story-map-content/. Drennon, C. (2005). Teaching geographic information systems in a problembased learning environment. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29(3), 385–402. Elwood, S. (2004). Experiential learning, spatial practice, and critical urban geographies. The Journal of Geography, 103(2), 55–63. Esri. (2020a). Getting started with spatial analysis [online course]. Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/5bca58f8f77b99238f845e1c/ getting-started-with-spatial-analysis/#!. Esri. (2020b). Survey 123 [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https:// www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/survey123/. Forrester, J., & Cinderby, S. (2015). A guide to using community mapping and participatory-GIS. UK: Economic & Social and Natural Environment Research Councils. Retrieved from http://www.iapad.org/wp-content/upl oads/2015/07/Borderlands-Community-Mapping-Guide.pdf. Hall, S., & Datta, A. (2010). The translocal street: Shop signs and local multiculture along the Walworth road, South London. City, Culture & Society, 1(2), 69–77. Hansel, B. (2011). Collaborative online international learning. Presentation at the COIL Institute for Globally Networked Learning in the Humanities, New York, NY. Kayaarasi-Rodriguez, T., & Morris, R. (2016, Winter). Accessibility & distance learning in Geography: General best practices report. Subject area accessibility studies for online courses, Portland Community College. Retrieved from https://www.pcc.edu/instructional-support/wp-content/upl oads/sites/17/2017/11/BestPracticesforGeography.pdf. Langer de Ramirez, L. (2006). Voices of diversity. New Jersey: Pearson. Langran, E., & DeWitt, J. (2015, July). Educating globally, exploring locally: Using mobile mapping to explore cities and globalization. Paper presented at

4

FACILITATING STUDENT LEARNING

115

the International Society for Technology & Education Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA: ISTE. Rainforest Foundation. (2020). Mapping for rights [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.mappingforrights.org. Rezaei, A. R. (2018). Effective groupwork strategies: Faculty and students’ perspectives. Journal of Education and Learning, 7 (5), 1–10. Roczniak, J., Indurkhya, B., & Fujinami, K. (2018, June). Development of intuitive haptic maps for blind people. Paper presented at the EuroHaptics 2018 Conference, Pisa, Italy: Springer. Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

CHAPTER 5

Place-Based Inquiry in Action

We hope by this point you are convinced that critical place-based inquiry is an effective pedagogy. When you decide to head down this path there are many resources that can assist you in your journey. In this chapter, we will look at some of the technology tools that can be leveraged for reading the world, understanding how place matters, and telling stories from multiple perspectives. While the technology available for place-based learning will undoubtedly change in the coming years (and even months), we thought it worthwhile to explore the types of tools currently available as well as a conceptual approach to using those tools. This is a non-exhaustive list; we included tools we had success with, and tools that are gaining in popularity. We will also review several place-based learning projects that support inquiry and engage learners. We conclude by discussing some of the new directions in the field. These are only a few examples, but we hope you’ll find them as inspirational as we did.

Leveraging Technology with Place-Based Learning Tools Place-based inquiry can occur with low-tech tools. Consider a very simple inquiry activity where students use paper and pencil to sketch a map of their community. Or imagine an assignment where students walk along a path taking a series of photographs to record their observations. Indeed, there are many situations in which these low-tech options are not only © The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_5

117

118

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

appropriate but advisable. For example, when working in a crowded area, groups of students pulling out mobile devices may be difficult or draw unwanted attention to themselves. In both of these cases, students must return to the classroom to transfer their observations to a map. Think about the inquiry process—by attaching information to a map, students can create and visualize a two-dimensional representation of our threedimensional world (Fig. 5.1). The inquiry process can be used with low-tech approaches such as a hand drawing on paper or by using a camera, as well as with higher tech options that include handheld devices and apps. The main difference between low-tech and higher tech activities is the lag between data collection and analysis, the ability to collaborate online from anywhere, and the analysis possibilities offered by the layering of datasets in GIS. In the section that follows, we will discuss three ways to leverage technology using different kinds of technology tools that are particularly well suited to the main components of our critical place-based inquiry model:

Fig. 5.1 Student engaged in place-based learning (Photo by J. DeWitt)

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

119

1. Data-collection tools for reading the world 2. Analysis tools for understanding how place matters 3. Place-based storytelling tools for sharing multiple perspectives. Data-Collection Tools for Reading the World Place-based exploration gives students the chance to situate their learning in authentic environments, capturing data on complex phenomena from multiple angles of observation. Students can read the world by gathering information, making observations, and posing questions about their community or the environments that are being studied. Technology tools that assist students as they read the world make it easier to build connections between the field experience and the desired learning outcomes. By leveraging technology, it is possible to transmit data from the field to the classroom with ease using guiding questions to structure the inquiry. Remember from Chapter 1 Elizabeth’s early attempts with her students to capture images and locations onsite using a digital camera and GPS unit? When the students returned to the classroom, they uploaded the information onto a map. Since that initial excursion, smartphones and tablets have made for a much more seamless experience, especially when the device is able to post the data directly to the online map while students are still in the field. For users who don’t have connectivity from the field, some of these apps are able to capture the data, store it locally, and upload to the online map once the device is back online. In addition to being able to upload data directly to a map, another important consideration is the ability to use some type of customizable webform. Creating a set of guiding questions to scaffold the learning helps students focus on the specific task for that particular excursion. The webform should not only have the ability to have customized questions, but allow for uploading media files and pin them to a specific location on a shared map. Because students are using a shared map (either with their group or the entire class, or perhaps even other sections), this type of map may sometimes be referred to as a “crowdsourced” map. Three common technology tools that are readily accessible for place-based inquiry are Esri apps, Ushahidi, and Google MyMaps. Esri (https://www.esri.com/) offers a number of customizable apps that feed geolocated data into a shared online map. The first one we used was Collector, and then Survey123. Both of these apps allow students to collect data in the field. While Survey123 was originally limited to adding

120

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

form data to a specific geopoint and Collector was better suited for lines and polygons, the functionality of these two apps has become more integrated. The main difference between these apps is whether the primary focus is using a form (Survey123) or using a map (Collector). Esri also has a web-based GeoForm application. In 2020 they released QuickCapture; while not as robust, it is simple to use and may be appropriate for your students to enter data more quickly with its easy-to-use button interface. Esri site licenses can be expensive (check to see if your school or university already has one, as Esri is used across many disciplines for GIS analysis); free accounts are available for U.S. K-12 public schools. Individuals can sign up for a free “public” account with limited capabilities, and there are also free “developer” accounts with greater capabilities that limit the number of “credits” used per month. Esri apps can also work offline to collect data that can be uploaded once the device is connected to the internet. Ushahidi (https://www.ushahidi.com/) was developed in 2008 to map post-election incidents of violence in Kenya. Even without smartphones users could snap a photo with a mobile device and then text it to a crowdsourced map. Since then, this nonprofit with a small staff has developed several products, mainly for crisis mapping. These include Mahallah, an app debuted in April 2020 to allow users to create a neighborhood “minisite” to map local community resources, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and connects directly to WhatsApp groups, web forms, and other tools. The Ushahidi platform can be used with a mobile app and web interface. The cost of this program varies according to the plan, with a free trial available. The application is open-source and customizable. Google MyMaps (https://www.google.com/maps/about/mym aps/). While Google is both free and familiar to many users, using their mapping capabilities for capturing data in the field is not a seamless experience. Still, we thought it would be a worthwhile option to mention how this could be used in place-based learning. By using the MyMaps tool, Google users can use the web interface to add new markers with text and images or video, as well as lines or polygons, and Android users can use the MyMaps app (other mobile platforms such as those on iPhones are not able to add markers and data to the map; the MyMaps app is available only on Android phones at this time). MyMaps can be shared, and from the web interface, additional data can be added by

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

121

uploading a spreadsheet or editing the MyMaps data table and adding columns. Using a form with customized questions that feed into the online map is possible with a few steps. By using a Google forms with the question prompts, responses can be collected in a spreadsheet (such as Google Sheets) and those can be imported into MyMaps. At this time, Google forms does not support geopoints as one of the question types, but it is possible to add a script that adds the location or autocompletes addresses. Since Google is always updating their features, it’s possible this may be easier in the future. Other Apps to Watch Rather than generating an exhaustive list that will likely change within months of the release of new tools, we present a few types of technologies that are currently available. Just as Google forms is a survey tool that can be repurposed to add entries onto a map, there are other form-creation tools that can be used in a similar manner to collect data in a spreadsheet and be imported manually onto a map. Additionally, there are other apps that can be used by students for capturing data as they “read the world.” Mapillary (https://www.mapillary.com/) is a platform that crowdsources street-level imagery, and then uses machine learning to identify objects (e.g., street signs, entrances) from the submissions in their mobile app or from browser-uploaded geotagged images. This large repository of images is a good resource to use when students are unable to visit the location under investigation. Anyone can create an account and submit images, and anyone can view the street-level images. This tool does not have a form that instructors can edit to guide students during the datacollection process, nor does it display the captured images in a way that easily tells the story of place, but Mapillary does work well with other tools that can embed the street-level images, such as Esri’s StoryMaps or ArcGIS Online (Mapillary and Esri are partners). Similar apps and platforms such as Pushpin OSM, OSM Tracker, and Open Street Cam are free to use to capture or display street-level imagery, but again, would work best paired with other tools. Eduloc (http://www.eduloc.net/) is a platform and mobile application designed specifically for educational use. Teachers or student teams can create a “scenario” that allows for multiple contributions by using

122

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

the free mobile app to pin photos and descriptions to a Google map. The platform also supports treasure hunts, quizzes, and a “time machine” that can display changes over time. Citizen science apps are tools that can be used for capturing data onsite. This category of apps is often designed for a specific purpose, such as history (HistoryPin, https://www.historypin.org/), biodiversity (iNaturalist, https://www.inaturalist.org/), or global health (SciStarter’s COVID-19 Citizen Science, https://scistarter.org/the-covid-19-citizenscience-project). Brovelli, Ponti, Schade, and Solís (2020) provide a helpful overview of these different types of citizen science and volunteered geographic information (VGI) initiatives. These individual apps may be overly specific for your own use, so consider developing an in-house app by partnering with computer science faculty and students at your institution (see for example University of San Diego’s World Interactive Study Environment app, https://sites.sandiego.edu/wise/). Analysis Tools for Understanding How Place Matters Once the data-collection phase is complete, students will spend time analyzing the data. To gain an understanding of place, students need to notice what can be seen and what is missing. The analysis process requires students to reflect on and interpret their observations. In addition, students need to consider how their own perspective or social location might influence these observations. While there are many tools that allow users to visualize the data (i.e., see where the data points are on a map), using geographic information systems (GIS) software is the most powerful tool for analyzing data. By importing layers to overlay on top of the student-collected data, students can create models and look for patterns. With increasing amounts of publicly available spatial datasets, students can import data from local municipalities, research projects, government agencies, and public domain initiatives such as Planet OSM (https://planet.openstreetmap.org/) or Geofabrik (http://www.geofab rik.de/). Esri’s ArcGIS Online is a powerful commercial tool for analysis that provides access to a wide range of datasets (and can manually import datasets from other sources) that can be used for modeling and analysis. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the free accounts have some limitations and unless users are teachers or students in a U.S. K-12 school, there is a cost associated with using their commercial product. Similarly, Morphocode Explorer (https://explorer.morphocode.com/) has some

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

123

free GIS and data visualization tools, but access to their full service has a cost. Fortunately, there are numerous open-source GIS platform options that are free to use, QGIS (https://www.qgis.org/) being the most popular. Those familiar with the R statistical programming language can use R for spatial analysis. Web-based GIS tools make it possible for teams of students to collaborate during the data analysis phase of place-based inquiry. The student discussions that take place during analysis are critical to the learning process, regardless of whether the conversations take place online or face-to-face. In both cases, students can be supported when they use a technology tool to organize their tasks. It may not be important that all students in the entire class use the same tool, so if you want the groups of students to choose their own technology, be sure to set aside time, suggest options, and offer instruction for each team as they choose how they will communicate. Plan time for students to learn how to use each tool—do not assume that all students already know how to use the tool for collaboration. If discussions will largely take place in the classroom, then a simple task-organizing tool such as Trello (https://trello.com/), Padlet (https://padlet.com/), or Google Keep (https://keep.google.com/) is useful for keeping track of the tasks on a to-do list. For more robust online discussions, tools such as Slack (https://slack.com/) can support both conversations and organize tasks. Even a simple Google Drive document can use the comment feature for hosting conversations, and has a task-assignment feature. And of course, most learning management systems (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.) also have a group collaboration space. Storytelling Tools for Sharing Multiple Perspectives Spatial stories or narratives can shape the way we experience a place as well as the way students engage in place-based learning. The process of constructing these stories requires students to organize their findings, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings to others. As these stories are shared with others, students can reflect on how one’s personal perspective might influence the results of the inquiry process. There are a number of technology tools that make it possible to communicate the story (or stories) of the place under investigation in dynamic ways. Visualization tools for spatial representation of geolocated data are useful. This

124

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

is what Esri’s StoryMaps (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/) was specifically designed to do—it allows the students to embed their maps and other media, and has text boxes where they can add narrative to tell the story. Other visualization tools such as Google MyMaps can display the text and images collected, and when integrated within a Google Site that includes text boxes, can accomplish much of the same. There are some educational visualization tools that were created to support maps (such as VisualEyes, http://viseyes.org/) and some that were not specifically designed for mapping can be repurposed for place-based storytelling (such as Thinglink, https://www.thinglink.com/). In the next section, we broaden our scope to review some projects so that you can get an idea of what place-based inquiry might look like.

Place-Based Inquiry: Projects for Inspiration Given the widespread interest in place-based learning, we see a number of projects being showcased in national and regional clearinghouses such as the National Science Foundation’s STEM Learning and Research Center (Stelar, http://stelar.edc.org/) or centers at the local level such as The Center for Place-based Learning and Engagement (https://promiseof place.org/). In this section we selected a sampling of inquiry-driven projects, with the goal of inspiring other educators to create their own learning adventures! Digital East St. Louis (https://eaststlouisculture.siue.edu/omeka) This project is a good example of how urban place-based learning can be combined with an effort to promote the career interests of minority youth. The main goal of this extracurricular project is to encourage students who live in East St. Louis to become interested in using technology tools in the process of learning more about their local community as well as exploring possible careers in computer science or information technology. The Coding for Community project offered a free day camp for middle school students who met over the summer and continued with several follow-up sessions during the school year. Students created a web-based community map using a range of technological tools including videography, video editing, web design, sound editing, podcasting, computer programming, and blogging. The resulting Omeka site, which is titled “Digital East St. Louis,” features podcasts, oral

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

125

histories, interviews, documentaries, walking tours and digital exhibits. Students played an active role in identifying community events that were important to them, as well creating the artifacts that were displayed in the online community resource. This project was supported by a National Science Foundation grant that included professional development for teachers as well as longitudinal data tracking student self-efficacy, technological skills, and awareness of IT and computing careers. For additional information refer to: Digital East St. Louis website (https://eaststlouisculture.siue.edu/ omeka/) Education Development Center’s STEM Learning and Research Center. (2020). NSF—Stelar Project website (http://stelar.edc.org/projects/14649/pro file/digital-east-st-louis-urban-place-based-learning-model-promote-inf ormation) Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Curriculum (https://eli.lehigh. edu/) Using a common inquiry framework, this interdisciplinary curriculum includes a series of five place-based investigations that focused on the following themes: energy, tectonics, climate change, land use change, and socio-economic science investigations. Each investigation tracks the inquiry process, beginning with an evaluation of students’ prior understandings and continuing to a series of inquiry activities. For example, the Land Use Change project focuses on the way people shape environmental changes through land use. Examining change over time, students investigate sprawl and development based on their readings of aerial images generated from geospatial information technology tools such as Google Earth and remotely sensed images (see the Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Curriculum website https://eli.lehigh.edu/landuse-change). Inquiry activities include geospatial-supported investigations and laboratory experiments. As students proceed through the scaffolded activities, instruction is modified based on the student responses to these activities. And finally, student progress is assessed using geospatial tools. For example, students do a spatial analysis and create a proposal for locating a new Walmart Supercenter in the local area to have minimal environmental impact.

126

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

A second place-based inquiry associated with this project is the Socioenvironmental Science Investigations (SENSI), which includes a series of “geospatial investigations that focus on social issues related to environmental science” (Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Working Group at Lehigh University, para. 1, 2020). Students use geospatial tools like Esri Collector to gather georeferenced data near their school. The studentcollected data is then shared and analyzed using web-based GIS and interactive mapping visualization tools. The project develops students’ geospatial thinking and analytical skills while they address local environmental problems. For example, in the Trees and Ecological Services project, students learned about the benefits of trees as well as the relationship between tree distribution and crime in the city using geospatial technologies to map trees that were in close proximity to their school (Carrigan et al., 2019). For additional information refer to: Carrigan, J., Bodzin, A. M., Hammond, T. C., Rutzmoser, S., Popejoy, K., Farina, W., Hanson, I. Salter, S., Anastasio, D., Kangas, S., Holland, B., & Sahagian, D. (2019). Investigating urban trees. Exploring the impact of trees around our school with geospatial technologies. The Science Teacher, 86(8), 27–35. Hammond, T., Bodzin, A., Popejoy, K., Anastasio, D., Holland, B., & Sahagian, D. (2019). Shoulder-to-shoulder: Teacher professional development and curriculum design and development for geospatial technology integration with science and social studies teachers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 19(2). Retrieved from https://www.citejournal.org/volume-19/issue-2-19/current-practice/ shoulder-to-shoulder-teacher-professional-development-and-curriculumdesign-and-development-for-geospatial-technology-integration-with-sci ence-and-social-studies-teachers. CitizenGIS (http://www.citizensciencegis.org/) With a focus on developing citizen science and community GIS skills among undergraduate students as well as K-12 educators, CitizenGIS funded projects in Orlando, Florida, and Belize. These projects included using drones to map reef ecosystems, a mobile citizen science lab, and surveying residents’ sense of place as it relates to restoration of a local lagoon. During the COVID-19 pandemic school closures, they shared

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

127

their drone imagery captured in Belize, offering “At Home Map Digitizing” activities for young learners. One of the collaborations that Citizen Science GIS organization has been engaging in is The Open Mapping Data for Hopkins Village Belize project (http://hopkinsvillage-ucfonl ine.opendata.arcgis.com/). This community-driven site is a partnership between Hopkins Village Council, Miss Bertie’s Hopkins Community Library, University of Belize, University of Central Florida, and Citizen Science GIS, and offers openly available data and drone imagery, as well as story maps exploring science and society partnerships in the village. Community Mapping Lab (http://www.communitymappinglab.org/) Researchers at the University of Georgia have several projects underway that involve university students working with community members to empower marginalized populations. The stated goal of the Community Mapping Lab is to “foster collaborative research partnerships, develop innovative approaches to engaged research, and create public conversations related to community development, community engagement, cartography, and spatial analysis” (Community Mapping Lab, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, para. 1, 2020). In university courses, faculty and students use geospatial technology and work with established community partners. Past projects include mapping social services for a local nonprofit, creating a multimedia story map of local African-American owned businesses, and using home sales data to analyze the impact of the 2008 recession and gentrification over time. In the next chapter, we’ll talk more about the importance of developing community partnerships such as those underway in this project. Additional Projects for Inspiration Even though the following place-based inquiry projects are no longer active, we include them here because they offer helpful models for imagining the many different ways that place-based inquiry can be designed. The goal of the Innovation in Urban Science Education—Urban Ecology ITEST (Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers) project was to explore ecosystems within a social context that

128

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

was relevant for students. Barnett refers to this as the “contextualization” of science by bringing the science of how ecosystems work and connecting them to people in urban areas (EDCWorldwide, 2009). In one instance, students pursued inquiry questions that were under investigation by “real” scientists by following up on an article they read in Nature Magazine. They were able to collaboratively collect and analyze data to help answer questions about how the noise of cities impacts bird communications. In a tree economic impact project, they asked research questions, collected data on air quality, and recommended changes based on their findings, in essence, acting as urban planners would (EDCWorldwide, 2009). When evaluating the student experience on this project, researchers found that students not only gained a better understanding of course content, but they also gained an appreciation for the role that technology could play in doing science. Students’ confidence in using technology increased as well (Barnett, Houle, Mark, Strauss, & Hoffman, 2010). For additional information refer to: Innovation in Urban Science Education website (http://iuse.bc.edu/) Barnett, M., Houle, M., Mark, S., Strauss, E., & Hoffman, E. (2010). Learning about urban ecology through the use of visualization and geospatial technologies. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 18(2), 287–317. Waynesville, NC: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/pri mary/p/32353/. EDCWorldwide. (2009, August 18). Students shape urban planning (ITEST Massachusetts) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/y6fO6E CHNJ4. This next project involved what the Open University referred to as location-triggered learning in an example of guided inquiry—following a predetermined path of inquiry as users navigates an urban area. MASELTOV stands for “Mobile Assistance for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Immigrants with Persuasive Learning Technologies and Social Network Services” (www.maseltov.eu/). This single app functioned much like a city tour guide, and contained a number of services that

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

129

were helpful to new immigrants such as points of interest, pedestrian and transportation navigation, and language learning. For additional information refer to: Gaved, M., & Peasgood, A. (2015). Location-based language learning for migrants in a smart city. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Technology, Policy and Innovation. The Open University. Retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/43797/1/Gaved-ICTPI2015-abstract.pdf. Gaved, M., Peasgood, A., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2018). Learning when out and about. In R. Luckin (Ed.), Enhancing learning and teaching with technology: What the research says (pp. 76–80). London: UCL Institute of Education Press. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2BP Gd0z. In all of these examples, students were engaged in place-based inquiry that leveraged technology tools. In some cases, the inquiry process was highly structured, in other cases students were given a starting point (research question) and determined the direction from there. Whether the technology was used to help students learn the scientific method or to help recent immigrants feel more comfortable in their new home, in each case the technologies bridged the gap between the field excursions and classroom instruction. In the next section we’ll take a closer look at specific place-based inquiry projects.

Place-Based Inquiry in Focus The next projects demonstrate what place-based inquiry looks like in action as implemented within an academic course. While several of the examples described in the previous section utilize place-based learning that focuses on human interactions within contemporary community contexts, place-based learning can be used in many disciplines and explore natural and historic environments as well. These next examples were shared with us by colleagues who designed these place-based learning experiences for their interior design, biology, sociology, and history students.

130

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Reading the World: Making Observations Anchored in Place Urban Sketching—Moira Denson, Interior Design One of the most fundamental skills in place-based learning is learning to observe. While we commonly think of this being a visual activity, this interior design activity requires students to consider the emotional and sensory experience of a place—an important capability for interior designers. Here, Dr. Moira Denson describes an assignment for her Advanced Sketching and Rendering course that gets students to consider these multiple dimensions of observation in a place, and provides a good example of how to frame field assignments that scaffold the process of making connections: “Final Project: Spirit is in the Details - Height, Light, Might” asks students to document and design the emotional and sensory experience of sites within the Washington DC metro vicinity. Mapping their observations through photographs and onsite sketches in their sketchbooks, students developed a narrative of their sensory experience of the sites. The following four watercolor drawings highlight the sensorial experiences along with an emphasis on a particular material detail: Visual (sight), Auditory (hearing), Oral (taste), Haptic (touch), Scent (smell). Students brought their studies back to complete in the studio. Height (gravity, visual weight, thickness) @ Site 1 Light (reflectivity, glare, translucency, etc.…) @ Site 2 Might (volume, gravity, rigidity, thickness) @ Site 3 Composition Abstract Drawing- Maps sensory experience between the three sites. Ink and watercolor were the chosen mediums for their quick application to support urban sketching “on the go” techniques demonstrated by both the instructor and course textbook author Marc Taro Holmes (The Urban Sketcher). For more information, see Moira’s Instagram posts @moiradenson.

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

131

Understanding How Place Matters: Analyzing Spatial Patterns Tracking Sea Turtles—Todd Rimkus, Biology and Physical Sciences This example provides a good illustration for how Marine Biology and Tropical Ecology students are developing their spatial thinking by mapping sea turtle movement. Using an authentic learning environment, students can “map for a better world” as they collaboratively analyze their geolocated data and make real-world decisions while working within a community partnership. Here Dr. Todd Rimkus describes this experience: Each year since 2011, Marymount students participating in the Marine Biology and Tropical Ecology study abroad program in Belize have been able to witness sea turtle nesting and the tagging of a sea turtle. Walking the beach each evening in anticipation of finding a sea turtle is a tough task, but the reward when one is spotted is a once in a lifetime experience that these students will share with classmates and can talk about for many years to come. The tagging process uses an epoxy based glue to affix a temporary satellite tag to a nesting female Hawksbill sea turtle. The satellite tag will then communicate with satellites each time the sea turtle surfaces to breathe. The ARGOS satellite system then records the position of the sea turtle and transmits that information in an email. The system collects all of the data from each of the sea turtles we have tagged over the years to give us great information about the travels of these turtles once they are released. The tags transmit for several months up to two and a half years depending on luck and at which frequencies the tag is collecting data. By mapping the satellite data, we are able to get a picture of where the turtle has traveled. We know when she nests again, we know where she spends most of her time, and we know when she is actively swimming. Through these maps we can identify the best resting and foraging grounds for these sea turtles. Our data is shared with the Belize Fisheries Department. They can use the data to help manage sea turtle interactions with fishermen. The goal is to display clearly the areas most used by sea turtles so those areas can be protected for future use by all of the sea turtles. The course goals related to place-based learning is to expose the students to the tagging process and letting them know that biology is not always easy. Understanding the data is also necessary as you need to understand error signals and poor location data and be able to eliminate those from the data set. Once we get data on the turtles, we need to be able to define areas that are used by the turtles and so map reading is a skill that is built in. The data is plotted on to that map and the data is listed as coordinates,

132

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

so those skills and abilities are put to test as well. The final product is a map. For more information, visit the project website at http://www.hawksbill hope.org/.

Leveraging Technology: Developing Skills Using Technology Tools Zillow Crawl: Delario Lindsey, Sociology It is important to give students a chance to feel comfortable with technology during initial fieldwork. In this assignment students in Dr. Delario Lindsey’s class on Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality begin their investigation in the classroom by examining online maps and census data before entering the field. From there, the students are asked to walk through a historically African-American neighborhood that is located near the university’s campus. While onsite, students record observations using lowtech methods (notes and photographs). In addition, they access an online app to look up information on individual sites using mobile phones. This is the type of an experiential activity that serves as a foundation for the more complex uses of technology of layering data using GIS. Here are his instructions for this assignment: Introduction: This is your opportunity to connect some of the ideas and concepts we have discussed in class to features of the real world. We have been exploring ideas like social distance (separation based of social indicators like wealth, income, educational attainment), and social difference (separation based on identity indicators (ascribe traits like race/ethnicity, sex, religious affiliation)). As you explore the community of Hall’s Hill/High View Park, think about the many changes that have taken place there (remember, Census data indicates that the housing stock in that community goes back to the 1930s). Think about how changes in the make-up of the community reflect increasing social mobility as well as increasing social inequality. Your task: Spend an hour or so exploring the community of Hall’s Hill/High View Park, and describe what you see in words and pictures. Look for contemporary and historical expressions of social stratification and inequality. Identify indicators (visual evidence) of separation, stratification or social inequality. Use the Zillow app, available for iPhone and Android devices, to determine the value of a few homes that interest you.

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

133

Are the home values consistent with the median household income for the area (around $106,000 a year)? Generate a four-slide presentation of your exploration, not including title page and works cited. Be prepared to present your findings to the class. Be sure to cite your sources, ASA style. Please take the time to follow the links I provided to learn a bit more of the history of this community. Considerations: 1. Is there evidence of social stratification? If there is, describe it (using words and pictures). 2. Look for indicators of social distance. This is a residential setting, so social distance would be most noticeable in differences between housing structures, landscaping, etc. 3. Look for indicators of social difference. Consider the history of racial segregation in the area (hint: be sure to check for remnants of the cinder block wall). Contemporary manifestations of social difference could appear as community change (gentrification?) or shifts in the racial/ethnic demographics of the community. 4. Consider the Zillow value of some of the properties in the community, and think about the types of families that can afford to live in them.

Tell Stories of Place from Multiple Perspectives Civil War Tour: Cassandra Good, History and Politics This history project provides another example of how place-based learning can help build discipline-specific skills and tell stories from multiple perspectives. Note how Dr. Cassandra Good is focusing the assignment on key concepts and course themes, which include the experience of groups who are often left out of history books such as the roles of women and African Americans during the Civil War. In the spring of 2019, I taught the Marymount University history department’s course on the Civil War and Reconstruction with a public history focus. Our department offers a minor in public history, which trains students to work in museums, archives, and historic sites. Such work often requires historians to interpret a specific place in historical context for visitors. In order to allow students to practice this skill, I designed a walking tour project as the major assignment for the course.

134

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

In groups of three or four, students were tasked with designing a walking tour with six to eight sites in one neighborhood. Since my university is located just outside of Washington, DC in Northern Virginia, there is a huge range of sites from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras (1848– 1877). These included monuments, historic structures, sites of important events, and cemeteries. There is no comprehensive list of such sites, so I created a spreadsheet organizing the sites by neighborhood. Each group chose a neighborhood, a theme for their tour, and the sites they would include. Themes included civilian involvement in the war, women’s roles during the war, and the role of African Americans throughout the era. Relying on readings from a book on historical interpretation to explain the various components of a tour program, each group identified the tour’s goal, audience, objectives, and theme, as well as providing a tour introduction, information for each site, and a conclusion. Each site needed to include a title, date, and associated names; an image; history of the physical structure; information on its role in the Civil War/Reconstruction era; and a bibliography. The assignment was scaffolded, with students turning in drafts of their work throughout the semester to receive feedback. I also worked with the library to put several books on DC-area Civil War sites on hold and showed students how to find and read Historic American Buildings Surveys online. All groups had to turn in a final tour program as well as post their tour on the crowdsourced website Historypin.org. The site works off of Google Maps and its user interface is very simple, allowing users to pin their sites to the proper geolocation and add in-depth information and images. My goal was for students to make a spatial representation of their tours with the lowest possible technical barriers, although unfortunately this site was a bit slow and clunky to navigate. Finally, students gave short pitches for their tours to the class and we voted on the two tours the students would most like to take. The last two weeks of class, we traveled to the selected neighborhoods and took the tours. Students who (despite their proximity) rarely visited and navigated downtown Washington, DC, had to learn to do so and to guide their classmates. Ultimately, students were deeply invested in and truly enjoyed learning more about the history of the built environment around them and conveying that knowledge to their classmates.

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

135

Chapter Conclusion: New Possibilities for Place-Based Inquiry with Emerging Technologies Both the pedagogical practices as well as the technologies that can be deployed for learning are evolving, particularly with the advances and widespread adoption of geolocation technologies. Educators can take advantage of the learning opportunities offered by these technologies for critical place-based inquiry learning. From wearable devices such as Fitbits and other trackers that contribute mappable data to augmented reality and artificial intelligence, researchers are investigating how to incorporate these devices into learning activities. Augmented reality (AR)—overlaying a real-world view with computergenerated data—is already a possibility with our camera-enabled mobile devices and eyewear (remember Google Glass?). Augmented reality is being used in some informal learning areas, such as at the Skin and Bones exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum where visitors can use the tablet or phone app and, pointing the camera at the exhibit item, view an overlay of fur and skin onto animal skeletons to visualize how the animals would have looked. In this example of image-based augmented reality, the target is detected by a camera, and displays the augmented components to appear on screen—in this case, the fur and skin. In a geography course Turan, Meral, and Sahin (2018) used image-based AR with first-year university geography students, and found AR increased their achievement and decreased their cognitive load levels by helping students turn abstract concepts into concrete concepts. Location-based AR is even more promising for place-based inquiry, such as those applications that use GPS to pull up onscreen digital content. This is the technology used in the popular Pokémon Go game, as well as by some tourism and advertising apps. This same technology can be extended easily to critical place-based inquiry. In place-based inquiry, being able to seamlessly overlay data from a field location onto what you are seeing through your mobile phone or tablet enables preliminary analysis to take place in the field or offers scaffolding during fieldwork. Location-aware devices can already utilize geofencing, which is when your device recognizes that you are at a location. For example, a device in your house can recognize when you are arriving at home, and adjust the thermostat and lighting accordingly. Stores can use geofencing to monitor your arrival and make it easier for you to pick up your order.

136

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

As geofencing capabilities increase, there are more opportunities to incorporate this into educational contexts. Learning events can be triggered as students near a particular location. Since the teacher cannot always be at the shoulder of the students, more evolved personalized learning systems that are “situationally aware” can help keep students on track (a personalized learning system tailors the learning tasks and content toward an individual student’s characteristics and progress). While students should be at the center of the inquiry experience driving the questioning process, we must provide the guidance and scaffolding that they may need, particularly for those who are less experienced with independent learning and inquiry. Chatbots can answer questions and give suggestions through simulated conversations. With the evolution of personalized learning systems, more sophisticated conversational agents/artificial intelligence will play an increasing role in these educational field experiences. Even with this additional scaffolding, students still need guidance from their instructors. The Internet of Things (IoT) is feeding large amounts of location-based data from these internet-connected sensors and devices, and these data can be dynamically mapped to provide real-time spatial analysis. As technologies such as 5G and edge computing become more advanced, so will the capabilities to analyze IoT-generated data. When students are using GIS for their analysis of place, they can overlay up-to-date datasets alongside their own field-collected data to look for geographic patterns. Live video feeds, connected sensors, latest weather states, Twitter and Instagram feeds, and bus locations are examples of these data that can be dynamically pulled in as a layer for analysis in GIS (Harder & Brown, 2017). With the increasing amounts of data being produced, industries are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of the information; location-based data in particular can utilize AI, or location intelligence, for predictive modelling, space analysis, detecting and quantifying problems, and planning for operations and management (Esri, 2019). Location-based data are not confined to outdoor locations; beacons and Apple’s indoor positioning technology provides 3D visualizations of building interiors. Geospatial technology continues to become simultaneously both more robust and more accessible, particularly with the shift of GIS functionalities and content to a browser-based internet platform. GIS can serve as an online laboratory for learning, where students can “experiment” in various layers and ways of representing data. Geospatial technology has

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

137

been attached to various disciplines, but now with more recognition and acceptance of interdisciplinary approaches, schools will increasingly look to this interdisciplinary technology to address STEM and computational literacy/thinking. It is also being recognized as a useful skillset for the job market. Geospatial Projects for Social Change With the growth of the geospatial industry, technology tools are being used to address societal and environmental challenges of our times. There have been some interesting initiatives in the areas of geography and geospatial technology that have the potential for social change. GeoChicas is a global community of women mappers who have been utilizing OpenStreetMap to address the gender gap in mapping, and have conducted a number of projects using open-access maps, GPS, and photos they took; for example, GeoChicas conducted interviews throughout Oaxaca, Mexico and mapped shelters where women felt safe, which was particularly important following the November 2018 earthquake when many residents had to move into temporary public shelters (Bayona, 2020; Mukherjee, 2019). In early 2020, a Canadian firm used AI and geolocated datasets that pulled even unstructured data from news stories in dozens of languages, reports from plant and animal disease tracking networks, and airline ticketing data to simulate, predict, and track the global COVID19 spread better than algorithms that relied on public health data (Janeja, 2020). In 2012, the U.S. National Science Foundation and later the European Commission awarded funding to both American and European geographer organizations for the Geocapabilities project (http://www.geocap abilities.org). This project aimed at supporting teachers as curriculum leaders in order to provide students ways to understand the world and go beyond their everyday experience. Motivated by social justice, this project frames the importance of powerful geographic knowledge which is linked to wider educational aims: the ability to think and reason; relational understanding about ourselves in the environment and society; global citizenship; understanding the global economy; and intercultural understanding. We are already seeing student participation on community initiatives, both inside and outside of the classroom, where young people are using their mapping skills to solve local and global problems. Here we highlight three such projects:

138

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

• Humanitarian Open StreetMap Team (HOTOSM, https://www. hotosm.org) • Open Cities Mapping Project (https://opencitiesproject.org) • Missing Maps initiative (https://www.missingmaps.org). All of these projects use crowdsourcing and open map data to identify “vulnerabilities and assets” in communities that require humanitarian assistance. For example, drone and satellite images of refugee settlements in East Africa are posted online, and people from anywhere in the world can go online and help identify buildings and other assets that would help aid workers to target malaria prevention activities. The Missing Maps project then conducts “ground truthing” by going into the community that has been mapped to make sure the information is accurate and to talk with community members about additional details or local names that could be added to the map. The ethics of remote sensing are an important consideration for this type of project, which we will discuss further in the next chapter. While there are benefits to these data, there is also the potential for misuse and surveillance, and, especially with the higher quality resolution of satellite images available now, introducing some important questions about data transparency as well as privacy. When communities organize their projects for socio-economic development and disaster preparedness, the resulting projects increasingly mobilize young people, or “maptivists,” to assist with the mapping activities. The international group YouthMappers has university chapters all over the world to promote student “mapathons” to contribute to the HOTOSM initiative. In 2017, Elizabeth met with the student leader of a YouthMappers chapter at Mbale Christian University in Uganda. These maptivists went into the nearby rural area to identify and map microfinance locations so that local people could find financial assistance with a minimum of travel, which can be difficult and costly. Projects such as these are aimed at making the world a better place, part of a new vision for the goal of education to empower our students. As we discuss in the next chapter, it is essential for community partnerships to guide this type of student activism, as well as ethical considerations for the use of geolocated data.

5

PLACE-BASED INQUIRY IN ACTION

139

References Barnett, M., Houle, M., Mark, S., Strauss, E., & Hoffman, E. (2010). Learning about urban ecology through the use of visualization and geospatial technologies. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 18(2), 287–317. Waynesville, NC: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/32353/. Bayona, E. (2020, March 9). GeoChicas: el callejero que denuncia la desigualdad de género. Público. Retrieved from https://www.publico.es/sociedad/geochi cas-callejero-denuncia-desigualdad-genero.html. Brovelli, M. A., Ponti, M., Schade, S., & Solís, P. (2020). Citizen science in support of digital earth. In H. Guo, M. Goodchild, & A. Annoni (Eds.), Manual of digital earth (pp. 593–622). Singapore: Springer. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3_18. Carrigan, J., Bodzin, A. M., Hammond, T. C., Rutzmoser, S., Popejoy, K., Farina, W., … Sahagian, D. (2019). Investigating urban trees: Exploring the impact of trees around our school with geospatial technologies. The Science Teacher, 86(8), 27–35. Community Mapping Lab, Department of Geography, University of Georgia. (2020). Who we are [website]. Retrieved from http://www.communitymap pinglab.org/. EDCWorldwide. (2009, August 18). Students shape urban planning (ITEST Massachusetts) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/y6fO6ECHNJ4. Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Working Group at Lehigh University. (2020). SESI [website]. Retrieved from https://eli.lehigh.edu/sesi. Esri Press. (2019). The science of where: Discover the value of location intelligence technology [ebook]. Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/en-us/location-int elligence. Harder, C., & Brown, C. (2017). The ArcGIS book: 10 big ideas about applying the science of where (2nd ed.). Redlands, CA: Esri Press. Janeja, V. (2020, March 3). Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/predicting-the-coronavirus-out break-how-ai-connects-the-dots-to-warn-about-disease-threats-130772. Mukherjee, R. (2019, July 17). In Latin America, using crowd-sourced maps to improve the lives of women. Undark Magazine. Retrieved from https://und ark.org/2019/07/17/feminist-maps-latin-america/. Turan, Z., Meral, E., & Sahin, I. F. (2018). The impact of mobile augmented reality in geography education: Achievements, cognitive loads and views of university students. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 42(3), 427– 441.

CHAPTER 6

Conclusion: Mapping for a Better World

Throughout this book, we advocated a critical pedagogy of place-based inquiry. We believe that educators should use critical place-based inquiry to both develop students’ reasoning skills as well as to promote engagement in their communities. Academic courses can become opportunities to develop skill sets needed for making sense out of real-world, placebased data. When students are confronted with the legacy of social injustice or structural inequality as part of their coursework, they will gain the foundation for imagining social change in their communities. When designing critical place-based inquiry, educators need to shift focus from “education to cover content” to designing “apprenticeships to the world” (Prensky, 2016, p. 29). By doing so, we empower students to gain real-world skills through actual accomplishments where they can see the value of having a positive impact on community and society. Educators can connect place-based inquiries to the big ideas and the essential questions addressed in their courses frequently and intentionally. Students can appreciate why they engage in particular learning activities and assignments. Big ideas and essential questions are by definition real-world oriented and the skills of persistence, self-motivation, and selfregulation, popularly referred to as “grit” by Duckworth (2016) enable students to move past some of the challenges encountered when navigating the world. Utilizing critical inquiry skills to explore place can further our journey in this direction as we challenge ourselves to imagine a better world. © The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_6

141

142

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

In this chapter we look at the value of purposeful, authentic learning that comes with well-designed critical place-based pedagogy. While this pedagogy has the potential to be deeply meaningful, the design process must also take into account the value of strong community partnerships that guide student inquiry and the ethical considerations associated with the use of location-based data, as well as the assumptions we make regarding students’ access to spatial technologies. Events such as COVID-19 and the public outcry over racism and police brutality add a sense of urgency to our call for a critical place-based pedagogy that is more inclusive and offers an understanding of the communities and the environments in which we live, work, and play.

Purposeful, Authentic Learning Purposeful learning occurs when students are motivated to make selfimprovements as well as to develop their connection to the world (Yeager et al., 2014). Even a brief, one-time intervention that promotes self-transcendent, purposeful learning can have benefits that last for months. In several studies with over 2000 adolescents, Yeager et al. (2014) found that with this type of learning, math and science grades improved, students were more likely to enroll in college, and academic self-regulation on tedious schoolwork increased. Students who assumed a mindset of being self-transcendent and becoming engaged in purposeful learning demonstrated that they wanted to become an educated citizen who contributes to society. In contrast those students who only had selforiented motives for learning, such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career, were less persistent, less self-motivated, and seldom moved beyond an immediate learning challenge. Educational researcher Camille Farrington noted in an interview that nurturing a “sense ofpurpose mentality” means students take ownership of the learning process by putting “those pieces together in their own heads, for themselves” (Chen, 2014, para 13). Students viewed being responsible for their own learning very differently than being told by a teacher or parent to complete an assignment. Instead of this importance being heard by our students as “…because blah, blah, blah,” Farrington and Yeager point out that more authentic assignments motivated students not only to complete the assignments, but also to be engaged in their communities (Chen, 2014, para. 16).

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

143

The value of authentic learning is becoming more evident and accepted into formal education. Authentic learning is characterized by: • An activity that involves real-world problems and that mimics the work of professionals; the activity involves presentation of findings to audiences beyond the classroom. • Use of open-ended inquiry, thinking skills and metacognition. • Students engage in discourse and social learning in a community of learners. • Students direct their own learning in project work (Rule, 2006, p. 2). As schools reimagine how to provide these authentic experiences, we suggest that the answer may lie with a critical pedagogy that occurs outside of a four-walled traditional classroom. Getting outside can be a positive multisensory learning experience. In fieldwork, students integrate what they see, hear, smell, and feel. Recent research on special and additional needs students who respond well to the combined use of senses indicates there are increases in focus as well as gains in learning for many populations (Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). While there are classroom-based or online activities that can incorporate authentic learning, extending learning into the outdoors makes strong links between theory and practice. Support for the idea of place-based learning outside the classroom also comes from recent developments in posthumanism, as highlighted by the Open University’s ten innovating pedagogies for 2020 (Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). Advocates of posthumanism suggest that we move learning outside the classroom, and consider the notion that humans should no longer be at the center of everything. With place-based inquiry, it is possible to take a careful look at our place in the world, and re-center investigations on our relationship with nature and our impact on the environment, while recognizing the decreasing separation between humans and technology (Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). This approach challenges educators to think more broadly about the purpose of “classrooms” and where learning should take place. The posthumanist approach challenges us to question our relationship with the world. A second innovation listed by the Open University is the social justice pedagogy that enables our students to become active citizens who

144

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

critically explore systems of power, privilege, and oppression (KukulskaHulme et al., 2020). Throughout this book, we have discussed the importance of exploring multiple perspectives, particularly the perspectives of those who are often marginalized. By investigating topics from multiple perspectives, students can take into account different points of view as well as the progression of events and agents that shape our communities, which can include animals and plants, in addition to people. In the process of group analysis and inquiry, students are invited to formulate their own perspectives and become active participants in the community dialogs that unfold. With critical place-based inquiry, they can look at map data and question how, why, and by whom these data were produced, and whose stories are not being told. They can examine the historical patterns that led to structural inequality or limited opportunities. Following a social justice pedagogy, students can critically examine the assumptions that guide knowledge production.

Community Partnerships Chart the Path for Student Activism Authentic, purposeful learning requires authentic community partnerships. Our goal should be developing a “community of practice” that shares a common purpose, guiding the critical inquiry activities of educators and their students as they reflect on and address local concerns. By supporting the members of those communities who are challenging inequalities or confronting social injustices, students can become engaged members of the community. As an example, the field of transformative geography takes a step in this direction; students are encouraged to use geography in a democratic and inclusive way for the “well-being of people and the environment in order to improve the world” (Kirman, 2003, p. 93). This approach combines three components: critical thinking, decision-making, and action. Throughout Kirman’s framework, there is an emphasis for ethics and the care and respect for human dignity and human rights. Students may anticipate events or respond to existing events; students may decide to refrain from action. Students might act individually or collectively to lobby politicians. They may write the affected parties, involve the media, clean up the environment, or circulate petitions (Kirman, 2003). In all these forms of participation, the main goal of student engagement for Kirman is being a good citizen and a steward of the Earth.

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

145

Critical place-based pedagogy goes one step further by framing the location of study in terms of the broader social contexts that are shaped by historical and contemporary patterns of social and economic inequality. By incorporating the views of community members who may be vulnerable or those who are often excluded from decision-making, a more holistic approach to the studying of place emerges. While a fair number of placebased curricula advocate student activism, we advise extreme caution. Unless students happen to be members of the community of study, they should always play a supporting role when it comes to activism. Let’s look at an example of collaborative mapping that was used to promote socially transformative civic engagement (Gordon, Elwood, & Mitchell, 2016). Undertaking the mapping process itself developed the student’s critical spatial thinking skills. When the students collaborated in reflexive group dialog, they were challenged to consider the broader social context that generated social and economic inequalities. Students developed the ability to identify the spatial component of social inequalities, to understand how those spatial inequalities were perpetuated, and then connect civic responses to both the social and the spatial: “In mapping these spatial dimensions of social histories, some girls began to make connections between spatial exclusions and social prejudices” (Gordon et al., 2016, p. 564). Interestingly, these researchers recognized that through “offline” conversations with community members, the students developed an appreciation for studying spatial patterns in an authentic context and were sensitized to multiple perspectives on civic issues. Conversations with community members are a crucial starting point for educators who are designing critical place-based inquiry activities. Community partnerships must guide student activism. This dynamic is well-documented in the service learning literature, where we have a significant body of work identifying the need to respect the experiences and knowledge of local community groups, to develop trust and honest relationships, and to challenge the power structures created by the elite groups with privilege in those communities (Cahuas & Levkoe, 2017). Educators must work with identified community partners when designing place-based inquiries. The working relationships with these community partners are as important as the spatial learning objectives. The following questions are helpful for fostering healthy community partnerships that are mutually beneficial and reciprocal:

146

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

1. What kinds of privilege do I bring to my role as an instructor and/or how have I been marginalized within the academy? How does my syllabus and course material address issues related to race, gender, and other axes of difference (are these issues present or absent)? What gaps exist and what can I do to address those gaps? 2. Who are my students? How can I make a welcoming and safe learning environment for students of color and students from marginalized communities? How can I create space in my classroom that bolsters meaningful conversation and supports student input and creativity? 3. What relationships do I already have with local communities? What work would need to be done to strengthen those relationships or build new ones? How can I connect students to appropriate service learning placements that meet community needs as well as achieve academic goals? 4. How am I listening to, and understanding the needs and goals of community partners? Am I measuring my success by the extent to which I have listened, understood, and met the goals of these partners? Where may I encounter challenges and what supports do I need to navigate those challenges? (Adapted from Cahuas & Levkoe, p. 260). For place-based inquiry, we suggest adding a fifth prompt that takes into account how a student’s individual life experience might influence the effectiveness of place-based pedagogy: 5. How might my students of color or students who grew up in marginalized communities experience this place-based activity? Does the assignment give them the opportunity to question the assumptions that I made when creating the assignment? How can they make the assignment their own by sharing insights and interpreting their own experiences in the broader context? Critical place-based inquiry can thrive when educators develop, nurture, and sustain strong community partnerships in a way that all parties benefit—there needs to be a common goal built on mutual respect and reciprocity. Naturally, place-based learning, like service learning, will have certain academic goals. Keep in mind that these goals suggest important

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

147

implications for both the community and community partners. It takes a great deal of time to direct and mentor students—when we ask our community partners to assume this role, it will necessarily divert their time and attention away from the work they routinely undertake. The degree to which students enter communities as outsiders, and then see themselves as “changemakers” should also be an ethical consideration—we are calling for a more reflexive and responsive approach to place-based inquiry. Educators must respect community-guided boundaries and develop strong working relationships that last longer than a single project or for one semester. When each successive group of students builds upon the success of the local, community-identified outcomes, the learning opportunities demonstrate the value of persistence and consistency of purpose. With strong community relationships as the foundation, place-based inquiry can serve as a collaborative space that supports community-directed social change. When educators recognize and build on existing assets within a community, they can expose students to the difficult contexts in which social inequities play out, while working to understand connections between structural inequalities and lived experience (Marymount University Sociology Department, 2016). Moreover, those engaged in place-based inquiry need to carefully consider whether the role of education is or should be community change. Bowers (2008) addresses science and environmental educators engaged in place-based learning, urging them to understand their role as “more complex than educating students to transform the local practices that are degrading the natural systems that future generations will depend upon” (p. 331). Instead of relying on abstract theories that perpetuate Western cultural assumptions, educators and students can use “thick descriptions” of the local intergenerational knowledge. The challenge of addressing the complexities associated with realizing a “better world” is not unique to place-based learning. Similar discussions occur among those who are working on all types of community engagement and service learning projects. When the classroom relocates to local communities, we need to consider complex ethical issues regarding the role of students and educators in those communities.

148

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

The Ethical Boundaries of Critical Place-Based Inquiry The process of critical place-based inquiry offers a powerful tool for educators, and as such, careful thought needs to address the ethical concerns that emerge when using this pedagogy. There are a number of issues specific to place-based learning that require routine reflection during the planning and implementation of this pedagogy, such as the use of existing data which involves data literacy and data privacy, the collection of new data which should take into account the care for the communities and environments that we visit, and finally, the integrity of analyzing and applying location-based data. Readily available geospatial datasets make it faster and easier to locate, use, and process information. There is an increased number of these publicly available datasets that include maps, spatial data, or geolocated images. Teachers can integrate critical inquiries by taking advantage of meaningful and relevant authentic data. When students find out what is happening in their town or they compare their town to another community, the resulting inquiry activities can be motivating, especially when students are given the chance to identify the issues (Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). From census datasets to public funding information, student-initiated inquiry can parallel and support community initiatives. Using tools such as the Google Dataset Search (https://datasetsearch.res earch.google.com/) or the EDINA Digimap OpenStream (https://ope nstream.edina.ac.uk/) makes it possible for students to join forces with other citizen scientists (Fargher, 2018; Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). Data literacy—making sense of datasets (big data)—is an important skill that should be considered particularly as public open-source datasets become more accessible. Using these datasets in the classroom provides opportunities for students to ask questions about origins of data as well as about the need for privacy protections that should be put in place to shield vulnerable members of the community (Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2020). Geolocated Data—A Gold Mine or Mine Field? Along with the new possibilities associated with geolocated data come ethical considerations associated with data privacy. When you enable location services for your phone, some applications have the ability to log your movements, and can tie posts and queries to a particular location.

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

149

Who has access to these data? How are the data being used? The amount of location tracking of a smartphone by both companies and governments vary from country to country. While companies claim that location data are anonymous (meaning it’s impossible to identify individual users because the data is aggregated without identifiers), it is possible to track the patterns emerging from a series of data access points. Combining mobile phone data with additional information can reveal a lot. For example, in 2017 after Hurricane Maria it was possible to track the migration of people from Puerto Rico to the mainland using mobile phone data (Echenique & Melgar, 2018). By tracking mobile phones, researchers were able to determine where many of the hurricane refugees went after the storm as well as when they returned to Puerto Rico. During the COVID-19 pandemic, location-based mobile phone data were used to determine whether people were observing social distancing and stayat-home guidelines. For example, the University of Maryland developed a COVID-19 Impact Analysis Platform that uses mobile phone data to track mobility and social distancing (Maryland Transportation Institute, 2020). Even in apps where users opt-out of location tracking and the developer states it does not follow or track users, violations have been uncovered by investigative reporters and researchers (Harwell, 2020). In addition to the privacy of the user, students will need to consider the privacy of the people who are in the space being studied or mapped. Are students uploading photos of people to an online map? Who has access to this map? Educators can reference ethical guidelines on the use of location data that are issued by professional associations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Keep in mind that these guidelines change regularly to keep pace with changes in technology. When reviewing the use of location-based data by human rights groups, and academic researchers, AAAS’ Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights & Law Program issued the following ethical guidelines: 1. Do No Harm: Identify and minimize potential risks of location disclosure, particularly as they may affect the vulnerability of individuals and populations. 2. Define Your Purpose: Ensure action is mission-driven and goaloriented. 3. Do Good Science: Employ scientifically rigorous and responsible methods. 4. Collaborate and Consult: Engage with local partners.

150

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

5. Give Access to Your Data: Share data openly, when safe and practicable (AAAS, 2019, p. 5). In this example, consideration is given to protecting privacy and ensuring that data are not used in a way that harms the individuals being studied. Data Literacy and Citizen Science Open data present additional ethical considerations. Citizen science has made valuable contributions in subjects that range from bird counts to mapping urban heat islands; generally anyone can edit these entries, and volunteers review the entries (Goodchild, 2007). Because these open datasets can contain crowdsourced or volunteered geographic information (VGI), it is possible that online maps and datasets have inaccurate or misleading information. In addition to looking critically at the source of the data, it is important for students to question the unintended or harmful uses of information available in open datasets. For example, a project developing a dataset of refugee residential patterns could compromise the safety and security of those in the refugee communities (Boyd et al., 2008). Over the last decade, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project examined high-resolution satellite imagery of World Heritage sites that have been impacted by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq in an attempt to document looting and damage to the sites. Referring back to the AAAS guidelines on location-based data (previously listed), the fifth guideline is to “Give access to your data: Share data openly, when safe and practicable” [emphasis added]. AAAS researchers became concerned about making these data available and questioned whether data disclosures posed potential risks and dangers for nearby populations. Would making the data freely available license the destruction of cultural heritage by militant groups such as ISIS? Did the satellite images contain a high-enough resolution to draw accurate conclusions? Should these location-based data be available when there are human rights questions in crisis situations? (Hoy, 2019). Ultimately, the AAAS determined it would be best to keep the site’s identity confidential because it was not “safe and practicable” to share openly. Our students need to be sensitized to these ethical concerns when learning how to conduct place-based inquiries. For educators, this process of critical inquiry begins with discussions prior to the data collection in the field about what kinds of photos and

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

151

other data are appropriate to post. If taking photos of people, avoid including ones where the individual can be identified (i.e., do not use photos with faces, or blur the faces, unless subjects have given consent). Demonstrating respect for communities and environments is a necessary part of this learning experience, and students need to be held accountable for doing so. The students’ agenda may differ from the needs of the population living there, so great care needs to be taken to ensure that the students’ presence is not an intrusion, especially if there are vulnerable populations. Engage the students with these ethics and complexities of data, so if and when they face them in the professional world, they will make ethical decisions.

Place-Based Inquiry for ALL Learners: Access, Positionality, and Equity From challenging stereotypes to validating experience from the margins, critical place-based inquiry should promote inclusion of all groups of students. We often ask students to use their own devices for collecting and posting data, which involves utilizing their data plans as well as enabling location services. While some students may not have an issue with this, others may find using their own device problematic, as we noted in Chapter 3. Students may have privacy concerns about enabling location services on their phone; they may not have a phone, or they may have an older phone that does not have much free space or an updated operating system to support installation of an app. Some students may have limited or no data plans. Other students may not have much experience with or access to technology. All of these reasons constitute legitimate concerns that ought to be taken into account when designing critical place-based inquiry assignments. Issues of equity and access should not impact a student’s ability to succeed. In addition, the positionality of the students ought to be considered. How does a student’s race, ethnicity, nationality, and social or economic privilege impact how they interpret what they are seeing? How does their social location impact their participation in the field-based activities? Miller (2018) notes that without considering issues related to a critical consciousness of race, instructors may: “(1) privilege their own ways of knowing in local settings, (2) rely on ‘grit’ narratives as mechanisms for mediation of racism, and (3) teach non-white students that they cannot effect meaningful change for sustainability locally” (p. 847).

152

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Educators must navigate real challenges when designing inclusive place-based activities, by taking into account how a history of exclusion might affect students’ experiences in the field. Historically not all were welcome in “the great outdoors” (Finney, 2014). Documenting the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, and racial violence, Finney outlines the historical and cultural mechanisms that generated racialized spatial boundaries that limit students of color, but are often invisible for white students. When designing place-based inquiries, keep in mind that students of color must deal with assumptions about who belongs in a specific place, whether they are hiking on a trail or walking a residential neighborhood. Miller (2018) suggests that educators assume that “white and non-white students may interact with the land differently” and should talk with students openly about the challenges that they experience in the field (p. 854). It is only through this type of critical dialog, and by challenging the established norms that change becomes possible. By opening up a space for discussion not only are student’s experiences validated but educators can offer counter narratives, or differing interpretations of historical events. Effective place-based inquiry needs to include a critical examination of race even when the resulting questions of difference and inequality are difficult to navigate in the classroom and may fall short of the desired outcomes. Systemic change will require a great deal of work on the part of administrators, educators, and those who live in our communities. We must confront racism explicitly and recognize that our efforts in the classrooms should not be “interpreted as an immediate solution to dismantling oppressive power structures” (Cahuas & Levkoe, 2017, p. 260)—it is only the starting point, and we have a great deal of work ahead.

Chapter Conclusion: Final Thoughts So—why a critical pedagogy of place? Why critical place-based inquiry? It’s simple. All of our students are confronted with structural inequality and the power of privilege on a daily basis. For some students, these stark realities have become part of how they navigate the world; for other students, they have yet to appreciate the extent to which where they stand has been the result of privilege, or more direct paths. For all of the students, we need to have conversations about how we came to be where we are today. It’s only through careful consideration that it will be possible to reach a place in which there is not a difference in how place matters simply based on the color of your skin.

6

CONCLUSION: MAPPING FOR A BETTER WORLD

153

Preparing students to become engaged citizens who take evidencebased action requires a critical pedagogy—one where both students and instructors understand and take into account positionality. In order to utilize their critical thinking skills and recognize individual and structural privilege, students need to have active learning opportunities and to develop a vocabulary for examining both privilege and oppression (Hankins & Yarbrough, 2009). Through instructional design of a critical place-based inquiry we can move toward inclusion and a better understanding of the communities and the environments in which we live, work, and play.

References AAAS. (2019). Location-based data in crisis situations: Principles and guidelines. Washington, DC: Association for the Advancement of Science Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, & Law Program. Retrieved from https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/VGI%20Principles% 20and%20Guidelines_FINAL%20%28002%29.pdf. Bowers, C. A. (2008). Why a critical pedagogy of place is an oxymoron. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 325–335. Boyd, W. E., Healey, R. L., Hardwick, S. W., Haigh, M., Klein, P., Doran, B., … Bradbeer, J. (2008). None of us sets out to hurt people: The ethical geographer and geography curricula in higher education. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(1), 37–50. Cahuas, M. C., & Levkoe, C. Z. (2017). Towards a critical service learning in geography education: Exploring challenges and possibilities through testimonio. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41(2), 246–263. Chen, I. (2014, August 18). How a bigger purpose can motivate students to learn [blog post]. MindShift, KQED News. Retrieved from https://www.kqed. org/mindshift/37020/how-a-bigger-purpose-can-motivate-students-to-learn. Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY: Scribner. Echenique, M., & Melgar, L. (2018, May 11). Mapping Puerto Rico’s hurricane migration with mobile phone data. CityLab, Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved from https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/05/watch-puerto-ricoshurricane-migration-via-mobile-phone-data/559889/. Fargher, M. (2018). WebGIS for geography education: Towards a GeoCapabilities approach. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 7 (3), 111.

154

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

Finney, C. (2014). Black faces, white spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the great outdoors. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Goodchild, M. F. (2007). Citizens as sensors: The world of volunteered geography. GeoJournal, 69(4), 211–221. Gordon, E., Elwood, S., & Mitchell, K. (2016). Critical spatial learning: participatory mapping, spatial histories, and youth civic engagement. Children’s Geographies, 14(5), 558–572. Hankins, K., & Yarbrough, R. (2009). Positionality and active learning: Confronting privilege in field-exercise design. Journal of Geography, 107 (4/5), 186–193. Harwell, D. (2020, March 10). Secret-sharing app left users’ locations, fetishes exposed on the web. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.was hingtonpost.com/. Hoy, A. Q. (2019, June 27). Location-based data raise ethical issues for cultural heritage. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved from https://www.aaas.org/news/location-based-data-raise-ethical-issues-cul tural-heritage. Kirman, J. M. (2003). Transformative geography: Ethics and action in elementary and secondary geography education. The Journal of Geography, 102(3), 93–98. Kukulska-Hulme, A., Beirne, E., Conole, G., Costello, E., Coughlan, T., Ferguson, R., … Whitelock, D. (2020). Innovating pedagogy 2020: Open university innovation report 8. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2020.pdf. Maryland Transportation Institute. (2020). University of Maryland COVID19 Impact Analysis Platform. [Website]. College Park, MD: University of Maryland. Retrieved from https://data.covid.umd.edu. Marymount University Sociology Department. (2016). Department response to service learning QEP. Unpublished internal document. Miller, H. K. (2018). Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story. Environmental Education Research, 24(6), 845–858. Prensky, M. (2016). Education to better their world: Unleashing the power of 21st-century kids. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Rule, A. (2006). Editorial: The components of authentic learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1), 1–10. Yeager, D. S., Henderson, M. D., Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., D’Mello, S., Spitzer, B. J., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). Boring but important: A selftranscendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107 (4), 559–580.

CHAPTER 7

Afterword

Critical Place-Based Pedagogy in the Contemporary Context We received a not-so-gentle reminder of how the social context shapes teaching and learning when the COVID-19 crisis unfolded as we were writing this book. Not only did place matter, but we became acutely aware of how interdependence shaped everyday tasks that used to be straightforward. And at the same time the legacy of structural injustice became clear as the spatial patterns of COVID-19 emerged—where we live, work, and play mattered. Communities of color were affected by much higher infection rates—partly because many who lived in these communities were exposed to the virus when working on the front lines, partly because these are the same communities that lack access to adequate health care, and the resources that prevent the spread of the virus. Many live in densely populated areas and often hold jobs that cannot be done remotely. Having both a computer and internet access for telework was a luxury that was not available to everyone. In our classes, we were forced to modify our place-based inquiry assignments, taking into consideration issues of equity, access, and safety. Some of our students maintained their access to online materials, while others did not. The pandemic offered a poignant illustration of how “where you live matters.” Some of our students traveled home to communities that had yet to experience high rates of infection—they feared bringing the virus home to their loved ones. Other students chose to © The Author(s) 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0_7

155

156

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

remain close to campus because their home community was considered a hotspot. Access to technology varied dramatically, introducing inequalities in the classroom that had not been a concern at the beginning of the semester. While some of our students experienced a seamless transition from the traditional classroom on campus to remote locations, others found their internet connection at home unreliable or nonexistent, becoming disconnected and struggling to keep pace. Still, other students had to share their bandwidth at home with parents and siblings, making online access difficult at best. On the one hand, using the community as a classroom makes sense when school buildings and campuses are closed; on the other hand, while place-based learning can easily be incorporated into an online course, the assignment of sending students out into a populated community takes on a new dimension during an era of “social distancing.” Even in less-populated areas, weather disruptions can make an outdoor excursion inadvisable; for numerous reasons, planned fieldwork may need to be modified. If you can’t reschedule the fieldwork/data-collection assignment for another time in the course, remote sensing and open datasets can help fill this gap. In remote sensing, data such as images, temperature, pressure, etc. are obtained from satellites, aircraft, drones, or other sensors. The scanners and cameras allow remote users to identify and measure objects. As we discussed earlier, more and more open datasets and geotagged data are out there now, and students can pull in real-time data that update within a GIS dashboard that may include maps, charts, and other indicators. As always, it is important to take into account the ethical considerations associated with many of these geolocated resources. In Elizabeth’s class the students’ place-based learning assignment included revised options that allowed students to capture evidence of COVID-19. Their resulting Esri StoryMaps included a variety of products such as: • Maps that pulled in live data of local COVID-19 cases with an overlaid data layer on poverty. • A map of the blocks around one student’s apartment with photo documentation of local business closures and COVID-19-related signs. • A map created from the geotagged photos sent by a student’s sister in Saudi Arabia documenting scenes from local healthcare facilities.

7

AFTERWORD

157

In one of Janine’s classes, the students’ final project involved demonstrating mapping skills by creating a map. Rather than specifying that all the maps needed to use a particular technology (i.e., Esri StoryMaps), students were given an option to create maps using a range of tech tools. As a result, some students created a series of hand-drawn maps in a Word document, others did PowerPoint presentations and still others used the Esri StoryMap platform. Their topics were equally diverse—ranging from spatial aspects of the pandemic to illustrating bird migration for first graders. Having assignment flexibility became an essential (re)design consideration. Learning a new technology during a pandemic offered an escape for some students, while for others, access to a new technology presented one more barrier that was too difficult to overcome. In all cases, students were managing information overload. “Less is more” became our mantra. The COVID-19 maps that appeared in the news coverage of the pandemic presented an instructional opportunity and call for much needed geospatial literacy. The very earliest maps that appeared showed the number of confirmed cases in each county or local community. These maps became of limited value once the virus began to spread, providing only a partial picture. Without providing additional information such as the number of confirmed cases per number of people living in a given area (infection rates) it was difficult to make comparisons. Assessing the prevalence of COVID-19 infections required that the map data be adjusted for the number of people who were living in a particular location. Similarly, maps that counted confirmed cases by zip codes were problematic when it came to making comparisons between locations because these areas do not have uniform shapes, sizes, or populations. To confront the pandemic, researchers looked for patterns that identified who was most vulnerable. Uneven reporting procedures made it difficult to unravel the intersection of race and place. Johns Hopkins University mapped the states that were reporting COVID-19 infections by race (Johns Hopkins University, 2020); the absence of data generated concern because responding to community needs is dependent on accurate reporting: … while Black Americans represent only about 13% of the population in the states reporting racial/ethnic information, they account for about 34% of total Covid-19 deaths in those states. Asian Americans and Latinx Americans also show elevated impacts in some regions… This data could help local, state, and national policymakers identify which populations

158

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

may need additional access to resources such as testing, personal protective equipment, education, and support to implement recommended social distancing practices. (Johns Hopkins University, para. 3, 2020)

During the pandemic, some of the spatial patterns that emerged underscored the need for a critical approach to place-based learning. One of the more stunning spatial patterns that emerged during the pandemic illustrated what we already knew about race and place. When looking at the connection between COVID-19 and the health of people living in communities of color, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that “a disproportionate burden of illness and death among racial and ethnic minority groups” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, para. 1, 2019). Our students who live in these communities don’t need to listen to the news or read the newspapers to understand the disproportionate impact of COVID-19; for many, the virus had presented their family members, friends, and neighbors with endless challenges (Aubrey, 2020; Elving, 2020). The course of these contemporary events provided clear reminders that even if we choose to exclude certain information from our classroom assignments, our students will bring life experiences that shape their performance in the classroom. Validating and exploring those life experiences is important for all students, but especially for students who are coming from marginalized or underrepresented communities of color. Place Today: Mapping Structural Racism If a global pandemic wasn’t enough to underscore the importance of a critical place-based pedagogy, then the outrage expressed over the murder of George Floyd most certainly highlighted the role of place in America. Millions around the world watched the video footage that captured Floyd’s arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020. Any effort to dismiss Floyd’s death as an isolated incident became impossible when considered as one more of many events that occurred in the long history of police violence experienced by communities of color. Community activists have used collaborative mapping to record and display incidents of police violence across the U.S. Mapping Police Violence (https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/) and Fatal Encounters (https://fatalencounters.org/) were two such efforts. Spatial patterns connected race and police violence, suggesting a greater likelihood of

7

AFTERWORD

159

encountering violence depending on where you lived. While the number of deaths resulting from police violence in cities has recently declined, researchers found that by “examining the geography of police killings based on population density…, police killings in suburban and rural areas appear to have increased during this time period — offsetting reductions in big cities” (Sinyangwe, para. 8, 2020). Again—our Black students and students of color are well-aware of the ongoing connection between race, place, and police violence. As a nation we were forced to confront the many different places where racial discrimination occurs routinely. These everyday occurrences are “surprising” to some, and at the same time the subtext of interaction for students of color. Racist rules about who is supposed to be where, simply based on the color of their skin is a call to action for educators and students alike. A team of faculty and students at the University of Minnesota documented the legacy of segregation in Minneapolis by mapping the long history of racial covenants extending back to the turn of the century (see The Mapping Prejudice Project, https://www. mappingprejudice.org/). Covenants limited who could live where, and these racial boundaries were reinforced later when discriminatory lending practices such as redlining and variable interest rates made the price of homeownership much, much higher for African American and minority residents (Miller, 2020). The project took hours of volunteer time and resulted in a spatial visualization of structural racism in that city. The students, faculty, and community members’ efforts in Minneapolis made it possible to visualize structural racism and construct a counter-narrative to challenges common assumptions associated with the racial wealth gap (i.e., patterns of homeownership are the result of hard work or making good choices). Documenting the impact of racial restrictions offers a powerful pedagogical tool that helps students to gain a deeper understanding of how governmental policies have systematically shaped wealth accumulation among community groups who were restricted by these covenants. The same course of events can be documented through mapping in many other cities throughout the USA. It is imperative that our course activities examine the origins of structural inequality when it comes to the spatial dimension of racism. If we limit our observations and those of our students to the present day, we overlook the long legacy of segregation that was continuously reinforced long after Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity legislation was enacted.

160

E. LANGRAN AND J. DEWITT

The intersection of race and place has been one way that racial injustice is maintained, and is experienced daily by some of our students while escaping the daily encounters of others. Bringing this long legacy into the classroom through a critical pedagogy of place is essential for realizing true change in the USA.

References Aubrey, A. (2020, April 8). CDC hospital data point to racial disparity in COVID-19 cases. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/cor onavirus-live-updates/2020/04/08/830030932/cdc-hospital-data-point-toracial-disparity-in-covid-19-cases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). COVID-19 in racial and ethnic minority groups [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/cor onavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html. Elving, R. (2020, April 12). What coronavirus exposes about America’s political divide. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2020/04/12/832 455226/what-coronavirus-exposes-about-americas-political-divide. Johns Hopkins University. (2020). Q&A. Racial Data Transparency [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/racial-data-transparency. Miller, G. (2020, January 8). When Minneapolis segregated. CityLab, Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved from https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/01/ minneapolis-history-housing-discrimination-mapping-prejudice/604105/. Sinyangwe, S. (2020, June 1). Police are killing fewer people in big cities, but more in suburban and rural America. FiveThirtyEight ABC News. Retrieved from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/police-are-killing-fewer-people-inbig-cities-but-more-in-suburban-and-rural-america/.

Index

A Assessment, 56, 57, 69, 81–83, 93, 104, 106 single point rubric, 85 Augmented reality (AR), 17, 19, 135 Authentic learning, 10, 29, 34, 36, 45, 131, 142, 143. See also Purposeful learning C City as Text, 5, 14, 34, 38, 70, 72, 96 Collaborative mapping, 145, 158 Community mapping, 13, 36, 105, 127 Contextual learning , 10 COVID-19, 20, 120, 122, 126, 137, 142, 149, 155–158 Critical consciousness of race, 151 Critical literacy, 58 Critical pedagogy of place. See Critical place-based inquiry Critical place-based inquiry, 56, 64, 75, 85, 110, 117, 118, 135, 141, 144–146, 148, 151, 153

Crowdsourcing. See Collaborative mapping

D Dale’s Cone of Experience, 30, 98 Deep map, 34, 46, 64

E Empowerment, 12, 25, 36, 42, 44 Equity, 25, 151, 155 Experiential learning, 14, 18, 19, 30, 31, 33, 34, 45, 63, 83, 92

F Facilitation strategies, 57, 93, 101, 110 differentiation, 92 groupwork, 106 physical challenges, 110 sensory overload, 110. See also Situated learning Food mapping , 14

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 E. Langran and J. DeWitt, Navigating Place-Based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55673-0

161

162

INDEX

Freire, Paolo, 3, 41–44, 48, 59

G Geofencing, 135, 136 Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 26, 34, 37, 39, 62, 63, 69, 74, 79, 97, 102, 105, 107, 111–113, 118, 120, 122, 123, 126, 127, 132, 136, 156 GeoInquiries, 57, 69 Geolocated data, 7, 8, 12, 81, 99, 119, 123, 131, 138, 148 Geospatial literacy, 2, 7–11, 13, 57, 126, 157 Geospatial technologies, 8, 9, 20, 26, 35, 40, 62, 79, 126, 150 Geospatial thinking. See Geospatial literacy

I Informal learning, 12, 17–19, 135 Inquiry (in place-based learning), 63, 118, 123, 124, 147

L Locale, 5, 6, 33

M Mobile mapping, 16, 18, 63 Movement, role of in learning, 29

O Outdoor education, 28

P Participatory GIS (PGIS), 13, 105

Participatory mapping (PM), 12, 13, 36 Place-based education. See Place-based learning Place-based learning, 2–4, 6, 8–10, 14–20, 25–27, 38, 39, 43, 46, 48, 49, 56–58, 60, 61, 64, 66, 68, 69, 72–75, 79, 82, 83, 91–94, 98, 104, 108, 110, 113, 117, 120, 124, 129, 130, 133, 143, 146–148, 156, 158 Posthumanism, 143 Purposeful learning, 142, 144. See also Authentic learning

R Race. See Critical consciousness of race Reading the world, 42–44, 70, 117, 119 Reflection, 1, 6, 33, 34, 38, 49, 61, 63, 71, 80, 81, 96, 106, 107, 148 Remote sensing, 8, 79, 113, 138, 156 Rubrics. See Assessment

S Scaffolding, 30, 37, 64, 73–75, 83, 94, 100–102, 135, 136 Sense of place, 2, 5, 6, 8, 19, 32, 33, 38, 48, 49, 126 Service learning, 145–147 Situated learning, 33–35, 37, 39, 40, 80, 108 Spatial narratives, 6, 31, 34, 45, 47–49, 63, 68, 93, 109, 110 Spatial thinking, 7–10, 25, 26, 36, 99, 100, 110, 131, 145. See also Geospatial thinking Story, 10, 11, 33, 34, 36, 45, 46, 49, 56, 58, 61, 63, 79, 99, 108, 110,

INDEX

113, 117, 121, 123, 127, 133, 137, 144 StoryMaps, 121, 124. See also Spatial narratives Study abroad, 4, 12, 14, 55, 56, 96, 100, 110, 131 V Volunteered geographic information (VGI). See Collaborative mapping

W WonderPoints, 57, 69 Y YouthMappers, 35, 36, 138

163