Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study attempted to present a nuanced perspective on the sense of place of learners and the extent to which teachers practice a pedagogy of place. In the study, the researcher investigated the sense of place of twelve Grade 6 and 8 learners at a school, situated in an eco-village in the Stellenbosch vicinity. The assumption is being made that the eco-village is a more conducive context for cultivating a sense of place amongst learners. The group consisted of six learners that did not live in the eco-village and six learners that did live there. Furthermore, an attempt was made to determine what the two Social Sciences teachers' understanding of the concept "place" was, the extent to which they practiced a pedagogy of place and the influence that the eco-village had on their teaching approach. The research report comprises two components, namely (a) a theoretical-philosophical component, and (b) an empirical component. The aim of the theoretical component was to explore the idea of a "sense of place" critically. This was done firstly, by emphasising the nexus between place and space, secondly, to present more clarity on the concept "place" by discussing the multiple meanings underpinning the concept, and lastly, to investigate a sense of place as a multi-dimensional concept. Against the background of a sense of place and pedagogy of place, I critically analysed the South African curriculum statements of the Social Sciences learning area for Grades R to nine, in order to determine how these policy statements address the concept place. Teachers are confronted with these statements on a regular basis and the assumption is that the emphasis being placed on this concept in the statements might have an impact on their pedagogy. This assumption was further explored in the interviews that were conducted with teachers, in an attempt not only to determine their understanding of the concept "place" but also to determine the extent to which they practice a pedagogy of place. Before interviews were conducted with teachers, it firstly determined what learners' sense of place is regarding where they live and attend school. The aim was to establish the differences, similarities, overlappings (if any) between these two groups. This study serves as a confirmation of the complexity regarding educational discourses and practices that explicitly examine the place-specific nexus between the environment, culture and education. It challenges teachers and educators in environmental education to expand the scope of their theory, investigation and practice in order to include the social and ecological contexts of our own inhabitation and those of others. In other words the challenge for teachers and educators lies in reflecting on the relationship between the type of education that they strive for and the type of place that we inhabit and leave behind for future generations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het dit ten doel gehad om 'n genuanseerde perspektief te bied op leerders se sin van plek asook die mate waartoe onderwysers 'n pedagogie van plek toepas. Tydens die studie is die sin van plek onder twaalf graad 6- en 8-leerders aan 'n skool, geleë in 'n eko-dorpie in die Stellenbosch-omgewing ondersoek. Die aanname is gemaak dat die eko-dorpie meer bevorderlik is vir die kweek van 'n sin van plek by leerders. Die groep het bestaan uit ses leerders wat nie in die eko-dorpie woon nie en ses leerders wat wel daar woon. Verder is daar gepoog om te bepaal wat die twee Sosiale Wetenskappe-onderwysers se opvatting van die konsep "plek" is, tot watter mate hulle 'n pedagogie van plek toepas en die invloed wat die eko-dorpie op hulle onderrigbenadering het. Die navorsingsverslag bestaan dus uit twee komponente, naamlik (a) 'n teoreties-filosofiese komponent en (b) 'n empiriese komponent. Met betrekking tot die teoretiese komponent is daar beoog om die gedagte van 'n sin van plek te verken deur dit krities te ondersoek. Dit is gedoen deur eerstens die verband tussen plek en ruimte te bespreek, tweedens meer duidelikheid omtrent die konsep "plek" te verkry deur die veelvuldige betekenisse aan die lig te bring en laastens om "sin van plek" as 'n multidimensionele begrip te ondersoek. Wat betref sin van plek en 'n pedagogie van plek, is daar verder beoog om die Suid-Afrikaanse kurrikulumverklarings ten opsigte van die leerarea Sosiale Wetenskappe vir grade R tot nege krities te analiseer om te bepaal tot watter mate die beleidsdokumente die konsep "plek" behandel. Onderwysers word op 'n daaglikse basis met hierdie verklarings gekonfronteer en die aanname is dat die klem wat op die konsep "plek" gelê word, 'n invloed op hulle pedagogie as sodanig sal hê. Hierdie aanname is verder verken in die onderhoude wat met onderwysers gevoer is waar daar nie net gepoog is om hulle opvatting van die konsep "plek" te bepaal nie, maar ook om vas te stel tot watter mate hulle 'n pedagogie van plek beoefen. Alvorens daar met onderwysers onderhoude gevoer is, is daar eerstens bepaal wat leerders se sin van plek is met betrekking tot waar hulle woon en skoolgaan. Daar is beoog om die verskille, ooreenkomste en oorvleuelings (indien enige) tussen die twee groepe leerders se sin van plek vas te stel. Die studie dien as 'n bevestiging van die kompleksiteit aangaande opvoedkundige diskoerse en praktyke wat eksplisiet die plek-spesifieke neksus tussen die omgewing, kultuur en onderwys bestudeer. Dit stel onderwysers en opvoedkundiges in omgewingsopvoeding voor die uitdaging om die omvang van hulle teorie, ondersoek en praktyk uit te brei om sodoende die sosiale en ekologiese agtergrond van ons eie en ander se bewoning in te sluit. Met ander woorde, die uitdaging vir onderwysers en opvoedkundiges lê dus daarin om te reflekteer oor die verhouding tussen die tipe opvoeding wat hulle nastreef en die tipe plekke wat ons bewoon en nalaat vir toekomstige generasies. / Andrew Mellon Foundation

This international research set out to exemplify the pedagogical practices of 11 teachers from Christchurch/Ōtautahi, New Zealand (Aotearoa) and Saskatoon, Canada. It explores their resistance to the various colonial and neocolonizing constructs central to contemporary mainstream schooling in both cities (due to forces such as neoliberalism). These acts of resistance were the result of contesting ideologies of time, space, curriculum and assessment. The research, therefore, describes some of the pedagogical practises of these teachers. It also considers their narratives about their usage of place-based education (PBE) approaches and their commitment to the adoption of critical pedagogies of place (CPP) to meet the real needs of their students (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous). An interpretive paradigm was employed within a qualitative framework to underpin this research. A case study approach was also adopted and informed by a bricolage methodological framework. Primary and secondary data were collected from a number of storage sites (libraries) in both countries and through a questionnaire, interview and observation of each teacher’s classroom space. The data was analysed by coding key information while drawing out any recurring themes and points of difference. The findings reveal that certain aspects of PBE and CPP are accessible to teachers despite their feelings of being confined in terms of their ability to use time, space, curriculum and assessment within their traditional school institutions. Although their abilities to engage with PBE and CPP were limited, those teachers that had more control over time, space, curriculum and assessment were able to dive deeper into PBE and especially CPP. A key finding of this research was the extent of awareness and engagement that the teachers had in transforming controlled, static, spaces found in the classrooms, communities and natural environments into meaningful places with students. This finding also suggests that teachers with more control over time, space, curriculum and assessment have an easier time in creating this change. The findings also indicate that these teachers first needed to have the courage to challenge traditional systems of schooling, because teachers can become marginalized by other teachers and administrators when seen to be attempting to transform entrenched institutional (schooling) cultures. Flexibility and trust were two of the other recurring themes that emerged from the data collected. Teachers possessing more flexibility (with regards to time, space, curriculum and assessment design procedures) were most able to enact PBE and CPP. They were also the best-positioned participants to create meaningful professional relationships with their students and local community members. Issues of trust were clearly evident in recurring discussions around the increased amount of trust teachers needed to have with students for the students to be able to engage with space and place. There was also an increased amount of trust that school administrators (principals) needed to have in their teachers who were engaging with PBE and CPP. The research participants in this study demonstrated that, in different ways, they were striving to resist the ideologies underpinning traditional mainstream schooling, and that they were able to enact change regardless of the challenges they experienced. Their perseverance to ground their teaching in PBE and CPP approaches testifies to their love of education and their acceptance of it as a legitimate process for change and growth.

The nurturance of creative capacity and cultural awareness have been identified as important 21st century concerns, given the ways that globalisation has challenged cultural diversity. This thesis explores the share that the art classroom, as a formative place, has in supporting such concerns. It specifically examines artmaking strategies that visual arts teachers may use to help adolescent students to develop and negotiate their senses of self, place and community. Held within this goal is the assumption that both student and teacher perspectives are important to this endeavor. This thesis, accordingly, draws upon empirical work undertaken with lower secondary school level visual art students in Christchurch, New Zealand and teacher-trainees in Kingston, Jamaica to explore this potential in multi-dimensional ways. The research employs a qualitative, arts-based methodology, centred on the transformative capacity of ‘visual knowing’ to render this potential visible. A/r/tography as a particular strand of arts-based methodology, served to also implicate my artist-researcher-teacher roles in the study to facilitate both reflection and reflexivity and to capture the complexity and dynamics of the study. Multiple case studies provided the contexts to furnish these possibilities, and to theorize the intrinsic qualities of each case, as well as the complementary aspects of the inquiry in depth. The conceptual framework that underpins this study draws widely on scholarship relating to contemporary artmaking practices, visual culture, culturally responsive and place-conscious pedagogical practices. The research findings reveal that when the artmaking experience is framed around the personal and cultural experiences of the participants, both students and teachers participate in the enterprise meaningfully as co-constructors of knowledge. In this process, students develop the confidence to bring their unique feelings, experiences and understandings to the artmaking process, and develop a sense of ‘insideness’ that leads to strong senses of self, place and community. This also creates a space where the authentic interpretation of artmaking activities goes beyond the creation of borders around cultural differences, and instead generates multiple entry points for students to engage with information. The findings also indicate that while the nature of artmaking is improvisatory and emergent, structure is an integral element in the facilitation of habits toward perception and meaning making. Accordingly, emphases on structured, open-ended artmaking experiences, framed aesthetically, as well as exposure to both the products and processes of contemporary art serve this endeavor. Artmaking boundaries and enabling structures also help to supplement this process. Though this research is limited in scope (in terms of the community engagement), there exists evidence that collaboration with community resource persons enlarges students’ conceptions of artmaking. It presents the potential to address broad issues of local and global import, which also have relevance for the ways students understand their relationships with the world. For researchers outside of the school and community culture however, this process requires close working relations with school personnel to ensure its effectiveness and to facilitate those school-community bridges. The undertaking is also best realized when participants have their own senses of its value, and, as such, are more inclined to participate. A/r/tography, as an arts-based methodology presents much potential for examining the complexities of the artmaking experience. As a form of active inquiry it helps those who employ its features to be more attuned toward enquiry, their ways of being in the world, the ways the personal may be negotiated in a community of belonging, and the development of practices that address difference. This contributes to evolving and alternative research possibilities that value visual forms of ‘knowing’. Finally, this thesis addresses the paucity of research on visual arts education at the secondary level, especially in the Jamaican context. A significant feature of this research is the evidence of its effectiveness with both lower secondary school students and teachers across geographical contexts. It therefore presents the potential for similar studies to be undertaken internationally. Given that the results are site specific however, it is recommended that the adaptation of the framework of this study for future purposes also respond to the specific realities of those contexts.

Outdoor education in the UK has been growing in popularity and with it a further understanding of its benefits. Research shows that many young people still don’t access natural environments and many educators still struggle with how to provide them. This is particularly prevalent in urban environments where spatial inequality has been linked to a decline in health, well-being and personal development. Community mapping involves a community coming together to create a map of their locality and share local knowledge. This can take many forms. Sometimes it might be a traditional cartographic map while other times it may be stories, sculptures or poems. In this research I explore how community mapping can be used as a pedagogical tool, looking particularly at how it can help educators approach outdoor education in an urban environment. I take a teacher action research approach, inspired by previous art-based approaches to educational inquiry. Through doing a community mapping project with two groups of 8 to 10 year olds on an urban farm in central London I share the visable and often invisible components of our pedagogies, including children’s voices and work as well as the voice of myself and another educators, reflecting on the realities of outdoor education in an urban environment. I discover the cross curricular possibilities that such a project brings, the spaces it opens up for us to learn from children’s voices and the many ways in which community mapping can be used to address aims and goals of the UK primary curriculum. Community mapping can help educators overcome a lack of confidence in how to approach outdoor learning. The child-led nature of projects can allow children and educators to work together to co-create their understanding of the locality, noticing the small details they hadn’t seen before. It can provide a space for educators to learn more about how the young people they work with see the world around them while also providing authentic experiences that can be utilized in wider classroom learning. This research allows other educators to take away what resonates with them, with their experiences and pedagogies, and use these new understandings to enhance their own educational practices in their own settings.