This study explores a place based pedagogy of Philadelphia jazz history for K-12 students. While many intersections exist between place based programming and jazz public history both nationally and locally, the Philadelphia jazz public history community does not focus on educational programming. Though centered in Philadelphia, this study includes educational materials and field research for both formal and informal educators to increase critical, interdisciplinary African American musical history content in the classroom. The lesson plans found within exemplify a cross section of social studies educational literature, the history of African American narratives in Philadelphia schools, and place based jazz history in the city. / History

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.

This thesis interweaves two strands of inquiry, one educational, the other philosophical. The educational inquiry is seeded by the need to understand both embodiment and learning within experiences of place in education. The second strand is prompted by Evernden’s insight that the environmental crisis is a ‘crisis of being’ (1985). Evernden argues that our perceived separation from the world is at the root of the environmental issues we face. Highlighting the role that ‘place’ might have in both these inquiries, I examine the educational and philosophical debates around place, drawing especially on place-based education (Gruenewald & Smith, 2008), and phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty, 1968). Arguments from within these literatures indicate that experiences of, and in, place hold the potential to reexamine what it means to be part of the world, here, now. Three key research questions emerge from my examination of the literature: 1 – what role do experiences of place have in education? 2 – what is the ontology of place? and 3 – how does place affect thinking and learning? This third question is the meeting point of the philosophical and educational threads of the inquiry, and also reflects back on the process of the inquiry itself. Given the focus of these questions on the lived experience of place, phenomenology is chosen as a suitable methodology. However, I argue that the full potential of phenomenological research can only be met through a more participative and experiential approach. Drawing on literature on participative research, grouped under the term ‘action research,’ (Reason & Bradbury, 2001), a series of collaborative phenomenological research workshops were run in 2009 and 2010 with two groups of practicing educators. Descriptions of experiences of place and place-based education, from within the workshops and the participants’ workplaces, were distilled into themes by the groups. These themes served two purposes: the first was to explore the possibilities of place-based education in various working contexts, an inquiry which was completed during the workshops. The second was to seed a phenomenological investigation into the ontology of place, exploring questions from the philosophical debate on place. This second part of the inquiry was completed by myself. Both groups felt place-based education revealed aspects of place taken for granted or un-explored. This was summed up by one participant in the phrase ‘bringing place to life.’ The participants’ understandings of the different aspects of placebased education including the pedagogy involved, and the possible outcomes, show how place-based education was understood and applied in different contexts. The phenomenological analysis which builds on the participants’ understandings, describes a contrast between un-examined place and the intimate and immersive experience that can occur when place is ‘brought to life.’ The final part of the thesis explores in further depth the role of the mind in ‘bringing place to life,’ putting forward the idea of mind as a phenomenon which can adopt different scales. When learning and thinking on the same scale as the body, the mind is brought to place, and the dualism between mind and body breaks down. ‘Thinking in place’ is put forward as a way of understanding both the experience of learning in context, and the phenomenological immersion of both body and mind in place. The conclusions explore the implications of this research for the various fields touched on in the study: educational approaches such as environmental education, philosophical approaches to place, and research methodologies.

abstract: Ethnogeology is the scientific study of human relationships with the Earth as a system, typically conducted within the context of a specific culture. Indigenous or historically resident people may perceive local places differently from outside observers trained in the Western tradition. Ethnogeologic knowledge includes traditional indigenous knowledge (alternatively referred to as traditional ecological knowledge or TEK), which exceeds the boundaries of non-Indigenous ideas of physical characteristics of the world, tends to be more holistic, and is culturally framed. In this ethnogeological study, I have implemented several methods of participatory rapid assessment (PRA) from the discipline of field ethnography to collect culturally framed geological knowledge, as well to measure the authenticity of the knowledge collected. I constructed a cultural consensus model (CCM) about karst as a domain of knowledge. The study area is located in the karst physiographic region of the Caribbean countries of the Dominican Republic (DR) and Puerto Rico (PR). Ethnogeological data collected and analyzed using CCM satisfied the requirements of a model where I have found statistically significance among participant’s agreement and competence values. Analysis of the competence means in the population of DR and PR results in p < 0.05 validating the methods adapted for this study. I discuss the CCM for the domain of karst (in its majority) that is shared among consultants in the countries of PR and the DR that is in the form of metaphors and other forms of culturally framed descriptions. This work continuing insufficient representation of minority groups such as Indigenous people, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Hispanic/Latinxs in the Earth Sciences. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geological Sciences 2018

Numerous research studies have shown that when teachers take children outdoors to learn, children show an increase in cognitive, physical, social, and emotional skills. Few researchers have focused, however, on teachers and their decision to use the outdoors as a way of teaching. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore whether life experiences impact a teacher's choice to not use the outdoor environment. Ham and Shuman's model of environmental education commitment and Kaplan and Kaplan's environmental cognition theory served as the conceptual frameworks for this study. The research question was designed to explore the experiences and barriers of teachers and how these experiences and barriers affected a teacher's decision to use or not use an outdoor classroom when one was available. Data were obtained using individual interviews of a purposeful sample of seven elementary teachers from a large school district in the U.S. state of Georgia who were not using outdoor classrooms at the time of the study. Themes that emerged from data analysis were lack of time in tightly controlled class schedules, lack of administrator support, lack of staff development for teachers, weather, and lack of time to research and prepare lessons. Study findings have the potential to engender positive social change by increasing insight about the barriers teachers perceive to using the natural environment in instruction. With more knowledge about such barriers, administrators may able to encourage teachers to use the natural environment as an extension of the indoor classroom to increase academic achievement and lifelong behaviors in nature among students.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed April 11, 2007). Advisor: Carolyn B. Kenney. Keywords: place-based education, school culture, leadership, portraiture, program evaluation, urban elementary, environmental education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-139).

Having experienced climatic warming before, First Nations people of the Albany River basin in sub-arctic, Canada, have already shown the ability to be adaptable to external influences. However, societal changes and the current accelerated rate of environmental change have reduced First Nations people ability to adapt. In addition, young people are no longer going out on the land as much. Fort Albany First Nation community members have commented on the lack of connection that some youth have with the land. A disconnect with the environment by youth can threaten the adaptive capacity of sub-arctic First Nations. As identified by Fort Albany First Nation community members, one potential tool that could influence the youth to become more aware of their land, is the collaborative geomatics tool. The collaborative geomatics tool is based on the WIDE (Web Informatics Development Environment) software toolkit. The toolkit was developed by The Computer Systems Group of the University of Waterloo to construct, design, deploy and maintain complex web-based systems. The collaborative geomatics tool supports a common reference map, based on high-resolution imagery. Three environmental outreach camps were held from 2011-2012, programming utilized place-based education as the platform to engage youth in their environment and community and begin using the associated mapping technology. All camps utilized the newly developed collaborative-geomatics tool and a camera ready handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) while participating in various activities that engaged them in their community and environment. The outreach program worked well in connecting youth with knowledgeable community members allowing for the direct transfer of traditional knowledge in a culturally appropriate manner, that is, learning through observation and doing, as well as other culturally-appropriate educational strategies. In addition, the informatics tool supported the archiving of this knowledge through the uploading of geospatially tagged pictures taken by the youth.

In an age of increased environmental awareness, environmental education in schools has become progressively valued and supported. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of art education within the context of environmental schools and other sites of environmental education. Specifically, this research aimed to identify ways art education is being used as a means to strengthen outdoor learning. Through qualitative research involving multiple case studies of the art programs of three environmental charter schools and one nature center in Pennsylvania, data was gathered by means of on-site observations and interviews with staff and students of the aforementioned sites. Although the findings of this study indicated that each of the sites incorporated some degree of art in their environmental curricula, the results demonstrated a significant deficiency in the presence and support of art education in the environmental education programs within each site. Based on the findings of this study, suggestions were made concerning ways art may be used as a means through which students might more closely examine and experience the natural environment. / text

Indigenous worldviews are essential to successful language education, yet it remains a challenge to integrate them into current frameworks dominated by Western paradigms and pedagogies. This research addresses one aspect of the maintenance of cultural integrity for Indigenous languages as they are taught in a contemporary context. The purpose of this research is twofold: to explore the connections between Indigenous languages and the land, and to see how these connections are reflected in current language education practices. In particular, the study looks at the use of websites for Indigenous language education, with the goal of better understanding the potential for such placeless, global media to represent the inherently place-based nature of Indigenous languages. The study is based on an Indigenist research paradigm and employs the qualitative principles of Constructivist Grounded Theory. It incorporates a synthesis of current literature regarding connections between language and land, personal interviews with Indigenous language and culture experts, and a survey of 14 language education websites from Canada and the United States. Essential ties between land and language are revealed in the words of Indigenous and other writers, and in the thoughts and practices of Indigenous thinkers actively engaged with both land and language. These ties represent an intimate relationship to land that weaves together Indigenous knowledge, spirituality, history and identity. This study contributes to our understanding of the significance of land for Indigenous languages, and the importance of Indigenous worldviews for Indigenous education. / Graduate

Having experienced climatic warming before, First Nations people of the Albany River basin in sub-arctic, Canada, have already shown the ability to be adaptable to external influences. However, societal changes and the current accelerated rate of environmental change have reduced First Nations people ability to adapt. In addition, young people are no longer going out on the land as much. Fort Albany First Nation community members have commented on the lack of connection that some youth have with the land. A disconnect with the environment by youth can threaten the adaptive capacity of sub-arctic First Nations. As identified by Fort Albany First Nation community members, one potential tool that could influence the youth to become more aware of their land, is the collaborative geomatics tool. The collaborative geomatics tool is based on the WIDE (Web Informatics Development Environment) software toolkit. The toolkit was developed by The Computer Systems Group of the University of Waterloo to construct, design, deploy and maintain complex web-based systems. The collaborative geomatics tool supports a common reference map, based on high-resolution imagery. Three environmental outreach camps were held from 2011-2012, programming utilized place-based education as the platform to engage youth in their environment and community and begin using the associated mapping technology. All camps utilized the newly developed collaborative-geomatics tool and a camera ready handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) while participating in various activities that engaged them in their community and environment. The outreach program worked well in connecting youth with knowledgeable community members allowing for the direct transfer of traditional knowledge in a culturally appropriate manner, that is, learning through observation and doing, as well as other culturally-appropriate educational strategies. In addition, the informatics tool supported the archiving of this knowledge through the uploading of geospatially tagged pictures taken by the youth.