Place-Based Education (PBE)

Dr. Bocko from Antioch University New England presents place-based education as a restorative practice that intentionally designs learning experiences in natural, cultural, and built environments to reconnect students with their surroundings and each other. Moving beyond traditional nature-based enrichment activities, place-based education serves as both pedagogical approach and systematic challenge to conventional schooling that isolates learning within classroom walls. Paul emphasizes that this is not a new concept - indigenous peoples have practiced place-based education for millennia - but rather a return to learning rooted in community, identity, and environmental connection that mainstream education has largely abandoned.

"Intentionally designing learning experiences in the natural cultural and or built environment... places more is more expansive [than nature-based education]."

"This is not new... it was indigenous people that have been doing indigenous place-based education for a long time and it's not what they call it mostly."

"Critical Place based pedagogy... integrating the power and colonization... the embedded facts of the power differentials... there are power dynamics at play and the indigenous presence and perspective is so important."

• Place-based education draws from indigenous knowledge systems that mainstream education has largely displaced. How might schools acknowledge and learn from these foundations without appropriation? What does respectful collaboration look like?
• Participants identified "rivers, mountains, and neighborhoods" that shape their identity. How might educators use students' personal place connections as starting points for curriculum rather than obstacles to overcome?
• Paul argues students are "ready to contribute" rather than just "in training" for future participation. How might this shift change classroom dynamics, assessment practices, and community relationships? What barriers prevent recognizing students as current contributors?