On May 27th at Education House, Mary St. Brisbane, Professor Peter Renshaw and Dr Ron Tooth presented a seminar on the topic: Learning to connect and care: Review of recent research on place-responsive pedagogy and implications for classroom practice. The seminar was part of the Education Queensland Research Forum Series. About 40 researchers attended in person and a similar number signed up for the online version. An audio-visual recording of the seminar will be available on the Education Queensland Research Forum Webpage (https://education.qld.gov.au/about-us/reporting-data-research/research/research-forums)
The seminar reviewed research summarised in Peter and Ron’s recent book (2018) published by Routledge, Diverse Pedagogies of Place: Educating Students in and for Local and Global Environments. Their presentation highlighted the investment by Queensland in a network of twenty-five environmental and outdoor education centres spread across the whole State. Recent research has demonstrated that place-responsive pedagogies engage children in deep learning about the environment and increase their attentiveness to, and valuing of nature.
Moving beyond pedagogies for environmental centres, Peter and Ron addressed the question of how a place responsive pedagogy could be designed for schools and regular classrooms. This is a compelling task for educators particularly in the current age of disconnection (Hari, 2018; Kretz, 2013). How do we motivate students to be engaged and care rather than disengage and become sceptical or despondent? Ron’s professional work with local schools and councils suggests that place-responsive pedagogies can address these challenges. Implementing place-responsive pedagogy in schools emotionally and aesthetically engages students (and teachers) and heightens their commitment to caring positively about each other and the places around them. It is also a motivating pivot for literacy activities and other learning activities across the curriculum.
Peter and Ron have a new research project funded by the Australian Research Council 2019-2021 to investigate how digital technologies mediate children’s connections to nature (the more-than-human world). The research project is entitled- - Digital mediation of children’s interactions with the more-than-human world: Perezhivaniya and literate practices. This research is being conducted in collaboration with Professor Kristiina Kumpulainen from the University of Helsinki, Finland.
