Mission

The mission of the Southeast Institute for Place-Based Education is to encourage and support the establishment of place-based education curricula and practice at the pre-K through 12th grade level throughout the Southeastern United States through the offering of professional workshops and by serving as a regional clearinghouse for resources pertaining to the philosophy, rationale, and practice of place-based education.

Suggested Reading

Books

Aberley, Doug [ed.] (1993). Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
This essay collection provides suggestions and guidance on mapping a bioregion or “home place”. Essays address determining bioregional boundaries, what might be included on such a map, and brief accounts of actual mapping projects. This guide would be quite useful for educators developing classroom bioregional mapping projects, particularly ones involving hand-drawn maps. (The essays for using computers as mapping tools are out of date.)

Amato, Joseph A. (2002). Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
In a series of essays ranging from the history of sound, anger, and the local environment, Amato makes a case for the value of developing new approaches to documenting local history. Amato also draws connections between local history and global cultural forces. This scholarly text will appeal to educators interested in working with their students to consider new approaches for exploring the history of familiar places.

Andress, Van; Plant, Christopher; Plant, Judith; and Eleanor Wright (1990). Home! A Bioregional Reader. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
This book is a collection of reprinted articles and essays on bioregionalism, written by some of the earliest practitioners. The book would be helpful to educators seeking to ground their work in bioregional theory, and explore ways to put bioregionalism into practice, both in their classrooms and in their own lives.

Archibald, Robert R. (1999). A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
This book is an extended reflection on the practice of local history as focused on communities. Archibald identifies four core values that he considers to be the organizing principles in the historical research and documentation of local communities: mutual obligation, sustainability, transcendence, and memory. This work will be of benefit to educators with a strong interest in the philosophy underlying community history projects.

Brooke, Robert E. [ed.] (2003). Rural Voices: Place-Conscious Education and the Teaching of Writing. New York: Teachers College Press.
This book of essays explores and documents the efforts of the Nebraska Writing Project, part of the National Writing Project’s three-year Rural Voices, Country Schools program. This project focused on providing students with opportunities to write about their home places, as a way of fostering sense of place while also building student writing skills. This book will be of particular interest to writing teachers in rural areas who are interested in the benefits and challenges of incorporating local places into their curricula.

Charles, Cheryl and Bob Samples (2004). Coming Home: Community, Creativity, and Consciousness. Fawnskin, CA: Personhood Press.
This book serves as a workbook for helping readers build successful communities, through offering observations and insights about the nature of communities (both human and “natural”), accompanied by self-reflection activities to encourage readers to explore their own place in community work. This book would be useful for educators developing curricula to prepare middle and high school students for projects in local community building. The book can also serve to inspire educators endeavoring to connect schools to local communities.

Clark, Delia and Steven Glazier (2004). Questing: A Guide to Creating Community Treasure Hunts. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England.
This book is a practical guide to Questing, an activity in which participants follow a series of clues about local natural and cultural history to find hidden treasures. Along the way, participants also develop a greater appreciation for the stories inscribed in their local landscapes. Through creating their own Quests, students can work with local historical and natural history resources to create a fun activity that can be shared with the local community. This book would be of benefit to place-based educators in practically any setting and context.

Dickson, Diane S.; Hylder, Dick; Reilly, Linda G.; and Stephanie Romano (2006). The Oral History Project: Connecting Students to their Community, Grades 4-8.
This book presents an oral history research and writing curriculum developed in Pennsylvania for use in elementary and middle schools. The book and accompanying CD/ROM lead educators through the process of having students do oral history research, from asking questions to conducting the interview, gathering artifacts, doing further research, writing feature articles, memoirs, and portraits, and giving presentations on the results.

Elder, John [ed.] (1998). Stories in the Land: A Place-Based Environmental Education Anthology. Nature Literacy Series No. 2. Great Barrington, MA: Orion.
This book is an anthology of educational projects, most of which were developed by winners of Stories in the Land Fellowships, one-year stipends enabling teachers to “foster an effective education of place” (p. 16). A second, shorter section of the book presents projects relating to local watersheds, developed by colleges or universities in partnership with local public schools. Throughout the book, every project description is accompanied by a place-based learning activity developed for use in elementary and/or secondary school classrooms.

Gruenwald, David A. and Gregory A. Smith [eds.] (2007) Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
This collection of essays makes a case for the benefits of place-based education in rural, suburban, and urban settings spanning elementary through higher education. The book is divided into three sections; the first covers place- based education success stories, the second offers rationales for place-based education (particularly those addressing the relationship between pedagogy and community well-being), and the third considers the role of place-based curricula in higher education, including teacher training and leadership programs. Covering such a broad range of educational contexts, this text would be of interest to all place-based educators.

Harwell, Karen and Joanna Reynolds (2006). Exploring a Sense of Place: How to Create Your Own Local Program for Reconnecting With Nature. Palo Alto, CA: Conexions.
This book is a marvelous how-to guide for developing a year-long workshop series introducing participants to the natural and cultural history of a bioregion, in order to foster sense of place. Designed to be implemented with adults, the series could conceivably be developed for use with college or secondary school students as well.

Hart, Roger A. (1997). Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. New York: UNICEF.
As the subtitle suggests, this book provides guidance for educators throughout the world who are developing programs that involve children in their local communities. The book includes examples of a wide range of community projects, covering action research; environmental planning, design, and construction; environmental management; environmental monitoring; and public awareness and political action. The section on theory includes Hart’s ladder of participation diagram, which provides a framework for describing the extent of children’s participation, ranging from manipulation and decoration up to child-initiated projects in which decisions are shared with adults. This book would be quite helpful for educators interested in involving their elementary or secondary students with community work.

Kaye, Cathryn Berger (2004). The Complete Guide to Service Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum, and Social Action. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing.
This book is a guide for getting middle and high school students excited about and involved in community service projects, in the areas of AIDS education and awareness, animals in danger, community safety, elders, the environment, gardening, hunger and homelessness, immigrants, literacy, social change, and special needs and disabilities. Each thematic chapter includes suggestions for activities and ways to make connections to the theme across the curriculum.

Kyvig, David E. and Myron A. Marty (2000). Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You, 2nd Edition. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
This book is a thorough guide to conducting local history research. Chapters cover what can be studied locally, as well as primary sources, including traces; stories; published, unpublished, oral, and visual documents; artifacts; landscapes; and buildings. The book is a useful resource for place-based educators conducting local history research projects, especially in secondary school or university contexts.

Leslie, Clare Walker; Tallmadege, John; and Tom Wessels (1999). Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching. Nature Literacy Series No. 3. Great Barrington, MA: Orion.
This short book includes one essay on techniques in place-based environmental education by each of the three authors. Clare Walker Leslie discusses keeping a nature journal, Tallmadge offers suggestions for field-based writing activities for children, and Wessels addresses guiding children in reading a landscape’s ecological disturbance history. This book would be quite useful for environmental educators exploring techniques for connecting students to local natural areas.

Orr, David W. (1992). Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This early collection of essays by David Orr examines issues of sustainability and education, and includes “Place and Pedagogy”, a seminal essay that advocates the study of local places, particularly at the university level.

Orr, David W. (1994). Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. Washington, D.C.: Turtle Island.
In this book of essays, David Orr examines the nature of education, first principles that underlie an ecological literacy curriculum , and a number of proposals for rethinking education at the university level. In “The Problem of Disciplines and the Discipline of Problems,” Orr proposes that part of the K through PhD curriculum ought to include learning about natural systems through direct experience in local settings. He suggests a deep study of a river, through many avenues of experience and investigation, so that the river becomes “a doorway to wider knowledge” (p. 96).

Ritchie, Donald A. (2003). Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. New York: Oxford University Press.
This guide is an excellent resource for educators involved with oral history research projects. It covers the technical aspects of conducting oral histories beautifully, though it largely skips over the tasks of developing good questions to ask or interview guides. Chapters address setting up a project, conducting interviews, using oral history in research and writing, videotaping oral history, preserving oral history in archives and libraries, teaching oral history, and presenting oral history. The depth of coverage of this book makes it most suitable for more advanced oral history research (with secondary school or university students).

Sale, Kirkpatrick (1985). Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
Sale’s book is one of the first to articulate the concept of bioregionalism. While the book does not directly address bioregional education, it is a helpful read for educators interested in getting a sense of what bioregionalism is all about.

Smith, Gregory A. & Dilafruz R. Williams [eds.] (1999). Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving Education, Culture, and the Environment. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This collection of essays by North American educators covers a variety of K-12 educational programs in different geographical regions. Collectively, however, the essays all demonstrate the value of local knowledge in fostering personal connection to place, and the connection between educating for ecological sustainability and educating for social justice. Of particular value to environmental educators, this book moves beyond the concept of environmental education as teaching about ecological issues, to a broader definition of education as encouraging participation between children and nature in local places.

Sobel, David (1996). Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education. Nature Literacy Series No. 1. Great Barrington, MA: Orion.
This thin volume (45 pp.) addresses educational avenues for helping children at various developmental stages to bond with the natural world. Sections cover fostering empathy with other living things, guiding children in exploring and reading local landscapes, and conducting social action projects.

Sobel, David (1998). Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
In this guide, David Sobel offers educators wha he considers to be a developmentally appropriate sequence of mapmaking activities, intended to encourage the development of a childhood sense of place. This book is highly beneficial for elementary educators across the curricula, who are interested in hands-on projects that can help their students deepen their appreciation for and connection to local places, both natural settings and human communities.

Sobel, David (2004). Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities. Nature Literacy Series No. 4. Great Barrington, MA: Orion.
Sobel’s slender book (109 pp.) offers a clear and concise introduction to the theory and practice of place-based education, particularly from an environmental education perspective. Sobel provides a list of “core strategies” for incorporating place-based education in the school curriculum, as well as several case studies of successful projects. This book is highly recommended as an introductory reading for educators newly acquainted with the idea of place-based education.

Stone, Michael K and Zenobia Barlow (2005). Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
This book is a compilation of theoretical essays and reports from the field, by educators carrying out projects in ecological literacy. The book is divided into four sections, the second of which, “Tradition/Place”, includes essays on pedagogies of place, watershed, and bioregion. This book would be useful for environmental educators interested in developing place-based curricula in ecological literacy.

Theobold, Paul (1997). Teaching the Commons: Place, Pride, and the Renewal of Community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
In this text, Theobold argues that place-based education, particularly in rural communities, is vital for the restoration and strengthening of those communities. Theobold makes a distinction between freedom from, a sense of freedom as the absence of obligation to others, and freedom as intradependence, the freedom for people to participate in roles of mutual obligation within a community. In making a case for the inculcation of community values through place-based learning, this text is useful for educators developing a rationale for the implementation of place-based programs in their schools.

Thomashow, Mitchell (1995). Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
This book explores environmentalism as a way of being in the world, and as a part of the identity we construct for ourselves that brings us into closer relationship with the Earth. Thomashow devotes the last chapter of his book to a collection of ideas for ways to educate for ecological identity, particularly through fostering a sense of place. His activities were developed for college students, but most could be modified for use in secondary education settings as well.

Thomashow, Mitchell (2002). Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
This book offers suggestions for ways to utilize place-based perceptual ecology as a doorway to perceiving changes in the global environment. Through paying careful attention to our immediate surroundings, students can begin to notice local environmental changes, from first flowering of plants to earliest frost. In proposing that environmental education based in a bioregion is also a way of helping students connect with the biosphere, this book is a helpful guide for educators seeking to address both environmental scales in their curricula.

Umphrey, Michael L. (2007). The Power of Community-Centered Education: Teaching as a Craft of Place. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Michael Umphrey, Director of the Montana Heritage Project, discusses the benefits of using community as an organizing principle for curricula in American high schools. The book examines the role of stories in the construction of the adolescent self, and the ways that place-based educational experiences can help students construct their lives around stories grounded in purposeful communities. This book will be of particular interest to secondary school educators seeking to foster connections between students and their local communities, as well as those educators searching for ways to enhance student engagement in the learning process.

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