Research Study Website

Place Matters​

We know this on many levels, from our connections to the people, places, and lands in which we dwell — ordinary and extraordinary — and the on-again, off-again relationship that we have with the more-than-human world. Our longing for nature has deep roots in the childhood magic we experienced while playing in the water, hiding behind trees, listening to the crunch of our boots in fresh snow, or watching bugs scatter from under a turned stone. In light of the converging environmental crises we face, and the call from the earth itself for a more sustainable relationship with us, it is also an imperative connection, and on the minds of many educators.

​Place-responsive practices are closely tied to outdoor learning, nature play, land-based teachings, Indigenous perspectives, and education outside the classroom. These practices are not new, but are being taken up with such enthusiasm in BC that we should really know how they are rooted in lived experience of educators and pedagogies of place. We should also learn about the soil – the conditions in which these practices flourish and the challenges, the risks and rewards that place-responsive educators encounter, and the dynamics of practice that emerge as educators respond to place with their students.

Students from Prince George BC experiencing the soundscape of an inland temperate rainforest and tracing the roots of an ancient cedar in what is now Chun T'oh Whudujut Provincial Park. Photo: Glen Thielmann, 2014

The draft version of my PhD Research Study website is now online: ​https://www.placeresponsive.ca/