Abstract:
Place-based education is education that is "grounded in the resources, issues, and values of the local community and focuses on using the local community as an integrating context for learning at all levels" (Powers, 2004, p. 17). The purpose for becoming conscious of places in education is to extend "notions of pedagogy and accountability outward, toward places" making learning more relevant to "the lived experiences of students and teachers... so that places matter to educators, students and citizens in tangible ways" (Gruenewald, 2003b, p. 620). Although place-based education is often used interchangeably with a number of terms - community based learning, rural education, project-based learning, service-learning, sustainability education - it encompasses a broad hope by educators to; 'tear down' school walls so that the community becomes integral to all facets of student learning - that is, that the school is open and inviting to the community and the community welcomes student learning occurring in many dimensions (Powers, 2004, p. 18).
Situated within this partnership between school and community fostered through place-based education is the opportunity for rural-regional sustainability. Using case study methodology, this paper takes an in-depth look at a community enacting rural-regional, and environmental, sustainability through place-based education. In particular, the paper showcases how school and community have used a degraded community stock reserve to 'tear down' the school walls (fences) and perform place through the (co)creation of the Willaroo nature reserve as a place of protection, regeneration and environmentally sustainable practices. This place and its varied uses and users is an example of place being relationally performed in regards to the "flows, mobility and hybridity of meaning" that occurs through and in places (Watson, 2003, p. 145). Furthermore, the story of the Willaroo nature reserve shows that "place is not only local, specific and static" but can be seen as "an emergent effect of globally distributed relationships, and as an actor in those relationships" (Watson, 2003, p. 157). This 'revitalizing of the commons' (Bowers, 2005) has (co-)created a place of bio-diversity, regeneration and environmental education fostering rural-regional sustainability.
Situated within this partnership between school and community fostered through place-based education is the opportunity for rural-regional sustainability. Using case study methodology, this paper takes an in-depth look at a community enacting rural-regional, and environmental, sustainability through place-based education. In particular, the paper showcases how school and community have used a degraded community stock reserve to 'tear down' the school walls (fences) and perform place through the (co)creation of the Willaroo nature reserve as a place of protection, regeneration and environmentally sustainable practices. This place and its varied uses and users is an example of place being relationally performed in regards to the "flows, mobility and hybridity of meaning" that occurs through and in places (Watson, 2003, p. 145). Furthermore, the story of the Willaroo nature reserve shows that "place is not only local, specific and static" but can be seen as "an emergent effect of globally distributed relationships, and as an actor in those relationships" (Watson, 2003, p. 157). This 'revitalizing of the commons' (Bowers, 2005) has (co-)created a place of bio-diversity, regeneration and environmental education fostering rural-regional sustainability.