Understanding the Role of Place in Environmental Education across Settings

Abstract

This session explores the role place plays in environmental science learning of youth in formal and informal settings. Environmental education has failed to address the lived experiences and narratives of youth living in areas most in need of social, political, and environmental change; and little is known how or why youth might position themselves or be positioned as members of the complex ecology of our changing environments. These papers report on the role of place by looking at the way it is manifested in situated activity systems. We argue that place is socially (re)constructed by youth where we come to understand the relations youth develop to a place, and the ways in which youth position themselves and are positioned socioculturally, politically, and geographically. To illustrate how this plays out, we draw on a `envisioning your future neighborhood' mapping activity, a community based program, `GET City', that is focused on green energy issues, and an instructional unit, `My Place in Puget Sound' to understand how youth make connections to place and are empowered to make decisions and changes in their local communities.