‘Knowing your place in the world’: how place and culture support and obstruct educational aims

Abstract

There is increasing international interest in learning outside the classroom; place-based education is one manifestation of this. In this article, some conceptualisations of place are considered and attention drawn to alignments with habitus at micro, meso and macro levels. I develop a concept of cultural density as an explanatory tool to theorise how place and culture intersect to support some educational aims and interfere with others within a cross-sectional research study of a place-based curriculum centred on three schools located in the Southwest of England. Cultural density refers to the nature, thickness and dominance of habitus and norms of practice in places. Reflecting on the interface between how young people come to ‘know their place in the world’ and learning opportunities, careful alignment of purpose, pedagogy and place considering past, present and future is argued as a means of maximising the opportunities afforded by learning outside the classroom.

Keywords:

• place
• outdoor learning
• culture
• environmental awareness
• habitus
• cultural density

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for their thorough and insightful comments that helped enormously in revising this paper.

Notes

1. Transforming education outside the classroom: Sixth report of session 2009–10. HC 418, 1 April 2010. London: The Stationery Office.

2. The Natural Connections Demonstration Project (http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/linkingpeople/learning/naturalconnections/default.aspx).

3. The proposed revised Primary Science curriculum (http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/d/draft%20national%20curriculum%20for%20science%20key%20stages%201%202.pdf).

4. The Natural Environment White Paper (2011), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The natural choice: Securing the value of nature.