Achieving Querencia: Integrating a Sense of Place With Disciplined Thinking

Abstract

The Spanish word querencia, evocative of how feelings and deepest beliefs attach the self to place (Lopez, 1992), invites the rediscovery of the meaning of equity as a reciprocal relationship between peoples and the landscapes they inhabit. This article begins with an exploration of a concept of “reciprocal equity,” cultivated by achieving such a sense of place, in contrast with the tradition of “competitive equity,” pursued in ending disparities of achievement in traditional disciplines. Acceptance of the importance of reciprocal equity brings to focus the divergent purposes of education when studying places and disciplines. Places and disciplines hold in common the value of coherence, yet each coheres in its own fashion, places emphasizing personal experience and commitment to community, and disciplines stressing conceptual progress and explanatory ideals. Nevertheless, the shared concern for coherence suggests the potential to reconcile their divergent purposes and integrate a sense of place with disciplined thinking under superordinate aims. Criteria of artistic work—vivid depiction, finding the universal in the particular, constructive neglect, and coherence itself (Eisner, 1998), fulfill this function. Disciplines that focus attention on place as landscape and commons prompt integration as well. Querencia, as both a meaningful attachment to a geographic place and as a place in the mind where understanding satisfies, completes the integration.