The Feasibility of Place-Based Education in the Chilean Context

The feasibility of Place-Based Education in the Chilean context

By Claudio Leppe and Sebastián Reyes

Chile is a country that is slowly adapting to the new trends regarding education. Clearly, there are pending issues to be discussed in terms of quality, and of course,  the existing gap between rich and poor schools. However, new policies that aim at a sustainable future are already stated by the ministry of Education in different documents, such as the National Policy of Education for a Sustainable Development. The reorientation of education towards this goal has its own advantages and obstacles, all of them linked to the school community, and society in general. The good aspect of sustainability is that students grow aware of what is going on in their environment, specially when it comes to preservation of nature. On the other hand, one of the problems is that very few teachers are trained for this purpose.

Place-Based Education (PBE) is an approach that gathers all the values of sustainability. It addresses different goals, for example, allowing students to make tangible contributions to resolving local environmental issues and conserving local environmental quality, among others. Nonetheless, this way of learning has not seen too much use in our country beyond a couple of field trips per year if any. At least this is the case in some middle class schools, but in lower class schools the local environment is rarely used for educational purposes. The implications of implementing the PBE program in rural and city schools, the obstacles to be faced by the school community and the government, and overall the feasibility of this approach in our national context, will be discussed below.

In a rural context, the application of PBE seems somewhat more logic than in cities, which is due to the fact that people in this kind of settings are more in contact with nature, therefore, their appreciation for it is higher than people who do not live in such environments. With PBE, local ecology and economy can be easily integrated into students' education. According to Orr (1992) this approach helps students to learn how to live well where they are and also to strengthen understanding of the significance of relationships among different places, both local and global. Haas & Nachtigal (1998) support PBE as well by stating that young people can learn more about how to live productive and meaningful lives in their home communities. In other words, students in rural contexts acquire the values of sustainability, preserve their own environment, and achieve a meaningful learning by taking advantage of their own home community.

In regard to a city context, it seems more difficult and expensive to apply such an approach, specially when it is often related to being in contact with nature. However, Knapp (1996) explains that several activities specific to PBE might concentrate on community themes, local occupations and hobbies, local government and history, or community concerns. This means that diverse places in a city such as museums, stores, parks, or even parking lots can also be used for teaching the values of sustainability and preservation of the local community of the students.