Place-based education is an approach to teaching and learning that incorporates local communities into the school curriculum. The author of this paper, an elementary art teacher, describes how she adapted traditional place-based pedagogy by using it as an analogy of the influence of place on identity. One of her goals was for students to understand connections between the landscape and their sense of self. An understanding guiding her work relates to how connections to place can be an important influence on an individual's sense of self. This understanding, while supported by research, is also closely connected to the author's own experiences within the local landscape.
The author explains how her nature-related experiences as a child inspired her to connect her artmaking to the place where she lives. As an art teacher, she looked for ways to help her students find connections between their landscapes and their sense of identity. She was hoping that her students would learn to “look outward at their environment as they turned inward to explore how place influenced their identities.”
This place-based approach supported the students' artistic confidence and skills. It also encouraged the students to talk about the places that formed the basis for their work. The place-based art activities included the creation of both group and individual paintings. The project culminated in an art show and a permanent installation in the school.
Another successful outcome of the project was the instructor being able to reclaim her artistic identity and connect it to who she was as a teacher. The students also gained confidence in their identities as artists. The success of this project provides “compelling reasons to connect students in an art classroom to the places where they live and their experiences with nature, landscape, and community.”
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