Take a field trip. It can be a virtual field trip or a real field trip. You could visit a museum, an adult learning centre, or a university or college. Place-based learning is about “going to a place and learning what it can teach you.” Share your experience in the forum and connect it to the readings this week, as well as to adult learning theory.

For this discussion question, I went on a field trip to the Kelowna Art Gallery.

            I unpacked my biases at the front door, put on my facemask, and entered a world I am not accustomed to visiting. I had a tabula rasa. My objective was to peel back any of my superficial layers of generalized or pre-packaged experiences, see this place from various perspectives, and learn about the issues relevant to the community I am exploring (Pederson et al., 2018).

            There were six exhibitions from artists, and I chose Melanie Daniel, Goin Where the Climate Suits My Clothes. The exhibits are a series of large-scale paintings, works on paper, and delicate papier-mache sculptures that explore humankind’s unhealthy relationship with the natural world. Melanie Daniel imagines a planet on the brink of collapse from the chronic disregard for its wellbeing. Yet, her bold works offer a hopeful glimpse of a future able to adapt and survive. Melanie Daniel was born in Victoria, BC and lives in Kelowna. Her work has been shown across Canada and internationally in the US, Israel, and Sweden.

            The exhibits are an example of art education and place-based education and how my art education journey could develop ecological literacy. The visual artworks raised awareness of and engagement with environmental concepts and issues. It was clear how art educators can contribute to environmental art, also referred to as eco-art and environmental education. Hopefully, this will encourage educators to explore ecological literacy with their learners.

            Place-based education establishes connections between learners and the neighbourhoods in which they live. The relevance of their curriculum is increased because it is directly related to learners’ lives. “If learners develop strong bonds with their place and community physically, politically, emotionally, and spiritually, they are more likely to care for it and seek to improve it over time” (Inwood, 2008, p. 30).

            I went to the art gallery with the stance of dialogic pedagogy. I critically interrogated the topic of place-based art education, expressed my voice and point of view to my sister and stepdaughter, and listened to my sister and stepdaughter’s voices while creating a respectful and equitable relation. The three of us thought about the art more critically, shared context and multiple viewpoints with competing beliefs, and constructed our meaning to the works.

            Would I place a work from Melanie Daniel on my home wall? No. Would I place a watercolour or drawing by the Group of Seven on my home wall? Definitely yes.

References

Inwood, H. (2008). At the crossroads: Situating place-based art education. Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, 13(1), 29-41.  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ842767.pdf

Pederson, J., Znosko, J., Peters, J., & Cannata, S. M. (2018). Oral history as complement to place‐as‐text: Approaches to service learning. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 30(2), 58–62. https://search-ebscohost-com.libraryservices.yorkvilleu.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=url,cookie,ip,uid&db=ehh&AN=129344807