“Up at the Shieling”

Place-Based Action Research

Abstract

This paper describes action research undertaken with two groups of educators investigating place-based education. The participants discussed and refined their understanding of place-based learning through active reflection as a group and in their professional work. They advocated making “place” an explicit pedagogical concern, arguing that a focus on the locality allowed connections to be revealed and new perspectives taken on the cultural and ecological life in which learners are embedded. The outcome of the research articulates place-based education as a rich and open ethos, where themes of place, belonging, and care can inform different educational contexts. This paper also explores the practical and conceptual dimensions of what it might mean to do research in place, and the difficulties of reducing the lived experience of place to theories or research outputs. The approach of “thinking with places,” explored through the example of the shieling, is put forward as a way of grounding the theory and practice of place-based education in the author’s context.