Learning with Geographical Sensitivity: Place-Based Education and Its Praxis

This study presents pragmatic evidence to make learning a geographical process. It investigates how place-based education (PBE) can deepen the sense of place and vice versa. The study first reviews the meaning of PBE and continues with an ontological discussion of place. As place is theorized, learning practices in the course Sustainable Urban Development and Hong Kong are outlined. The submissions of students are analyzed, and selected reflections are presented to interface with the ontological construct of place. We examine how PBE can enrich student awareness of place and in what way student appreciations of place can add values to the geographical reasoning on sustainability- and urbanism-related topics. Results show that site selection is important and place in PBE is both real and imagined. Heritage conservation and place revitalization are potential reflective topics to design a PBE-based teaching praxis.