ABSTRACT
While place-based pedagogy is often limited to classroom instruction, Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools considered how the unique context of rural communities influences project design. In this chapter, the principal investigators demonstrate how place theories serve as the driving force throughout every aspect of the model used for the intervention and for the study. A major aspect of this work was establishing what constitutes the understanding of “rural” for districts participating in the study. To understand the context for rurality, the project team conducted a survey of teachers in treatment districts so that “place-based” efforts in the curriculum would indeed be reflective of place as conceptualized by those teaching in each particular context. This chapter translates place from a pedagogical stance into a methodological construct.
