ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the political context for the current situation in public schools, describes place-based education and its decolonizing potential, and offers teachers and school leader's practical ideas that can be implemented in the classroom as well as throughout the school. The chapter offers a pedagogical and practical tool for transforming schools into democratic cultures and helping students learn to be agents of change. Place-based education (PBE), in its simplest form, is an educational approach that centers the curricula in the local or regional community in which the school and students are located. Place-based pedagogy is an educational approach that recognizes, values, and embraces the local context both as a knowledge base and as a connecting point for communities and schools. In response to these community crises, place-based pedagogy engages community inter-generationally, connects environments and people, and provides students with the skills to recognize oppressive structures and the tools take action to improve the quality of community life.
