Developing a Sense of Place in Physical Education
"We are more likely to know the wonders of China and Brazil than of our own brooks and woods." - L.H. Bailey (1911)
The concept of a sense of place is hard to define. A simple way of explaining it would be that it is the emotions that we attach to places that are meaningful to us.
Sense of place can be unpacked into two main components: place attachment and place meaning.
Place attachment is the bond between people and places. Double-clicking on it, you'll find that it can be unpacked further into two facets: place identity and place dependence.
Place identity is the degree to which a place becomes a part of one's identity, the way we define ourselves. I've lived in Canada my whole life. Embracing the cold, being kind and polite, looking out for others, and standing up for what is right are just some things my country is known for. My life here has led to those same characteristics becoming part of how I define myself.
Place dependence refers to a place's ability to fulfill our needs and help us experience life satisfaction. When my wife and I decided it was time to leave Montreal, we knew we wanted to find somewhere that met the needs of the family we were trying to build. Being close to outdoor recreational opportunities, having the ocean a short drive away, being close to family, and finding a community of caring, like-minded people led us to Kentville, NS, where we now proudly live. Every day, we're grateful for our new hometown's opportunities and the family life it has allowed us to build.
The other component of a sense of place is place meaning, which seeks to answer the question: "What does this place mean to you?"
Places develop meaningfulness when we fill them with memories, stories, and values. Different places can have different meanings to people, all determined by a person's experiences, history, and understanding of a place.
Throughout our lives, we can end up infusing many places with meaning. This ties a lot into Scott Kretchmar's "personal playgrounds" concept: living spaces that become infused with memories, experiences, and emotions over time.
An example I often share is the maple tree on my parents' front lawn. That tree, along with the granite boulder beneath it, is a keeper of so many cherished moments in my life. It's where I learned how to climb, where my brothers and I would camp out to watch the soccer games across the road, and where my dad sat my infant son upon its branches.
That tree is just a tree to most people who drive by it. To me, it means home.
Developing a sense of place is linked to benefits in childhood development, restorative experiences, meaningful actions, well-being, pro-environmental behaviours, and more. Research shows that it also helps increase perceived belonging and vice-versa (i.e. where we feel that we belong, we develop a stronger sense of place).
My developing understanding of the value and importance of helping individuals build a sense of place drove me to completely revamp how I approach teaching and planning as a physical educator. After all, my ultimate goal is to empower my students to turn their world into a personal playground.
So, what can this look like in practice?
Well, the most effective way to develop a sense of place in an educational context is to create learning experiences that are both experiential (i.e. providing students with direct, frequent and positive experiences in places) and instructional (i.e. developing place meaning and attachment through discussions, stories, and/or reflection).
Physical education is experiential in nature. Learning happens through doing, moving, and experiencing. In addition, as an academic subject, physical education also provides opportunities for instructional discussions and reflections that offer opportunities for meaning-making.
However, the more I learned, the more I realized that my teaching could no longer be restricted to the four walls of my gym.
That's why, over the past year and a half of teaching in Nova Scotia, I've worked hard to build my capacity as an outdoor educator. In doing so, I've been able to help my students get to know the place where they live, play, and learn. Our adventures together have led to the forests, trails, and hills around our school. We've learned how to track animals, where to go for bike rides, skatepark etiquette, and more. My students are learning about the parks around our town, how and where they can borrow equipment, what kinds of animals, insects, and other critters live here amongst us, and how to enjoy where we live (no matter the season).
We've created new memories and added chapters to previous stories through all of this. We've gathered materials for tales that will continue to be told for years, like when we biked in our town's annual parade or when a fox interrupted our lesson.
Building my program around developing a sense of place has helped paint my teaching in colour. I've never experienced as much joy and meaning as an educator as I do now. I don't think I would feel as connected to where I live and teach were it not for this shift in my pedagogy.