When we talk about the importance of place, especially when you put educators or teachers in the search terms, we often get information on place based education. We’ve been really trying to connect to our community lately and I’ve revisited this book in order to look how to make some meaningful connections.
One of my big take aways, especially as a member of an international community, is that community based education helps us to become a member of a community rather than an observer of that community.
As international students and teachers it is easy to get lost in developing a sense of place. It is easy for us to cling to our old identities and stay in our same ways. However, when we move to get out of the community, when we try to get ties to our new place, we change a little who we are. We stop being passive observers of a culture and start becoming members and co-creators of a community.
Previously we’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to bring HDB community garden members into our garden. We start by building community (at least my thought at the time was) by opening our doors, bringing people in, and then working together. However, we moved from that to go to their garden. How are they doing it, what can we learn, how can we help?
I think it goes back to this idea of listening, and this idea of watching systems. When we really understand something, when we try to be a part of it (rather than trying to insert our views right away, we can make a bigger difference in ourselves and then the community.
So, if we can start building on our service learning, and really try to develop a place based curriculum. I wonder how effective we could be in transforming ourselves into members of the community.
Is anyone in an international school doing this really effectively? Care to share some ideas?
Joe Teft 