From Wilderness to the Educational Heart: A Tasmanian Story of Place

This paper discusses the emerging field of place-based education or place-based pedagogy - an approach that seeks to enhance childrens perspective of 'place' via school and community related environmental projects. Place-based education is proposed as an approach that enables students to establish a connection to a place, its people, and to the world beyond the school gate. Through initiating teaching and learning experiences that respond to the unique and local places where children live, play and go to school, place-based education is notable as a significant educational tool. Gregory Smith's place-based framework (2002) and a Tasmanian case study are put forward to highlight the significance of place-based pedagogy for environmental education.