Place-Based Education: an approach for a sustainable curriculum in higher education

INTRODUCTION. Several authors defend the positive correlation between an educational approach constructed from the space-context of the subject and the formation of students in the principles and values of sustainability, a premise that the Place Based Education (PBE) endorses. This article presents an approach to the theoretical basis of such standpoint and a qualitative systematic review of the literature to offer an answer to the following questions: Are there activities, programs or initiatives based on the PBE approach in university teaching? If so, what advantages do they offer to the quality of the training process? What are the difficulties teachers must overcome in order to implement Place-Based Education in the university? Could this approach contribute to quality education, aimed at training teachers as agents actively committed to education for sustainable development? METHOD. For the study, the following platforms as search engines were used: Linceo +, which provides access to more than fifty databases, and, in addition, Google Scholar. RESULTS. The results indicate that the PBE is a viable approach with interesting virtuosities to facilitate the processes of curricular sustainability of Higher Education degrees, although it requires an institutional framework consistent with its most genuine principles and values. DISCUSSION. This requirement limits its possibilities of application in those institutions that would require prior institutional changes of a structural and pedagogical nature. However, it also points to a suggestive way of innovation, generating linkages between higher education centres and their community context. It allows us to break the artificial separation with nature, favouring the students' acquisition of abilities, skills, values and characteristics of a citizenship consciously and actively committed to the great challenge posed by the current socio-ecological crisis and the necessary transition towards sustainability.