Fostering Student Achievement and Sustainable Communities Through Place-based Learning.

Gruenewald, D. (2003). The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3-12.

David Gruenewald is an assistant professor of education at Washington State University in the Department of Teaching and Learning. He teaches Social Foundations of Education and School Community Collaboration.

This article looks closely at two educational traditions: critical pedagogy, which is concerned with power structures and decision making in schools and place-based education, which seeks to connect schools with their social, cultural, and ecological communities. Following an in-depth discussion of each tradition, the author makes a case for how elements of each can contribute to a critical pedagogy of place. This new pedagogy has two objectives: decolonization and reinhabitation. The article concludes with ideas for further development and research on critical pedagogy of place. Gruenewald’s explanation of critical pedagogy and how it can be combined with place-based education was extremely useful. This article clearly establishes a role for place-based education in the larger education reform movement.