The Bridges and Barriers to Outdoor Place-Based Learning within Secondary Schools in Alberta

My research focused on investigating what grade 7-12 teachers in Alberta believe outdoor place-based learning (PBL) to be and what they feel the bridges and barriers are to incorporating outdoor PBL into regular pedagogical practice. I found participants using the snowball sampling method after initially asking teachers and curriculum consultants I know and carried out individual semi-structured interviews with seven teachers, only five of which, due to scheduling difficulties, also took part in a focus group. I then used grounded theory to analyse my data as I collected it and developed a theory from the data gathered through thematic coding. My main finding was that my informants demonstrated a lack of understanding about what place-based learning is. Even with this lack of understanding, I was able to use my data to analyse the bridges and barriers to outdoor PBL. The topics I discerned fell into three broad categories: what a teacher can control, what a teacher can influence, and what a teacher cannot control, all regarding taking classes outside for PBL. Interestingly, the topics that fell under what teachers cannot control was the smallest category, indicating the majority of topics discussed either can be controlled or influenced positively by the teacher.

Author dc:creator

• Gilchrist, Rosalind, Jennifer

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kool, Richard

• School of environment and sustainability

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/IR-19232

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/27558