Creative Place-based Environmental Education

Creative Place-based Environmental Education: Children and Schools as Ecopreneurs for Change

How can schools become creative hubs for enriching the community and for care of nature, landscape, and place? This book presents the why, what, and how of creative place-based education, as action researched successfully by educators for more than twenty years in Aurland, Sognafjord, Norway, and with Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) in Oslo, Norway.

This hands-on approach embraces the whole locality as an inspiring educational resource. Design tools for developing place-based educational curricula are made globally relevant with case studies.

“Here is a Beacon of Hope, an exciting approach to creative place-based education. I can visualize the thematic gardens raised by the children, the farm where the older students milk the goats and learn how to care for the animals, the local school, community and landscape. Uniquely, this book intertwines theory, practice and place and asks significant questions related to place-based sustainability, food growing and education. It asks: What is Home? How can learning how local foods are grown and produced help children discover what does it mean to belong? How do teachers get students to care?” —Douglas Forell Hulmes, Professor of Environmental Studies, Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona (from the foreword)

About the Author

Jorunn Barane, educator, storyteller teaches Ecopreneurship at Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule (Sogn school of organic agriculture and horticulture) in Aurland, Norway.

Aksel Hugo, PhD is Director of Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule (Sogn school of organic agriculture and horticulture) in Aurland, Norway.

Morten Clemetson, PhD, lectures on rural lansdcape and planning at Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) in Oslo, Norway.