Place Matters Institute: Sackville as a Learning Community

To be delivered intensively during the week of April 29 – May 3, 2013.

Coordinators: Erik Fraser (Oxford University) and Michael Fox (RCE Tantramar)

This intensive interdisciplinary seminar course will address place-conscious teaching and learning pedagogies.  It will explore the various ways in which learning about place and within place shape students’ perspectives.  In response to recent discussions that focus on the importance of at the local level, students in this class will develop a deeper knowledge of the Sackville context as part of their undergraduate education and the role that community can play in the educational process.

Course Topics:
– Education and place: place, placeness, and place-making in a post-secondary community context
– Experiential learning in a place-based context such as Sackville
– Re-placing unsustainable education and understanding the community role in education for sustainable development
– Ecological and bioregional perspectives on Sackville and the Tantramar region
– Education, the community, and place-based learning
– Questioning what we do here in this place: place conscious pedagogy and the student experience in Sackville

Evaluation:  As this is an intensive course of just one week, students will be expected to participate fully in the sessions each day, as well as completing assigned readings and written work each evening.  Short written reflections and group assignments will be completed during the day, as well as a longer assignment and learning portfolio due after the Institute class sessions finish. There will be multiple shorter written and oral assignments and many places for individual and group participation during the week.

Open to students from all disciplines.

For information about the application process and course credit possibilities:

Students interested in registering for this spring session week-long institute should contact Professor Michael Fox (mfox@mta.ca) or drop in: Avard Dixon Room 308.