The Center’s Objectives
The Center for Place-Based Education (PBE) examines the field of education from the spatial perspective characterizing cultural geography, architecture and anthropology, utilizing qualitative and quantitative research tools. The Center for PBE – The Place for Significant Learning gathers, refines and encourages research that examines different spatial and environmental aspects related to formal and non-formal education in Israel. Two overarching themes are considered via the following key questions: How does space educate? How does education expand spaces?
How does space educate? What symbols and values are embodied in the geographic space? How are they experienced and by whom? This is examined in different spatial contexts, such as the city, neighborhood, prison, military base, road, educational institutions, classroom, school playground…
How does education expand spaces? What is the role of education in shaping the geographic space? How does the field of education act as a force causing people to relocate from place to place – a force that encourages settlement on the one hand, or alternatively, a force that causes people to move away from the periphery? How may education instill a positive sense of place, or in contrast, undermine a person’s connection to the space and create a sense of entrapment or a ghetto? How and why are educational issues pivotal to the way communities form and organize themselves, while they are also at the crux of fierce battles that influence communities and sometimes undermine their foundations?
Some of the issues the Center addresses:
- Advancement of the PBE (Place Based Education) approach;
- Studying the relationships formed between the educational institution, the community in which it operates, and the surrounding environment;
- Designing learning spaces and treating the school playground as a distinct ‘space’;
- The potential of shifting the spatial context to frameworks, such as outdoor training and wilderness therapy, emphasizing educational expeditions in open spaces for young adults and other distinct social groups;
- Teaching in ecological spaces – open areas, community gardens, and neighborhood sustainability centers as factors in shaping social-environmental awareness;
- Movement as an educational act – traveling to school, moving within it and away from it: the importance, safety and educational potential;
- The city/village as a school – the educational potential inherent in the everyday urban or rural space;
- Schools and educational institutions as agents of spatial change: relocation trends driven by educational initiatives; educational quality and approaches functioning as factors that strengthen community cohesion, or alternatively, elements that divide or even dismantle communities.
The Center’s Contribution
Initiating interdisciplinary academic discourse that examines the educational-spatial aspects in Israel is of vital importance. As part of its activities, the Center will formulate social and spatial principles that foster meaningful learning processes and space-based learning. This includes learning outside the classroom and beyond the school walls in the natural and local environment and in close relation to the community and the city or town. While this educational-spatial dimension has been revitalized in the United States and Europe in recent years, it is still in the early stages of development in Israel, where it is typically subsumed under the definition of environmental education.
Target Audience
The Center focuses its efforts on researchers in the field of education, society and space, as well as various social and environmental organizations in the Negev. It encourages them to engage in a joint dialogue by holding seminars, conferences and collaborative researching and writing. To develop its independent research infrastructure, the Center for Research drafts and submits research proposals to relevant research funds.