Geographies of Learning: Place, Space, and Embodied Experience in Higher Education Field Courses

Open Access
- Author:
- Israel, Andrei Leon
- Graduate Program:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Roger Michael Downs, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Roger Michael Downs, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- fieldwork
geography education
service-learning
place-based education
geography of knowledge
David Livingstone - Abstract:
- Geographers argue that geographic context matters to all kinds of social processes, but geographers have rarely addressed the role of that context in the spatial dynamics of the circulation of knowledge. And yet, the production, reproduction, transmission, and application of knowledge all occur in particular types of places and through particular spatial processes. Some recent scholarship does address the role of place and space in the production and transmission of knowledge, through the conduct and dissemination of scientific research. I examine another integral moment in the circulation of knowledge—the reproduction of knowledge in formal educational programs. I argue that place and space matter to teaching and learning, and I illustrate this importance through an examination of two university field courses in geography. Field-based courses, which are central to geography education, exhibit a variety of spatial arrangements not seen in traditional classroom-based courses. I develop and explain an eight-dimensional conceptual model that illustrates the characteristics of various field education programs. I then examine the spatial dynamics and experiences of students in the two case study courses. This analysis shows that students’ experiences are situated within multiple geographies and that these geographies structure the experience in essential ways. Based on this analysis, I argue that both the process and the outcome of learning that occurs in formal educational programs is crucially dependent on the situated, embodied experience of students in particular places.