Who teaches place-based education: identifying relationships between environmental value orientation and pedagogical values
Miranda M. Conlon, Meena M. Balgopal, Brett L. Bruyere, Diane S. Wright, Kevin R. Crooks, Jonathan Salerno
Abstract
Place-based education (PBE) offers teachers a unique opportunity to increase engagement and academic outcomes while strengthening students’ connections to their environment and inspiring future conservation. In most instances, classroom teachers must independently choose to implement PBE, such as when discussing topics surrounding wildlife and the environment. Environmental values orientations of teachers may explain teachers’ implementation of PBE. Through thematic analysis of phenomenological interviews with 11 middle and high school science teachers in Colorado we identified their environmental value orientations. We found that teachers with predominantly mutualist environmental value orientations were associated with high levels of implementation. Our findings can inform professional development of teachers learning about the relationship between PBE and pro-environmental value orientations and behaviors among future generations.