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Exploring students' understandings and perspectives of place : the case of place in a Skagit Valley school Strich, David

Abstract

Drawing upon notions of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Becoming Naturalized to Place, this dissertation explored how students revealed their perspectives and understandings of place at their school in the Skagit Valley, Washington State. This study employed an ethnographic case study approach guided by phenomenographic principles and informed by Indigenous perspectives to document students’ stories of place. Data were collected through an introductory questionnaire and stationary and walking interviews. Findings revealed that the students’ understandings and perspectives of place were situated within the following themes: Place as Action; Place as People; Place as Social Arena; Place as Nature; Place as Journey and Time; and Place as Displacement. This study contributes to the current research on Place and related phenomena due to the unique context of the school and the individual students’ stories which give voice to diverse and distinctive narratives of place.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International