New Place-Based Educational Initiatives in the Welsh Curriculum and Some Considerations of Legacies of the Canadian Experience: A Conversation

In this paper, we examine aspects of new, placed-based educational initiatives in the Welsh curriculum, and parallels with similar Canadian initiatives. The paper grew out of an email exchange between its two authors, emerging from discussions of these matters—both at the level of philosophical underpinnings, and in light of the classroom and school experiences of those participating— in the context of a Welsh graduate class. The new national curriculum in Wales enables greater teacher autonomy than did previous curricula, and encourages the prioritization of localized knowledge and inquiry. This has given rise to debate over the merits of giving teachers autonomy to design their own place-based curricula. The overarching aim of this paper is to show how such curricula have the potential to afford an understanding and experience of knowledge and being which contrast with the, often hidden, legacies of mainstream Westernized schools. Through analysis of philosophical perspectives from hermeneutics and ecology, and examples of place-based, inquiry-led learning in Canadian schools, we argue that place-based curricula potentially allow for the experience of an ontology of relations, in a way that is enriching for both students and teachers.