Students’ connection with diverse place characteristics : the influence of a one-day place-based field trip engaging local stakeholders in Hong Kong

Abstract

Sustainability issues should be addressed beyond naturalistic approach and the solutions have been highlighted at local level, whereas sustainability education at tertiary level should equip learners with knowledge and skills to make judgments and take actions flexibly in accordance to diverse social and cultural contexts. A place is plural covering psychological, biophysical, socio-cultural, political-economic and time dimensions. Place-based education harnessing local features captures both naturalistic and humanistic characteristics. Sense of place (SOP) is a measurable learning outcome referring to individual connection to a place, and can generate positive, negative or ambivalent affects. Amongst the place characteristics, local knowledges represent authentic voices but are often underrepresented in mainstream environmental learning dominated by western modern knowledge. As some place dimensions were underdeveloped such as political-economic dimension, understanding what place characteristics would appeal to students and how SOP was formed were important to inform pedagogical design. Besides, the respective influence of local and western scientific perspectives in connecting students with a place was barely investigated. This study examined the place characteristics the undergraduates recognized, the means to connect with the place and the respective effects of engaging both a conservationist and a local fisher as guides in developing SOP. A total of 27 undergraduates participated in a one-day field trip to fishpond areas with wicked sustainability issues in Hong Kong. A mixed method was employed. Quantitative pre-, post-, and delayed post-surveys were administered to measure the participants’ connection with the five place dimensions and changes in SOP before and after engaging the fisher. All participants did a mapping task to assign values and relative weightings to the preferred locations over the place. Follow-up interviews with around half of the participants were conducted to explore the in-depth meanings of the place characteristics and field trip experiences they valued or did not value. Several sub-dimensions under the five broad dimensions emerged in the current study were barely mentioned in other place-based education studies, including but not limited to well-being, learning activities, economic values at individual and at societal level etc. The findings revealed that the participants connected with the place via visiting it in person, using their pre-existing knowledge and value to understand various phenomena, and interacting with the guides. Positive connection dominated most dimensions but negative connection was more frequent in political-economic dimension. The conservationist facilitated connection with biophysical dimension of the place whereas the sharing of the fisher contributed directly to connection with socio-cultural, political-economic and time dimensions, in which perspective taking was exercised by the participants and thereby enhancing their empathy for the fisher and the fishing industry. Besides, multiple perspectives on sustainability issues presented by both guides allowed the participants to re-consider their own stance in-depth. The limitation of the study included the insufficient generalizability and the difficulty to measure long term success of the programme. Future research may upscale the sample size and carry out longitudinal studies. Recommendations on pedagogical designs included to engage authorized stakeholders as guides, allow more freedom in the visit and provide multiple perspectives.