Exploring a pedagogy of place in Iceland: Students understanding of a sense of place and emerging meanings

This paper explores the educational opportunities of a pedagogy of place based on an action research project, investigating a course at the University of Iceland in the field of leisure studies. The aim was to identify what gave students an understanding of a sense of place and to find out what meanings emerged for them. Following the fieldwork course, qualitative data was collected from participants using photo-elicitation, a focus group, and a documentary analysis of student writing. The findings highlighted the need of acknowledging the location's cultural, social, historical, and political past. Additionally, effectively translating the language used in this educational approach was found to be essential. An experiential pedagogy was valued by students when exploring and developing their sense of place. However, educators need to be aware that it takes extended, immersive experiences in nature to create opportunities for authentic, aesthetic, embodied experiences to generate deep conversations and dialogue between tutors and students. The study suggests that greater emphasis is needed on the place-responsive process, involving more opportunities for reflection, empowering students to actively apply place-responsive activities themselves, and raising, and addressing, global issues such as the climate crisis, and environmental and social justice. This action research study provided the authors continued opportunities to develop their pedagogy of place.