This paper focuses on the significance of place and the importance of place-based education (PBE) in young children’s learning and development (3-7 year olds) drawing on the authors’ research over 10 years. There is a growing recognition that PBE can enhance learning and community participation with clear benefits for learners in terms of an opportunity to

• interact with built and natural environments and learn from real world environmental experience (authentic knowledge)
• learn alongside and with local community members (intergenerational learning)
• contribute to local community development and ecologically sustainable practice.

Despite international interest in designing place-based curricular over a number of years (Fien, 1993; Smith, 2002; Theobald and Curtiss, 2000; Theobald, 1997) mainstream education and curricular still tend to be generalised with little reference to specific places and communities (Gruenewald and Smith, 2008).

 The authors acknowledge the breadth and reach of research and practice in the field of PBE, however, less attention has been afforded to the early years.  The overlap between PBE and the practice of ‘environment as teacher’ in the Reggio Emilia early years approach is discussed (Strong-Wilson and Ellis, 2007); however, the authors identify distinct differences in how ‘environment’ is interpreted and practiced in PBE and Reggio Emilia.  Further, the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of PBE are contested and debated in the literature (see, for example, Gruenwald, 2008).  The authors provide a theoretical frame for their PBE research using concepts from socio cultural learning theory and child development theory.

The discussion focuses on the notion and framing of urban greenspace, as an important place for young children to interact with their natural environment (note 1).  The opportunity to experience the natural environment is becoming increasingly limited due to urbanisation; 75% of the European Union population is now urban compared to 53% worldwide (World Bank). There is an assumption that urban nature can compensate for limited natural environment experience in children’s urban lives (see e.g. Swanwick et al 2003; Green Space, 2011). The paper explores the extent to which PBE in urban greenspaces mitigate young children’s reduced access to natural environments. It is argued that, in a European context young children from disadvantaged and/ or Black and Ethnic Minority families are most directly affected by this assumption given that they are less likely to visit more distant natural environments (Burt et al, 2013).

Note 1: in this paper the term natural environment is used to describe places and spaces that enable people to engage with the more-than-human world.

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