Peer-reviewed researchEONZ research brief
Place, identity, and adaptation: conceptual insights from elementary science education initiatives in rural Hawaiʻi, Maine, and Montana
A three-year professional learning programme in three rural regions shows teachers moving from adapting given units to designing their own place-based units.
What's new
Drawing on a multi-year professional-learning programme across three rural settings, the authors identify four connected principles: develop teachers as place-based facilitators, centre student and community relationships with place, use locally significant phenomena for disciplinary learning, and recognise rural identity as dynamic rather than fixed. Teachers progressed from supported curriculum adaptation towards designing their own place-based units over three years.
Why it matters in Aotearoa
The study supports sustained, collaborative professional learning over one-off workshops. It is transferable to rural and area schools and to locally designed learning in te taiao, although Indigenous elements need careful interpretation through mana whenua relationships and mātauranga Māori.
Putting it into practice
Plan professional learning as a multi-year sequence with teachers moving from adapting units towards designing their own around local places.
How strong is the evidence
Peer-reviewed conceptual analysis of a multi-year programme in rural Hawaiʻi, Maine and Montana. Not tested in Aotearoa.
What to read
The four design principles and practical implications