Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3) http://www.perspectives-in-education.com
ISSN 0258-2236
© 2015 University of the Free State

The need for place-based education
in South African schools: The case of
Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong

Lesley Le Grange

The discourses of accountability and global economic competitiveness have impacted
negatively on the quality of education in schools worldwide. Focused attention on
the social and ecological places that people inhabit has been overshadowed by
education’s support for individualistic and nationalistic competition in the global
economy. South African schools are not exempt from this. Despite these dominant
realities, we argue that place-based education (PBE) is a transformative educational
approach for counteracting this tendency. Moreover, we contend that PBE is critical
to the field of environmental education – not only to encourage environmental
conservation ethic among learners, but also to make them aware of the deeper social,
ecological and political forces that are embedded in places. Such consciousness can
only be achieved, however, if teachers are aware of their learners’ sense of place.
In this article, we discuss the case of Greenfields Primary, a school situated in an
eco-village outside Stellenbosch, South Africa. Twelve learners’ sense of place was
investigated. An attempt was also made to determine what two Social Sciences
teachers’ understanding of the concept ‘place’ was, the extent to which they practised
‘a pedagogy of place’, and the influence that the eco-village had on their teaching
approach.

Keywords: environmental education, place-based education, sense of place, striated
space, smooth space, lines of flight

Introduction
Although place-based education (PBE) is not a new phenomenon and has been
approached from the perspective of various disciplines such as, among others,
geography, sociology and psychology, its development in the field of environmental

Krystle Ontong
Department of Curriculum Studies,
Stellenbosch University
E-mail: krystle@sun.ac.za
Tel: +27 833 524 289 (c)

Lesley Le Grange
Department of Curriculum Studies,
Stellenbosch University
E-mail: llg@sun.ac.za
Tel: 021 808 2645

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

education (EE) has remained limited. Knapp (2005) points out that the term
appeared only recently in educational literature and is concerned with (re)connecting
participants to the land and providing quality experiences in local settings. Smith
(2002) asserts that PBE is a developing field of practice that aims to ground learning
in local phenomena and learners’ lived experiences.

We argue that PBE (a pedagogy of place1) is particularly crucial in a South African
context and can serve as a transformative educational tool to address the spatial and
political inequalities that are legacies of apartheid – as will be shown in the case of
Greenfields Primary. However, for PBE to be implemented meaningfully, it is essential
for teachers to first be aware of their learners’ sense of place. In reflecting on the
case of Greenfields Primary school, we divide the article into four sections. First,
we will discuss the notions of PBE, place and sense of place. This will be followed
by a discussion of the case study and a presentation of its findings. Thirdly, we will
discuss recent political and spatial challenges still faced in a democratic South Africa.
Lastly, we conclude with the educational implications of this case study and discuss
possibilities for overcoming some of the challenges highlighted by the case.

Place-based education, place and sense of place
Until recently, research on the feelings and connections that people develop toward
the places where they are born and raised, and the function that these places fulfil in
their lives, has been neglected in education. PBE could be considered an educational
response to address this concern. According to Ardoin (2006), PBE originated from an
emotional plea by educators to reconnect to the land, to become rooted and to care
for places. She further points out that the notion of place is very seldom approached
as a multidimensional and holistic concept. In order for PBE to be practised
meaningfully, it might be necessary for teachers first to expand their understanding
of the concept of place and, secondly, to become aware of their learners’ sense of
place. The former would imply the reconceptualisation of the notion of ‘place’ to
create a broader understanding that moves beyond viewing place only in technical
terms which reduce it to coordinates on a map (such as is mainly the case in school
Geography in South Africa).

Recent studies in this emerging area are providing evidence of the cultivation of
a broader understanding of place among learners. For example, Athman and Monroe
(2004) report on the implementation of a PBE programme in 11 high schools across
Florida (USA), in which 400 students in Grades 9 and 12 participated. The research
focused on the effects of place-based learning on students’ motivation and critical
thinking skills. In addition to conducting interviews with selected students, they
examined student performance on three norm-referenced tests, including:

• Achievement Motivation Inventory;
• Cornell Critical Thinking Test, and

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

• California Measure of Mental Motivation.
They found that scores were significantly raised in all three areas and that critical
skills, student voice and empowerment, and connection to community improved.
Furthermore, students also reported that they were motivated by real-life issues and
problems (Athman & Monroe, 2004). Other empirical studies of a more qualitative
nature regarding the implementation of PBE have also been reported in recent years
(see Henness, 2001; Powers, 2004).

Nevertheless, our further exploration of PBE first requires some theoretical
engagement with the concept of ‘place’.

Place
Gruenewald (2003a) suggests that the concept of ‘place’ needs to be understood in
broader terms and provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the term. He introduces
five dimensions of place that can shape the development of PBE: the perceptual; the
sociological; the ideological; the political, and the ecological (Gruenewald, 2003a:
619). These dimensions could assist in expanding teachers’ perception of place.
For the purpose of this article, we shall not elaborate on each of these dimensions.
However, we shall make specific reference to the political dimension (political space)
in discussing events (such as the farmworkers’ strike in South Africa) that are relevant
to the places discussed in this case study.

Creswell (2004), however, cautions that, even though the concept of ‘place’
could be deemed a meaningful theoretical terrain, it remains a difficult term to
conceptualise because of its multiple meanings in various contexts. In order to
distinguish the technical meaning of ‘place’ from its daily usage, Creswell (2004)
provides three fundamental aspects that might be helpful: area, locality, and sense of
place. We shall show that the latter (sense of place) is fundamental to practising PBE
productively and shall elaborate on this notion later in the article. But let us now turn
to a discussion on PBE by exploring its association with discourses of accountability.

Place-based education and the discourses of accountability
Knapp (2005: 278) defines PBE as follows: “It is a way to ‘re-member’ participants who
feel dismembered from the physical context to their immediate worlds and for them
to ‘remember’ earlier positive contacts with nature.” Furthermore, Woodhouse and
Knapp (2000) describe various characteristics of a pedagogy of place: it originates
from the specific attributes of a place; it is inherently multidisciplinary; it is inherently
experiential; it reflects an educational philosophy that exceeds “learning to earn”,
and it connects place with the self and the community. According to Gruenewald
(2003a), place-based pedagogies are needed so that the education of citizens might
have some direct influence on the wellbeing of the social and ecological places that
people inhabit. Gruenewald (2003b) further mentions that PBE serves as a response

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

against prevailing educational policies of standards and testing. He adds that the
discourse of accountability fails to recognise the mediating role that schools play
in the production of space (social context) and in the education of place-makers
(or citizens) (Gruenewald, 2003a). The neglect of PBE and an over-emphasis on the
discourses of accountability are also not unfamiliar in South African schools.

For example, this over-emphasis on accountability discourses can be observed in
the new version of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) in South Africa, namely
the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which rigidly manages the
time of the teacher by prescribing exactly how much time should be spent on certain
content, how many assignments need to be assessed, and what exactly it is that
should be assessed, among other things. In South Africa, there is a growing emphasis
on standards and testing, which not only leads to an increase in administrative work
for the teacher, but is also in itself time-consuming.

Moreover, in the General Education and Training Band (GET), annual assessments
take place in Grades 1-9 in certain provinces. The state also mandates accountability
in the form of the Annual National Assessments (also known as the ANAs), which
were first implemented in 2010 to measure the progression of the literacy and
mathematical skills of learners in Grades 1-6 and 9, in order to determine on which
level they are performing. Grades 3, 6 and 9 are regarded as terminal points in each
phase. Grades 7 and 8 do not participate in the ANAs, but were included in 2014 as a
pilot project (Department of Basic Education, 2014). The ANAs serve as standardised
tests to assess and determine whether learners require extra assistance and to
ensure that each student in every school will develop the appropriate language
and mathematics skills for the specific grade. Teachers can then use these results to
improve their lesson plans.

The upshot of this is that the potential for implementing PBE is undermined by
the discourse of both accountability and economic competitiveness (Gruenewald,
2003b). The over-emphasis on these discourses highlights the need for change in
order to counteract such dominant pedagogies. In this instance, PBE could serve as
a possible avenue for schools to address the dominance of accountability regimes.
As mentioned earlier, for PBE to be practised productively, it is crucial that teachers
first expand their understanding of the concept of ‘place’ and, secondly, become
more aware of their learners’ sense of place. If teachers were to understand the
multidimensional nature of ‘place’ and become aware of the emotional connections
that learners have with the places they inhabit, then teachers could incorporate
conversations on these connections in their classrooms, and this could facilitate
practising a pedagogy of place.

Sense of place
A sense of place is critical in developing an emotional connection with the land and
establishing an environmentally conscious and responsible citizenry. However, sense

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

of place is not something that we consider on a daily basis. Orr (1992: 126) describes
this omission as “the ease with which we miss the immediate and mundane”. Resor
(2010) argues that a sense of place is the most important and essential concept that
needs to be understood when PBE and its place in social studies are being evaluated.
However, this does not reduce the complexity of this phenomenon.

A sense of place includes people’s psychological being, social community, cultural
symbols and biophysical, political and economic systems. The act of acknowledging
the interrelationship between these dimensions leads to the formation of an
understanding of a sense of place as a multidimensional and integrated concept
(Resor, 2010). PBE, therefore, involves teachers being aware of the uniqueness of
each student’s connections that they have to the places they inhabit. Against this
background, we discuss the case of Greenfields Primary.

The case of Greenfields Primary School
Greenfields Primary School2 is situated in the municipal district of Stellenbosch. It
is located approximately 50 km from Cape Town. Stellenbosch is a university town
bordered by large tracts of vineyards. It is surrounded by the Helderberg, Simonsig
and Stellenbosch mountains and is also the historical commercial centre point of rich
White owners of agricultural land and businesses, dominated by the winemaking
industry. Black people (all formerly oppressed) not only suffered from the exclusion
of economic ownership in this region since the 1600s, but also from poor housing,
schooling, and higher education. Relations between White farmers and farm
labourers were, for many years, characterised by the so-called “dop system” (which
entailed remuneration for labour in the form of alcohol), resulting in a range of social
scars and related health problems such as alcoholism and foetal alcohol syndrome.
The majority of children reported on in this study are those of farm labourers.

The context of Greenfields Primary School
Greenfields Primary School is a small public coeducational school offering classes
from Grades R to 8. The school had 281 learners and eleven staff members in 2012,
when the study was conducted. The school is situated in an eco-village just outside
Stellenbosch.3 The Lynedoch eco-village is the first ecologically designed socially
mixed intentional community in South Africa (Swilling & Annecke, 2006). The village
operates on the following principles: it must be a mixed community organised
around a child-centred learning precinct; it should strive to be a working example
of a liveable ecologically designed urban system, and it will be a financially and
economically viable community that will not require external funding to sustain itself
(Swilling & Annecke, 2006: 315).

Based on these characteristics, one might view the eco-village as a smooth space.4
In their book A thousand plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari (1987) introduce the ideas

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

of smooth and striated space to explain and analyse the different energy flows in
society. A general feature of these two notions is their emphasis on the importance
of the relationships we have with space and the earth as a whole. Smooth space
creates opportunities for all “becomings” to occur. We shall elaborate more on the
notions of smooth and striated space at a later stage.

Returning to the school itself, according to the current principal, there is uncertainty
regarding the age of the school, but he mentioned that it was approximately 60 or
more years old. He further described the school as a rural, non-fee-paying school5
and clarified that Greenfields is not a farm school. The school serves learners from
23 surrounding farms, and learners commute to school by public transport such as
busses.

The inhabitants of the eco-village range from professors and elite businessmen
to working-class people – mostly farm labourers. The integration of poor and rich is
conspicuous in this setting, although this is not evident in the school itself, as learners
who attend it are the children of pre-dominantly Black farm workers. Some of these
learners live in the eco-village itself, although the majority of the learners live on the
nearby wine farms. Many of the parents of the learners who live outside the eco-
village are impoverished farm workers. Some of the learners live as far as 40 km from
the school. Despite the unfavourable conditions of growing up and living on a farm
as children of farm labourers, they were exposed to environments (other than the
monocultures produced on farms), in which they could experience nature first hand.

Background to the methodology used in the case study
The empirical component of the study was framed within the interpretive paradigm
and the key question that it focused on was an understanding of learners’ sense of
place as well as the extent to which teachers practised a pedagogy of place.

Data-collection methods
Qualitative interviews were conducted with two teachers in the Social Sciences
learning area for Grades 6 and 8. Focus groups as well as individual interviews were
also conducted with learners.

The sample
The sample consisted of 12 learners (six of whom stayed in the eco-village and six of
whom stayed on neighbouring farms) attending the school in order to understand
their sense of place and to investigate the differences and similarities regarding
the sense of place between these two groups. The assumption was made that the
context of the school was more conducive for cultivating a pedagogy of place as

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

opposed to a school that is not located in an eco-village. Two teachers also formed
part of the sample.

Data-analysis methods
Data were analysed according to the constant comparative method, using coding as
a means to group and re-group data into meaningful themes.

Findings of the study
The findings of the study will highlight two aspects: learners’ sense of place, and the
extent to which teachers practise a pedagogy of place.

Learners’ sense of place
After interviewing the Grade 6 and 8 learners, three similarities between these
groups were evident in their responses to questions, namely an appreciation of the
aesthetic environment; a strong attachment to the places where they live, and the
nurturing of social relationships with neighbours. Learners living in the eco-village
described positive experiences about the place where they lived. For example,
one learner mentioned the following: “we do swap shop where we try to keep the
environment clean on a daily basis by picking up papers and then we get points.
And depending on these points they [the owners] supply our needs in the form of
toiletries and other school essentials”.6 However, some learners of the group living
outside the eco-village experienced racism from the owners of the farms, which
made them feel more negative about the places where they lived. Three of the six
learners complained that their parents had to work long hours for minimum wages
and that the owners had a disrespectful manner of talking to them and did not even
greet them. One student had the following to say when asked what she found special
about the place where she lived:

There is nothing special about my place, because the people have to work hard
for little money and they come home late. My mum and dad constantly work
and they work hard, but the farm owners pay them next to nothing. They don’t
even greet… the farmer’s wife is so unfriendly and many people are afraid of
them, because they are racist… this is why I just want to get out of that place.

Responses such as these indicate that the sense of place of some of the learners
(staying outside the eco-village) evoked negative emotions about the place(s) where
they lived. It is the negative experiences of learners and their families of the places
they inhabit that are of particular interest for this article. Issues such as racism can
be regarded as striating forces, which Deleuze and Guattari (1987) refer to and which
we shall return to later in the article.

Although learners recognised the aesthetic beauty of the environment, some
did not experience an attachment to the places where they lived because of their

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

experiences of racism. This is consistent with findings of research by Jack (2010), who
mentions that ideal places do not always produce positive place attachment, especially
when these places are examples of the location of unhappy social relationships or
life experiences. Although these farms could be regarded as ideal in terms of the
aesthetic environment, the ‘unhappy social relationship’ that existed between
employer and employee impeded or weakened the attachment of these learners
to their places. Some of them even aspired to live in places such as Johannesburg
and England. When a student was asked where she would want to live one day, she
mentioned: “I would like to live in Somerset West [an affluent suburb of Cape Town]
in a big house on the beachfront, because it is beautiful and nice there, just as long
as there are no racist farmers compared to where I’m living now” (translated from
Afrikaans). Although learners were aware of the racism which they experienced on
the farms, they tended to be mostly unaware of the larger political and economic
forces influencing their experiences, based on the interviews conducted with them.
This served as an indication that Social Sciences teachers at the school might not
be addressing issues such as how power and politics are embedded in places, even
though this is a crucial dimension to touch on – especially in the context in which
they were teaching and given the ideal setting to introduce PBE. With this in mind,
we next discuss the extent to which teachers implemented a pedagogy of place.

The extent to which teachers practice a pedagogy of place
Based on the interviews with the teachers, it was evident that their dominant
understanding of the concept of place was technical and one-dimensional. This was
noted in the way in which they defined the term ‘place’, which reduced the notion
to coordinates on a grid/map. One teacher mentioned: “We should go back to old
lesson plans in geography. It won’t help if I ask a learner to point out where America
is on a map and he can’t show me where America is … it also won’t help if I do spatial
orientation and the learner has no idea where the places are.” This limited view of
place that the teachers held could be the result of various factors such as the technical
understanding of place that is still dominant in school Geography, a lack of exposure
to PBE during teacher education sessions and workshops, national curriculum policy
statements that do not adequately emphasise a broader understanding of place, and
teachers’ resistance to change and to adopting new methodological approaches. The
limited understanding of place among the two teachers might explain why they did
not practise a pedagogy of place. In other words, insufficient knowledge of place as
a multidimensional construct could also explain why learners were unaware of the
political and power forces that were embedded in the places where they lived.

But how might we understand this particular case in a broader context of South
Africa – its history and current challenges. We turn to such an interpretation next.

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

An interpretation

A South African context: The division of land (space) in South Africa
during the apartheid era
To frame our interpretation, we shall first draw on the work of the feminist theorist,
bell hooks, who writes in her book, Feminist theory: From margin to center (1984: 9)
about the pain and possibility of marginalisation:

To be in the margin is to be part of the whole but outside the main body. As
black Americans living in a small Kentucky town, the railroad tracks were a daily
reminder of our marginality. Across those tracks were paved streets, stores we
could not enter, restaurants we could not eat in, and people we could not look
directly in the face. … We could enter that world, but we could not live there. We
had always to return to the margin, to cross the tracks to shacks and abandoned
houses on the edge of town. … There were laws to ensure our return. Not to
return was to risk being punished.

The marginal space which hooks refers to can be linked to the notion of striated
space. According to Deleuze and Guattari (1987: 474), we experience the world as
a continuum of striated and smooth spaces: “[S]mooth space is constantly being
translated, transversed into striated space; striated space is constantly being reversed,
returned to smooth space”. Striated spaces are “hierarchical, rule-intensive, strictly
bounded and confining, whereas smooth spaces are open and dynamic, and allow
for transformation to occur” (Tamboukou, 2008: 360). Deleuze and Guattari (1987:
486) further claim that all progress occurs through and in striated space, but that all
becoming occurs in smooth space. Smooth and striated spaces are consequently in
constant interchange with each other. Therefore, it is more appropriate to refer to
smoothing and striating forces (Bonta & Protevi, 2004: 144).

In the case of Greenfields, the school and the eco-village itself might be regarded
as smooth spaces, although the challenges such as insufficient knowledge on PBE,
the increased load in administrative work, the poverty of the learners in their class,
and the unforeseen farm worker strikes (of the past few years) that teachers confront
striates these spaces, hence closing opportunities for practising a pedagogy of place.
Other possible striating forces influencing these smooth spaces might be the rigid
National Curriculum Statement Policies such as CAPS, the school itself, and the
increased emphasis on accountability. Before we elaborate on these points, we shall
discuss the striated spaces which black South-Africans experienced during apartheid
and point out the relevance of this to the Greenfields study.

The political space described by hooks (1990) is not unknown in South Africa. The
Natives Land Act, No. 27 of 1913 prohibited Africans from buying, hiring or selling
land in 93% of South Africa and confined them to ownership of only 7% (South
African History Online, 2013). Despite being greater in number, Africans were denied
access to land, which they owned or had been leasing from White famers. The
process of dispossession culminated during the apartheid years, accompanied by the

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

forced removal of numerous Black communities7 that uprooted millions of people
from their ancestral lands, often with deliberate cruelty and without compensation.
Furthermore, the Group Areas Act, No. 41 of 1950, the second key act to consolidate
the apartheid regime, applied a crude template of race where the ultimate ownership
of land was primarily determined by skin colour (Morris, 2012). The main purpose
of this Act was to mark existing neighbourhoods in towns and cities as White –
where many Black and Coloured communities had already been living for centuries.
This Act succeeded in fragmenting lives and in removing entire communities from
their historical places of living and working as well as from the social values which
supplemented their lives there (Morris, 2007, 2012; Ross, 1999; Welsh, 2009).

By doing this, Black and White ideals could be kept separate and White survival
would not be threatened by Black political and economic aspirations. This led to the
disintegration of many families, as well as an increase in poverty and hopelessness.
However, after the advent of democratic rule in 1994, the newly elected ANC-led
government was faced with the task of dealing with a legacy of centuries of land
dispossession. A ‘willing buyer willing seller’ policy was adopted as the preferred
method of land reform. The government intended to redistribute 30% of land to
Black people by 2014 (South African History Online, 2013).

In the context of Greenfields, the disparity of space and the legacy of the above
Acts are still evident 21 years after apartheid was officially abolished. The margin to
which hooks (1984) refers can be related to, and is reflected by the neighbouring
farms outside Stellenbosch, where the learners described in this study live and
their parents work. The majority of these parents were themselves deprived of
basic quality education under apartheid and instead schooled to do hard labour or
domestic chores. The frustration at the poor conditions under which farm labourers
work reached a tipping point in 2012 and led to widespread strikes in the Western
Cape province.

Briefly, in October/November 2012, the Western Cape province in South Africa
witnessed several protests among farmworkers close to De Doorns in the Boland
region. These workers protested against a daily wage ranging between R69-R75 and
demanded an increase to R150 per day. Many of the protesters were seasonal workers
on farms who were only employed for one season and remained unemployed for the
remainder of the year.8 Eventually, after several rounds of negotiation, an agreement
of a minimum wage of R105 per day for farmworkers was reached in 2013. During
these strikes, protesters took dramatic action by burning down vineyards, crops and
farmlands, and in the process destroying the environment in extreme ways. Some
of the parents of the learners mentioned in this study were also involved in the
strikes, protesting for a raise in wages. Occurrences such as these are crucial and
present opportunities for inclusion in classroom discussions within a PBE framework.
Even though PBE allows sufficient opportunity for addressing issues such as strikes,

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

teachers at the school did not integrate these events into their lessons or pedagogies,
although they impacted directly on the lives of some of the learners in their classes.

In the interviews conducted with the teachers, it became evident that they were
mainly unaware of PBE and even where they were familiar with some aspects thereof,
obstacles such as the discourse of accountability limited them from introducing
it to their learners. They explained that national policies such as CAPS, which is
prescriptive, rigidly manages their time and classroom practices, and restricted them
in many ways. As a consequence, the location of the school (eco-village) did not have
any significant impact on practising a pedagogy of place. One might thus conclude
that the location of this school had little influence on whether PBE was practised.
This indicates that the real problem might lie in the hierarchical/organisational
structuring of schools and the national curriculum, which is too prescriptive (Ontong,
2013). With this in mind, one could pose the following question: How can education
respond in more critical and powerful ways to address these social, ecological and
political challenges? We aver that PBE could serve as a useful tool in addressing and
potentially ameliorating these challenges.

Educational implications of Greenfields Primary: Exploring

possibilities for overcoming some challenges
For Sobel (1996:10), the importance of PBE is “that children have an opportunity
to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it, before being asked to heal its
wounds”. Leopold (1949: 223) reflects on the importance of education for this type
of connection with the land when he writes:

It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relationship to land can exist without
love, respect, and admiration for the land, and a high regard for its value … The
most serious obstacle impeding the evolution of a land ethic is the fact that our
educational and economic system is headed away from, rather than toward, an
intense consciousness of land.

The question at hand is: How might teachers educate for the development of such
an emotional (re)connection to, and love for the land? The first and necessary step
would be to introduce pre-service teachers as well as in-service teachers to PBE
through workshops and professional development programmes (PDPs). This implies
that curriculum content might need to be revised and adjusted with a broadened
focus on place and PBE. Even though Geography as a discipline acknowledges and
emphasises the multidimensionality of the notion of place, the intended curriculum
for school Geography in South Africa still mainly focuses on the technical dimension
of place. Although developing a technical understanding of place is important in
Geography education, PBE also requires the development of learners’ sense of place.
This implies that school Geography might also need to be reconceptualised so that it
focuses on all the dimensions of place, not only its technical dimension (coordinates
on a map), as reflected in teachers’ understanding in the Greenfields study. However,

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

it is not always possible for national policies to be adjusted within short timeframes,
hence interventions have to take place at a micro level. This implies a need for
professional school-based development programmes for teachers so as to extend
their notion of place.

Following this, teachers could seek possibilities within the curriculum itself on
how to incorporate PBE. We know that curriculum reform does not necessarily lead
to pedagogical change and modifications. This is why teachers are key role players
in educational change and, in this instance, their sense of place and knowledge of
PBE is essential for its implementation. An extended notion of place among teachers
would enable them to peruse the same curriculum content, but now through the
new lens of PBE. Though much more elaboration and adjustments are needed, CAPS
does provide some opportunities for PBE across different subjects. For example, in
English Home Language for Grades 7-9, learners are expected to write a poetry text
based on observations and experiences of human beings, nature and social issues
(DBE, 2011a: 47). In the Social Sciences, both History and Geography also provide
opportunities for PBE. In History, for example, Grades 7-9 teachers are expected to
cover content such as, among others, the colonisation of the Cape in the 17th and
18th centuries; the Industrial Revolution in Britain and Southern Africa from 1860,
and World War II (1939-1945) (DBE, 2011b: 17). In the same phase, in the Geography
section, the main themes include natural resources and conservation in South Africa;
settlements; resource use, and sustainability (DBE, 2011b: 18). These themes are all
linked to the environment and are points along which PBE lines can be developed.

Furthermore, PBE might still not get the required recognition it deserves if the
hierarchical organisation of schools and the effects it has on teachers are not revisited.
A possibility of addressing these challenges is to scrutinise the ‘potential lines of
flight’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). In their work, Deleuze and Guattari introduce
the central concepts of “deterritorialization” and “reterritorialization”. According
to Ringrose (2011), territorialisation refers to energy being captured and striated in
specific space/time contexts. Deterritorialization occurs when energy might escape
or temporarily move outside normative strata. Reterritorialisation describes the
processes and recuperation of those ruptures. “Lines of flight” can be regarded
as deterritorialisations that never stop, but rather produce multiple “rhizomatic
connections” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987: 15). Tamboukou (2008: 360) mentions
that “we constantly move between deterritorialization – freeing ourselves from the
restrictions and boundaries of controlled, striated spaces – and reterritorialization
– repositioning ourselves within new regimes of striated spaces”. Lines of flight are
thus “becomings”, “tiny connections” and “movements” (Beddoes, 1996).

Recognising the potential “lines of flight” requires teachers to observe that which
is already there and to ask themselves how they can transform “the already existing”
into lines of flight. In the case mentioned in this article, the school is located in an
eco-village, which, in itself, is conducive not only to ecological education, but also to
PBE. This can be considered a line of flight. If teachers become more aware of their

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

learners’ sense of place, such consciousness can itself serve as a line of flight. Being
aware of the appreciation of the aesthetic environment that these learners have for
places they inhabit could be one way in which the teacher might develop this love
for, and connection to the land to which Leopold refers.

Another possibility in addressing these challenges could be to practise a
critical pedagogy of place. Gruenewald (2003b) suggests that a pedagogy of place
should always be critical. He claims that a critical pedagogy of place is a response
to educational reform policies and practices that disregard places. As in this case
study, where some learners experienced racism on farms, and a curriculum that is
restrictive in addressing such concerns, it would be necessary to practise a critical
pedagogy of place. Such a pedagogy would enable both teachers and learners to
reflect on how power works through the places they inhabit and, by eventually acting
on these powers, would change the relationship they have to the places. This could
be applied, should teachers integrate actual events such as the farmworker protests
(the political dimension of place) into their pedagogies.

Conclusion
We conclude this article by suggesting that teachers could empower themselves in
understanding the multidimensionality of the concept of ‘place’ and PBE, and that
they should become more aware of their learners’ sense of place. This would open
up space for the implementation of a pedagogy of place through recognising possible
‘lines of flight’ and adopting a critical pedagogy of place. However, practising a
pedagogy of place might be challenging for teachers if the pressures of accountability,
the hierarchical organisation of schools and the lack of emphasis on PBE in the formal
curriculum remain unattended to. The case discussed in this article, together with
the political and spatial challenges that South Africa faces, demonstrates the need
for, and importance of PBE as a potential tool for meeting these challenges through
education. Furthermore, regardless of what the potential of PBE in contemporary
South Africa might be, the exploration of the perceptual, cultural, ecological
and political dimensions of places remains fertile ground for investigations into
educational research, theory and practice. Gruenewald (2003b: 464) neatly captures
the point: “The question is worth asking: Without focused attention to places, what
will become of them – and us?”

Endnotes
The terms ‘place-based education’ and ‘a pedagogy of place’ are used interchangeably.
In order to protect the anonymity of the school, we have used the pseudonym
Greenfields Primary.

The notion of an eco-village is a fairly new one with promising ideals; however, its role
in promoting environmental and social justice concerns has yet to be determined. In
reality, spaces are never simply smooth or striated.

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

In South Africa, non-fee-paying schools refers to public schools where learners do
not have to pay school fees. This is determined by the government based on factors
such as the location of the school, the income of parents, total staff members and
learners. These schools get financial support from the government.

All quotes of teachers have been translated from Afrikaans.

Black communities refers to those classified during apartheid as Africans, Coloureds
and Indians.

www.boland.touchlab.co.za/2013

References
Ardoin NM 2006. Toward an interdisciplinary understanding of place: Lessons for

environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 11:
112-126.

Athman J & Monroe M 2004. The effects of environment-based education on
students’ achievement motivation and the effect of environment-based
education on students’ critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical
thinking. Journal of Interpretation Research, 9: 9-25.

Beddoes DJ 1996. Breeding demons: A critical enquiry into the relationship
between Kant and Deleuze with specific reference to women. PhD
dissertation. Retrieved on 10 January 2013 from http://www.cinestatic.com/
trans-mat/Beddoes/BD6s4.htm.

Bonta M & Protevi J 2004. Deleuze and Geophilosophy. A guide and glossary.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Cresswell T 2004. Place: A short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Deleuze G & Guattari F 1987. A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia.

Translated by Brian Massumi. London: Continuum.
Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2011a. Curriculum and assessment policy

statement senior phase (Grades 7-9): English home language. Pretoria:
Government Printer.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2011b. Curriculum and assessment policy
statement senior phase (Grades 7-9): Social Sciences. Pretoria: Government
Printer.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2013. Annual national assessment 2013.
Retrieved on 1 September 2013 from http://www.education.gov.za/
Curriculum/AnnualNational
Assessment/tabid/424/Default.aspx.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2014. Action plan to 2014: Towards the
realisation of schooling 2025. Retrieved on 25 January 2015 from http://www.
education.gov.za/
Curriculum/ActionPlanto2014/tabid/418/Default.aspx.

Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3)

Gruenewald DA 2003a. Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for
place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40: 619-
654.

Gruenewald DA 2003b. The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place.
American Educational Research Association, 4: 3-12.

Henness S 2001. K~12 service-learning: A strategy for rural community renewal and
revitalization. Corporation for National Service. Retrieved on 4 August 2015
from http://www.nationalservlce.org/jobs/fellowships/PDFs/hennessbiblio.
pdf.

hooks b 1984. Feminist theory: From the margin to the center. Boston: Southend
Press.

hooks b 1990. Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston: Southend Press.
Jack G 2010. Place matters: The significance of place attachments for children’s

well-being. British Journal of Social Work, 40: 755-771.
Knapp CE 2005. The “I-Thou” relationship, place-based education, and Aldo

Leopold. Journal of Experiential Education, 27(3): 277-285.
Leopold A 1949. A sand county almanac. New York: Ballantyne.
Morris M 2007. Paging through history. Jeppestown: Jonathan Ball Publishers.
Morris M 2012. Apartheid, an illustrated history. Jeppestown: Jonathan Ball

Publishers.
Ontong K 2013. ‘n Ondersoek na ‘n sin van plek en ‘n pedagogie van plek in ‘n

plaaslike skool. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch
University.

Orr D 1992. Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Powers AL 2004. An evaluation of four place-based education programs. The Journal
of Environmental Education, 35: 17-33.

Resor CW 2010. Place-based education: What is its place in the Social Studies
classroom? The Social Studies, 101: 185-188.

Ringrose J 2011. Beyond discourse? Using Deleuze and Guattari’s schizoanalysis to
explore affective assemblages, heterosexually striated space, and lines of
flight online and at school. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(6): 598-
618.

Ross R 1999. A concise history of South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Sobel D 1996. Beyond ecophobia: Reclaiming the heart in nature education. Great
Barrington, MA: The Orion society and The Myrin Institute.

South African History Online: towards a people’s history. 2013. Retrieved on
20 January 2015 from http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/timeline-land-
dispossession-and-restitution-south-africa-1995-2013.

Swilling M & Annecke E 2006. Building sustainable neighbourhoods in South Africa:
Learning from the Lynedoch case. International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED), 18(2): 315-332.

The need for place-based education in South African schools: The case of Greenfields Primary
Krystle Ontong & Lesley Le Grange

Tamboukou M 2008. Machinic assemblages: Women, art education and space.
Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 29(3): 359-375.

Welsh D 2009. The rise and fall of apartheid. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball
Publishers.

Woodhouse J & Knapp C 2000. Place-based curriculum and instruction. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. EDO-RC-00-6).