A Study of the Writing Strategies of Renowned Conservationists: Implications for Place-Based Education in Turkey


ÖZDAĞ U., Lane J. F.

HACETTEPE UNIVERSITESI EGITIM FAKULTESI DERGISI-HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, cilt.29, sa.4, ss.189-204, 2014 (SSCI) identifier identifier

Özet

In today's world, many young people are disconnected from the natural world. One way to promote constructive engagements with nature has been for learning to take place in local environments, including school grounds, neighborhoods, and community parks. This process, often called place-based education, utilizes many field study techniques including nature journaling. Keeping a journal helps students observe their local environments more in-depth by identifying relationships among living and non-living things and building an appreciation about and for one's "place." Providing students with models and guidelines can help them keep a meaningful and useful journal. To identify some best practices for keeping a journal, this study compared writing strategies employed by famous conservationists from the recent history of two different countries. While the writings of Aldo Leopold-the conservationist from the United States-have been used for many years to promote a "Land Ethic," Hikmet Birand's work-the conservationist from Turkey-has yet to be used to its full potential for environmental education. Through a content analysis, a framework of five writing themes was created to showcase the attributes and writing intentions of these scientists. The article concludes with recommendations for using the framework to help promote place-based nature journaling into the Turkish national curriculum.