Place-Based Social Studies Teacher Education: Learning to Teach for Ecological Citizenship While Investigating Local Waste Issues

This chapter dwells in the intersection of the fields of social studies, teacher education, place-based education, and sustainability education. It is founded on an earthen conception of citizenship referred to as “ecological citizenship,” and it argues that the work of social studies must frame citizenship in this way, particularly given the menacing reality of human-spurred climate change. The crux of the chapter is a story about a social studies teacher educator and social studies pre-service teachers learning to teach for ecological citizenship in part by taking a tour of their university’s waste management program. The chapter concludes with a charge for social studies teacher educators to ground their curricula in the places that they and their students inhabit, recognizing that all learning is inherently placed, while shaping a conception of citizenship that positions individual and community action in ecological contexts, not just political, anthropocentric ones.