About teach local
Whether you are an educator, a parent, or a student, Teach Local has something for you. This website is designed to enable all partners in a child's education to leverage their local context to drive engagement and achievement.
On this site, you'll find a breakdown of the latest theories related to three subjects core to any community-engaged education: Place-Based Education, Resource Pedagogies, and Building Inclusive Learning Communities.
Place-based education seeks to anchor learning in that which is local - in other words, students' everyday space and place.
Resource pedagogies seek to leverage student strengths to raise engagement and achievement in academic settings.
Academic spaces are often exclusive settings. Educators must work to build inclusive learning communities.
In a nutshell, students who learn within the context of their space and place, with the resources they bring with them in mind, are more likely to succeed both in the classroom and the real world. What's more, educators who take their context into account when developing their practice avoid overtaxing their colleagues and become assets to the community in their own right.
Teach Local was created by a Chicago educator as part of a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Fellowship to Aotearoa New Zealand. As such, it is written most specifically with those two contexts in mind. However, the research cited has broad application to educators in any setting.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of State.
About the Author
Nathan Ramin is a teacher on Chicago's West Side and a 2017-2018 Fulbright Fellow. You can read more about him here.