Sign in
12 September 2025
Read time: 3mins
‘By engaging with local heritage sites like York Minster or following the Roman footprints through Eboracum, our student teachers explore key historical concepts, such as chronology, significance, and evidence, through first-hand experience.’
Steph Jach and Jen Huntsley
At York St John University, our initial teacher education (ITE) programme is exploring how place-based pedagogy (PBP) can build a sense of belonging for our student teachers and the children they teach.
PBP begins with the local, enabling student teachers to ground learning in real-world, familiar contexts that are tangible, inclusive, and rich in meaning. Although we are currently focusing on how it can offer meaningful links between history and geography, it could be developed as an approach in any curriculum subject.
Engaging with local heritage sites
By engaging with local heritage sites like York Minster or following the Roman footprints through Eboracum, our student teachers explore key historical concepts, such as chronology, significance, and evidence, through first-hand experience. These experiences simultaneously foster geographical thinking as students engage with maps, landscapes, and questions of place, trade, interdependence, and change over time.
PBP helps bring both history and geography to life. For example, investigating real artefacts like those found with Ivory Bangle Lady in York prompts historical enquiry and geographic reflection on movement, identity, and global connections.
Our final year student teachers have the opportunity to plan and deliver a ‘micro-teach’, where they practise teaching their peers using PBP. These micro-teaches have included acting out Roman army drills in the shadow of York’s multangular tower and crafting mosaics on authentic Roman sites, drawing inspiration from the city’s ancient past. Through examples like these, the student teachers have connected physically to the historical landscape, while raising questions about the geographical spread of empire, cultural exchange, and settlement.
Sense of belonging
PBP fosters a deep sense of belonging and place (Beames et al., 2023) while strengthening interdisciplinary understanding and encouraging student teachers to see their localities as living texts for learning. In this sense, PBP supports the development of pedagogical content knowledge in both historyand geography and offers powerful ways to make the abstract real.
Building on this foundation, we’re inviting student teachers to collaborate in research exploring how learning can be grounded in place. This approach supports them in recognising how both they and their pupils are woven into the geographical and historical narratives of their communities.
Written by Steph Jach and Jen Huntsley who lecture in primary and primary geography in Initial Teacher Education programmes at York St John University
© Steph Jach and Jen Huntsley, and the Geographical Association, 2025
