Experiential Intensity of Exploring Place Abandoned

Kevin Redmond

doi:10.29173/pandpr29502

Abstract

There is a growing global shift towards urbanization resulting in diminishing connections with the traditional rural placescape. Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) has a long history of out-migration and internal migration between communities in coastal areas within the province. Resettlement programs initiated by the NL government between 1954 and 1975 accounted for the internal migration of approximately 30,000 people from 300 communities. Modern-day encounters with these abandoned communities are relevant to understanding the loss of place and home, as significant numbers of students in NL today are affected by migration. This paper is a phenomenological study of the experiences of educators as they explored the remnants of an abandoned community. The participants of the study were six experienced public school educators with teaching experience at the primary, elementary, intermediate, and secondary levels. The study took place in eight abandoned communities located on the western shore of Placentia Bay, where mainly the remnants of Isle Valen, St. Leonard’s, St. Kyran’s, and Great Paradise were explored. Data collection consisted of two personal interviews and one group hermeneutic circle, with the aim to answer one fundamental question: What is the experience of educators exploring the remnants of an abandoned community? Data in this study are represented by lived experience descriptions, which were interpreted hermeneutically and guided by four phenomenological existentials: temporality, corporeality, spatiality, and relationality. The results of this study not only provide deeper insight into intense experiences in communities abandoned through resettlement; they also reveal the significance of place in our lives, place as heuristic teacher, the pedagogical power of place, the need for local, meaningful place-based experiences in a curriculum as lived, and their potential for furthering personal and educational insight no matter where in this world we live or dwell.

Highlights

Is it we who define a place, or is it the places we encounter that define what Arendt (1958), calls the “human condition” (p. 7)? Raffan (1993) notes: “it appears that [our] sense of place, in varying degrees, constitutes an existential definition of self” (p. 45); I wonder: how are abandoned places experienced? By exploring educators’ experiences in places that are outdoors, place-based in isolated, rural, and abandoned communities in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). This discussion phenomenologically shows these lived experiences to be intense and insightful, in response to the question: “what is the experience of educators exploring the remnants of an abandoned community?” (Redmond, 2016)
To gain a sense of abandoned place one must return to that place and this represents one cornerstone framing the rationale for this inquiry
Many theorists have considered the importance of relationships between people and place; and many researchers have examined this lived experience from a theoretical perspective (Malpas, 1999, 2014a, 2014b; Relph, 1983, 1993; Tuan, 1977, 2013) while some qualitative studies explore the nexus of pedagogy and place outdoors and/or phenomenologically (Foran, 2005, 2006, 2008a, 2008b; Foran & Olson, 2012; Foran & Saevi, 2012; Wattchow & Brown, 2011); there exists a growing trend in evidence based studies in “Nature Relatedness” and “Nature Therapy” that demonstrate the positive effects of experiences outside in nature

Summary

Introduction

By exploring educators’ experiences in places that are outdoors, place-based in isolated, rural, and abandoned communities in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). This discussion phenomenologically shows these lived experiences to be intense and insightful, in response to the question: “what is the experience of educators exploring the remnants of an abandoned community?” (Redmond, 2016). In NL part of this rural to urban shift occurred between 1954 and 1975, in three different government-initiated resettlement programs, where over 300 (of approximately 1200) rural communities were abandoned and 30,000 people resettled or moved to larger, centralized communities. To gain a sense of abandoned place one must return to that place (see Raffan, 1993) and this represents one cornerstone framing the rationale for this inquiry

A Need for Phenomenological Research of Place Abandoned

Methods