SENSES OF PLACE: PLACE ATTACHMENT IN GEOLOGY STUDENTS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

A geographic locality becomes a place when it is imbued with meaning by human experience. Meaning may be attributed to a place for many reasons: the scientific significance of a place, personal attachment based on individual experience, or cultural significance based on historical or spiritual events that have occurred there. People and communities also tend to develop emotional attachments to meaningful places; the concept of sense of place encapsulates place meanings and place attachments. Quantitative (psychometric) measurement of place attachment can inform design, implementation, and authentic assessment of place-based geoscience curricula. An important preliminary step toward this goal is compilation of baseline measurements of place attachment among different academic and social groups. Toward this end, we are using a published, validated place attachment instrument to assess place attachment to Arizona and the Southwest in these study populations.

Initial studies of introductory geology students in our diverse urban Southwestern university indicated that place attachment to Arizona is moderately affirmative on average, and independent of demographic factors of race, ethnicity, and sex. The latter finding is contrary to what was initially expected given the range of student relationships to place in the region (newcomers from distant nations to members of indigenous communities). With such little variation, the intricacies of place attachment are not apparent. We have thus expanded the study to regional two-year colleges and members of the general public in rural, suburban, and urban communities across Arizona. With additional measures of residency, educational level, vocation, and avocation included with our additional demographic factors a more detailed model of place attachment can be resolved. Our findings directly inform work on place-based geoscience curricula and materials (classroom, field, and online) to engage a broader range of students, including groups historically marginalized in scientific study and professions.