“Nothing compares to actually listening”: experiences with sacrificial listening and place-based education

Purpose Recent scholarship has called for researchers to recognize the urgency of place-based education as a critical component of social studies pedagogy. This study seeks to understand better the relationship between place-based education, sacrificial listening and difficult history. Design/methodology/approach In this qualitative, arts-based research study, collaging is used to investigate how students use the theory of sacrificial listening while trying to make sense of difficult histories during a place-based history education experience. Students enrolled in a PBE experience received instruction about the theory of sacrificial listening at the beginning of a two-week course on the lasting impact of the civil rights movement. Students created a collage and responded to a reflection prompt about the course after engaging in course experiences, including travel to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. Findings Findings in the study demonstrate how sacrificial listening appeared, both explicitly and implicitly, in the ways students processed difficult history during a place-based education experience. Ultimately, the study found, though students organized their thoughts in distinct ways, they all leaned on the theory of sacrificial listening to make sense of what they learned. Originality/value Few studies have applied the theory of sacrificial listening as a pedagogical framework. Future research should build on this work, further investigating the theory as a pedagogical framework in conjunction with both place-based history education as well as other instructional settings.