Pariss Garramone, Ph.D. has been studying creative approaches to teaching and learning for more than ten years. Her work focuses on develop creative pedagogies and curriculum with a focus on social and environmental justice issues. Academic training in Biology, Anthropology, Environmental Studies and Education have given rise to her interdisciplinary approach and interest in creative and critical skills. This web site is a virtual “place” from which Pariss is basing her current initiative, Digging Where We Stand, a place-based arts and writing studio.

Creative Place-based Pedagogy

Pariss’ teaching and research has applied creative approaches to teaching and learning, creative thinking and social action. For the last ten years, this work has engaged in a social ecology and place-based framework that attends to the relationships humans make with each other and the world around us. In the GTA, this translated to urban nature(s).

Pariss is interested in the interaction between creative practices (art, crafting, writing, gardening and play), creative and critical thinking skills, experiential learning and social action with teaching and learning from a place-based perspective. She  has been greatly influenced by the work of Paulo Freire on literacy, critical pedagogy, and problem-posing education. His idea of learning to read the world by learning to read the word is central to how she brings together her work in education, literacy, academic writing with social and environmental justice. Freire’s focus on social justice through education, also known as popular education, is an integral aspect of Pariss’ approach to teaching and learning. She works to incorporate praxis, action – reflection – action, as a cycle of continual re-evaluation of teaching practices. This is especially important for the maintenance of effective communication within the classroom that is both equitable and respectful.

Creative communication is a core aspect of Pariss’ teaching practice that brings together her interest in writing pedagogy with social and environmental justice issues. This translates into the use of  experiential learning and the methods used include narrative visual inquiry, which Pariss developed in her doctoral research, which brings together images and narratives. Her teaching practice developed creating narratives through zines, blogs and podcasts. Over the past 10 years she has included the use of alternative magazines (zines) and began by creating zines as part of her Master’s research methodology. From this, zines were then used in her first year class (The Worlds of Childhood), where she had students participate in making their own zines. The use of zines is to encourage thinking creatively about academic work. Currently, Pariss is also using blogs and podcasts as creative pedagogy. These projects allow students to translate their research into writing that is accessible by a public audience and meaningful for their future careers.