Children's sense of place in desert towns: a phenomenographic enquiry

Set against the background of the call for sustainable development, a fostering of sense of place emerged as one of education for sustainability's chief goals. Heidegger's concept of dwelling thinking guided us, in this research, to look beyond the emotional and cognitive attachment to a place toward a state of mind which is not limited to a specific place but can also be taken with the dweller wherever he or she goes. A qualitative tool based on analysis of children's drawings was developed for characterizing dwelling thinking in desert towns' children aged 9-10. The results clarified different forms of sense of place and pointed to practical methodologies for the enhancement of dwelling thinking in our quest for sustainability.