Discovering Unwritten Stories—A Modular Case Study in Promoting Landscape Education

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a timely research which needs to be considered for publication. The study brings some contribution to the current research on landscape education by linking toponymy studies with education studies. The strongest part of the study is its method and empirical interpretation. Before accepting this paper for publication, I have few concerns which could be more fully detailed in the manuscript:

First, the introduction should be more clear on demonstrating the aims and the reginal and international importance of this study.

Second, the theoretical part is quite short and misses several pieces of research on place naming and more broadly on landscape education. Authors could mention an article by Post and Alderman in journal Area and reveal the importance of erasing names on maps. On the other hand, there is the issue of mentioning street names as martyr names or other names in different contexts, with showing politics of practicality in neoliberal contexts (see a 2020 article of Derek Alderman et al. in journal Social and Cultural Geography and see a 2016 article in journal Area based on city-text changes). In toponymy there is also the issue of changing sports names as club names and stadium names also under the pressures of current neoliberalism (see a whole 2019 special issue published in journal Urban Geography as well as several other pieces published in that special issue on commodification of names and urban branding; important is the landscape of city branding as educational backgrunds - see an article by Vesalon et al, 2019 in how urban branding of a city name is relevant). When speaking of education this could be seen both in the classroom/school but also outdoors. Several pieces on outdoor education or landscapes of education in parks, forests and museums should be briefly mentioned (see for instance Light Duncan et al.'s 2018 and 2019 researches on linking education to transitional justice issues by younger people who visited a memorial museum). 

Third, the empirical part of the study should be linked a bit more to the literature review used in this paper.

Finally, conclusions should better explain how the aims of the paper has been fulfilled.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your time and helpful feedback in sharpening the paper. Below, you'll find a point-by-point reply on how we have better incorporated your feedback into our new draft.

1. First, the introduction should be more clear on demonstrating the aims and the reginal and international importance of this study.

Please see quote in Section 1: "This paper investigates how this new module is a case in point on how Landscape Education can be weaved into the curriculum at university-level relying on a holistic, multidisciplinary approach. It conducts an in-depth analysis on the lesson content with the aim of showing how the module draws upon and follows established principles, such as the time-space dimensions in the teaching of Landscape Education as articulated by Antrop and Van Eetvelde, and Vos and Meekes [20–21]. Crucially, by introducing students to toponymic examples from around the world and showing how toponyms (and other related disciplines) are linked to landscapes and the way humans conceptualize their environments (thereby lending a regional and international dimension to the course), students then understand and realize how these concepts are related to Singaporean toponymy particularly in the final lesson – a process and observation documented in this paper as well."

2. Addition of articles in Landscape Education and Toponymy:

Please see the list of works that have been added into the article:

[16] Creţan, R.; Light, D.; Richards, S.; Dunca, A.M. Encountering the victims of Romanian communism: young people and empathy in a memorial museum. Eurasian Geogr Econs 2018, 59, 632–656.

[17] Creţan, R. Mapping protests against dog culling in post-communist Romania. Area 2015, 47, 155-165.

[27] Creţan, R.; Matthews, P.W. Popular responses to city-text changes: street naming and the politics of practicality in a post-socialist martyr city. Area 2016, 48, 92–102.

[28] Vesalon, L.; Creţan, R. 'Little Vienna' or 'European avant-garde city'? Branding narratives in a Romanian City. J Urban Reg Anal. 2019, 11, 17–34.

[29] Brasher, J.P.; Alderman, D.H.; Subanthore, A. Was Tulsa’s Brady Street really renamed? Racial (in)justice, memory-work and the neoliberal politics of practicality. Soc. Cult. Geogr. 2020, 21, 1223–1244.

[30] Creţan, R. Who owns the name? Fandom, social inequalities and the contested renaming of a football club in Timisoara, Romania. Urban Geogr. 2019, 40, 805–825.

3. Third, the empirical part of the study should be linked a bit more to the literature review used in this paper.

Thank you for this pointer. We feel, however, that the empirical part is already linked to several papers on their own (e.g. Borgomale example and Abui case study). There were also instances that we have linked the literature review in the empirical study (e.g. Singaporean toponymy case study and the quote "Also relevant are the links between language and toponyms; an understanding of the Abui language achieved through fieldwork and language documentation ultimately aided the deciphering of the “unknown” place names and shows that toponyms are not just valuable landscape resources, but linguistic tools as well – findings which are supported in other scholarly works which prove how toponyms are strongly rooted in physical characteristics of the land (such as hills and valleys, trees and forests) and that these place names point to people having a vast topographical vocabulary to name their landscape [35].")

4. Finally, conclusions should better explain how the aims of the paper has been fulfilled.

Please see the following quotes in Section 6:

"These disciplines are connected to and approach the study of natural and man-made landscapes through multiple angles. In this sense, one can see how Landscape Education can be weaved into the curriculum at university-level relying on a holistic, multidisciplinary approach."

"The final lesson concluding this course provides a synthesis of how regional and global case studies and concepts from places that students might not be familiar with can be applied into the Singaporean landscape."

"Through approaching the landscape from a myriad of disciplines, the landscape, in through this module, becomes the building axis of knowledge from both local and global perspectives, incorporating different dominant features (rural-urban), and with analyses spanning across different time periods (diachronic-synchronic) – reflecting an interdisciplinary approach whereby participating disciplines, at the academic level, cooperate and contribute their skills to enhance landscape teaching. More importantly, it is also an example of how the module is structured and taught in line with existing pedagogical frameworks in Landscape Education [20–21]. "

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper reports on the rationale and design of a Toponymy course for undergraduate linguistics major students with a view to promote Landscape Education. The article is very interesting and informative, and the detailed course description can "provide a valuable reference for educational institutions in incorporating Landscape Education into the curriculum". There are some aspects that the authors may consider revising before publication.

1. Line82-83, P2. The authors indicate that such a Toponymy course is necessary as “it would be useful to assess the incorporation of 82 Landscape Education in a non-European context”. From this statement, I would expect that the place name examples and cases used and analyzed in this course would be mainly from non-European (probably Asian) countries. However, on Pages 6 and 7, the detailed analysis of Borgomale is based in Italy and Latin language. Some explanations need to be added to clarify this inconsistency.
2. The background and the contents of the course have been presented very clearly. However, what are the students’ role in this course? What projects do they need to do during the course, and what are the assessment forms? The information about students’ participation in the course is useful for readers who are interested in opening a similar course in the future.
3. This study concerning the a course design is very different from empirical education research. I think it would be more apt to change some headings (e.g. 3 Materials and Methods, 3.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis) in order not to cause misunderstandings for readers.

After these points are revised, I believe this paper can be accepted for publication.      

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your time and the helpful comments with regards to our paper. They are very much appreciated. Below, we have replied point-by-point, to the comments you've provided:

1. Line 82 to 83: "The authors indicate that such a Toponymy course is necessary as “it would be useful to assess the incorporation of 82 Landscape Education in a non-European context”. From this statement, I would expect that the place name examples and cases used and analyzed in this course would be mainly from non-European (probably Asian) countries. However, on Pages 6 and 7, the detailed analysis of Borgomale is based in Italy and Latin language. Some explanations need to be added to clarify this inconsistency."

Please see the following quote: "While the case study of Borgomale might not be rooted in Asia or a local context, learning about the “true” meaning and origins of this place name meets the course’s objective of learning how to reconstruct the etymological origins of place names from across the globe. Furthermore, as students have demonstrated in their essays and group presentations, they were able to use such etymological tools of analyses in reconstructing the meaning and origins of Singaporean toponyms by analyzing the physical and human landscapes of the place, as well of historical documents connected with the area, whilst taking into account the languages commonly spoken in the country during the period the place was named – all of which can be observed in the lesson on Borgomale."

2. Students role in the course: "What projects do they need to do during the course, and what are the assessment forms?"

We have placed the role of students in the new Section 3.2, which explores the Course Content, Assessments, and Analyses in terms of what the assessment for them looks like. We have also detailed some examples of projects that students have done, at least for Group Presentations/Essays.

3. Changing some headings (e.g. 3 Materials and Methods, 3.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis)

We have changed Section 3 to "Situating the Module in Landscape Education" and Section 3.2 to "Course Content, Assessments, and Analyses".