A Place-Based Pedagogical Action Study to Enrich Rural Sustainability: Knowledge Ties of National Taiwan University’s 10-Year Partnership with Pinglin
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Very meaningful work - to all participants.
I have added a PDF of my comments. The suggestions are highligted in the text with comments.
The major suggestion is to add a paragraph explaining the KYRS framework. I think it would be helpful to have one short paragraph following the first paragraph in the last section to explain in more detail the KYRS framework.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Point 1: I have added a PDF of my comments. The suggestions are highligted in the text with comments.
The major suggestion is to add a paragraph explaining the KYRS framework. I think it would be helpful to have one short paragraph following the first paragraph in the last section to explain in more detail the KYRS framework.
Response 1: Please provide your response for Point 1. (in red)
Thank you so much for Reviewer 1’s suggestions of word choices. I follow all suggestions and made changes.
Point 2: The major suggestion is to add a paragraph explaining the KYRS framework. I think it would be helpful to have one short paragraph following the first paragraph in the last section to explain in more detail the KYRS framework.
Response 2: Please provide your response for Point 2. (in red)
This suggestion is very helpful. I add a paragraph to explain the outline of the KYRS framework (from Line 850 to Line 868).
I copy and paste the paragraph below:
The framework intersects five broad questions (5-W): How, Why, Who, Where, and What. “How” includes various methods to achieve educational purposes, for example, transdisciplinary curricula, issue-oriented events, learning actions, and participatory engagements.” Why” refers to local issues, including things such as aging, educational, craftsmanship-related issues. “Who” documents actors, i.e., local officials and key personnel covering young talents, mid-career U-turn or I-turn villagers, and local families. “Where” documents the locations where teaching and learning are taking place. “What” defines goals of the place-based curricula, for example, social or cultural sustainability and economic strategies. Every part of the 5W-to-do categories associate with specific elements that facilitate the teaching and learning activities at the particular locations. Within 5-W categories, each W dimension associates with different characteristics of factors that need to be addressed. For example, under goals related to the “what” category, the characteristics suggested here include (1) theories and literature, (2) laws, regulations, policies, etc. in particular contexts, (3) tools, methods, technologies, etc. in particular contexts, and (4) tacit knowledge and local wisdom in different cases. The five categories are the foundation for social sustainability goals, cultural sustainability, economic sustainability, and ecological sustainability. Alternatively, the teaching teams could add their particular goals and related characteristics that they consider essential for their contexts. The KYRS template intersects 5-W categories with border questions and details of doable suggestions generated from the 10-year experiences of the Pinglin research. The template is not a set of universal guidelines. Educators and teach cohorts could take the liberty to modify and invent their templates.
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper offers significant insights into the body of knowledge related to interdisciplinary, place-based, action-research that impacts our pedagogical approach to sustainable design in our field. The questions poised in the study are original and the analysis of the outcomes offer many insights into how we can embrace local wisdom to benefit our rural landscapes. The study is well designed, and the outcomes are well presented.
I especially appreciate that this is a 10-year long study which produces significant outcomes by embracing this long look at the data. The final outcomes that identify three intertwined phenomena: economic, social and environmental, help us understand the complexity of these forces. The final conclusions challenge us to re-evaluate how our teaching and action-research strategies must be re-examined to embrace local wisdom and local problem-solving strategies. Thus, this paper, provides a significant contribution to our field, that advances our current knowledge base, in a significant manner.
Thus, I believe that this paper, will have a long-standing impact in our field, with a broad readership.
Author Response
Thank you so much for Reviewer 2's encouragement and supportive responses. Authors and NTU teams wish our long-term experiences could contribute to the knowledge of rural sustainability.
