Reflective Environmental Pedagogy in Design Learning: Students’ Experiences in Türkiye

Abstract This study examines how students in a faculty of architecture develop environmental awareness through sustained engagement with the multi-layered historic and ecological setting of a place. It explores how the city’s complex historical fabric functions as an active pedagogical agent, moving beyond abstract instruction towards a transformative relationship between the student and the environment. Learning is examined as an ontological bond in which the physical, social and cultural contexts of the site actively shape architectural perception and environmental awareness. Drawing on students’ reflections, the study investigates how direct engagement with a real-world setting supports the development of socio-ecological consciousness within the framework of place-based pedagogy. Data were collected through reflective interviews with graduates of Istanbul Technical University who voluntarily participated in design studies in Mardin. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained and analysed. The findings suggest that future pedagogical models could benefit from more sustained site-specific engagement, enabling the environment to function as a central catalyst in architectural learning processes.