1st Edition
Children, Education and Geography Rethinking Intersections
This book examines the intersections between children, education and geography. With a particular focus on children’s geographies and geographies of education, the book draws upon cutting-edge research to consider how geographical education can be enhanced through increased engagement with these fields.
The book is underpinned by the position that the lives of children and young people are inherently geographical, as are educational institutions, systems and processes. The volume explores the ways in which the diverse relationships between children, education and geography can enrich research and work with, and for, children and young people. Chapters in this book consider how in/justices are (re)produced through education. Chapters also explore how insights generated by thinking in, and across, geography and education can be used to support and empower young people in both formal education and in their everyday lives.
Ultimately, this book is written for children and young people. Not as the readership, but as people, often marginalised in decision making at a variety of scales in education, and who, we contend should be at the heart of all educational thinking. The book is of value to undergraduate and post graduate students interested in geography education and children’s geographies, as well as teachers of geography, both new and experienced.
Introduction
- The child and their (geographical) education
- Geographies of education at macro-, meso- and micro-scales: Young people and international student mobility
- Geographies of education spaces: Architecture, materialities, power, and identity
- Children’s geographies and schools: Beyond the mandated curriculum
- Connecting children’s and young people’s geographies and geography education: Why this matters to and for children, education and society
- Becoming acquainted: Aspects of diversity in children’s geographies
- Student voice, democratic education, and geography: Reflecting on the findings of a survey of undergraduate geography students
- The value of geography to an individual’s education
- Young people’s geographies, schooling, and the curriculum problem: Where have all the cool places gone?
- De/colonizing the (geography) curriculum
- Climate Change Education: Following the information
- Expanding students’ concept of ‘home’: teaching migration with a geographic capabilities approach
- Looking closely for environmental learning: Citizen science and environmental sustainability education
- Paying attention with more-than-human worlds: Field-visiting
- Moving forwards: Strengthening engagement across the intersections between children, education, and geography
Lauren Hammond, Mary Biddulph, Simon Catling, and John H. McKendrick
Section I: Geographies of education and educational spaces
Johanna Waters and Rachel Brooks
Peter Kraftl
John H. McKendrick
Section II: Children’s geographies and their significance in, and to, everyday life and education
Mary Biddulph, Peter Hopkins, and Simon Tate
Simon Catling and Susan Pike
Lauren Hammond and Grace Healy
David Lambert and Kelly León
John Morgan
Section III: Progressive geographies in education
Fatima Pirbhai-Illich and Fran Martin
Steve Puttick, Paloma Chandrachud, Rahul Chopra, James Robson, Sanjana Singh, and Isobel Talks
David Mitchell and Tine Béneker
Ria Dunkley
Helen Clarke and Sharon Witt
Conclusion
John H. McKendrick, Simon Catling, Mary Biddulph, and Lauren Hammond
Biography
Lauren Hammond is Lecturer in Teacher Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh.
Mary Biddulph is a former Senior Lecturer in Geography Education at the University of Nottingham.
Simon Catling was a teacher for 13 years in inner London primary schools and moved to Oxford Brookes University in 1984, where he taught geography education and education modules with prospective teachers and education studies students until his retirement in 2012.
John H. McKendrick co-directs the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University, where he is Professor of Social Justice.
‘The intersection between geography education, geographies of education, and geographies of children and young people is a particularly vibrant area of scholarship. Yet few publications bring geographers and geography educators together to considers the complex and multi-scalar relationships between children, education and geography, that is until now. Each chapter in this edited volume offers rich insights into research and practice, drawing on a range of conceptual, ideological and methodological traditions to explore the ways in which engagement across these fields can be mutually enriching. The editors describe how the book encourages geography educators and students with an interest in geography, education and young people to engage with questions about the relationships between people, place and nature; the purposes and practices of schooling; and the nature of childhood. Children, education, and geography: Rethinking intersections blends empirical research, theory and practice to stimulate debate on a range of contemporary topics such as decolonising the curriculum, teaching migration and environmental sustainability education. As such it will also be essential reading for new and practicing teachers who want to understand, support and empower the children and young people that they teach.’
- Emma Rawlings Smith, Departmental Lecturer in Geography Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK
‘In light of growing socio-spatial inequalities and uncertain environmental futures, ‘thinking geographically’ must mean more than excelling in one specific discipline. Thinking geographically is a skill necessary for students, teachers and scholars of all ages, and this (com)passionately written collection will support teaching, learning and scholarship characterised by thinking geographically together in ways that are at once sensitive to context and expansive across times and spaces.
A key contribution of the collection is the editors’ and authors’ persistent focus on drawing attention to children and young people’s everyday geographies into educational spaces and practices, following the aim set out in the introduction to elucidate and unpack the intersections between ‘geography as a discipline and the geographies of everyday lives’. Many of the contributing authors offer practical case examples of integrating insights from diverse child and youth geographies into educational spaces. Perhaps even more useful, however, are the ways that authors draw crucial attention to work not yet done in this regard. The result is a collection that raises urgent and sometimes discomforting questions such as how can educators respond to the climate crisis in hopeful and inclusive ways and how can educators in the global North acknowledge the legacies of epistemic colonialism in inviting learners to participate in building progressive futures.
As well as being of great value to educators, the collection offers rich insights to academic geographers. Specifically, though not limited to the following two areas, the book serves as a bridge between the geographies of education and geographies of children and young people and as such has the potential to generate dialogue and cross-disciplinary working.
Ultimately, this is a book that points ahead, offering suggestions and raising critical questions that have the potential to lead to progressive, inclusive and compassionate ways of knowing, teaching and engaging with the urgent challenges of the day by thinking geographically.’
- Catherine Walker, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK
‘Highly recommended. A timely book. I learned a lot, thought deeply (again and again), and definitely re-thought my own practice. From the first lines, the affective nature of education is suggested as an essential component of an education if we are to consider a child's full development. This book is shot-through with debates and dialogue with the classroom. Education in this book is seen to be about relationships, agency and nurturing. As Clarke and Witt write so powerfully, we should consider being 'with' our geography 'not in opposition', it is about relationships building over time and 'new ways of being, doing and knowing'. In particular, chapters by Morgan, Lambert & León and Catling & Pike stand out as being useful. Puttick, Chandrachud, Chopra, Robson, Singh and Talks write brilliantly and suggest a conclusion I have come to as well: that the complexity of climate change knowledge means it is unreasonable to place the responsibility on teachers alone as institutions 'have inherent weaknesses for the task of developing local, place-specific and place-relevant information about climate change'. Addressing this should be met by relationships between universities and school teachers, helping show the importance of the varying (and variable) narratives on climate change.’
- Anthony Barlow, Principal Lecturer in Early Years and Primary Geography Education, University of Roehampton, UK
'This book is a refreshing read for anyone concerned about the future of geography and its role in supporting the education and well-being of our youths. It places young people in the intersections of analyses that range from examining structures that affect children’s lives and reproduce different kinds of inequalities, to understanding children’s (potential and real) agency in the education process. The chapters invite us to consider how to better engage young people within and across the education spaces they occupy, and as they transit across phases of education. They call for a better understanding of children’s lives and highlight the curricular and pedagogical opportunities such understandings can afford. As a geography teacher educator, I especially appreciate the ways in which the chapters elucidate the important iterative relationships among geography, children’s lives and education, so that educators can support young people to lead meaningful (school) lives in the present and future.'
- Tricia Seow, Senior Lecturer & Assistant Head of the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Singapore
