J. W. Morgan

Critical Pedagogy: the spaces that make the difference

Abstract The recent literature of critical pedagogy has been rich in spatial references and metaphors. Indeed, McLaren (1999) recently called for the development of a ‘critical pedagogy of space’. This article considers the implications of space for critical pedagogy. Drawing on recent debates about space in the geographical and sociological literature, it suggests that space must be seen as social construction. As such, space is involved in the production and reproduction of social relationships, and is linked to political struggles of inclusion and exclusion. The article suggests that space should not be seen simply as the product of capitalist social relationships, but is tied up with other axes of power, such as gender, ethnicity and sexuality. The challenge is to develop a critical pedagogy of space that reflects the multiple and contested nature of space.

What is the place of radical/critical research in geography education?

In this article the value of critical research to research in geography education is considered. It raises the question as to whether the geography education community requires a wider range of orientations to research, concerned as we are with its impact on classroom practice, policy-making and future directions for geography education.

“By our theories shall you know us”: the role of theory in geographical education

This short article explores the role of theory in the field of research in geographical education in the UK. It suggests that the fact that the field is dominated by teacher educators has led to the adoption of theories closely associated with the classroom practice of teachers. Although in the 1980s there were signs that geographical education might engage with a wider set of perspectives from the sociolology of education and curriculum studies, these developments were interrupted by tighter regulation of the work of teacher educators. The article prepares the ground for our other contribution to this Forum on the place of critical theory in geographical education.

Economies of space and the school geography curriculum

This article is about the images of economic space that are found in school curricula. It suggests the importance for educators of evaluating these representations in terms of the messages they contain about how social processes operate. The article uses school geography texts in Britain since the 1970s to illustrate the different ways in which economic space has been represented to students, before exploring some alternative resources that could be used to provide a wider range of representations of economic space. It highlights the continued importance of understanding the politics of school knowledge.

The production of urban educational space

It is widely recognised that large urban centres exhibit significant and enduring patterns of educational inequality. This paper explores the social production of urban educational space. In particular, it argues that since these patterns are geographical, it will be useful to revisit the emergence of an ‘urban crisis’ in education and attempts, by geographers, in the 1970s and 1980s, to explain spatial differences in educational attainment. For much of the past two decades, educational policy has tended to adopt an ‘a-spatial’ approach, and the final part of the paper looks forward to the prospect of an updated and culturally informed analysis of education in cities.

Contesting Europe: Representations of Space in English School Geography.

The development of national education systems was premised on the assumption that they would offer particular representations of the ‘national space’, and school subjects such as geography and history offered pupils specific accounts of space and time. The project of European integration suggests the need for school curricula to offer alternative ways of imagining space. This essay examines the representation of European space in school geography textbooks. The analysis suggests that the texts contain different versions of the ‘politics of space’ and that there is a need for a critically‐reflexive stance on the ‘geographies of Europe’ as taught in schools.