Geographies of Education and Learning Practices

The geographies of education and learning practices examine how educational processes are shaped by place, space and scale. This field brings into focus the socio-spatial organisation of schools, universities and informal settings, and how these arrangements reproduce or challenge social inequalities. Scholars explore formal curricula alongside non-formal and informal learning environments, from youth clubs to civic engagement projects, to understand how power relations, resources and mobility intersect. Key concerns include the spatial distribution of educational opportunity, the role of community and third places in supporting learning, and the influence of digital and material infrastructures. Recent work emphasises transnational flows of pedagogic ideas, the uneven geography of educational transitions, and the ways in which learners enact technologies of the self within specific contexts. By attending to both macro-scale policy geographies and micro-scale classroom and community practices, researchers reveal the intimate connections between places of learning and wider social, economic and political processes. The field’s global significance lies in its capacity to inform more equitable planning of educational provision, support inclusive urban and rural development strategies, and guide practice in diverse cultural settings.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Geographies of Education and Learning Practices publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in geographies of education and learning practices across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Socio-spatial organisation: The ways in which social relations and power dynamics are arranged across and within physical and virtual spaces of learning.

Third place: An informal setting separate from home and workplace where individuals gather, form relationships and engage in learning.

Dispositif: A network of discourses, practices and institutions that structure how educational activities are enabled and constrained in a given context.

Civic pedagogy: Educational approaches that prioritise community engagement and the development of learners’ capacity for collective social action.

Technologies of the self: Practices through which individuals shape their own behaviour and identity in response to normative educational expectations and governance.

References

1. ‘It’s a great place to find where you belong’: creating, curating and valuing place and space in open youth work. Children's Geographies (2023).
2. Studying region, network, fluid, and fire in an educational programme working against social inequalities. Geoforum (2022).
3. Radical Urban Classrooms: Civic Pedagogies and Spaces of Learning on the Margins of Institutions. Antipode (2024).
4. Children’s technologies of the self within neoliberal governmentality at the educational transition to Gymnasium in Zurich. Children's Geographies (2023).