GeoCapabilities 3: powerful knowledge for all

A capabilities approach repositions the contribution of the discipline (geography) to the education of young people within a human capabilities framework (see Sen and Nussbaum). Earlier phases of the project developed GeoCapabilities as a vehicle for teachers’ professional development. GeoCapabilities 3 seeks to develop and extend the work completed in phase two. Whilst the focus is still teacher development, here we were testing the GeoCapabilities concept in challenging classrooms, as a tool for social justice. Our objectives were to (in a social justice context):1. support teachers to use geographical knowledge to enhance young people's capabilities 2. develop a set of pedagogical principles and strategies3. build a GeoCapabilities 'toolkit' including teachers’ case studies, and to disseminate itThe partners were 5 higher education institutions from across Europe (the UK, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France), plus one school partner based in Belgium and one NGO, Eurogeo. Collectively this unique partnership provided the essential skills and qualities necessary to meet the aims of the project. 13 associate schools contributed to the project.After recruiting 13 suitable teachers (working in schools serving under-privileged communities) we conducted interviews and focus groups with teachers and analysed data using a framework we developed through literature on social justice, of four areas - agency, distributive justice, mutuality and relational justice. This allowed us to further develop a set of pedagogical strategies through collaborative action research with the associate teachers. The ‘problem’ we collectively explored could be summarised as how to teach about migration in ways that can enhance a young person’s capabilities. Together we developed tools to evaluate access to powerful knowledge. The associate teachers enacted a GeoCapabilities ‘process’ by: engaging with the powerful geography of migration by ‘vignette’ writing; curriculum making (developing rich ‘curriculum artefacts’); teaching; and evaluating powerful knowledge. Pupils’ classwork, focus groups, interviews and concept mapping provided data.The teachers and partners co-analysed these data to produce case studies using ESRI storymaps. Partners then co-constructed a GeoCapabilties toolkit for teachers sitting on a broader, revised GeoCapabilities website and a print publication (translated it into 4 languages). We held 9 multiplier events (both online and F2F) to extend the project’s impact, as well as dissemination through articles, social media and conference events.GeoCapabilities has become an international symbol for innovative teacher education in secondary school Geography. The project has established a truly international impact with activities and research published in several European countries and in the USA and Japan. An extended bibliography reflecting the impact of GeoCapabilities in schools, teacher training and even in higher education can be found at https://www.geocapabilities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GeoCap3-bibliography.pdf The website is central to the project’s impact https://www.geocapabilities.org . It is an accessible training material for teachers and teacher educators and in 2020 there were 104,628 visitors to the site (source AWstats). It will have ongoing impact as it remains hosted by Eurogeo until at least Dec 2024. The project achieved theoretical and practical success through: developing a structure for how GeoCapabilities connects to social justice (IO2); developing strategies (curricular and pedagogical) for teaching powerful geographical knowledge with social justice in the foreground (IO3); and building an associated toolkit for teachers’ and a print publication (translated into four languages) and a richly resourced website. 9 Multiplier events were attended by 210 teachers and teacher educators. Dissemination took place through a number of articles, social media and international conference events, such as through the International Geographical Union.The GeoCapabilities 3 project has become, to some extent, self-sustaining as school teachers and teacher educators continue to drawing from the materials to enhance their teaching courses and their own professional development. Teachers on the project spoke of feeling energised by the opportunity to connect with academic geography and other teachers, including through the website. There are a number of planned publications and conference presentations adding to those already complete. These will fuel new directions for the capabilities approach, and further collaborations. One such (for seed funding) is already funded and another is in process.