Apologies
for cross-posting!
RGS-IBG
2011: Second Call for Papers
Education and the State
Organizers:
Heike Jons, Sarah Holloway, Elizabeth Mavroudi and Darren Smith (Loughborough
University)
Sponsorship:
History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group (HPGRG)
Population Geography Research Group (PopGRG)
Education has recently been identified as a key asset in knowledge-based
economies (Hanson Thiem 2009). It has the potential to enhance an individual’s
personal development and employability, and to ensure economic success and
global competitiveness of institutions, regions, and nation states. Modern
governments have therefore funded and shaped educational agendas from
pre-school provision to higher education (Meusburger 1998; Holloway et al.
2010). This involvement of the state in education has varied substantially over
time and space, and also across different levels of education. During periods
of economic prosperity, national governments have supported the expansion of
schools, colleges and universities, increased learning support and school care
provision, and pursued an agenda of widening university participation for
reducing uneven access and supporting both regional development and the
mobilization of talents. In times of fiscal and financial austerity, public
funding has been substantially reduced, leading, for example, to school closure
programmes, reduced support for post-16 education, an annual decline in intake
of university students, and the shutting down of publicly funded academic
departments and whole educational institutions. This session aims to
investigate the social, cultural, economic and political geographies resulting
from changing relationships between education and the state in the United
Kingdom and elsewhere from historical and contemporary perspectives by
including all stages of educational provision, from pre-school facilities via
primary and secondary schooling to vocational, continuing, further and higher
education. Papers are sought for this session that may include the following
themes:
* Geographies of educational expansion/contraction/restructuring
* Regime changes in education policy
* Social, cultural, economic and political contexts of education policies
* Implementation and consequences of governmental education agendas
* Private and public roles in education and the commodification of knowledge
* Education policies and regional development
* School closure programmes
* Access, attainment and widening participation
* Curriculum development
* Practices of learning and teaching
* Learning support and childcare provision
* Diversity and integration (e.g., migration, gender, age, class, ethnicity,
disability)
* Internationalisation agendas
* International institutions and educational reforms.
Please send your paper proposal, including title, name and affiliation of
author(s), and an abstract of up to 250 words, to [log in to unmask] by Monday, 21 February 2011.
References
Hanson Thiem, C. 2009: Thinking through education: the geographies of
contemporary educational restructuring. Progress
in Human Geography 33, 154–73.
Holloway, S.L., Hubbard, P., Jons, H. and Pimlott-Wilson, H. 2010: Geographies
of education and the significance of children, youth and families. Progress in Human Geography
34, 583–600.
Meusburger, P. 1998: Bildungsgeographie:
Wissen und Ausbildung in der räumlichen Dimension. Heidelberg:
Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.
Dr Heike Jöns
Lecturer in Human Geography
Department of Geography
Loughborough University
Loughborough LE11 3TU UK
+44 (0)1509 228199
