Teaching and Learning About Distant Places: Conceptualising Diversity

Abstract

This paper reports on a small-scale pilot study undertaken at a secondary school in England, exploring how children learn about and construct distant places. Using drawings, concept mapping and interviews, the research examines the process of learning about Brazil over a period of formal learning, and how teaching and resources influence constructions of place. Findings suggest that children initially deploy stereotypes when they imagine and construct distant places, for example, generic images and understandings of poverty and rural living. The research suggests that during the learning process and the construction of distant place(s), these stereotypes diversify to binary contrasts between self and other, and between different aspects of distant places, for example, urban rich and urban poor. The research goes on to discuss the importance of encouraging children to view places in terms of continuum, continuity and diversity, rather than in terms of difference and contrast. The importance of understanding how constructions of place are socially and culturally derived and the role of educators in encouraging students to critically engage with images of places are emphasised.

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