Space, Identity and Education: A Multi Scalar Framework 3031315340, 9783031315343

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Space, Identity and Education A Multi Scalar Framework Ceri Brown · Michael Donnelly

Space, Identity and Education

Ceri Brown • Michael Donnelly

Space, Identity and Education A Multi Scalar Framework

Ceri Brown Department of Education University of Bath Bath, UK

Michael Donnelly Department of Education University of Bath Bath, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-31534-3    ISBN 978-3-031-31535-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

For Eloi, my first inspiration for the development of this book and the measure of all that follows on from it. (Ceri) To my parents, two very special people who have given me more than they know. (Michael)

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my family for all the help, support and inspiration they provided throughout the six years it took to finally complete this book. Mum, thank you for your patience and unerring interest in discussing the ideas. Dad, thank you for reminding me that I could do it. Santi, thank you for all your support throughout and especially for stepping up on those numerous occasions where I was in ‘the zone’. Eloi, thank you for being the inspiration for this book and for connecting me more immediately with the daily realities of contemporary school life, as well as for reliably being there to remind me when it was time to ‘put the pen down’. I’d like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their enthusiasm for the concepts, as well as their instructive ideas for how to strengthen the book. I’ve also drawn inspiration from my fantastic colleagues and students, both near and far, who have helped to develop the ideas, especially through the teaching unit, Space and Place in Schooling and Education that Mike and I based on the multi-scalar framework. In particular, I’d like to acknowledge Hugh Lauder, Jeremy Dixon, Sam Carr, Alison Douthwaite, Richard Watermeyer, Marnee Shay, Ruth Lupton, Harry Daniels, Andres Sandoval Hernandez, Elisabeth Barratt Hacking, Pedro Pineda Rodriguez, Muberra Seyman, and Hannah Hogarth. I also thank Joe Jack Williams for his generosity in sharing his innovative spatial methodologies, as well as his curiosity in exploring how far they could go in the name of social science research. Above all though, I am deeply grateful to my co-author Mike who believed in this book from the outset, lifted me when I was flagging, and drove us to the finish line. Mike, you are a force of nature and an vii

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

inspiration, and I don’t believe there is anyone else with whom I would have enjoyed the journey so much. Ceri. First and foremost, I’d like to thank my friend and co-author Ceri Brown. The book emerged from our shared research interests in the geography of education, and I cannot thank her enough for all of the inspiring conversations that we have shared over the years in its development. Ceri, you are a true scholar and great friend. I’d especially like to thank my family for the support, love and encouragement over the years. Mum, you are the most selfless person I know and have always been there to listen and offer words of support and advice that always fixed things! Dad, you are an inspirationally hard-working person and gave me the ambition and determination I needed to write the book. Dan (and of course our beautiful dog, Tilly), you are the loves of my life, and without you, this would not have been possible in so many ways. Special mention also goes to the friends and colleagues who have helped shape me and the book into what it is today. Hugh Lauder, who believed in me all those years ago and has been at my side on my academic journey ever since—Hugh, I cannot thank you enough. Thanks also go to Arif Naveed, Aline Courtois, Andres Sandoval Hernandez, Ceryn Evans, Gunther Dietz, Judith Perez-Castro, Meng Tian, Predrag Lazetic, Sol Gamsu, Jo Davies, Sam Whewall, Constantio Dumagnae, Xiao Lan Curdt-­ Christiansen and Manuel Souto-Otero. You have all contributed in too many ways to describe in this short space and it has been a joy to know you all. Mike

Contents

1 An Introduction to Space, Identity and Education  1 2 A ‘Micro’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education 29 3 A ‘Meso’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education 57 4 An ‘Exo’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education 81 5 A ‘Macro’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education107 6 Towards  a Multi-Scalar and Multi-Method Spatial Analysis of Identity and Education133 7 Conclusion171 Index183

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List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Fig. 6.3 Fig. 6.4 Fig. 6.5 Fig. 6.6

Fig. 6.7

Young person’s photograph of a place in which they felt ‘wellbeing’140 Young person’s photograph of a place reflecting conflicting feelings of resilience 141 A screenshot of the ISAT tool with text box open to record comment (Williams, 2017, p243) 142 ISAT heat-map indicating the average visits per user of different parts of the school (Williams, 2017, p238) 143 Image showing school-­university flows with community detection applied. Source: Gamsu and Donnelly (2021) 154 Exemplar completed maps from a ‘mapping exercise’ (as part of the ESRC-funded spatial and social mobilities project Donnelly et al., 2020b). Source: part of the ESRC-funded spatial and social mobilities project (Donnelly et al., 2020b) 156 Me map example 165

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CHAPTER 1

An Introduction to Space, Identity and Education

Space and education are uneasy bedfellows from the perspectives of the policymakers that govern education systems in the Global North. But as we will argue and expound over the course of this book, it is impossible to understand and advance a social justice agenda for education without a consideration of the spatial bearing upon the production and reproduction of educational inequalities. This book was written to advance a conceptual approach for the study of how identity issues in education play out geographically; importantly, it does so from the perspective of educationalists. Indeed, whilst the geographies of education are a burgeoning field of study, it is more often than not geographers looking into the spatiality of education. Written by sociologists of education, our book provides a conceptual analysis from the perspective of education, looking out geographically. The dominant focus within education policy and research has been upon the business of teaching and learning, in an a-spatial way, as if this takes place in a vacuum, where teachers and learners fit standardised ‘cookie cutter’ moulds, and educational outcomes can be assessed and measured through a factory style conveyer belt, spewing out a bland curriculum of atomised subject areas, a ‘one size fits all’ policy approach, where the most significant learning disposition that learners share with their peers is their age. Parents of school-age children of course know this is not true, they know that the type of school that their child enters can have a significant bearing on their future success and opportunities, as is © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_1

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demonstrated by the lengths some families go to ensure their children get the ‘right’ kind of education. By the time students leave statutory education, they also know that the school they attended and the place in which they live (both on a global and regional level) can significantly affect both their chances of entering the educational institution that they (and their prospective employers) desire and the quality of education that they will receive. Yet while it is true that schools (and universities) can make a difference, it is equally true that the greater determinants of children’s achievement are the contextual factors that shape their educational experiences, such as economic circumstances, housing and family background (Feinstein et  al., 2015), not least the social composition of the school cohort (Thrupp, 1999). Issues of educational equality are therefore inherently spatial, and as we will go on to demonstrate, central to understanding and advancing a social justice agenda. In developing this conceptual model, we have endeavoured to draw from research on education internationally, including both Global North and Global South contexts. Identity—in contrast to concepts of ‘space’ and ‘the spatial’—is an idea with which public, policy and educational stakeholders are far more familiar. Identity permeates almost every aspect of social life. It is (mis)used by politicians around the world, with their speeches littered with identity discourses that can induce feelings such as anxiety, fear, and joy for political purposes. It is drawn on by political actors and activists; continues to be a source of both conflict and contestation; is evident in everyday forms of discrimination and is routinely expounded in the way meaning is constructed by actors and groups. World events are often driven by, or precipitate processes and actions that are inherently about identity. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, identity was central to how the virus was perceived and constructed, for example, through the everyday discrimination targeted towards Chinese and East Asian ethnic groups (Ruiz et al., 2020), or the way young people were often blamed for spreading infection owing to a perceived disregard for adherence to national laws on social gatherings (Brown & Donnelly, 2022). The killing of a black man by police in America in the summer of 2020 sparked worldwide condemnation of racism, igniting anger and frustration of the continued subjugation black people face around the world (Capurri, 2021). In almost every aspect of social life, identity is manifest in the perceptions held, routine judgements made, as well as the actions of individuals and groups. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the arena of education, where a major focus within the sociology of education has been upon the

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elucidation of learner identities within school and higher education, in shining light upon the ways by which educational inequalities are produced and manifested. Identity is not a term you will likely explicitly hear within educational policy discourses, however, given that it jars with more prosaic and individually attributable causes of educational outcomes that underpin the more populist policy narratives of motivation, aspirations and, more recently, resilience—or to put it more precisely, their purported lacking in ‘problematic’ learners (Henderson & Denny, 2015; Brown & Carr, 2019). The reason identity is overlooked as an explanator of educational inequality—as we shall demonstrate through the course of this book—is that it provides the canvas for a historical mapping of the contextual factors beyond easy control by policymakers, those that demonstrate and document the outcomes of spatial inequalities and divisions. Not least, it would also raise politically sensitive questions around the unequal distribution of resources within society between different social groups. If an analysis of identity, therefore, provides an alternative and more probing account of how we can see inequalities to be wrought, then the spatial brings the lens by which we can come to understand the processes and mechanisms by which both valued and (crucially) under-valued learner identities come about. This is important—and as we shall argue, essential to provide a far more compelling account of why educational inequalities exist, than the current simplistic notion of high-/low-quality teaching and effective/ineffective learners that policymakers would have us believe. This book is ambitious in drawing upon an interdisciplinary perspective, spanning fields such as the sociology of education, human geography, social psychology and architecture, in charting a framework for understanding how the spatial interacts with identity in explaining educational injustice. It builds upon a now burgeoning research agenda addressing geographies of education, advancing a comprehensive framework to understand how the spatial interacts with identity and education at multiple levels. These levels of macro, exo, meso, and micro could not be more important as the crises of space and place are felt where individuals and groups are unequally positioned, prompting instability in many advanced economies in the geographic places that have seen their economies collapse in the wake of global shifts. Questions around the so-called ‘people of nowhere’ and ‘people of somewhere’ are intrinsically spatial and identity-based, presenting major challenges for how we understand the role of education. In this chapter, we start by unpacking the key tools which form part of our armoury; space, identity and the advancement of a framework for how they interact at a number of scalar levels in the arenas of education and learning.

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Theorising Place and Space Space and place are highly contested ideas that have been open to long-­ standing debate and discussion, cutting right across disciplinary boundaries (see, e.g. McGregor, 2004). In popular discourse place is understood as the emotional attachment formed to space, where individuals ‘form meaningful relationships with the locales they occupy’ (Low & Lawrence-­ Zuniga, 2003 p13). To an environmentalist, space is often considered in terms of its physical properties and elements, whilst a philosopher might regard space as a ‘way of being’. These two manifestations of space, and those found in other disciplines, are equally valid in their own right and have their place as spatial lenses in coming to understand the world (in its physical, social and metaphysical senses). The ideas of space and place are lucid and ubiquitous concepts, which have been dealt with and understood at varying levels, including descriptive, constructionist and phenomenological perspectives (Cresswell, 2015). David Harvey (1996) and Doreen Massey’s (1994, 2005) perspectives on space and place make for an important contrast in illuminating their differing facets. Harvey’s (1996) work concerned the political economies of place as a site of resistance to the global circulation of capital. As the central organising principle driving economic development, profit maximisation (within late capitalist societies) has meant that the rise, fall and fundamental transformation of places have become dependent on the financial interests of parties who rarely have an emotional attachment to them. In the UK context, this was encapsulated most vividly during the 1980s Conservative Government’s decision to close coal mines that were unprofitable, but which local communities depended on for employment. While the coal mines were not serving the global economic interests of the Government, they performed an important localised function of binding communities and people together, in areas where there was little other prospect for employment and where people had a strong sense of intergenerational attachment to their communities. Harvey’s interests, therefore, have been in the re-ascription of place for its inhabitants, as a site for collective memory and group identity, in stalwart opposition to the forces of global capitalism; ‘The search for an authentic sense of community and of an authentic relation to nature’ (Harvey, 1996, 302). In the search for

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preservation as a counterforce to capital interest, however, Harvey’s view has revoked an aspiration of place as an inclusive and cosmopolitan cultural melting-pot, in favour of one that reflects a vision of partisan interest. This perspective took what some might regard as an ‘essentialist’ interpretation of place, which has the advantage of capturing the essence of places in terms of their particularities and unique attributes. Moving beyond place seen purely in terms of geographic location, Harvey’s (1996) work directs our attention to the symbolic and discursive meaning of places. At the same time, Harvey (1996) accounts for the constant flux and movement in space which can fuel the continual (re)construction of places. Place has a degree of fixity in Harvey’s conceptualisation, amidst the movement of resources across space and time. The work of Doreen Massey (1994, 2005) has been an influential point of contrast to Harvey (1996) in theorising about space (and place), and it is from here where our perspective on the spatial is most closely situated. Fundamentally, Massey’s work shifts from a singular focus on space (and/ or place) to a more comprehensive understanding of how place and space interrelate, in what she referred to as a ‘global sense of place’. Massey’s perspective avoids the danger of being captured by the artificial boundaries that map-makers or spatial planners create across space (e.g. ‘countries’ or ‘continents’)—which may carry very little subjective meaning for those who inhabit places. The same might be said for educational spaces, such as schools, national education systems, universities and so on. For example, school spaces may well be carved up and labelled by school planners in ways that do not resemble the subjective interpretations and experiences of them by children and young people. From Massey’s perspective, place is seen to be made up of a particular set of connections and disconnections to the multitude of identities (including cultural, social, gendered, sexualised and so on) and structures (including economic, political and religious) that circulate across space. In this sense, places are seen as ‘pauses’ within space, rather like the electrons that circulate an atomic structure. This builds upon Tuan’s (1977) observation that “if we think of space as that which allows movement, then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place” (p6). The meanings that places come to generate are not the inevitable consequence of natural, physical or material properties of the land or landscape, but are rather the product of social, cultural and ideological forces. While the spatial might be seen as abstract, place is imbued with meaning and interpretation. This spatialised understanding

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of place has the advantage of illuminating how some places may be connected up to particular kinds of identities and structures, and yet at the same time disconnected from others that exist across space. It also avoids the shaky ground of place being seen in an essentialist way, where people come to be defined by the places they inhabit (and do not inhabit). In this sense, for example, there may be a distinctly diverse set of (dis)connections to particular identities and structures that exist in the pause in space known to map-makers as the city of ‘London’. In this way, Massey’s theoretical perspective opens up the potential of place through a spatial outlook. In terms of education and societal inequalities, this perspective enables an understanding of how being located in particular configurations of the spatial (known as ‘places’) could differentially (dis)advantage different groups, through their (dis)connection(s) to differentially valued identities and capitals located in the ‘field’ (Bourdieu, 1990). Massey’s vision, therefore, offers further scope to construe the hierarchies of power that underpin the multiple claims to be made of place. While on the one hand place is freed up to mean almost anything to anyone—on the other hand—the power to claim space is also the outcome of battles between different communities of interest. Massey’s political calling was, therefore, to unsettle the taken-for-granted ways of seeing places as singular and inevitable, and in re-imagining them for those disempowered by versions of place that have come to dominate. Her interests in place as subject to capital interests departed from Harvey in what she called, ‘power geometry’; recognition that the movement of things and people through space is not just the consequence of capital but also of social relations: The degree to which we can move between countries, or walk about the streets at night, or venture out of hotels in foreign cities, is not just influenced by “capital”. Survey after survey has shown how women’s mobility, for instance, is restricted—in a thousand different ways, from physical violence to being ogled at or made to feel quite simply “out of place”-not by capital but by men! (Massey, 1994, 147–148)

Massey’s vision for place, was one that is inclusive and open, one marked not by its borders and parameters, but by its relations and connections with other places and people, as well as their movement through and between them. Place for Massey rejects a nostalgia for values and traditions of communities long-served, in favour of its ever-present potential for revision and re-ascription in order to be relevant to less visible social groups (by gender, class, nation, culture or religion) oppressed by history.

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In building upon these ideas, we excavate a number of key claims in our theorisation of place and space, and how we construe the difference between them.

Key Propositions on Place and Space Where space is perceived of and experienced as meaningful, whether to the individual or for the group, we understand it as transformed into place. Place indicates a social relationship with space and set of ideas, understandings, feelings, impressions and expectations. Places are both the construct and consequence of social action and integral to the development of identity, belonging and value. While places may be anchored in space, we construe them as multiple, overlapping and constantly made. They must be recognisable (to know when we are in place) and locatable (in order to return to a place). Although it exists at the perceptual and experiential level, it is often imperative to the inhabitants of a place to publicly assert claim to it. This points to the importance of parameters as place markers, to signal one’s individual (or collective) right to be in place as well as the attempt to keep others out. People care about places. Place represents a key relationship to and way of seeing space, by which we construct our sense of self in the world. No place exists in a vacuum; however, its very meaning is derived by its relativity to other places (and the people and things within them). The distinction of one place from another is therefore a key objective of border-making, dispute and the reclamation of space in the construction of places. While place indicates ‘somewhere’, space is a more over-arching construct. It is the term commonly used for the distant cosmos outside of planet earth, where few of us will ever venture. Space pre-exists place, it is the term we use to indicate the arrangement of things and/or people when we lack a prior relationship with the context or setting. Space is therefore more open and fluid than place. In the absence of emotional attachment, space signifies movement and vague and moveable parameters. For this reason, space often requires a scale of measurement that resorts to location, physicality and geography in the absence of cultural or social meaning. People move constantly through space but stop in places (or, ‘pauses’, as Massey puts it). The absence of emotional connection, meaning and identity with space is a consequence of not ‘knowing’ or understanding space. For this reason, space is less tangible than place. So, we resort to more objective criteria with precedence on the material or

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objective qualities of it. All places are located in—and indeed linked by— space, and indeed places contain nested spaces within them. A school corridor may be simply a space to one child, the means to move from the classroom to the school hall or the playground, but to the excluded and alone child eschewed from the playground, it is their place to loiter by the doorway of the classroom and await the start of the next lesson. This leads to another key focus of this book with respect to the role of space in framing educational inequalities. By ‘educational’ we refer to the settings for learning across the lifespan, from pre-school to further and higher education, from formal to in and non-formal. By inequalities we refer to the differential opportunities of learners to access and engage in education, leading to different types of learning outcome, variously recognised as having value. We argue that the dimensions of space and place can be interpreted as important mediators of inclusion and belonging in education. They both classify and distinguish individuals as being ‘like’ or ‘different’ from others, in given key respects. In this way it has a place in both personal and social identity making and their relational interaction. Place is also a conduit for, and outcome of, power relations.

Space, Place and Identity Now that we have pinned down the concepts of space and place as they are understood in this book, we can turn to consider how these concepts can be applied in the consideration of identity and its role in education. Our view of identity follows Brown (2014) who identified four key components involved in the construction of schooling identities: (a) ‘Structural forces’, which refer to the social categories by which we are known, and their implication in constructing power hierarchies of recognition. They include the key axes of class, gender, ethnicity and age. (b) Secondly ‘Performances’ refer to the processes and outcomes created through individuals’ actions and interactions in the learning environment. Performances are one way in which structural forces are implicated on the micro-level. (c) Thirdly, ‘Narratives’ concern the stories told by the self and others. These both inform and reflect their performances. These stories of self are another form in which structural forces can penetrate identity making.

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(d) Lastly, are the ‘Dynamic arenas of space and time’, which refer to the organisation of learners on micro, meso, exo and macro scales, which provides the context through which performance and narrative are played out and through which structural forces operate. Central to this account of identity construction are the operation of two sets of intersecting diametric forces with which the individual must negotiate. The first set of forces—and a key focus within the discipline of sociology—are that of structure and agency: the extent to which individual’s identities are shaped by forces outside of their control—due to the categories and conditions they share with other social groups—and the extent to which the individual is free to construct an identity of their own choosing. The success and ways in which the individual can negotiate these apparently opposing forces are not free floating but relate to the second set of forces, those which provide the context in which identity making takes place. This relates to the fourth component of Brown’s theory and connects to a key interest within the human geography: the forces of space and time. For example, our gendered, classed identities and sexualities are significantly constrained by the space and time in which we live, with the implication that a young gay man living in the liberal San Francisco may have a very different sexual identity were he to conversely be raised in a north African country which criminalises homosexuality. Similarly, were he to have lived 100 years ago his sexual identity may be significantly different again. The society in which we live and the cultures with which we identify provide the critical parameters through which we experience and negotiate these two sets of forces and have been the focus of a number of highly influential social theorists who have wrestled with these integral questions of identity and to whose work we shall now turn. Culture, Identity and Globalisation: Revising the Agency and Structure Debate in Contemporary Society The work of Beck, Giddens and Bauman are often considered as sharing commonalities in how they think about and theorise identity in contemporary social life. These theorists, often described as post-structuralist, are seen as sharing a similar view of social change disrupting traditional interpretations of social and political life, in terms of the way social groups are configured and political orientations created. Rapid social change, especially forces associated with globalisation, means that the old ‘left’ and

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‘right’ politics are seen as less important in structuring everyday realities, with traditional social class distinctions and divisions also considered less meaningful. Instead, globalisation and the globalised citizen are seen as pivotal to understanding the social condition in contemporary societies. From this perspective, the ‘self’ and ‘individualisation’ are critical concepts to the study of identity. What these theorists share is the view that individuals are active in defining their identity through messages conveyed by their practices and the goods they possess. Individuals are ‘doing’ identity work when managing and modifying their appearances, carefully curating their self-identity. There is an implicit assumption from this perspective that individuals ‘choose’ their identity. Beck (1992) contends that Western societies are in a transitional phase and moving into what he describes as a ‘reflexive modernity’ which began from the 1970s around the time of social movements and changes in the nature of work. He argued that this accelerated social change has brought about the ‘individualised individual’; which conceives of the individual as constructing their own ‘biography’ that is not constrained by totalising constructs such as social class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. People within the same income level, or put in the old-fashioned way, within the same ‘class’, can or even must choose between different lifestyles, subcultures, social ties and identities. From knowing one’s ‘class’ position one can no longer determine one’s personal outlook, relations, family position, social and political ideas or identity (p131)

Individuals are conceived of as crafting their own identity in ways that are not necessarily tied to social structures of the past. Beck acknowledged that inequalities would continue to manifest themselves, but individuals will craft their biographies in response to what are considered to be the ‘risks’ and ‘opportunities’ they encounter. Giddens (1991) shares a similar view of the reflexive individual, and describes this in terms of the arbitrary ‘narrative of self’ individuals carry with them, which provides a rationale for their everyday decisions, actions and perceptions. A narrative of self is crucial for maintaining ontological security in terms of the confidence about who you are, where you are in your life, and where you are going. These fundamental questions are vital if an individual is to maintain their sense of self. Everyday choices and decisions of a utilitarian nature, for example, about what to wear, what to say, where to go, and what to consume, are understood not only as actions

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an individual takes but also as choices of who to be. They are enacting here their narrative of self, with everyday choices embodying a sense of who they are and where they are going in life. However, Giddens also acknowledges that everyday choices have consequences for the stratification of groups, and that not all choices are necessarily open to everybody. Bauman’s (2013) perspective on identity shares the view that individuals craft identities through consumption practices and behaviour, with consumer goods holding symbolic potency; even if the individual has not intentionally exercised choice of identity through consumption practices, they will be judged by others to be doing so. But his perspective also connects this to what he describes as the increased fluidity of society, ‘liquid modernity’, wherein there are no longer any guides, structures or fixed reference points to orientate action and behaviour. Individuals are now more free in the sense of facing life choices on their own, and crucially for Bauman, also face the responsibility for these choices. Whilst individuals are conceived of as free to ‘shop around in the supermarket of identities’ (Bauman, 2013: p. 83), they also do so without the support of collective agency, resulting in isolated individuals with personal troubles that are divorced from collective causes. Beck, Giddens and Bauman have broadly similar understandings of how modernity has affected the social condition, in terms of dismantling the traditional social structures that once bound individuals together (such as social class, gender, race and sexuality). But the idea that individuals are free to craft their own identities regardless of social class background has come under fierce criticism by others, who see this as a rather limited understanding of social class and its influence on identity (Ball et al., 2000; Walkerdine et al., 2001). The notion that an individual is the ‘author of her own destiny’ has also been criticised on account of its problematic lack of regard for processes of socialisation and the identities this ascribes (Lucey, 2001). On the surface, therefore, it may seem that (within the Global North at least) we have more agency in current times to construct identities of our own choosing. However, as we will elucidate over the course of this book, to have more to choose from does not necessarily equate to having more freedom to choose. This is where a spatial (and temporal lens) can help to elicit the multiple and often hidden ways in which our identity choices may be constrained. In order to understand this further it is necessary to disaggregate between some of the different types of identity with which the individual must negotiate in its relation to learning and education. At

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this juncture we will now move on to consider the meaning of personal, social and learner identities in terms of how they mediate the individual’s relationship to space and place.

Personal Identity and the Claim to Space Personal identity is about the view of self as particular, agentic, self-­ determining. It is the expression and sense of one’s goals, values, purposes and aspirations (Schwartz et al., 2011) and more generally, one’s specific moral and ethical being. It is personal identity that sets the individual apart from others, even those to whom s/he is closest. The agency to act within and on space, that is, the ability to engage in place-making, serves the function of consolidating and expressing this sense of personal identity. It is the power to assert a claim on space through which we can evidence, both to ourselves and others, a meaningful existence and in a Descartian sense, our very right to existence. It is the manifest product and reflection of one’s power to exert authority and command over the material world. For example, for the child in school the act of place-making could involve simply the embellishment of a designated name-tagged clothes peg or locker, the occupation of the underside to a stairwell or an unused store cupboard. The University student might engage with place-making through displaying and exhibiting embodied cultural practices and dispositions, as key tenets of their personal identity. The ability to fully express oneself publicly within the institutional space is an important driver of educational inclusion/exclusion. Ownership of space at the personal level is about personal and public expression of one’s right to be. The act of place-making or what Robert Sack (1986) has termed territorialisation is not just about an expression of individual worth, but it is also about signalling the limits of contrasting powers and intentions. Key to this is the tangibility to self and others of spatial borders and parameters, visible or otherwise. Sommer (1969) for example, defines personal space as: ‘invisible boundaries surrounding a person’s body, into which intruders may not come’ (p26). The right to claim personal ownership over space, even within temporally bounded limits, includes the right to exclude others from that space. With respect to personal identity, the right to exclude others signifies the capacity to separate from others and from the social world. The physical and material separation from others confers a social and emotional distancing, which can also lead to separation of the psyche. This function connects with the personal values of privacy,

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introspection, and processing of thoughts and feelings that children have expressed with respect to parts of the school grounds such as the atrium, and cultivated gardens, separate from the formal spaces of the classrooms, whereby they can go to escape the performative pressure of the curriculum or to avoid bullies (Lowry, 1993; Dillon et al., 2015).

Social Identity and the Claim to Space Space does not only mark out our unique or ‘special’ right to be, but also plays a constitutive role in individual identification with others, and belonging to the social group. This ‘social’ identity function operates through aligning oneself alongside some people (usually a minority) and apart from others (usually a majority). This process has been discussed across the disciplines. For example, in the social psychology tradition, Social Identity Theory (SIT) remains one of the most influential accounts of social identity. SIT posits that a key function of group identification with a given social group is the attempt to public and private delineate from other social groups. This is premised on the denouncement of values and persons external to the group, which achieves the dual aims of solidifying one’s insider status to the group, at the same time as distinguishing that group from other social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner et al., 1987; Hogg, 2001). Social identity has also been discussed in Sociology, with respects Robert Putnam’s (2000) distinction between bridging and bonding forms of social capital. ‘Bridging’ forms of social capital network are inclusive, they are outward looking, encompassing multiple identity types with an aim of bridging between different social groups and different spatial contexts. ‘Bonding’ forms of social capital, on the other hand are inward looking and exclusive, they aim to ‘reinforce exclusive identities and homogenous groups’ (p22). Putnam argues that bridging social capital networks hold more value as the identities they construct may be broad and multifaceted, in including those across different social milieu. Bonding forms of social capital network are, however, reinforcing of more singular and narrow forms of group allegiance and as such hold less relevance in different spatial contexts. A central component of social identity in both disciplinary fields is the individual’s potential to generate a sense of belonging within a group. In order to do so, however, social identity does not just reside in the psyche of the individual, but must be recognised and endorsed by others, most notably those inside the group, but also those outside of it. That is, we do not just engage in our own social identity

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making, but as Bauman (2013) reminds us, we also ascribe social identities to others. The claim to space both for one’s own social group and for others is central to the ascription of social identity. Territorialisation both constructs and signals social identities through the social right, by dint of membership, to wield power in and command ownership over space. Here its function is less of signalling personal worth (personal identity) and more about symbolising one’s status as belonging within a group. We belong here, you do not. As space is finite the ascription of one social identity group to one space or other, is a product of power relations, and can be fiercely contested. Who smokes cigarettes behind the bike sheds, who plays football in the school yard, and who dominates the changing rooms are all examples of the social territorialisation of space. As an outcome of the battle for and of space, hierarchies are created in social identity construction. This concerns the power of one group, relative to others, to construct, define, govern and claim space. Space is, therefore, both political and social in its role in organising and reflecting power relations. It is not just the subject who spatializes identity construction and belonging but also others on differential ecological levels. In an educational context this includes students, parents, teaching assistants, teachers, senior managers, headteachers, school governors, advisors and policymakers. For example, children and young people are the object of policymaking within the neoliberal project, they are the target of interventions at a central and local government level and within schools on the basis of their behaviour and (educational) performances. Belonging on this level is not only material (although it does shape decisions about the physical grouping of students). But it is also discursive, social and symbolic.

Learner Identities as a Form of ‘Relational’ Identity Rooted in Place Given their oppositional emphases tensions can arise in negotiating between the dual poles of personal and social identity. A point of interface has been offered in terms of the ‘relational identities’ as a positional identity defined through the individual’s role with others (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Vignoles et al., 2011). Relational identities are a mediator of both personal and social identities in that we define our unique sense of self through key relationships with others ‘with reference to the network of

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interdependent roles. Indeed, it is relational identities that knit the network of roles and role incumbents together into a social system’ (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007; p11). Here we may recognise the relative value that different identities assume within a given context, resulting in hierarchies in social recognition. Within an educational and learning context we argue that a key relational identity to consider is that of ‘learner identity’. Learner identities are informed by, but not reducible to, the individual’s personal and social identities. They are individually held in that they confer the subjective value that the individual holds of their identity as a learner within a learning community. Woodward’s (1997) perspective on identity as being formed through ‘difference’ is also relevant here, given its overt emphasis on the ways in which identities are crafted relationally against the array of other identities and ways of being that co-exist. It is an outward way of conceiving of identity formation, and so ideal when considering issues of space and place. In relation to the micro-politics of school settings, for example, it can reveal how young people’s learner identities may at least in part be produced in relation to others through their group memberships. At a broader level, the academic identities of university students may be partly formed through their positioning on institutional or subject-level hierarchies.

A Spatial Lens on Learner Identities The role of the spatial in constructing identity and a sense of belonging is significant in an educational context because it directly relates to learning. Space and place-making is an organiser of learners in educational terms. Such decisions are usually made externally, as a product of the grouping identities that others (usually adults) ascribe to learners and the roles and expectations assigned to them. This is informed by the judgements and decisions that align individuals with others, based on key distinctions and in overlooking others. The grouping, judgements and decisions that are made by all educational stakeholders may be tacit or overt and have a strong bearing on the types of learner identities that students are able to construct. Different groups will be afforded varying opportunity to construct their learner identities, as space marks out those who belong and those who are different. One key aspect of educational inequality concerns that of access to the educational space. Spatial determinants on access inequalities include both

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the types of inclusion/exclusion that is externally ascribed and the perceptual inclusion/exclusion that lead the individual to self include/exclude; learners must firstly apply and are then accepted (or not) into (pre/) school, college, or university, by dint of their age, ‘ability’, geography and demographic factors such as socio-economic status and ethnicity. Within schools, children are streamed into classes, according to ‘ability’, ‘attainment’ or ‘aptitude’. They are also removed from classrooms for targeted intervention and support, due to language spoken, behaviour, educational need, or performance. Another way in which space bears down on learner’s identity if through their engagement and participation within the educational setting. Learning does not take place in a vacuum. It is an inherently social activity among learners and pedagogues and needs to be recognised as such for all those who take part in it. All players within the educational space can shape the types of learner identities individuals hold of themselves. As with any aspect of identity, for a valued learner identity to be maintained, it must hold with some degree of endurance across time and space to be considered (both by the self and by others) as authentic and integral (Adams & Van de Vijver, 2015). This is not to say learner identity is static or uniformly experienced, as with all identities, they may shift spatially and temporally and are relative to the other personal and social identities the individual holds as well as those of their peers. For example, the ‘talented mathematician’ who is secure in their social identity as part of a social group of ‘high attainers’ may find it easier to uphold their identity at the bottom of the top ‘ability’ stream than they would at the top of the middle ‘ability’ group, while for the talented mathematician who is insecure in their social group holding an ‘anti-schooling’ identity, the opposite may be the case. Therefore, despite the fluidity of identity across contexts, there must be a thread of stability between its different forms. Not just any identity can be constructed. It is often at the institutional level that learner identities converge. While the learner identity may shift from drama to math lessons, both identities (and others) must be integrated in what it means to be a learner at X school/college/university. A key part of a school’s success in the educational marketplace rests on what it means to be a valued student and how that is recognised. Schools, however, do not operate as a vacuum either, but also mediate the outcomes of power relations at greater levels of spatial abstraction; the local authority, the state and through PISA scores, for example, increasingly on an international plane.

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So far, we have argued that while space and place-making provides a context for learning, identity construction makes the content, activities and outcomes of learning meaningful for learners. However, as this brief overview has indicated, the spatial forces that bear on learners’ identities are all the more complex for their operation across different micro and macro scales. Discussions around the politics of scale within critical human geography have abounded over the last 20 or so years and are well summarised in what has infamously become known as the Marston/Brenner debate; a series of papers published in Progress in Human Geography at the turn of the twenty-first century. In her opening paper, Sallie Marston (2000) takes issue with the direction of travel in scalar work, which she accused of being overly centred on issues of capitalist production, to the exclusion of on the ground processes of social reproduction and consumption. Moreover, she argued that a myopic focus upon capitalist processes overshadows its interaction with other forms of oppression such as patriarchy and racism. In redressing this omission, Marston called for attention to the household, as a key scale to understand changing processes of capitalist reproduction and consumption. Shortly following the publication of Marston’s critique, Neil Brenner published a response paper (2001) in which he levied a counter-argument: that Marston had not theorised how the household scale articulated with other scalar levels at the local, national or global level, as a defining requirement for plural scalar approach. In reflecting upon this debate Purcell (2003) has subsequently argued that while both scholars were correct in the limitations they acknowledged in the other’s scalar approach, neither could (or wanted to) address the core of those weaknesses levied at them. At the heart of Purcell’s argument was the claim that scholars are variously locked into their ‘islands of practice’ which provide an obstacle to interdisciplinary collaborative working, that may be partially epistemological, but more so methodological. In going someway to address this impasse we advance a spatial framework draws upon an interdisciplinary and multi-methodological scalar approach, which provides the structure for the rest of the book. In accommodating Marston’s focus upon the interrelations and daily practices of social actors within the micro-settings of the home and education setting, as well as Brenner’s macro-level focus on regional, national and global forces, we tease out the separate spatial planes which provide the parameters for identity construction as a valued (or otherwise) learner. In doing so, we borrow from arguably the most prolific contextual model that has been applied to the study of children’s development: ecological systems theory,

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which we select for its utility to theorise and orientate an interdisciplinary and multi-method approach.

An Ecological System’s Approach: Mapping the Spatial Planes of Educational Inequality Space has a pervasive role in the shaping of educational in(equality) because it operates on multiple levels of human existence, including the historical-temporal, political, material/physical, social and psychological. One such attempt to bridge across these different spheres and their impact on child development has been the influential work of Urie Bronfenbrenner as applied to social policy and childcare practices in the United States. As a Russian-born psychologist, raised in America, Bronfenbrenner established what he termed an ‘ecological systems theory’ in the late 1970s, which he later developed over the period of three decades. In reaction to the dominance of developmental psychology and its emphasis upon the biological and universal stages of children’s development (e.g. Piaget, 1971; Kohlberg, 1984), Bronfenbrenner sought to incorporate a theorisation of the environmental and interpersonal impacts upon the child. This model looked beyond the internal development of the brain in directing the locus of attention to the child’s surrounding in which s/he is raised. As sentient beings, children’s social, emotional as well as cognitive development, were recognised by Bronfenbrenner as underpinned by their relationships with those around them, and therefore irreducible to an exclusive focus upon the biological operation of the brain. Although his focus upon the external settings in which the child is raised was a radical departure from the dominant psychological models of child development, Bronfenbrenner never dispelled with the agentic power of the child in navigating environmental conditions, and indeed nurtured a growing interest on the personal characteristics of the child in affecting his/her interpersonal interactions (Bronfenbrenner, 1993). His later work was further instructive in theorising the temporal component of human existence; ‘the individual’s own development life course is seen as embedded in and powerfully shaped by conditions and events occurring during the historical period through which the person lives’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1995, 641). It is however, Bronfenbrenner’s early work with which we are primarily concerned and in particular his ecological system’s model (1977, 1979)

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with which to theorise the different spatial planes that bear upon the child’s opportunities and life chances. As a holistic framework for directing a social science approach to childhood, the ecological system’s model has been applied across a number of fields of practice including health (Aber et  al., 1997), social work (Ungar, 2002) and youth criminal justice (Steinberg et al., 2004). For the purposes of this analysis, however, we are interested in its application to theorise the different spatial planes of educational inequality. Accordingly, we have adapted some of the core tenets of the ‘ecological system’s theory’ in order to direct the research locus more squarely upon the educational arenas of children’s development. There are four key ‘levels’ that Bronfenbrenner (1979) identified as discrete contexts through which to construe the environmental impact. Each of these is located at a proximal range of distances from the learner’s daily lived experiences: the micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-systems. We will now consider each in turn. Micro-Level: (Formal Educational Settings Such as Nurseries, Schools, Colleges and Universities) The micro-level is the first and most immediate lens in which to explore the spatial dimension of educational inequality, and is the focus of Chap. 2. It refers to those settings in which the child is present on a daily ongoing basis, and to those relationships, which are most influential in the development of the child. In adapting Bronfenbrenner’s model, we define the micro-level as those settings with a formal responsibility to address children’s education: the nursery/pre-school, school, college and university.1 Analysis of the micro-level is upon the bearing of space and place upon the learner, through the physical and material organisation of people and ‘things’. Analysis of the spatial in these terms has two discrete forms; the structural elements of institutional design and construction; the bricks and mortar, doors and windows, cement, tarmac, grass and driveways as well

1  While not disputing the role of the family/home environment as a key learning environment, we have situated it as a meso-level setting, as a heuretic device to help guide a more targeted analysis of the role of the state involvement in the educational endeavour. As such, the home environment would constitute a micro-level lens only in the case of ‘home-­ schooling’ the child.

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as the ways that space can be adapted and shaped by its users; chairs and desks, wall displays, learning resources and materials. As an in-depth exploration of the micro-level, Chap. 2 considers the operation of the spatial within education (and particularly the school) in shaping, mediating and reflecting the spatial implications of pedagogy. As will be argued in Chap. 2 the micro-level can be seen to frame the learning orientations and learner identities of teachers and learners across both the formal and informal contexts of educational institutions. This chapter also addresses the role of the digital in shaping the micro-level interactions and outcomes, and finally considers lessons learned in how to best involve children and learners in the design and use of educational spaces. Meso-Level: (Informal and Non-formal Learning Settings as Well as Their Interrelation with Formal Educational Settings) Bronfenbrenner (1979) defines the meso-system as, the interrelations among two or more settings in which the developing person actively participates (such as, for a child, the relations among home, school and the neighbourhood peer group; for an adult, among family, work and social life). (p25)

In Chap. 3, we adapt Bronfenbrenner’s account of meso-level to focus on informal and non-formal learning, and the interrelation between the micro-settings of in/non-formal learning in which the child participates in on a daily ongoing basis (home, community projects, leisure spaces) and the micro-settings of formal education. It further includes the interrelation (or lack thereof) between social actors across the home/community and formal education setting. Accordingly, our focus upon the meso-level is upon the interaction between educators involved in micro-settings (nursery/school/university) and those in the broader in/non-formal learning settings of the home and community (parents, other family members, community, youth leaders and other professionals). In these terms a meso-level analysis concerns both: 1. The forms of learning and education that are offered in informal and non-formal settings, for example, home learning, home education, outdoor education, museums or cultural learning centres or external programmes aiming to build key skills such as Social and Emotion Skills, for example.

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2. Consideration of the bearing that the values, activities and experiences generated within non-formal or informal education settings in which the child participates, have upon the experiences and outcomes of other in/non-formal as well as formal educational settings (e.g. how does the learning acquired in the home and other meso settings where the child is present create barriers or opportunities for childrens’ experience of school and educational outcomes, or, how certain out of school activities (sport, music) may reinforce learning generated inside school while others (online gaming) may not. Exo-Level: Spatial Factors at the Local Level Which Extend Beyond Singular Settings Such as the Role of Neighbourhood, Local and Regional Factors (e.g. Local Government Policy, Local Economies, Media and Housing) Chapter 4 concerns the exo-system, which is defined by Bronfenbrenner as: one or more settings that do not involve the developing person as an active participant, but in which events occur that affect or are affected by what happens in the settings containing the developing person (p25)

While both the meso- and exo-level concern ‘local’ level spatial contexts that bear upon the learner’s micro-level experiences and outcomes, the key difference from micro-/meso-settings and exo-settings for Bronfenbrenner (1979) was that exo-level settings indicate those in which the child is not directly present as a social actor. Bronfenbrenner points towards, ‘the parent’s place of work, a school class attended by another sibling, parents’ networks of friends [and] the activities of a local school board’ (ibid). In an educational context we would consider exo-level settings to be those in which the learner does not participate but that still affect them, such as the local authority council houses or other settings in which the organisation of learning and learners takes place such as governors’ or Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meetings conducted away from the educational setting and in the community. These settings do not comprise the focus of Chap. 4 however, as we are more interested to expand upon Bronfenbrenner’s definition to consider the broader ‘places’ in which learners live, participate and identify with; those too big to perceive in their entirety with the naked eye, the ‘places’ represented on maps or perceived in the mind. Our focus in Chap. 4 is upon the spatial in its

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organisation of educational settings (such as educational markets) and on ‘place’ in its bearing on learner’s identities and learning settings, as part of the communities they serve. This draws attention to space at a wider scale and includes the impact of the neighbourhood, community and region, the operation of local government and localised education and social policy, local mass media, the local economy and housing. Our interest is upon how these local and regional (sub-national) spatial units have a bearing on learning and identity construction for diverse types of learner, as well as the differential educational experiences and outcomes that are produced. Our analyses in Chap. 4 addresses: –– Localised educational markets in terms of local authority mediations of national (macro) government policy, as well as families’ (meso) efforts to navigate the exo-level. –– The impact of national (macro) and local (exo) (dis)investment in key regions and localities and the influence these have on learner and social identities. –– The influence of digital technologies in shaping how we may come to know the exo-level as regional or neighbourhood places and the identities that they assume. Macro-Level (Spatial Forces Which Exert from National and Cross-national Structures and Their Products) Chapter 5 takes a focus upon the final, macro-level, of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system’s theory, which is arguably the least tangible to grasp given the challenge of spatial proximity and measurability. This is also partly attributable to the ideological frame of reference by which macro-­ level phenomena exert their influence. Central to Bronfenbrenner’s definition is that: The macrosystem refers to consistencies, in the form and content of lower-­ order systemas (micro-, meso, and exo-) that exist or could exist, at the level of the subculture or the culture as a whole, along with any belief systems or ideology underlying such consistencies. (p26).

In expanding on this he points to the broad difference in educational settings such as the school or crèche that exist between two national contexts (France and the US). He identifies the sum of these differences as a

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‘set of blueprints’ (ibid) as ‘patterns of differentiation’ that exist between the different societies. The national level is therefore one way in which we can see the macro to operate, for example through the law and policy to which a nation both prescribes and subscribes to. The macro can, however, extend beyond nations to include a set of nations when subscribed to legal, ideological or economic framework (such examples might include the European Union, and United Nations). The macro can also, however, refer to sub-national spatial units, for example the patterned differences between ‘intrasocietal contrasts’ as systems blueprints delineated by ‘socio-­ economic, ethnic, religious, and other sub-cultural groups, reflecting contrasting belief systems and lifestyles, which in turn help to perpetuate the ecological environments specific to each group’ (p26). On the macro-level spatial scale, we can think about ways in which the social structuring of societies impacts on different identity groups through education. At the national level, social class is a historically powerful influence on education systems, shaping the kind of learner identity that is valorised and disenfranchised. The hold that dominant classes have had over education systems works to exclude the working classes, manifest through ‘knowing the (middle class) game’ of education or ‘fitting in’ within educational spaces imbued with middle class identities. Scholars writing on racial capitalism as applied to educational phenomena show how education functions to reproduce racial inequality, in much the same way that capitalism is an essentially racist project. For example, the expansion of education curricular from Global North countries to Global South countries (often fuelled by a growing middle class in countries like China and India) is working to dispossess Global South identities, epistemologies and worldviews. It is whiteness and white identity that is being valorised through the capitalist expansion of education overseas. Social and political discourses also operate at the macro-level, within and between nations, shaping (often in subtle and implicit ways) educational processes and identities. The dominant discourse circulating and underpinning much educational thinking and activity around the world is the idea of human capital as being central to individual and national prosperity—that is the economic function of educational efforts. This doctrine drives activity across and within nations, it is an over-arching logic with very real consequences for the kind of education countries seek to promote and the processes by which this comes about. The OECD’s PISA is saturated by this logic, it has tangible and lasting impacts on fundamental aspects of education, such as what we consider to be an ‘educated person’.

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Political ideology is inextricably linked here and is a macro-level force that drives much thinking on how education systems should be structured and the kind of identities valorised. We can distinguish between different kinds of political ideology that hold varied assumptions about the question of how to address social justice issues in education. Neoliberalism is probably one of the most pervasive ideologies, operating across national systems of education, underpinning policies around educational choice and competition, as well as managerialist systems in the functioning of educational governance. These kinds of principles, logics and thinking are difficult to pin down in any explicit way, but manifest themselves in the way systems of education are organised and function, right down to the kind of interactions that happen in the classroom on a daily basis (micro-level).

Researching Space, Identity and Education: Methodologies for the Spatial Scales and Multi-scalar Research The different levels of analysis conceptualised by Bronfenbrenner (1979) to some extent presuppose a distinctive set of methodologies, often resting on fundamental differences in their epistemological lineages and modes of knowing the social world. These epistemological commitments are detailed more explicitly in Chap. 6. We pay particular attention to the spatial elements of methods at each of the levels and how these have been applied to the study of educational issues and identity. Through reviewing key empirical work at each of the levels, the dominant methodological approaches adopted are detailed, with implications drawn out for their assumptions about similar kinds of educational phenomena. For example, in coming to understand the common issues of how learner identities are formed, methods from the micro, exo, meso and macro are explored and contrasted to each other in terms of their privileging of particular aspects and dimensions of the phenomenon. In doing so, careful attention is paid to innovative approaches to researching educational phenomena at each of the levels. An Integrated Analysis of Different Spatial Planes Going beyond the insular, ‘nested’ approaches of the micro-, exo-, mesoand macro-levels, Chap. 6 calls for an integrated multi-scaler approach to

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advance more holistic and comprehensive understandings about how space and place come to influence identity and education. A focus on any one of the levels of analysis provides only a partial picture of the ways in which identities and educational phenomena are shaped, and misses the complex interplay and interconnected nature of each level. Drawing on examples of educational issues and themes, we illustrate this interconnection across the levels, and show how paying attention to this can advance knowledge on space, identity and education. In particular, we consider educational issues under focus at each spatial scale, and highlight how an interconnected look at the others provides the holistic understanding we need. For example, work at the macro-level on the study of achievement gaps across different countries using data from large-scale assessments (e.g. PISA) is limited in its neglect of the cultural experiences of learners across different countries, manifest at the micro-, meso- and exo-levels. Similarly, the reach of in-depth qualitative exploration of pedagogy and the social processes of learning within singular micro-level contexts is limited without reference to the exo-level neighbourhood affect, or indeed the impact of macro-level policymaking. This book calls for a multi-scalar approach to researching identity and education, and the introduction of a framework to conceptualise and delineate the different scales as they relate to education. As we argue throughout this book, if scale is not taken into account, and the multiple spatial scales we outline through the book are not fully considered, then we are only appreciating education and identity in limited ways, we are restricting the depth and breadth of our understanding about what explains crucial issues such as how education is complicit in the reproduction of classed and racialised privilege across and within nations, and we are limiting our understanding of major global challenges from illiteracy to the day-to-day practices of teachers, in overlooking the very forces that shape teaching and teachers in the first place. In Chap. 7, we consider at length why the multi-scalar approach advanced here is so crucial and what this looks like in practice, as well as the possible reasons why it is all too often not accounted for in policy. In the chapters that follow, we advance a multi-scalar approach to analyses that generates the kind of knowledge most likely to drive change, and have the greatest impact in addressing major challenges around education and identity. In doing so, we consider some of the major global challenges facing researchers and policymakers in relation to education and identity. The wide range of real-world examples, from educational and labour

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market inequalities to children’s mental health, are used to illustrate their inherently spatial character, and the importance of taking scale seriously. If they are to be addressed in any substantive way, there is a need to fully recognise their manifestations across each of these scales. We begin the book with the smallest scale of analysis from which we view education and identity, the micro-level.

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Brown, C., & Donnelly, M. (2022). Independent review into the jersey COVID-19 response on children’s development. Accessed September 6, 2022, from https:// statesassembly.gov.je/scrutinyreports/2022/report%20-­%20covid-­19%20 response%20-­%20impact%20on%20children%20and%20young%20people%20-­ %205%20april%202022.pdf Capurri, V. (2021). “I cannot hide my anger to spare you guilt”: On BLMTO and Canadian mainstream media’s response. Studies in Social Justice, 15(1), 129–144. Cresswell, T. (2015). Place: An introduction. Malden. Dillon, P., Päivi Vesala, P., & Montero, C. S. (2015). Young people’s engagement with their school grounds expressed through colour, symbol and lexical associations: A Finnish–British comparative study. Children’s Geographies, 13(5), 518–536. Feinstein, L., Jerrim, J., Vignoles, A., Goldstein, H., French, R., Washbrook, E., et al. (2015). Social class differences in early education. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 6(3), 331–376. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford university press. Harvey, D. (1996). Justice, nature and the geography of difference. Blackwell. Henderson, J., & Denny, K. (2015). The resilient child, human development and the “postdemocracy”. BioSocieties, 10(3), 352–378. Hogg, M.  A. (2001). Self-categorization and subjective uncertainty reduction: Cognitive and motivational facets of social identity and group membership. In J. P. Forgas, L. Wheeler, & K. D. Williams (Eds.), The social mind: Cognitive and motivational aspects of interpersonal behavior (pp.  323–349). Cambridge University Press. Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development: II. The psychology of moral development. Harper & Row. Low, S. M., & Lawrence-Zuniga, D. (Eds.). (2003). The anthropology of space and place. Blackwell. Lowry, P. (1993). Privacy in the preschool environment: Gender differences in reaction to crowding. Children’s Environments, 10(2), 130–139. Lucey, H. (2001). Social class, gender and schooling. In Investigating gender: Contemporary perspectives in education (pp. 177–188). Open University Press. Marston, S.  A. (2000). The social construction of scale. Progress in Human Geography, 24, 291–242. Massey, D. (1994). A global sense of place. In D. Massey (Ed.), Space, place and gender (pp. 146–156). University of Minnesota Press. Massey, D. (2005). For space. Sage. McGregor, J. (2004). Spatiality and the place of the material in schools pedagogy. Culture and Society, 12(3), 347–372. Piaget, J. (1971). The theory of stages in cognitive development. In D. R. Green, M. P. Ford, & G. B. Flamer (Eds.), Measurement and piaget. McGraw-Hill.

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Purcell, T. (2003). Island of practice and the Marston/Brenner debate: Towards a more synthetic critical human geography. Progress in Human Geography, 27, 317–332. Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone. Harvester/Wheatsheaf. Ruiz, N. G., Horowitz, J., & Tami, C. (2020). Many Black and Asian Americans say they have experienced discrimination amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Sack, R.  D. (1986). Human territoriality: Its theory and history. Cambridge University Press. Schwartz, S. J., Klimstra, T. A., Luyckx, K., Hale, W. W., Frijns, T., Oosterwegel, A., et  al. (2011). Daily dynamics of personal identity and self-concept clarity. European Journal of Personality, 25, 373–385. https://doi.org/10.1002/pers.798 Sluss, D.  M., & Ashforth, B.  E. (2007). Relational identity and identification: Defining ourselves through work relationships. Academy of Management Review, 32, 9–32. Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space: The behavioural basis of design. Prentice-Hall. Steinberg, L.  H., Chung, L., & Little, M. (2004). Reentry of young offenders from the justice system: A developmental perspective. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2(1), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204003260045 Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W.  Austin & S.  Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations. Brooks/Cole. Thrupp, M. (1999). Schools making a difference: School mix, school effectiveness, and the social limits of reform. McGraw-Hill Education. Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of experience. U of Minnesota Press. Turner, J., Hogg, M., Oakes, P., Reicher, S., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self categorisation theory. Blackwell. Ungar, M. (2002). A deeper, more social ecological social work practice. Social Service Review, 76(3), 480–497. https://doi.org/10.1086/341185 Vignoles, V. L., Schwartz, S. J., & Luyckx, K. (2011). Introduction: Towards an integrative view of identity. In S.  J. Schwartz, K.  Luyckx, & V.  L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 1–30). Springer. Walkerdine, V., Lucey, H., & Melody, J. (2001). Growing up girl: Psycho-social explorations of class and gender. NYU Press. Woodward, K. (1997). Identity and difference. Sage.

CHAPTER 2

A ‘Micro’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education

Introduction Chapter 2 introduces a micro-level spatial lens on identity and education, in advancing an account of the ways in which space is implicated in the production of educational opportunities and inequalities at the micro-­ level. Bronfenbrenner (1979) defines the micro system as, a pattern of activities, roles and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person [child] in a given setting with particular physical and material characteristics (p22).

Following Bronfenbrenner, we define a micro-level spatial lens, as an analysis of the local-level physical and material settings in which the learner participates over an extended period of time and as part of their daily life worlds. For Bronfenbrenner the key micro-environments for the child include the family, school, early years’ settings, the homes of friends and extended family, and, for some, community-based religious or youth groups. While Bronfenbrenner’s model has been applied to the holistic development of the child, conducive to a range of fields of practice (social work, health, international aid), we are interested in its application to the study of education. For the purposes of a spatial analysis of education, we define the micro-level as the local-level settings that have a formal educational function, and in which the child is regularly involved. This is an © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_2

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abstraction of Bronfenbrenner’s systems model, to enable a more targeted analysis of educational concerns. This is not to undermine the educational function of the social settings of the home and community, but as informal and non-formal modes of education, we would situate these forms within a consideration of the meso-level (see Chap. 3), with respect to the broader social settings in which the learner participates, as well as how they interact with formal educational institutions in the framing of educational issues. At the heart of micro-level analyses is an exploration of the local. Micro-­ level settings can be seen, felt and experienced, and their very function demands that they are recognisable as educational institutions. Indeed their legitimacy in the physical containment of learners within space over extended periods in their daily lives depends on it. It is on the micro-level in which power struggles are fought, won and contested. Here Robert Sack’s (1986) account of territorialisation is helpful in theorising how we can configure the operation of the struggle for ownership over space, what he calls the power to claim space as ‘ours not yours’ (Sack, 1986, p. 21). Sack’s work also enables understanding of how micro-level spaces come to be recognisable. The first three key claims in his thesis of the governance of space identify, ‘classification by area’, ‘communication by boundary’ and ‘enforcement of control over access to the area and the things within it’ (ibid). The first component demands that micro-level spaces must be designated, for example, through the assignment of a spatial identity, such as the ‘soft play area’ and ‘the reading zone’. The second claim demands that these parameters must be communicated. Given the material foundation of the micro-level, the boundaries of these spaces are most frequently indicated through the use of enduring properties: walls, hedges, fences, gates and doorways. Within the parameters of the micro-level, materiality is more fluid and temporal, and confers to the inclusion, exclusion and positioning of material objects and their role in channelling, directing or informing the social interactions of those involved. The material level also confers a symbolic affect on identity in designating and assigning value to different types of teacher and learner (the display of children’s work in the school hall is as constructive of the learner identities for those children whose work is not included, as it is for those whose work is.). Micro-level settings, however, are not singular spaces and contain multiple and shifting alternate spaces within their material borders. Internal borders are generally more amenable to redefinition and resources can be reorganised. Here the significance of the material properties is only in so far as the

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symbolic value they confer for those who use and perceive them. This point is crucial for Bronfenbrenner (1979): A critical term in the definition of the micro system is experienced. The term is used to indicate that the scientifically relevant features of any environment include not only its objective properties but also the way in which these properties are perceived by the persons in that environment’ (p22)

This highlights the underlying logic by which the spatial is implicated in education, in foregrounding the social as the central organising principle through which we can understand space to be the object and conduit of power diffusion. The key social agents with which children participate in micro-level settings include; teachers, support staff, senior management, students, parents, siblings and relations, and governors. The role of the social is fundamental in Massey’s (2005) three core propositions for understanding space: firstly, it is the product of—as well as constructed through—interactions; secondly, and in line with Bronfenbrenner’s emphasis on the perceptual level, space is plural and co-­ existent upon the material level and thirdly, as the product of ongoing social relations across space, places are never ‘complete’ and always under construction. However small the micro-setting under investigation, and no matter how long the period of investigation, a researcher can never fully ‘know’ places or render a spatial analysis that does full justice to its meaning for users of educational spaces, as schools and universities change in their leadership, classrooms change in their learners and teachers, playgrounds are resurfaced, school halls are renovated. They are in Massey’s term ‘never finished; never closed’ (p9). The ever potential, and even unintentional, constructive power of space, is also highlighted by Lefebvre (1991) in his account of the spatial triad. Here he distinguishes between measurable material space (conceived space) and the desired intentions behind which material space was constructed (perceived space). He further highlights the potential slippage between intention, construction and experiential (lived space), in that spatial users retain the capacity to transform the meaning of spaces in their daily engagement with it. That is, micro-level spaces are jointly produced by the authorities who commission and design them, those who build and construct them, and of fundamental importance for our analysis, the children, young people, and adults who inhabit them. It is this lived and experiential element of space that is only possible through a spatial analysis of the micro-level, as the closest

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point in which we may come to understand the social worlds of others and in excavating the meanings of space for the daily users of educational settings.

Schools as Micro-Level Settings It is perhaps apposite to start with the school as a micro-level setting ripe for a spatial lens, given that for those of the nationally stipulated ‘school age’, it is regarded as the appropriate ‘place’ for children to be for the largest part of their waking life (Kraftl, 2014). As underpinned by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child1 and the Millennium Development Goals 2017,2 governments worldwide are now compelled to send children to school and indeed state powers have made it increasingly incumbent upon parents to instil this expectation upon their children. In England and Wales, for example, parents have been levied with a fine where their children are absent from school without authorisation.3 Indeed, the grounds for gaining authorisation for a school absence have concordantly tightened whereby head teachers can only grant it in ‘exceptional circumstances’, not including a family holiday. Furthermore, if the proposed Schools Bill 2022 gains parliamentary assent, the Department for Education (DfE) will have the right to overrule school absence policies in removing the right of any parent to obtain permission from the head teacher for term time absence for their child (DfE, 2022). It is not only the allocation of children to schools but also within schools that pupils are spatially ordered. A number of researchers have discussed the role of the school as an institutional space that prescribes and legitimises adults’ surveillance, control and disciplining of children and young people (Holloway & Valentine, 2003; Pike & Colquhoun, 2012). Indeed the routines, timetables and tightly framed organisation of children and adults can be seen to be highly regulated in their ordering of time as well as space, the very organisation of which has been argued to fall 1  Article 28 of the UNRCR states that ‘children and young people have the right to both primary and secondary education’ https://www.cypcs.org.uk/rights/uncrcarticles/ article-28 2  Goal 2. To achieve universal primary education http://www.undp.org/content/undp/ en/home/sdgoverview/mdg_goals.html 3  In Scotland, parents can face a court order and up to £1000 fine, while in Northern Ireland children can be referred onto the Education Welfare Service.

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under either ‘moving’ or stationary times (Delamont & Galton, 1986, p90). The implication of such governance is that school children are regulated to spend most of their school lives in a very time-disciplined environment, ‘where all their activities from arrival, registration and lessons, through to eating and playing, are governed by the daily rhythm of timetables and bells’ (Holloway & Valentine, 2003; 108). As arguably the most tangible spatial plane of Brofenbrenner’s model, the micro-level setting often requires instant recognition given its primarily educational and public function. As such, when stood outside one, most schools are easily identifiable as educational institutions by means of a name and signage (as are colleges, Universities and early education settings). Within the Western world at least, they are human-made and designed and built with respect to their educational purpose. Similarly, while most schools in the West are usually built indoor spaces framing the enclosure of learners, the importance of the spatial is no less important with respect to outdoor spaces: playing fields, play areas, sports pitches, pathways between buildings and leisure spaces. We will start with an exploration of spatial relations as organised in the formal spaces of the classroom, before considering the informal sites of the playground, dinner halls and spaces that school children carve out to avoid adult supervision, such as the school fields, corridors and lunchtime computer labs. The interconnection of the social with the material is further nuanced following advances in digital technology since the inception of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. Digital space is now a common feature within educational settings, not least as precipitated by school ‘lock down’ measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital therefore can be read as a further dimension of the micro-setting in so far as it enables a platform for patterned social interactions for digital users, within the same shared physical parameters of the classroom, lunch club or playground. Accordingly, it must be analysed alongside (as opposed to outside of) material space. Lastly, we will consider the role of children in school design, which as we will see moves beyond the confines of the school building itself. This is an appropriate place to conclude our analysis given that the implications for theorising the role of space in shaping educational (inequalities) necessarily points towards the redistribution, configuration and organisation of space in ways that better meet the interests of those for whom they serve.

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The Spatial Construction of Teachers and Learners The study of schooling within the disciplines of education has invariably tended towards a focus upon the actions and outcomes of teachers and learners within the formal settings of the classroom, with less recognition afforded to the importance of spatial organisation, nor indeed the materiality of the learning environment (McGregor, 2004; Sorensen, 2007) or the ‘matterings’ (important resources) that it contains (Blundell, 2016). This is a significant omission given that the design and organisation of schooling can be seen to play an important part in shaping the discourses and interactions for adults as well as children in school (Hart, 2014). In taking a micro-level spatial analysis of educational settings we can appreciate the more subtle and often non-verbal ways in which constructions of appropriate teacher and learner, are produced and legitimised. This is evident in the wall displays lining corridors, celebrated achievements in the reception vestibule, as well as school philosophies and rules enshrined in policy and disseminated in mission statements (Braun et al., 2011; Maguire et al., 2011, 2020). It can also operate through the material arrangement of space in directing bodily movements and posture for different types of spatial user. Indeed, the design and distribution of school buildings can be seen to play a significant role in shaping and governing the behaviours and identities of learners. This is well illustrated in Ploszajska’s (1994) study of reformatory schooling in Victorian Britain (as reported in Fielding’s iconic study 2000; p. 201). In the example of Farm school, Redhill, she highlights the separation of boys into small groups or ‘families’ of 40 children, which lived in a house with a master and two senior boys. School houses were dispersed randomly across a central square in order to instil a sense of competition among boys from different school ‘families’. However, space was organised to opposite effect within the school houses in order to foster a sense of co-operation and collegiality. For example, both living and sleeping rooms were designed to be open-­ plan, which ‘enabled “the family” to operate together and […] deliberately cut out concealed corners and potential hiding places’ (Ploszajska, 1994; 418  in Fielding, 2000; 201). In this way, the spatial design of Redhill school was constricting of individual privacy in sanctioning separateness from others only in the context of between and not within school ‘houses’. The objective was therefore, to establish a sense of identity and belonging to the school children who share the same ‘family’ while fostering a sense of competition and rivalry among those from other school

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‘families’. This highlights the ways in which spatial organisation can play a key role in constructing learner identity, a theme that will be explored further later in this chapter. It is not just the material spatial organisation of schools that informs constructions of appropriate learners, but also teachers’ pedagogical style, which can variably affect students’ use of space and learning orientations, even within the same kinds of classroom layout. This was the focus of Fielding’s (2000) study into the spatial dynamics of divergent pedagogical styles within one contemporary primary school in England. She compared the ‘seductive pedagogy’ of Wendy, a small White woman, with the ‘reductive pedagogy’ of David, a male teacher ‘very tall, in his late forties, with a deep booming voice’ (p237). While Wendy employed ‘positive reinforcement, even pacing, an inclusive tone of voice and the use of modal verbs rather than commands’ (p236), David’s style was ‘more formal, hyper masculinist, loud and heavily centred around classroom control and classroom order, one in which David embodied with his own body language, posture and clothes’ (p237). The impacts of these divergent teaching styles upon children’s spatial navigation of the classroom space were highly distinct. Pupils in Wendy’s class moved freely both within and outside of the classroom and were more open in their interactions with peers and the teacher, in taking an active role in their learning. In contrast, children in David’s class experienced a shrinking of spatial autonomy and were closed off from interaction with others. They sat ‘scrunched up, leaning over their books, heads in their hands, or in front of their faces’ (p237). These examples highlight the co-construction of space as both a productive of and a reflection of social forces, in illustrating Theim’s (2009) concern ‘not only how space shapes educational endeavours, but also how ‘education “makes space”’ (p. 157 in Brown, 2017). Spatial and Temporal Flows of Teachers and Learners Perhaps in response to the subjugation of geography to history and the displacement of space by time in the study of education, (Brock, 2016) researchers interested in the Geography of Education have tended towards a focus on specific school spaces to a detrimental concern with the temporal flow of the school day and teachers’ and learners’ movement through space and time. One notable exception is offered by Holland et al. (2007) who compared teachers’ time-space paths with those of students, in a cross-cultural ethnographic study of two secondary schools in London

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and Helsinki. In both contexts, teachers could be seen to exercise more control over their daily lives than students, and while themselves constrained by external restrictions, their spatial horizons were greater and with more freedom. They could ‘also regulate the access of students to particular spaces’ (p234). One observation to be made of these findings is that learners presented as constrained in space, while teachers were constrained in time. This was reflected in students’ voiced frustration in their containment for long periods of time, while teachers in contrast felt constricted by demands for their constant and unerring mobility. On one end of the scale teachers lamented not having the time to take a break or eat their lunch, while at the other, they expressed exhaustion and anxiety at the end of the school day for not being able to complete the tasks expected from them, and on a larger scale the stress of maintaining an effective work-life balance. A concern with the ways that space and time coalesce differently for adults and children in school settings is a point of entry into micro-analyses of power diffusion. Power and Resistance to Negotiate the Performative Pressures of Schooling Attending to the micro-level flows through space and time in school, reveals that teachers and pedagogues are not simply the agents of power diffusion in school, but are themselves subject to macro-level of governmental pressures of performance and pedagogy (see Chap. 5) that can be seen to alter the contours of teaching and learning (Perryman, 2006, 2007). This is notable in teachers’ inevitable responses to the New Public Management of schooling in a neoliberal education market that of ‘teaching to the test’ (Gilliom, 2010 p197). This refers to the pedagogical approach in schools whereby children are prepared to answer exam questions as opposed to developing a deeper understanding of the objects of learning to which tests are supposed to measure. Stephen Ball (2003) has discussed the impact of testing regimes upon teachers’ identities as a form of ‘values schizophrenia’ in signalling the compromising of professional integrity towards children’s holistic development by methods that intensively prepare children towards test-taking. The effects of testing in changing the relationship between teachers and learners have been explored by Silfer et al. (2016) in the context of Sweden, a nation that had until recent years been immune to the pressures of national testing benchmarks. Findings highlighted that the impact of the testing context is perceived by

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children to be particularly stressful because the teacher was repositioned as a controller of children, as opposed to her more usual classroom involvement in helping and supporting students. Such impacts can be seen to lead to the construction of negative learner identities and a sense of failure that is particularly painful for students who feel unprepared for testing: [John] starts to cry, first silent and then louder and louder. The other children still in the room stop and stare at John who now cries despairingly… He goes on crying and explains that the test is ‘really hard and really tough’ and that ‘you cannot even get help’ (fieldnotes Silfer et al., 2016, 246).

In navigating the sometimes competing interests generated by the accountability structures of policy dictates, there is, however, some margin for resistance, as Teage (2014) highlights in the context of one teacher/ researcher’s efforts to contest the negative learner identities constructed through test-taking in a reclamation of time, space, and what it means to be a learner for pupils in one primary school: I stop the class. I want to suggest they rip up their papers …but something stops me. What if the head walks in? What if I am asked to hand in the papers? So, instead of ripping up the papers, I ask the children to come on to the carpet. I draw a face on the board with stars for eyes and a wobbly mouth. ‘I feel a bit like this about these assessments,’ I explain, ‘do any of you feel a bit like this?’ Lots of children nod and put their hands up. ‘How do they make you feel?’ I ask. ‘Stupid,’ answers Adam…I write the word ‘stupid’ next to the face. ‘What else did the tests make you feel? You can call out…’ The children begin calling out, and I write their words around the face on the board…. Dumb, worried, bored, boring, terrified, like crying, crap, worried, blah blah blah, rubbish, difficult, like screaming…We read the words aloud together, ending on the phrase about screaming. ‘Who feels like going outside to scream?’ I ask. ‘Yeah’ say the children. I send them groups at a time to get their coats on and we go out to play early, screaming. I realise that I have left the face and the words on the board in the classroom but I decide I don’t care.

While the resistance initiated by the teacher in Teage’s study—and legitimised for the pupils in her class—could do little to alter the testing requirements, it did highlight the role of the pedagogue in negotiating the space for a different affective experience of test-taking. This indicates that while policy directives can be seen to shape the contours for spatial politics

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and practices, such analyses underscore the role of teachers as far from the handmaids of macro-level authorities. While micro-level resistances may do little to change the social and educational order, nevertheless, they can change the meanings and experiences of schooling for learners and crucially, can reconstruct what a valued learner identity may look like in the respective micro-setting. They also demonstrate Massey’s (2005) final claim for space as ‘never closed’ (p9) and far from a forgone conclusion. Grouping Practices in the Classroom Another way in which the micro-spatial spatial organisation of schooling bears upon learners’ identities is with respect to the grouping practices employed within the classroom. This has been identified as a key issue in primary schools whereby the classrooms of older children have been found to be so tightly packed together that it is difficult for children to manoeuvre (Barrett et al., 2015). One particular issue of policy concern has been the banding and streaming of children into ‘ability’ or ‘achievement’ groups, a strategy that many schools employ within the core subjects, both within class and across year cohorts. Early research in this area has highlighted the conflation of ‘ability’ grouping with socio-economic background (Dar & Resh, 1986; Ball, 1981; Keddie, 1973). More recently, the issue has caused concern with respect to the impacts of schools targeting their resources upon those children most likely to achieve government benchmarks with the additional input. Gilborn and Youdell (2000) have labelled such strategies as ‘educational triage’ and have highlighted the educational inequalities encountered by the lowest attaining students, who are more likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who are effectively left to flounder in schools under intense pressure to raise standards (see Chap. 5). The effects of grouping strategies upon students assigned to lower ‘ability’ sets have been explored by Brown (2017) in highlighting how such children develop learning identities whereby they are more likely to feel peripheral to the school community. This work has discussed the connection between grouping practices and the spatial orientations and attachments to school that children foster, whereby they can be seen to navigate towards hidden parts of the school in efforts to evade what they perceive to be the strict surveillance of their behaviour by teachers. Grouping practices in the classroom have also been explored for their impact upon social inclusion. A study by McKeown et  al. (2016)

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considered the seating preferences of Protestants and Catholics of children attending three integrated secondary schools in Northern Ireland. Findings indicated that persistent religious segregation occurred over a longitudinal time frame of one year, for children across two-year groups (year 8 age 12/13 and year 10 age 14/15) despite the opportunity for free choice in seating arrangements. Further study revealed that teachers could inadvertently be reinforcing religious segregation as a result of denominational surnames, by pairing children by alphabetical seat allocations (p52). McKeown et  al. (2016) recommended raising teachers’ awareness about the importance of classroom grouping arrangements in implementing seating plans, ‘for example, placing students who do not like each other together can have positive outcomes through encouraging meaningful intergroup contact’ (p52) (see also Van den Berg et al., 2012). Such work is insightful in demonstrating the social, emotional as well as the educational impacts of grouping practices and has implications for educators in considering pro-social as well as pro-educational grouping arrangements in the classroom. There are tools which can aid in the formulation of grouping strategies, for example Robin Banarjee from the University of Sussex has designed a mapping tool to for teachers to identify the social and emotional needs of students and how these may inform spatial grouping arrangements for learning in the classroom in order to achieve an inclusive learning community that accommodates a broad range of identities and identifications.4

A Micro-Lens on Digital Space and Learning in School As a platform to explore teaching and learning the micro-level offers a wealth of opportunities (as well as uncertainties) for pedagogy. As digital natives (Prensky, 2001), up and coming generations have often acquired an expertise in navigating cyber space that surpasses that of their teachers (as digital immigrants) (ibid). As such there is potential to harness the opportunity for a more egalitarian distribution of power in the learning enterprise. This has been explored by Sorensen (2007) who applied an Actor Network Theory approach in order to conceptualise and compare the role of materiality in shaping teaching and learning in the traditional 4   Robin Banerjee’s Sociogram Tools: http://users.sussex.ac.uk/~robinb/socio.html accessed 1st Sept 2022.

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classroom with that of a technological form of materiality produced in a computer lab. Here she focused upon the role of material objects within spatial arrangements that both constrain and enable teachers and learners to work together in the primary school classroom. ‘Materiality is defined as the ability of a particular object—achieved through the socio-­ technological relationship it is part of—to relate to another particular object(s)’ (p24). The emphasis is upon the relations between material objects and humans as opposed to a focus on the entities themselves. Her study involved an ethnographic study of an online 3D environment which she invited children across two 4th-grade classes (one in Sweden, one in Denmark). The children were timetabled to engage with the virtual environment named Femtedit during scheduled class-time and under the supervision of the classroom teacher at both schools. Children were tasked to create identities of the virtual characters (avatars) as Femteditians as citizens of Femtedit. They did this by use of hyperlinks between objects in the virtual environment and other internet sites. This cross-cultural comparison revealed that the teacher’s authority teacher was disrupted in the 3D virtual environment in the relinquished control of pupils’ engagement with the learning activity, otherwise enjoyed by teachers in the traditional classroom. This was attributable to the learning space itself under constant construction through pupils’ engagement, which rendered impossible their navigation by the teacher towards prescribed learning outcomes. The pedagogical affordances of online learning have been discussed more recently by Bailey (2017) in shedding further light upon Sornesen’s (2007) findings concerning the sense of agency children are able to assert over digital spaces. In his ethnographic study of an after-school computer club, Bailey explored the potential for learning through play in fostering literacy development, by following a group of year 6 children (aged 10/11) in their construction of a ‘virtual community’ named ‘Banterbury’, using the video game Minecraft. His findings highlight how digital technologies can cultivate learners’ sense of agency over—and motivation for—learning that can have a knock-on impact in the real world. Bailey cites the example of ‘Banterbury Library’ built by students within the virtual environment, and housing books titled, written and managed by children, in being unfettered from adult interference. Alongside colleagues Burnett and Merchant, he speculates on the potential for technological advancement to disrupt traditional approaches to literacy teaching, in that they ‘undo some of the ennui engendered through the certainty and inevitability of schooled literacy in current times’ (Bailey et al., 2017 21). In

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analysing the ways that digital space maps onto micro-level educational settings it is possible to observe not only educational but also social benefits (as well as challenges). Sorensen (2007) for example, found that navigating digital space through the classroom ‘contributed to establishing a much closer relationship between teacher and children than did the materialities of the classroom’ (p23). Indeed children’s investment within community engagement in their virtual environment played a fundamental part in the building and negotiating in-school peer-to-peer social relationships in Bailey’s (2017) study.

The Surveillance of Informal Schooling Spaces While a spatial analysis of the formal school contexts is instructive in exploring issues of pedagogical inequality and the construction of learner identities, Brown’s (2017) analyses of informal schooling contexts offer scope for a broader consideration of learners’ attachment to educational settings. This is interesting in light of findings that show that while teachers feel ownership over particular spaces indoors (e.g. the classroom), outdoor spaces have been found to incite a sense of ownership by pupils (Dillon et al., 2015; Davies et al., 2013). The informal spaces of the playground, corridors, bike sheds and lunch-halls, while sometimes hidden or difficult to access, can often situate sites for resistance and agency for children and young people. This is frequently in spite of efforts of social control instigated by adults. Indeed, a body of literature within the human geography canon has uncovered the tacit and patent ways in which children are subjected to surveillance by adults in school in contexts outside of the classroom (e.g. Thomson, 2005; Pike & Colquhoun, 2012; Allen, 2013). Surveillance is understood here as, an activity that involves some combination of watching, listening or observing, generally for the purpose of monitoring and control. There is generally an intention to influence or control the object of the surveillance in a purposeful and systematic way (Rooney, 2012, p. 333)

Technologies of surveillance can operate on many levels. Most obviously this can refer to the observed and recorded behaviour of learners, something that technological advancement has made cheaper, easier and more discrete, with significant implications in the management of schooling. Rooney, for example, has highlighted the increasing use of CCTV

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cameras in schools in pointing to a survey in the United Kingdom which showed that up to 85% of schools had CCTV cameras (Taylor, 2010 in Rooney, 2012). Furthermore, she notes the increasing promotion of webcams worldwide to as a marketing tool to promote the safety credentials of childcare centres (p334). The impact of surveillance technologies, from a Foucauldian perspective, is with respect to the self-disciplining effect upon behaviour. This is due to an internalisation of the sense of being externally watched, to the point that the individual is moved to alter their behaviour even when outside of the perceived gaze of authority (Foucault, 1991: 202). The study of informal settings is interesting to consider surveillance practices as a lens into the ways in which power operates to shape the behaviours of school children beyond the parameters of formal learning to reflect a more direct encroachment upon children’s identities and subject positions (Rose, 1989; Foucault, 2008). Playground Spaces Surveillance can also, however, refer to the direct impositions upon the body, through directives on behaviour and bodily comportment as means of enforcing authority in real time. Here it is particularly important to consider the ways in which teachers and lunchtime supervisors have sought to manage and control children’s use of space in the playground. In drawing upon Sack’s (1986) notion of Human Territoriality, Thomson (2005) has explored how adults and children across three UK primary schools engage in spatial colonisation within the playground space in order to ‘control, dominate and resist the ‘other’s’ spatial area, range and rule’ (p64). She highlights the unique importance of the playground for children as an arena in which they may practice agency and freely express themselves in a way that is not possible in the formal settings of school. Thomson speaks of the kinaesthetic joy (Tuan, 1979, p. 99) that is only made possible when children are unencumbered in their engagement with the physical and material environment. Sadly, there was little opportunity for such pleasure to be enjoyed in Thompson’s study, due to the constant surveillance of children by adults in limiting their spatial freedom. Often such efforts were underpinned by well-intentioned dictates of Health and Safety, grounded in policy directives that extended beyond the school community. Surveillance measures took the form of rules and regulations concerning the use of space that were enforced by teachers and playground supervisors. Yet they also extended to the punitive measures taken towards

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those children who flaunted the rules, as a visible warning to others, as Thomson (2005) observed: One miscreant was made to stand at the edge of the playground, “for the rest of playtime”. Many times, I heard children “told to stand still on one spot until they learned to behave”(p73).

Such examples highlight the role of children as staunch defenders of space, whereby they continued to push back against authority in redrawing their spatial limits, occasionally with some success. Children themselves could further be seen to territorialise the playground, in drawing the boundaries of space between groups, through the use of bags, clothes or other material objects (see chapter on ‘Helen’ in Brown, 2014). Here children’s use of space could be seen to be highly gendered whereby boys monopolised large open spaces—for example, through playing football— while girls were relegated to the peripheries of the playground such as walled areas and areas of seating, which bestowed albeit some sense of privacy (p74). A telling observation made by Thomson was that of the popularity of the game ‘jails’ or ‘gaolers’ across all school sites, whereby children imitated their capture and imprisonment. In speculating on the resonance of such games for children, Thomson reflected that ‘These games might well symbolise how the children feel about being confined in, and to, the school playground’ (p77). Informal Places in School and the Spatial Dimension of Educational Inequalities Given the omnipotence of surveillance mechanisms of schooling upon the minds, bodies and achievements of school pupils, it is perhaps unsurprising that children ascribe meaning to parts of the school that avert the public gaze of teachers and other adults. This is particularly the case for girls who can be seen to eschew public and wide open spaces of the classroom, lunch hall and playground in favour of the private and more hidden parts of school such as the ‘corridors, cloakrooms’ (Brown, 2014; 31) the ‘backstage’ of classrooms, the periphery of schools, the playing fields (Hey, 1997; 47). While such settings have played a central role in the practice and construction of friendship cultures that give meaning to school life (Hey, 1997; Nilan, 1991), it is also the case that girls have used such spaces to subvert and contest dominant power relations that subjugate

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them. One example is offered in Holloway et al.’s classic (2000) study into the role of ICT for boys and girls, in citing the success of one group of year 7 girls who challenged their teacher into creating a ‘girls’ only lunchtime ‘computer club’ to counter their exclusion by boys in the existing mixed computer club. Such efforts were nonetheless only partially successful in asserting girls’ spatial agency, given their ‘space on the margins’ (p629) with respect to the ‘ongoing battle’ to access computer games, stored in the ‘downstairs club’ colonised by the boys (ibid). A similar attempt to territorialise school space could be seen in the embodied actions of African-Caribbean year 11 (aged 16) girls in Youdell’s (2003) study of the construction of Black students’ learner identities in one UK secondary school. Here she described girls’ formation of a ‘chain of bodies [that created an] obstacle that other students must navigate’ (p13) through the school corridors. While this physical expression was censured by teachers on the grounds of ‘congestion and [being] potentially hazardous’ (ibid), it also reflected their denial of the girls’ racialised and hetero-sexual gender identities that such embodiment signalled. Both studies can be read as a kind of spatial defiance by school girls, an attempt to reclaim space in a context where their student identities were routinely subordinated by teachers and other students. The spatial configuration of both social and educational exclusion is not only gendered and raced, but also sexualised. In her exploration into the regulation and embodiment of sexuality through the spatial and material arrangements of schooling, Allen (2013) uncovered the unofficial sexual cultures of schooling constructed as heteronormative. In carrying out research with participants within year 12 and year 13 (ages 17–18) across one mixed and one low socio-economic school in New Zealand, Allen assigned cameras to students with the instruction ‘to capture moments in the school day when they saw something “sexual”’ (p64) to be compiled as photo-diaries. Students’ photos centred upon places colonised by students at times where teacher presence was least apparent, including outdoor spaces such as ‘the sports field, walkways between classrooms and conduits to and from the school, designated seating areas to eat lunch or relax and outside entrances to classrooms’ (ibid) and inside hidden and subversive spaces such as student toilets, the library and even the computer labs. Allen’s findings contested the official ascription of school space as ‘non-­sexual’, through highlighting students’ embodied engagement with space in disrupting and contesting neutrality, recasting them as sexual. She argued for a spatial lens upon the sexual cultures of schooling in

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order to challenge the ‘overall project of schooling to deny young people as sexual subjects and/or contain their sexual expression’ (p72). More broadly, such studies highlight the ways in which children’s social and emotional expression and development find little resource within the formal domains of the curriculum yet remains an important part of students’ peer cultures and informal experiences of schooling. Indeed, it could be argued that the English Government’s recent interest in Relationships and Sex Education (DfE, 2019) is far more concerned on the health and wellbeing threats to young people than it is of the pleasures or rewards of healthy social relationships. Spatial exclusion in schooling is perhaps most obvious with respect to the treatment of children identified as having Social Emotional and Behavioural forms of special educational needs. In their study of the schooling experiences of young people on the autistic spectrum (AS) attending a special unit within a mainstream secondary school in England, Holt et al. (2012) explored how processes of (ab) normalisation are interconnected with educational inclusion and exclusion. The research highlighted the unit’s function as a container for students who—by dint of their prescribed disability—contested the norms of studenthood prescribed by the school. In taking a spatial analysis Holt and colleagues pointed to the huge steel doorway separating the unit from the mainstream school environment. The signage ‘ASD’ displayed in large letters above the door signalled the ‘disorder’ attached the individuals assigned to the unit, ‘leading to diagnosis, exclusion into a unit, and intensified normalisation’ (2202). The significance of the ‘secure doors’ separating specialist education units from the mainstream school setting has also been explored with respect to physical disability. In drawing upon her experiences within one comprehensive school in the North of England to have recently added an educational suite for children with special educational needs, Armstrong (2007) highlighted the impact of three sets of secure doors separating the unit. These doors could not be opened by anyone in a seated position thus constraining the spatial freedom of the three wheelchair users. On questioning their function Armstrong was told by teachers that the doors ‘stop people just “wandering around” and to ensure that people didn’t “just drift in” from the main school’ (p105). By exploring the spatial and temporal dynamics of who is allowed to use space, and who is not, we may therefore question the limits of such efforts towards inclusivity. This is not to denounce the value of inclusive education—however—as a ‘launching pad to reproduce more inclusionary social and

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communicative norms’ (Holt et  al., 2012). Indeed both studies highlighted the potential offered by specialist units ‘attached’ to a mainstream school. This was in part attributable to the knowledge and positive responses of the professionals that emerged from their attentiveness to the young people with special educational needs and their relationships with them. It was also attributable to the greater visibility of students with additional learning needs in facilitating meaningful interaction with non-­ disabled teachers and learners. However, such cases also highlight that spatial arrangements need careful consideration—not least with children themselves—to ameliorate for the potential for negative identity markers to inadvertently be produced. This chapter has so far outlined a number of lines of enquiry to guide a micro-level spatial lens in researching educational settings. The objective has been to illuminate and focus exploration into how space bears upon the experiences and outcomes of teachers and learners. The value of such analyses has been in highlighting the different ways in which the organisation of space and time shapes hierarchies of recognition and value for the various users of educational settings, which in turn informs the construction of different types of teacher and learner identity. This underscores the inextricability of the social with the spatial in the formation of learning opportunities and inequalities. The implications of a spatial analytic, therefore, point to the importance of re-imagining and re-constructing space in ways that support more equitable engagement. This leads on to the final turn in the micro-lens; that of how to involve the key stakeholders of educational settings as central to the processes of spatial design and organisation.

Children’s Involvement in the Design and Use of Space in School Over 25 years of research has highlighted the importance of involving teachers, parents, and especially children in the design, resourcing and use of school space (e.g. Sanoff, 1993; Adams & Ingham, 1997; Davies, 2011; Dudek, 2012; Dillon et al., 2015). This recognition, however, has yet to inform the motivations and intentions for space, of those who commission, fund, construct and design educational settings. To a large part this may be explained by the fundamental conflict of interest between the stakeholders involved in the design and construction of educational

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settings, or between what Lefebvre (1991) has called ‘perceived’ and ‘conceived’ space. While political agendas are often driven towards grand statements to the public that children and families are duly valued stakeholders in educational decision-making, architects lean more towards the aesthetics of design innovation guided by the ‘wow’ factor or what Birch et al. (2017) have cited as the ‘snootifying’ effect (p256) of design, as opposed to the smaller daily ways in which users engage with space as lived and felt places (Dudek, 2012). Further slippage is also the consequence of the shift from design to construction, in an age where public sector development is driven by smaller and smaller profit margins (Tse et  al., 2014).5 In his evaluation of purpose-built schools and children’s centres, Mark Dudek (2012) found that users experience buildings as cold clinical places, inflexible and enclosed in their design. He ruminates that their function appears to be only relevant within a static moment in time, and inhospitable to users’ emergent needs: the test of any good children’s architecture should be its capacity to develop and evolve with its users, with a loose fit, long-life concept built in from the outset. The building should not be aloof, like some form of austere beautiful sculpture, rather it should develop a more personal relationship with its users, becoming a sort of friend and partner capable of adaptation, change and growth over time (Dudek, 2005; p75)

The importance of flexibility has also been in emphasised in facilitating children’s agency in adapting space for creative use (Addison et al., 2010; Bancroft et al., 2008), leading researchers to warn against themed role-­ play areas, as often used in early years settings (Bancroft et  al., 2008; Davies et al., 2013; Dudek, 2012). It has been cautioned, however, that there is a balance to be achieved between flexibility and structure, as children who lack the appropriate home-learning environment have been found to value designated space to study in school (Davies et al., 2013; Jeffrey, 2006).

5  Indeed at the time of writing one of the leading construction service in the UK has gone into administration, with others indicated as in a highly precarious position with consequences that will inevitably hit the state hardest (e.g. http://www.independent.co.uk/ news/uk/home-news/carillion-government-fail-retrieve-money-a8239626.html). Critics have argued that this is the inevitable consequence of the failure of Public finance Initiatives as a model for government expenditure (e.g. Pollock et al., 2002).

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Some school design analysts have proposed micro-learning spaces nested within—as opposed to separate from—larger educational contexts. In her case studies of Reggio Emmelia schools, for example, Vecchi (2010) has advocated the use of ateliers, or ‘small spaces’ that promote children’s work within small groups while not separating them physically or visually from the rest of the classroom. ‘Smallness’ has also been discussed by Sanoff (1993) as an important experiential quality, in nurturing opportunities ‘that created niches for privacy and alcoves for chance encounters’ (p149). A longitudinal study exploring architects’ experiences of involving children as co-designers in a school design project, highlighted a number of key benefits (Birch et al., 2017). These were centred around the creative potential engendered through the collaborative partnership, which gave designers license to re-imagine the design process and transform their approach. On the one hand designers valued children’s fresh depoliticised engagement as ‘questioning, critical, uninhibited’, “not prejudiced [nor] partisan” (p252), while on the other they were also valued for being more accepting of failure with the consequence that designers felt less inhibited to take design risks. More fundamentally, however, participants valued the opportunity for new ways of seeing the use and purpose of school spaces. This included an imaginative playful element, but importantly there was also a pragmatism and application to children’s approach to school design research, reflecting their unique position as key stakeholders with lived daily experiences within school spaces. Birch et al. (2017) give the example of one architect’s concerns as to how the community would respond to the construction of a wind turbine on school premises, to which one child responded, ‘Well after school we’ll go knock on their door… I’ll ask Mrs. and Mr. so and so who live opposite if they would mind’ (p253). Another designer, however, voiced concern over the exclusions of teachers’ participation as another key stakeholder group (p255). Where teachers have been consulted in the school design process, key elements to emerge have concerned opportunities for team teaching and group activities, but not in the order of unfettered open plan space, where a lack of definition between learning areas was distracting and disruptive of learning, particularly with respect to the noise pollution created (Sanoff, 1993; Tse et al., 2014). Such research highlights that while there may well be crossovers in the desires and requirements for space of adults versus children, it is also important to recognise the potential conflicts of interest and therefore

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process of negotiation necessary between the different users of educational settings and whereby the views of children and young people are not relegated by those of adults or more powerful others. While this discussion underscores the importance of placing learners and teachers at the heart of the design of micro-educational settings, a spatial lens urges a consideration of contextual factors that cannot be consulted with directly, but rather understood and experienced through a more sensory engagement. One concept that can help us in such an endeavour is that of exploring the identity of places themselves, or what has been coined in architectural terms as the ‘genius loci’ of place identity (Norberg-Schulz, 2019). This concept translated as ‘the spirit of the place’ refers to the non-human essence of geographic space that conveys its own meaning in terms of the natural world. Norberg-Schulz identifies five dimensions of space which define their identity; ‘thing’ and ‘order’ which refer to the physical properties of a setting, ‘character’ and ‘light’ which refer to the ethereal quality or ‘atmosphere’ of place, and ‘time’ which refers to the extent to which each of these dimensions changes and is constant. As such the concept of ‘genius loci’ provides a set of tools which enable the micro-level spatial researcher to explore place identity and are a useful guide for how we may consider the educational setting to sit with respect to the social and geographic ‘places’ in which it is situated (the exo-level see Chap. 4). Procter (2015) for example has discussed the importance of school design in synergy with community and region as well as the role of the school as a key influencer of regional, neighbourhood and local identity for children and young people. While the processes of school design and reconstruction are infrequent activities, the objective to involve children and young people in the organisation of space can be attended to with integrity through the day-to-day arrangement of space. In order to guide such research it is useful to consider learners’ emotional engagement with school spaces. One such cross-­ cultural study by Dillon et al. (2015) employed visual methodologies in exploring 11-year-old children’s attachment with their school ground in England and Finland. Students were tasked with photographing places in school that were significant or that had meaning to them. In stimulating their reflections on the emotional responses that these places produced, children were then asked to annotate the photographs with colours, symbols and word associations that expressed their feelings. The most frequently occurring emotions across the two sites included; joy, enthusiasm, freedom, friendship excitement, peacefulness and sadness. Here a key

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distinction could be made between high-energy and low-energy emotions which also cohered with dual desires where on the one hand children valued the potential for sociability and collaboration, while on the other they sought out privacy and seclusion6 to process thoughts and feelings, or (in the case of the English school) as an antidote to the pressures of national testing requirements. Work such as this highlights the inherently emotional connection to schools and educational settings, which effectively transforms them from abstract ‘spaces’ to ‘places’ embedded with meaning in both positive and negative ways.

Concluding Remarks: A Micro-Lens on Schooling Identities Central to a spatial analysis of formal education settings is a consideration of the diverse and layered ways in which the organisation and control of space is felt and experienced by learners and teachers. In drawing upon Lefebvre’s spatial triad, Kellock and Sexton (2018) observe that the dominant lens in schooling is upon the conceived level (Lefebvre, 1991), or the ‘planned space’ of schooling to the detriment of the ways in which it is ‘lived’ and made meaningful by children. While these empirical studies can orientate us towards how to research educational spaces and what to consider, ultimately the impact of spatial power is invariably felt upon children’s schooling identities, be they their value as academic or creative learner identities, their sense of connection to place, region and the natural environment, or to children’s friendships and peers. One of the key benefits therefore in taking a micro-spatial lens to explore educational settings is in foregrounding the emotional and sensory component of learners’ daily educational experiences. At the heart of learners’ sense of inclusion or exclusion within education are the ways in which children’s emotions and senses are stimulated in ways which can lead to either valued or under-­valued learner identities. A micro-spatial lens offers the opportunity to explore and dissect the subtle and often hidden processes and mechanisms by which the organisation of schooling comes to shape such constructions, and crucially the ways in which they may be reconfigured.

6  As Sanoff (1993) has noted, seclusion is not to be confused with exclusion, whereby private spaces for learning or privacy have been found to be problematic for children where they do not permit any visibility to the outside world (p141).

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An indicative (but by no means definitive) set of foci that are appropriate to a micro-level spatial lens include: • The impact of school group policies on learner identity. • How behaviour management strategies (i.e. zero tolerance policies, isolation rooms) impact on student motivation and achievement. • To what extent targeted education ‘zones’ (i.e. specialist learning support areas) contribute to a sense of inclusion or exclusion for different groups of learners. • How the function and value of indoor and outdoor spaces are constructed by teachers and learners (and any differences between these accounts). • The impact of school design and organisation upon children’s engagement in learning. • How the design and organisation of space connects to children’s social and emotional development and wellbeing. • How hierarchies of learners are constructed and transmitted through schooling policies and organisation (i.e. how children may be validated and denigrated spatially). In the following chapters, we will go on to explore the meso- (Chap. 3), exo- (Chap. 4) and macro-level (Chap. 5) lenses on schooling and education, in which we will illuminate the ways in which micro-level spaces are shaped and structured.

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Kraftl, P. (2014). What are alternative education spaces – And why do they matter? Geography, 99(3), 128–138. Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Blackwell. Maguire, M., Hoskins, K., Ball, S., et al. (2011). Policy discourses in school texts. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(4), 597–609. Maguire, M., Gewirtz, S., Towers, E., et al. (2020). Contextualising policy work: Policy enactment and the specificities of English secondary schools. Research Papers in Education, 35(4), 488–509. Massey, D. (2005). For space. Sage. McGregor, J. (2004). Spatiality and the place of the material in schools. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 12(3), 347–372. McKeown, S., Stringer, M., & Cairns, E. (2016). Classroom segregation: Where do students sit and how is this related to group relations? British Educational Research Journal, 42(1), 40–55. Nilan, P. (1991). Exclusion, inclusion and moral ordering in two girls’ friendship groups. Gender and Education, 3(2), 163–182. Norberg-Schulz, C. (2019). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture (1979). Historic Cities: Issues in Urban Conservation, 8, 31. Perryman, J. (2006). Panoptic performativity and school inspection regimes: Disciplinary mechanisms and life under special measures. Journal of Education Policy, 21(2), 147–161. Perryman, J. (2007). Inspection and emotion. Cambridge Journal of Education, 37(2), 173–190. Pike, J., & Colquhoun, D. (2012). Lunchtime lock-in: Territorialisation and UK school meals policies. In Critical geographies of childhood and youth: Contemporary policy and practice (pp. 133–149). Policy Press. Pollock, A. M., Shaoul, J., & Vickers, N. (2002). Private finance and “value for money” in NHS hospitals: A policy in search of a rationale? British Medical Journal, 342, 1205–1209. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5) MCB University Press. http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-­%20 Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-­%20Part1.pdf Procter, L. (2015). Children, nature and emotion: Exploring how children’s emotional experiences of ‘green’ spaces shape their understandings of the natural world. In M. Blazek & J. Kraftl (Eds.), Children’s emotions in policy and practice (pp. 221–241). Palgrave Macmillan. Rooney, T. (2012). Childhood spaces in a changing world: Exploring the intersection between children and new surveillance technologies. Global Studies of Childhood, 2(4), 331–342. Rose, N. (1989). Governing the soul: The shaping of the private self. Routledge. Sack, R.  D. (1986). Human territoriality, its theory and history. Cambridge University Press.

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Sanoff, H. (1993). Designing a responsive school environment. Children’s Environments, 140–153. Silfer, E., Sjorberg, G., & Bagger, A. (2016). An ‘appropriate’ test taker: The everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden. Ethnography and Education, 11(3), 237–252. Sorensen, E. (2007). STS goes to school: Spatial imaginaries of technology, knowledge and presence. Critical Social Studies, 2, 15–27. Taylor, E. (2010). I spy with my little eye: The use of CCTV in schools and the impact on privacy. The Sociological Review, 58(3), 381–405. Teage, L. (2014). Subjectivity, agency and political pedagogy in the primary school. Global Studies in Childhood, 4(1), 3–10. Thomson, S. (2005). ‘Territorialising’ the primary school playground: Deconstructing the geography of playtime. Children’s Geographies, 3(1), 63–78. Tse, H. M., Learoyd-Smith, S., Stables, A., & Daniels, H. (2014). Continuity and conflict in school design: A case study from building schools for the future. Intelligent Buildings International, 7(2–3), 64–82. Tuan, Y. (1979). Landscapes of fear. Blackwells. Van den Berg, V. H. M., Segers, E., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2012). Changing peer perceptions and victimization through classroom arrangements: A field experiment. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 40, 403–412. Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education. Routledge. Youdell, D. (2003). Identity traps or how black [1] students fail: The interactions between biographical, sub-cultural, and learner identities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24(1), 3–20.

CHAPTER 3

A ‘Meso’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education

Introduction The focus of the meso-spatial lens on identity and education involves moving beyond a study of any single micro-level setting around the learner (see Chap. 2) towards a consideration of the other learning settings the learner experiences, and their framing of educational opportunities and inequalities; ‘A child’s ability to learn to read in the primary grades may depend no less on how [s/]he is taught then on the existence and nature of ties between the school and home’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 3). The meso-system—therefore—concerns the analysis of settings outside of those that provide formal education, in focussing upon the interrelations among two or more settings in which the developing person actively participates (such as, for a child, the relations among home, school and the neighbourhood peer group; for an adult, among family, work and social life). (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 p25).

Following an educational framing we adapt Bronfenbrenner’s account of the meso-level to focus on informal and non-formal learning, and the interrelation between the settings of informal learning in which the learner participates on a daily ongoing basis (home, community projects, leisure spaces) and the micro-settings of formal education. Lonie and Dickens (2015) provide a useful definition of the distinction between informal and formal learning and their delineation from formal education: © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_3

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[Informal education is understood] as unintentional learning that takes place in everyday contexts, and [Non-formal education is understood as]…voluntary intentional learning situations led by a professional facilitator, both separate from formal learning which is systematic, sometimes coercive, always intentional, and tends to take place within institutions. (p176)

This definition marks a clear contrast between unintentional, ad hoc and voluntary types of learning, as distinct from the predetermined and state-sanctioned forms of learning that lead to formalised learning outcomes. This infers a fundamentally different kind of relationship between educator and learner set within a contrasting culture of learning between formal institutions (such as school) and the public and private settings of the home and community. We therefore identify a meso-level spatial lens upon education that implies two discrete approaches: 1. The study of non- and informal learning settings (meso) in terms of how they shape children’s learning, opportunities and experiences. 2. How learning achieved in meso-settings impacts on children’s learning and outcomes in other meso-settings as well as in formal learning (micro) settings. A spatial analysis of the meso-level involves the same foci as for the analysis of micro-level settings: • What is special or unique about the informal learning setting: the ‘place’ of learning? • What is the design, structure and organisation of the setting itself? • What are the ‘things’ and resources in space and how are they used? • How are the people (children and adults) positioned in space, and how do they move through space: how does their use of space change (e.g. through the day, week, year, etc.)? • What are the formal and informal rules, expectations, routines, and norms and values of the informal place of learning and how are they shaped by the above spatial factors? • [and crucially for the focus of this book:] What types of learner identity are constructed and legitimised in the ‘place’ of learning and which are not?

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A meso-spatial analysis, however, goes beyond the foci of the micro-­ level in also including a consideration of how learners negotiate all of the above between the home, the formal educational setting (e.g. school, nursery, college) and the community. The interrelation (or lack thereof) between social actors across the home/community and formal education setting is, therefore, a particular focus of the meso-level, in foregrounding the interaction between educators involved in micro-settings (nursery/ school/university) and those in the broader social settings of the home and community (e.g. parents, other family members, community, youth leaders and other professionals). In being, by definition, non-standard or non-dominant educational contexts, ‘meso’-level settings have arguably more freedom to support the construction of broader learner identity forms, through their relative freedom from macro-level structures such as educational policy (see Chap. 5) in dictating the learning context. Indeed, many meso-level educational settings can be seen to have emerged to facilitate more inclusive learner and social identities in order to ameliorate what are seen to be the deficiencies or failings of the educational system. As a resounding voice within the geographies of education, Peter Kraftl (2013a) has called for attention to a more diverse and broader understanding of the places where education takes place, in advocating for ‘alternative education spaces’ that move us beyond the traditional and formal learning settings that we reviewed in Chap. 2. Holloway et  al. (2010) point towards a range of settings that may be considered ‘alternative’ in imploring to educational researchers that; we need to expand our interpretation of what count as spaces of education [… and] pay greater attention to the home, pre-school provision, neighbourhood spaces and after-school care, as well as thinking more deeply about the ways in which people learn in subsistence agriculture, family businesses, paid work and so on. (p595)

We may, therefore, consider the meso-level to be the study of ‘alternative education’ as well as of what an understanding of good quality alternative education can achieve in shedding light upon the function, utility and design of formal learning settings and the respective identities that they shape and value. Looking beyond the traditional formal learning spaces can also reap benefits in growing our knowledge of fundamental aspects of education,

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such as the process of learning itself. Delamont and Atkinson (1995), writing on ethnography, remind us that the over-familiarity we have with formal education settings can mean that we cannot ‘see’ crucial detail that contributes to our understanding of educational processes (most adults in Western societies today spent the majority of their childhood and youth in classrooms, schools and playgrounds—and are all too familiar with what they look like). They advise that we can overcome this familiarity by looking for learning that happens outside of these traditional settings, pointing to meso-level settings such as the dance class, driving schools and the museum. We start by considering what has become one of the most ubiquitous educational issues of the current era, as provoked through the COVID-19 health pandemic: home learning during lockdown. This is important to consider spatially in terms of the implications in merging two discrete institutions involved in the raising of children; the state through its public settings such as schooling concerned with educating the child, and parents through the private sphere of the home, concerned with raising children. While historically there has been much tension globally in response to parenting attempts to conflate both roles through home schooling, for the first time in recorded history parents across the globe have been called upon by state authorities to become home educators, and with no training, warning and minimal resourcing, they have been required to mediate the ‘schooling’ of their children through the proximal setting of the home.

A Meso-Lens on Home Learning During a Global Pandemic While limited evidence exists as to the experiences and effects of lockdown on children, initial survey data in the UK and Spain have highlighted a number of issues considering the spatial organisation of home learning in foregrounding the broad disparities in terms of three areas: educational provision from school, resources to study and supervisory opportunities. These studies highlight two nations that employed broadly similar approaches to school closure, with the implication that children were absent from school for up to six months from March–September, with further school closure in the UK between January and March 2021. While neither study has taken a spatial lens and both have utilised the online survey method in order to elicit families’ experiences during lockdown,

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nevertheless, the findings they raise have distinctly spatial implications, in highlighting the divergent home-school interconnections for different groups of children. The first study, a Children’s commissioner’s survey of 4559 UK school children, identified a stark disparity concerning children’s differential schooling input, in finding that 4.3% of children under 12, and 18.5% of children 13 and over, received no work from school during lockdown. Furthermore, 58% of under 12s, and 50% of over 13s, received no synchronous online provision at all (Children’s Commissioner, 2020). Where schoolwork was provided for home learning, there was a vast difference in the volume available for children of different ages: 17% of under 12s and 23% of over 13s received less than 1  hour (or no work) from school, while 21% of under 12s and 23% of over 13s received four or more hours. Broadly similar findings were reported in an online survey carried out in Catalonia, Spain, conducted at the same time period but with a bigger sample of 35,419 families of school-aged children (Bonal & González, 2020). Parents in their study reported that 28% of children dedicated less than one hour per day to schoolwork, while 7.7% of students dedicated more than four hours per day (p646). Similarly uneven findings arose with regard to children’s access to adult support in completing schoolwork. For younger children in the Spanish dataset, 79% of mothers reported helping their children with schoolwork, but this figure dropped significantly as children got older (p647). Among secondary school-aged children, only 38% of mothers who had completed compulsory education reported helping their children with schoolwork, while 48% of the most educated mothers did. Furthermore, the confidence to assist their children was found to be a significant issue for the lower educated parents, whereby 28% of parents reported a ‘lack of knowledge’ as the reason for not helping, compared with only 2% of highly educated parents (p648). The level of input from parents was also an age-­ responsive issue within UK data, with 26% of parents of under 12s reporting having offered less than one hour’s help with schoolwork, which raised to a staggering 72% of parents of children aged 13 and over. On the other end of the spectrum, 18% of parents reported helping their under 12s for over three hours per day, which dropped to 2.1% of parents of children aged over 13. These findings point to the significance of parental learner and teaching identities as mediating factors for their children’s learning experiences. A key issue raised here is that while a significant body of research highlights the role of the parent as the primary educator for children (see Dockett

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et  al., 2017) factors such as educational background and children’s age can impinge upon parents’ belief that they are sufficiently accomplished learners themselves so to be able to support their children’s home learning. While relational factors were seen to play a major role in children’s home-learning experiences during the pandemic, resources were arguably the most pressing concern for socio-economically disadvantaged learners. One of the most troubling findings across the datasets concerned children’s access to an electronic device to complete work. In the Spanish study, 56% of respondents reported having less than one device available per person in the family, while more than 15% reported having only one device per family (p644). The disparity in children’s access to resources was—as expected—explained by the socio-economic position of the families. While only 25% of families in the lowest income bracket owned one device per person, for families in the highest income bracket this figure was 96% (p645). The UK study reported comparable findings whereby 59% of under 12s and 36% of over 13s had to share a device with a family member, while 4.6% of under twelves and 3.2% of over 13s reported not having access to a device. Both studies relied on an internet connection and device available in order for families to participate, with the consequence being that families who did not have easy access to an electronic device or who did not have a stable interconnect connection could not be consulted. Data from the Catalan government indicated that 55,000 children—between 10 and 15% of all children in the region—did not have access to an internet connection (Vallespín, 2020). The situation was not as dire within the UK, but nevertheless OfCom data suggests that a significant minority of up to 559,000 children were without access to the internet in 2020, which is approximately 5.4% of all UK school children. The clear parallel in findings between both nations suggests that the disparity in children’s learning opportunities over half a year highlights the global issue of inequalities between children’s home-learning environments, in demonstrating that families and homes vary widely in their resources to support children’s home learning, thus giving weight to Bonal and González (2020) claim that ‘It is highly likely that the current pandemic will have a dramatic long-term impact on students’ competencies and increase existing education inequalities’ (p637). The issue of home learning during lockdown is—of course—an unprecedented event for which children, parents and teachers had no warning and very little provision What these studies highlight is the rupture between home and school life for one sub-set of children, and the synergy

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and connection between both settings for another sub-set. This suggests that home learning can amplify the disadvantages for children from families from less privileged backgrounds, for whom the expectations, rhythms and demands of schooling are alien from the culture and routines of their daily lives in the home and community (Brown, 2014; Lareau, 2000). It is arguably difficult for children living in poverty to generate a valued learner identity when working in a home setting that lacks the educational resources such as a desk space, electronic device and learning materials of their more privileged peers. Furthermore, as Bure (2005) reminded us, there can be no digital inclusion without social inclusion. Once resource barriers are overcome this still leaves the potential rupture between social identity and learner identity, that can interrupt learning. The camera function so essential to the participation of learners within online teaching forms is also a lens and invitation into the home and family environment for the rest of the learning cohort. The well-resourced child studying in a private office or ‘library corner’ invites a far different ascription of social and learner identity to that of the child sat alongside their older siblings on the sofa bed, concurrently caring for their younger sibling or family member. There is much debate and discussion about how the extended period of home schooling and school closures will impact on educational inequalities going forward, in terms of the long-term educational penalties and worsening of pre-existing rates of inequality. This is a clear example of how the meso-level feeds into micro-level issues, as schools worked to address the fallout from the pandemic when children returned to the classroom. More than two years on from the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and families are in a process of adapting to the changing processes of work and education on a long-term basis, with the concordant requirement in many nations to respond to nationally imposed and internationally validated social distancing measures. A meso-lens on education in a post-pandemic context, therefore, points towards a consideration of more flexible schooling models that can accommodate learning from home as part of a long-term and remote educational experience. While the some of the challenges of home learning have been considered, online learning also offers potential to benefit key groups of students, such as those with SEND or Social Emotional and Mental Health challenges that make navigating the institution of schooling challenging. It can support learners to balance other work or domestic responsibilities such as young carers, young parents and young people from low-income families. The increasingly neoliberal marketisation of schooling globally (see Chap. 5)

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has spawned emergent educational providers that have given home-­ schooling legitimacy (Hansom Thiem, 2007), for example, the growing online charter school movement in the US. The study of these forms of educational provision in creating new forms of home-school interface is insightful in generating understanding of the spatial dimension of learning, in navigating between contexts that may be discordant. As one of the most extensive studies into the educational impact of online learning, Woodworth et al. (2015) combined student-level data, school-leader survey responses and state policy data in order to explore the educational progress of 65,000 students attending online charter schools within 18 states of the USA, which represented about 0.5% of learners in these districts. Using academic data, they compared the growth of students attending online charter schools to that of students in Traditional Public (state) Schools and students in brick-and-mortar charter schools. By matching students according to their demographic ‘twins’ attending traditional public schools (TPSs) Woodworth et  al. (2015) identified that students attending online charter schools had statistically significantly weaker academic growth than their counter-parts attending brick-and-mortar schools. This negative impact on educational achievement was especially pronounced for children in poverty as well as those from racial ethnic minority groups. This led the authors to conclude that, Current online charter schools may be a good fit for some students, but the evidence suggests that online charters don’t serve very well the relatively atypical set of students that currently attend these schools, much less the general population. (Woodworth et al., 2015, 63)

In conducting a purely quantitative analysis the researchers were only able to speculate as to the reasons behind this negative impact, which in drawing on school-leader survey responses they concluded to be; the ‘discipline and maturity of students’ to study largely asynchronously, as well as the limitations on families’ capacity and skill to provide the ‘direction needed for online learning’ (p63). If hybrid home-school models are not effective for the most vulnerable learners, this prompts consideration of the viability of home-school learning as an alternative to formal schooling for some groups of learners. While the challenges of digital inclusion, educator training and unequal resourcing are now well known, this analysis highlights the glaring chasm that is evident in terms of fine-grained qualitative research into the ways that parental learner identities can mediate

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children’s online educational experiences. Following an ecological approach (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), we would point towards the need for research that considers the role of family-school relationships in shaping enabling versus constraining parental teacher/learner identities. For it stands to reason that the first step in empowering parents as (proximal) educators to achieve learning goals, is to enhance their confidence in feeling worthy of the role. If we are to further pursue the value and feasibility of the ‘meso’ educational setting of the home, there are ample lessons to be learned through a historical analysis of the home-schooling movement. It is in the study of parental pedagogues who have actively sought to strategically ‘unschool’ their children that we can appreciate the tensions and opportunities offered through a fundamentally different approach to learning: at home.

Home Schooling as a Lens into the Home-School Interface Home schooling has assumed a controversial and divisive status as an educational issue since the late twentieth century. In Germany and many of the new eastern bloc countries, such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Latvia, home schooling is still illegal, while in other countries across Europe such as Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic and Estonia, it is only legal under certain restrictive conditions. English-speaking countries have the most prevalent home-schooling rates including in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK, despite that it was illegal in the US and South Africa until the mid-1990s. In England, the Department of Education (DfE) is not currently required to collect data on home schooling and is therefore reliant upon parents voluntarily registering their child with the local authority. The proposed Schooling Bill (DfE, 2022), however, is set to significantly restrict parents’ autonomy in home schooling by introducing a register of all children not at school, as well as increasing the powers to scrutinise and intervene on children’s home schooling (DfE, 2022). The previously permissive English government position on the regulation of home schooling, coupled with the wide variety in reasons behind parents’ choices to pursue it, suggest that current indicators probably underestimate the actual figures. In England the most recent evidence suggests that 53,000 children are registered for home schooling, about 0.7% of all school children, with one study indicating that numbers of

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home-educated children have increased 30% between 2019 and 2021.1 In the US, the home schooling figure is about 2.5 million or about 3–4% of school children (NHERI, 2022) where home educating families can be divided into two distinct groups; the liberals on the left of the political spectrum, aiming to provide a progressive and ‘unschooling’ education in order to gain a positional advantage for their children (Apple, 2001) while on the political right are the religious evangelicals concerned with the secularisation of public schooling (Hansom Thiem, 2007). Added to this is the significant minority of about 14% of parents who elect to home-­ school due to the perceived inadequacy of state schooling to service their children’s special educational needs, disabilities or social, emotional or mental health difficulties (Princiotta & Bielick, 2006). Despite the disparity between both populations, this may go some way to explain the ‘characterisation of the typical home-schooling family as white, middle-class, well-educated and headed by a married couple’ (Kraftl, 2013a p439). Within the UK, however, it has been argued that while only 15% of home-­ schooled children are working class (Rothermel, 2003), the profile of home-schooling parents is far more diverse culturally, politically and demographically within more cosmopolitan regions of the country such as London (Kraftl, 2013a). While home schooling may therefore have its origins in white middle-class far right and far left progressive populations, in the current context it may be that families that invested many hours in their children’s learning during lockdown may have been inspired towards home schooling as a longer-term educational objective. In real terms, therefore, it may be that the only thing that unites those electing to home schooling is a lack of faith in the state to service their children’s learning and development. National governments remain deeply ambivalent as to the benefit of home schooling on the child and society; for example, the influential Badman review commissioned by the UK government (Badman, 2009) had a primary focus on whether home schooling was used as a cover for various forms of child abuse, a theme that underpins the new regulations proposed as part of the Schools’ Bill (DfE, 2022). Notwithstanding the public scrutiny home educators have suffered on account of such misassumptions, recent evidence generated through a number of substantive reviews have highlighted the effectiveness of home education as a route to educational achievement and onward 1  See the ADCS (2020) Elective Home Education Survey 2020 http://www.adcs.org.uk/ assets/documentation/ADCS_EHE_Survey_2020_FINALweb.pdf

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transitions (Gloeckner & Jones, 2013) with a systematic review by Ray (2017) highlighting more favourable routes than the traditional schooling route. There is, therefore, good reason to believe that home schooling may be an appropriate arena to explore the pedagogical principles that could inform alternative education in the forms of informal and non-­ formal education. One of the limitations of home-schooling studies raised in systematic reviews is their reliance on quantitative experimental design or survey method, and the dearth of research available that has taken a qualitative approach to unpacking the philosophy of learning and the process by which parents assume a more formalised educator role (Ray, 2017 p617). The ‘home’ is by nature away from public view and in the private domain, which is likely to be a key reason why qualitative research in this meso-­ level space is so difficult. Even if qualitative researchers can enter this space, the degree to which they capture authentic accounts of daily ‘home life’ is questionable, given the impression management going on here, to provide the impression of the ‘right’ kind of home life. Of course, this is always the case in qualitative research but arguably will be most acute in the home. One notable exception is Kraftl’s (2013b) exposition of parents’ motivations and experiences of the processes of disengaging with school in assuming a role as home educators, which remains one of the most sensitively conducted spatial analyses of alternative education and studies of the home. Kraftl interviewed the experiences and decisions of 30 home-­ schooling parents in the UK. The theoretical innovation of his study has explicit spatial and identity implications, in moving beyond the tendency to apply spatial analyses to the learning context—inherent in the geography of education—to consider learning as a spatial practice itself. In so doing, he was able to elicit the principles and processes involved in home educating, extending beyond an emphasis upon the temporality of learning (working at the child’s pace and in response to the rhythms and demands of domestic home life) to consider ‘the spacing of learning as much as its timing’. He identified—for example—the ‘banale materialities’ of spaces that held learning potential ‘such as the hardened salt crystals on the window sill’ (443), as well as the disruption to the spatial ordering characterising schooling where direction and routine is aligned with learning, while—in contrast—parents valorised the messiness and clutter that accompanies creative and fun learning. He also highlights the various ‘landscapes of learning’ that are implicated in exploding the myth that

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home schooling takes place at home; indeed parents were at pains to point out that the majority of children’s learning takes place outside of the home, in parks, museums, libraries, outdoor spaces as well as the everyday opportunities offered in daily routines, such as through trips to IKEA. The significance of this work is instrumental in generating an understanding of the barriers inherent in informal and non-formal modes of learning, with a view to consider how they may be overcome. Central to this is the process by which home educators assume an identity as an alternative kind of pedagogue from that associated with schooling. A resounding finding in Kraftl’s (2013b) work was the unease and ambivalence that home educators’ identified in first becoming pedagogues, whereby the weight of performance pressure that prompted their children’s removal from school was perceived to fall upon their shoulders. This led to initial attempts to replicate the schooling model through creating static workstations and pouring over books. Home educators observed the resounding futility they experienced in seeking to emulate the system they broke with, and the gradual processes by which—over time and the support of home-­ schooling networks—their confidence to tune into what they perceived to be the ‘natural’, ‘spontaneous’ and ‘intuitive’ nature of teaching and learning was nurtured. Through shifting the place of learning from the inside desk or office to the outside—natural environments, industrialised landscapes as well as community spaces like parks and museums—educators reported an emerging ‘intuneness’ with their children and with their daily life worlds. They reported a sculpting of their pedagogical identity that valued learning as a process that emerges both slowly—in taking the time and attention to be with their children—and quickly, in being alert to the spontaneous learning opportunities elicited through children’s self-­ directed interests, daily events and interactions. While the home setting as an educational space assumes a significant focus for a meso-level lens—and all the moreso following the school closures and stay-at-home orders imposed within many national contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic—an analysis of the home-schooling literature has highlighted the importance of informal and non-formal educational opportunities in the community and outside of the home. In recent years interest in the affordances of outdoor learning for children has gained traction, particularly in educational approaches that aim to connect children with the natural environment. What can be seen with these

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approaches is the opportunity to strengthen and develop children’s sense of social and learner identity in areas that may be lacking within traditional schooling and educational settings.

The Educational Affordances of Outdoor Education and the Barriers to Engaging in Nature Over the last few decades, childhood experts have pointed to the downwards trend in children’s participation in outdoor environments during their play and leisure time (Karsten, 2005; Skar & Krough, 2009). This has been identified as an area of concern given the well-established benefits of time spent in the outdoor and natural environment upon children’s social, cognitive and physical outcomes (Waite & Goodenough, 2018). NordBakke (2019) has argued that dwindling outdoor engagement rates can be attributed to socio-cultural and economic factors, such as increased urbanisation with the associated rise in traffic and reduction in outdoor natural spaces; parental concerns about children’s safety when left unsupervised in public spaces; as well as the draw of emergent new technologies, particularly those involving ‘screen time’ such as video games, social media and internet ‘surfing’. In the Global North, concerns have been raised about the implications on childhood of a shift from a time spent outdoors to time spent indoors, in terms of children’s decreasing sense of connection with nature (Macfarlane, 2015). The impacts of such disconnection can be seen on an individual level, given the now mainstream recognition of the therapeutic affordances of contact with nature, but they can also be recognised on a societal level, given the growing threat of human-caused environmental damage. More recently, and with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, children’s access to outdoors and natural environments has become a widely recognised and politicised issue, with— on the one hand—a fervent interest growing among the middle classes, of the learning opportunities identified through hours spent in the garden during national lockdowns, while—on the other hand—the emotional and mental strain identified for children from low-income families living in overcrowded accommodation and with no access to outdoor space (Brown & Donnelly, 2022). While some nations, such as the UK, maintained limited opportunities for outdoor exercise through brief daily periods of solitary or family exercise (such as a short walk), children in nations assuming more extreme social isolation measures, such as those in China, Italy and Spain, experienced up to four months without being able to leave the

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home, which for those living in high rise and urban areas resulted in zero access to the outdoors and ‘fresh air’. Suffice to say that public interest in the importance of children’s participation in outdoor environments in a post-pandemic era is arguably at an all-time high. The benefits of outdoor education for children have concordantly gained significant policy recognition leading to the exportation of well-­ established Nordic outdoor education philosophies, to other nations both inside and outside of Europe (Bentsen & Jensen, 2012), one example is the Forest Schooling policy in the UK (Leather, 2018) and another is the Bush Schools and Kindergartens in Australia (Campbell & Speldewinde, 2019). One of the most common reference points for outdoor education is the Danish Udeskole outdoor education philosophy, which is rooted in the belief that children’s education cannot be isolated from the wider socio-political, economic, topographical, or cultural contexts in which children live (Bentsen et al., 2009). The role of Udeskole in shaping children’s identities in connection with the land, is signalled with its close alignment to the broader Scandinavian philosophy Friluftsliv: the sense of harmony achieved through ‘freedom in nature and the spiritual connectedness with the landscape’ (Gelter, 2000, p. 78). A key purpose of outdoor education, from a Scandinavian perspective is, therefore, the role it plays in connecting children to the social world, as well as how it orientates and empowers children to invest in their local communities and protect their natural landscapes. Forest schooling in the UK, in contrast, has been argued to be less a philosophy than a pedagogical method, mobilised as either an antidote to the performative pressures of schooling in England (discussed in Chap. 2) or a marketing strategy (Leather, 2015, 2018). For example, critics have queried as to whether the Scandinavian emphasis upon child autonomy—fundamental to the Friluftsliv philosophy—can be given due credence in an English risk-averse policy context where schools are required to carry out extensive health and safety assessments and modifications aiming to limit the freedom and physical challenge children may engage in outdoor (Waite et al., 2016; Whincup et al., 2021). Furthermore, there is also the consideration of how cultural factors may mediate children’s abilities to construct valued identity forms in outdoor education settings. For example, while outdoor educators proclaim the merits of immersion within the elements and natural resources on children’s sense of expression and engagement in outdoor learning settings, there is a disjuncture between the connotations of soiled clothes in terms of the values projected on students by teachers (not bringing mud

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into the school) which have been demonstrated to contribute to the shaping of gendered and classed identities (Mycock, 2019). Girls in Mycock’s study voiced concerns about the prospects of getting ‘dirty’ through outdoor play, which disrupted their ability to maintain learner identities as being ‘good’ and ‘clean’. Similar concerns have also been raised by parents (e.g. see Parsons & Traunter, 2020) in which the creative value of mud and dirt must be considered alongside the purported stigma for those from low-income backgrounds who lack the resources to carry out mid-­ week washes or provide a change of clothing. Such research highlights the discordance between middle-class alignment between mess and creativity (Kraftl, 2013a, b) against the values of other cultures whereby dirt and stained clothes are viewed very negatively, such as in Gypsy Roma Traveller (GRT) communities (Griffin, 2002). Examples such as these highlight the many learning benefits afforded by informal and non-formal types of education, especially in facilitating areas of children’s development that are less prevalent in formal schooling settings (imagination, sense of freedom, motor skills, self-expression and social and emotional skills). However, in considering the identity implications of these modes of learning, they are clearly not without barriers. Some challenges may be pragmatic, for example the provision and availability of protective clothing and information to parents (Parsons & Traunter, 2020). More fundamentally, however, it could be argued that in divorcing outdoor education from the learner, personal and social identities that children may construct in relation to their communities and the natural environment, the affordances of outdoor education in nature, may be lost.

Learning in the Community: Building and Affirming Social and Learner Identities While the micro-level (Chap. 2) concerns the ways in which formal education settings can thwart the identities of learners, the meso-level addresses how informal and non-formal settings offer alternate spaces for learning that can both reinforce and reproduce non-valued learner identities as well as challenge and reconstruct them through the affirmation of our social, cultural and learner identities. But it is also important to consider how macro-level forces (see Chap. 5) impinge upon the meso-level. As an example, we may consider how the

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UK Government’s academy programme (not to mention free schools) promulgated and re-enforced by both sides of the political agenda has introduced new relationships between schools and the community by enabling partnerships between schools and industry or social endeavours. One area that has received revived public interest has been the role of museums as a form of public pedagogy with a specific community education remit. Museums offer alternative learning spaces, the nature and governance of which has been argued to have fundamentally changed in the twenty-first century, following their redefinition as a policy instrument under a New Labour government administration, in order to tackle social exclusion (Tlili, 2008). Since that time, museums have developed a more targeted inclusive agenda and outreach activities in order to speak to a broad range of public audiences across a spectrum of ages, backgrounds and abilities. Recent research by Watermeyer et al. (2022) has highlighted the integral educative role played by community-based informal education providers, with teachers reporting their reliance upon community-based science outreach providers, in offering professional development and resources for schools. Findings also identified the value to learners of having role model ‘scientists’ that challenged negative misassumptions about science careers and offered the potential to boost aspirations to pursue Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers, especially among groups such as ‘girls’ and young women, who are less represented in STEM sectors. In line with a policy agenda that emphasises life-long learning and the inclusion of social groups who experience educational barriers, a notable body of research in the area of museum education has focussed upon strategies to remove barriers to access for physical disabilities. One innovative study called Accessible Resources for Cultural Heritage EcoSystems (ARCHES) (Seale et  al., 2021) took a co-participatory approach to explore how emergent technologies can be used to stimulate wider engagement for people who are blind or partially sighted, drawing upon technologies that translate visual stimuli into other more accessible forms, examples included, ‘Taped guides, touch tours, handling sessions, tactile plans and drawings, large-print and Braille information, clear labels and signs, sign-language interpreted tours, lip speaking and reading’ (p21–22) as well as more active forms such as dialogic opportunities (Hoyt 2013 in Seale et al., 2021 p22) and ‘touch exhibitions’ (Hayhoe, 2013). While, on the one hand, such technologies have been demonstrated to be effective in removing barriers to engagement, on the other hand, engagement is

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not just physical but also experiential and perceptual. As Hayhoe (2019) reminds us, inclusion is not just about sensory access to cultural resources, but also about the role of the museum in enabling the construction of cultural identities. In order to participate and engage in the learning experience, museum visitors with disabilities need to feel a valued part of the cultural community. Notwithstanding the advances in an inclusionary agenda for community cultural and scientific institutions, challenges clearly remain in the construction or reconstruction of valued learner identities in these important alternative education settings. This has been explored in the context of the museum visit through examining learner identity through the lens of students’ identity performances (Dawson et al., 2020). In considering the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background, Dawson and colleagues were able to identify four discrete types of identity narratives for the girls in their study, each of which was found to be incongruent with a learning engagement in the activities of the museum due to tensions between the personal aspects of their identities (such as feeling a competent scientist) and the social aspect (such as feeling accepted by their peers). These identities were respectively; ‘good girl’ which involved monitoring the behaviours of the self, and others; a combination of a ‘masculine’ and race/ethnicity, which involved a competitive and dominant demeanour orientated towards seeking reward and recognition; ‘silent’ as a passive and submissive role, and ‘cool girl’ which involved dismissing the learning resources in favour of ‘selfie’ opportunities. In conducting participant observations and interviews, Dawson et al. (2020) identified that far from expressing learners’ disinterest in science—many of whom were keen scientists—such performances reflected an attempt to maintain a valued social identity and a credible learner identity in a context whereby these girls of Black and minority ethnic and low socio-economic backgrounds were devalued. In contextualising their findings, the researchers pointed to the dominance of scientific advancements promulgated by North European, White, Male and middle-class scientists in the museum, leading them to describe such science narratives as being ‘stale, pale and male’ (p669). A further spatial analysis of the resources and materials on display in the museum revealed that women were represented a little more than ‘reproductive vehicles’ (ibid) through the lens of childbirth, disembodied reproductive organs, and displays of ‘chastity belts’. Similarly, ethnic minorities were only portrayed in the role of victim, in images of refugees or as victims of diseases ‘cured’ through the medicines of the

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Global North. Such research highlights that while community forms of informal education offer much in the way of potential to tackle the educational inequalities re/produced through formal education, the learning potential of such endeavours may be limited by a failure to address the identity component to learning and engagement.

Towards an Identity-Based Agenda for Informal and Non-formal Education Just as a spatial analysis of the micro-level elicited the centrality of a valued learner identity to the positive experience and navigation of formal educational settings for learners, a meso-level analysis of the affordances and challenges of in/non-formal settings as educational spaces has highlighted the importance of a confident and autonomous pedagogical identity for educators and of an alignment between educational philosophy and the context and resources in which learning take place. While the home setting is one of the most important meso-level settings, the realm of in/ non-formal education has been argued to extend into the community and neighbourhood and include diverse forms such as outdoor education, care farms (Kraftl, 2014), museums and cultural centres, charitable or third sector programmes often targeted at specific ‘at risk’ sets of young people, by offering music programmes (see Lonie & Dickens, 2015), coaching in team sports (Costas Batlle et  al., 2018), and detached youth work (see Blazek & Hricová, 2015). In advancing his ambition to theorise alternative education, Kraftl (2013a) has started to elicit a set of principles that may set apart alternative education from formal institutionalised state-provided education. Such principles are inherently identity and spatially based. As a first step, he argues, in/non-formal pedagogues must assume an identity as rightful educators who can trust their instincts in a sense of alertness and flow in connection with both learners and the changing spaces of the educational setting. Secondly, as learning communities’ alternative education settings are driven by fundamentally and ethically principled and democratic logic, [A]utonomous groups try to do things differently: they are frequently self-­ reliant (at a collective as opposed to an individual level) they employ flattened hierarchies of power and collective decision making, they emphasise the primacy of human relations and empathy, and they attempt to abolish

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fixed divisions of labour (whether paid or unpaid). At the same time autonomous social groups attempt to engage with mainstream capitalist societies rather than divorce themselves from them. (p4)

These two aspects capture what Hornsey and Hogg (2000) discuss as the tension within the dual aspects to our identity between the personal aspect which seeks to be unique, special and in line with our personal characteristics, drives and aptitudes, and the social aspect of our identity which seeks belongingness and togetherness with a group. The implications for this are that educators at the meso-level need to connect to their individual intuitions, skills and aptitudes (they must feel free to ‘be themselves’ in the relative autonomy granted at this sphere). However, in contrast to the neoliberal dominance of standardising and individualising principles evident at the micro-level (in the Global North), there is both an opportunity and a requirement to pursue an ethical and social justice position in their work with learners. Above all Kraftl (2013b) emphasises the importance of love and care that was seen to underpin home—education in speculating as to how these principles can be brought into other spheres of alternative education. Indeed, recent research has argued that it is only through the dedicated support of a trusted pedagogue that young people can start to re-engage with education highlighting the importance of a flexible and responsive educator role, conducted through small group work over an extended period of time in leading to the development of positive learner identities that can be linked to the pursuit of work and educational goals (Brown et al., 2022).

Concluding Remarks The value of meso-level settings, such as those described in this chapter, is in the diversity they offer in providing learning opportunities and in presenting greater scope for inclusion and engagement for groups of learners that mainstream education can struggle to adequately serve. We have argued in this chapter that a meso-level spatial lens is ideally suited to research issues concerned with informal or non-formal learning, and focussed on the connection between, the formal educational setting (e.g. school, nursery or university) and/or an in/non-formal learning setting in the community. Indicative research areas include (but are not limited to) the following:

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• Parents’/learners’ experiences of home schooling or home learning (e.g. during pandemic lockdowns) and their educational affordances. • The value of youth work or charity/third sector educational or learning programmes and how these approaches may differ from traditional ‘formal’ pedagogical approaches. • Access to extra-curricular activities and the benefits to formal education for diverse groups of learners. • The social, emotional and physical development opportunities offered from learning that takes place in the natural environment, playpark or leisure settings. • What are the benefits and barriers to home-school partnerships or connections and how they can be best supported? We saw in Chap. 2 how the micro-level setting of the classroom often fails to provide inclusive learning through the common curricular and testing requirements, as well as the gendered, classed and racialised modes of conduct in the monitoring of behaviour and interactions. Yet, as this cursory analysis has aimed to illustrate, meso-level settings are also subject to power structures that operate at different spatial levels such as the structures of formal educational experiences at the micro-level, in shaping undervalued learner identities. Meso-level settings are also vulnerable to the policy and funding requirements evident at the macro-level (see Chap. 5) which can both steer and limit the governance and stability of such provision. Lastly, alternative education settings are shaped by exo-level forces such as local political and economic factors, media discourses and the educational market factors which can also inform the availability and resourcing of provision as well as play a significant role in the shaping of learners’ local, regional, cultural and social identities. It is to a consideration of these latter exo-level issues that we will now turn to explore in Chap. 4.

References Apple, M.  W. (2001). Educating the ‘right’ way: Markets, standards, god, and inequality. RoutledgeFalmer. Badman, G. (2009). Report to the secretary of state on the review of elective home education in England. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/328186/Review_of_ Elective_Home_Education_in_England.pdf

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Bentsen, P., & Jensen, F.  S. (2012). The nature of udeskole: Outdoor learning theory and practice in Danish schools. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 12(3), 199–219. Bentsen, P., Mygind, E., & Randrup, T. B. (2009). Towards an understanding of udeskole: Education outside the classroom in a Danish context. Education 3–13, 37(1), 29–44. Blazek, M., & Hricová, P. (2015). Understanding (how to be with) children’s emotions: Relationships, spaces and politics of reconnection in reflections from detached youth work. In Children’s emotions in policy and practice (pp. 204–218). Palgrave Macmillan. Bonal, X., & González, S. (2020). The impact of lockdown on the learning gap: Family and school divisions in times of crisis. International Review of Education, 66(5), 635–655. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press. Brown, C. (2014). Educational binds of poverty: The lives of school children. Routledge. Brown, C., & Donnelly, M. (2022). Independent review into the jersey COVID-19 response on children’s development. Accessed September 1, 2022, from https:// statesassembly.gov.je/scrutinyreports/2022/report%20-­%20covid-­19%20 response%20-­%20impact%20on%20children%20and%20young%20people%20 -­%205%20april%202022.pdf Brown, C., Douthwaite, A., Savvides, N., & Costas Batlle, I. (2022). Pathway to change: 5 mechanisms to effectively tackle early school leaving and neethood (under review). Bure, C. (2005). Digital inclusion without social inclusion: The consumption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within homeless subculture in Scotland. The Journal of Community Informatics, 1. Campbell, C., & Speldewinde, C. (2019). Bush kinder in Australia: A new learning ‘place’ and its effect on local policy. Policy Futures in Education, 17(4), 541–559. Children’s Commissioner (UK Government). (2020). The numbers behind home-­ schooling during lockdown. Accessed September 1, 2022, from https://www. childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2020/06/11/the-­n umbers-­b ehind­homeschooling-­during-­lockdown/ Costas Batlle, I., Carr, S., & Brown, C. (2018). ‘I just can’t bear these procedures, I just want to be out there working with children’: An autoethnography on neoliberalism and youth sports charities in the UK. Sport, Education and Society, 23(9), 853–865. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2017.1288093 Dawson, E., Archer, L., Seakins, A., Godec, S., DeWitt, J., King, H., et al. (2020). Selfies at the science museum: Exploring girls’ identity performances in a science learning space. Gender and Education, 32(5), 664–681.

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Delamont, S., & Atkinson, P. (1995). Fighting familiarity: Essays on education and ethnography. Hampton Press. Department for Education. (2022). Children not in school: Schools bill. https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-­bill-­policy-­statements#full-­ publication-­update-­history Dockett, S., Griebel, W., & Perry, B. (Eds.). (2017). Families and transition to school. Springer International Publishing. Imprint: Springer 1st edition. Gelter, H. (2000). Friluftsliv: The Scandinavian philosophy of outdoor life. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE), 5(1), 77–92. Gloeckner, G.  W., & Jones, P. (2013). Reflections on a decade of changes in homeschooling and the homeschooled into higher education. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 309–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X. 2013.796837 Griffin, C. C. M. (2002). The religion and social organisation of the Irish travellers (part II) cleanliness and dirt, bodies and borders. Nomadic Peoples, 6(2), 110–129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43123670 Hansom Thiem, C. (2007). The spatial politics of educational privatization: Re-reading the US homeschooling movement. In K.  Gulson & C.  Symes (Eds.), Spatial theories of education (pp. 17–36). Routledge. Hayhoe, S. J. (2013). Expanding our vision of museum education and perception: An analysis of three case studies of independent blind arts learners. Harvard Educational Review, 83(1), 67–86. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.83. 1.48170l3472530554 Hayhoe, S. (2019). Cultural heritage, ageing, disability, and identity: Practice, and the development of inclusive capital (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315149462 Holloway, S., Hubbard, P., Joens, H., & Pimlott-Wilson, H. (2010). Geographies of education and the significance of children, youth and families. Progress in Human Geography, 34, 583–600. Hornsey, M. J., & Hogg, M. A. (2000). Assimilation and diversity: An integrative model of subgroup relations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 143–156. Karsten, L. (2005). It all used to be better: Different generations on continuity and change in urban children’s daily use of space. Children’s Geographies, 3(3), 275–290. Kraftl, P. (2013a). Geographies of alternative education: Diverse learning spaces for children and young people. Policy Press. Kraftl, P. (2013b). Towards geographies of ‘alternative’ education: A case study of UK home schooling families. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(3), 436–450. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-­5661.2012.00536 Kraftl, P. (2014). ‘Alternative’ education spaces and local community connections: A case study of care farming in the United Kingdom. In Mills & P. Kraftl (Eds.),

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Informal education, childhood and youth geographies, histories, practices. Palgrave Macmillan. Lareau, A. (2000). Social class and the daily lives of children: A study from the United States. Childhood, 7(2), 155–171. Leather, M. (2015). Lost in translation: A critique of “forest school” from a UK perspective. Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, 27(2), 11–15. Leather, M. (2018). A critique of “forest school” or something lost in translation. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 21, 5–18. Lonie, D., & Dickens, L. (2015). Are you listening? Voicing what matters in non-­ formal music education policy and practice. In M. Blazek & P. Kraftl (Eds.), Children’s emotions in policy and practice. Studies in childhood and youth. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137415608_11 Macfarlane, R. (2015). Landmarks. Penguin Books. Mycock, K. (2019). Playing with mud, becoming stuck, becoming free? The negotiation of gendered/class identities when learning outside. Children’s Georgraphies, 17(4), 454–466. National Home Education Research Institute NHERI. (2022). Accessed September 1, 2022, from https://www.nheri.org/research-­facts-­on-­ homeschooling/ Nordbakke, S. (2019). Children’s out of home leisure activities: Changes during the last decade in Norway. Children’s Geographies, 17(3), 347–360. Parsons, K.  J., & Traunter, J. (2020). Muddy knees and muddy needs: Parents perceptions of outdoors learning. Children’s Geographies, 18(6), 699–711. Princiotta D and Bielick S 2006 Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 national center for education statistics, . Ray, B. D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of School Choice, 11(4), 604–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2017.1395638 Rothermel, P. (2003). Can we classify motives for home education? Evaluation and Research in Education, 17, 74–89. Seale, J., Carrizosa, H. G., Rix, J., Sheehy, K., & Hayhoe, S. (2021). A participatory approach to the evaluation of participatory museum research projects. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 44(1), 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2019.1706468 Skar, M., & Krough, S. (2009). Changes in children’s nature based experiences near home: From spontaneous play to adult-controlled, planned and organised activities. Children’s Geographies, 7(3), 339–354. Tlili, A. (2008). Behind the policy mantra of the inclusive museum: Receptions of social exclusion and inclusion in museums and science centres. Cultural Sociology, 2(1), 123–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975507086277 Vallespín, I. (2020). Educació detecta 55.000 famílies sense ordinador o sense connexió per poder seguir les classes a distància [Department of Education

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detects 55,000 families with no computer or no connection enabling them to follow the classes from a distance]. El País [online article]. Accessed August 8, 2020, from https://cat.elpais.com/cat/2020/04/08/catalunya/1586359707_283384.html Waite, S., & Goodenough, A. (2018). What is different about Forest School? Creating a space for an alternative pedagogy in England. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 21(1), 25–44. Waite, S., Bølling, M., & Bentsen, P. (2016). Comparing apples and pears?: A conceptual framework for understanding forms of outdoor learning through comparison of English Forest Schools and Danish Udeskole. Environmental Education Research, 22(6), 868–892. Watermeyer, R., Montgomery, C., Knight, C., Crick, T., Brown, C., & Borras, M. (2022). A research evaluation of the Francis Crick Institute, Education Outreach Programme. Final report. [Available on request]. Whincup, V. A., Allin, L. J., & Greer, J. M. H. (2021). Challenges and pedagogical conflicts for teacher-Forest School leaders implementing Forest School within the UK primary curriculum. Education, 3–13, 1–12. Woodworth, J. L., Raymond, M. E., Chirbas, K., Gonzalez, M., Negassi, Y., Snow, W., & Van Donge, C. (2015). Online charter school study 2015. Center for Research on Education Outcomes, Stanford University. https://credo.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj6481/f/online_charter_study_final.pdf

CHAPTER 4

An ‘Exo’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education

Introduction In Chaps. 2 and 3, we discussed the first two levels of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system’s theory in considering how they could be developed and applied to the study of identity and education. While the micro- and meso-levels refer to the study of educational settings (and the interactions between them), an exo-level spatial lens refers to the study of the wider spatial contexts within which the learner is situated. Bronfenbrenner (1979) defines the ‘exo’-level as: one or more settings that do not involve the developing person as an active participant, but in which events occur that affect or are affected by what happens in the settings containing the developing person. (p25)

In adapting the exo-level to focus squarely upon education and learning, we therefore identify such settings as those that do not include the learner as an active participant, but that still affect them (such as the local government offices or the parental work place) as well as the wider geographical (intra-national) settings in which they are located, such as the town/village/rural community, neighbourhood, or region. The exo-level lens is orientated towards the study of the local contexts of children’s lived social worlds that both shape and are shaped by the in, non, and formal educational settings that learners attend. These contexts include; the local © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_4

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economy and labour market, housing and community infrastructure, local politics and mass media. An exo-level lens, therefore, is broader in scope than the meso-level (Chap. 3) in terms of the bearing of the ‘places’ in which learners live and study and how they shape learners’ micro- and meso-level educational experiences. The exo-level lens is inherently political, conferring to the operation of power concerning matters that have a direct bearing on children’s educational experiences, but for which they rarely have a significant participative role in decision-making processes. Unlike the macro-level (Chap. 5), exo-­ level phenomena are more localised, in that the community, neighbourhood and region are lived and traversed places, they are phenomenologically ‘known’ and experienced, and it is through these local-level identifications that learners construct localised identities. In the Russian doll allegory (see Chong & Graham, 2013), the exo-level encapsulates the interconnectivity and interrelations of micro- and meso-level settings (the home, school, outdoor education centre), and is itself subject to the larger nested scale of the macro-level, in that the neighbourhood and region are shaped by broader national and international policies as well as the inter and intra-­ national mobility of resources. Whilst the exo-level is not concerned with the internal mechanisms of meso- and micro-levels themselves, it is concerned with how these settings are constituted locally. Many geographers and educationalists that have adopted an exo-level lens have been chiefly concerned with researching and theorising the effects of educational policy translated at the community and neighbourhood level, into the lived experiences and inequalities of teachers and learners. That is, the ‘exo-level’ provides an interface between macro-­ globalising forces of labour, capital and educational and neoliberal policy, with its direct impacts upon tangible and empirically studied places and those who inhabit them. While the emphasis upon the empirical in their work puts a high precedence on the value of qualitative research methods, the exo-spatial lens affords attention to forces outside of the immediate micro-level of the educational institution. In order to contextualise and explain the micro-level it is often necessary to draw upon data sources that have a wider application, such as media, policy or historical documentary analysis. In so doing, the exo-level spatial lens frames analyses of micro-­ level data through a political awareness of the patterning of opportunities and resources across geographical ranges beyond the isolated institutional context.

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The Formation of ‘Exo’-Educational Markets by Macro-‘Policy’ Influences A key advantage of the exo-spatial lens is in examining the factors bearing on issues of access to education; a topic of increasing interest within a context of neoliberal policymaking and its emphasis upon competition for finite educational resources. This issue has received significant attention following the global rise of a neoliberal market ethos driving educational policy since the late 1980s in the UK and America (Au, 2008) and more recently in other nations that had previously eschewed the private education model, such as in Sweden (Silfver et al., 2016) (see Chap. 5). One important focus of an exo-level lens has been upon what has been termed ‘neighbourhood effects’ (see van Ham et al., 2012); ‘the idea that neighbourhood characteristics can have a significant effect on residents’ life chances over and above the effect of their individual characteristics’ (p1). From an educational perspective one of the most significant foci has been upon the issue of educational access to quality schooling. Since the Education Reform Act 1988 parents of children in the UK have been permitted to apply for schools outside of the Local Education Authority, thus dispensing with local authority control over school admissions processes. This shift has marked the rise of the national education system according to market principles, whereby ‘popular’ schools are now rewarded by the funding that follows each school placement, as well as increased autonomy from local authority involvement. On the other end of the spectrum, ‘unpopular’ schools with low student intakes attract less funding and closer government scrutiny. Following a market ethos, subsequent policies have been designed to measure schools’ and pupils’ performance so as to aid parents’ decision-making in their choice of schools, as well as to hold schools, pupils, and more recently, teachers, to account for children’s learning in the designated core subjects of maths, English and Science. The year 1991 marked the introduction of standardised assessment tests (SATs) at key stages 1 (age 7), 2 (age 11) and 3 (age 14) for children in all state-sponsored primary and secondary schools in England. Initially these national tests were implemented to enable national comparison between schools, authorities and regions. The introduction of secondary school performance league tables in 1992 represented a national ranking schema displaying the relative position of every school in England ordered from highest to lowest performing. Following the New Labour administration in 1997, SATs testing became normative in order to set

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benchmark standards for children’s achievements. The basis upon which children’s performance was calculated changed in 2002 from considering children’s final achievements by measuring the percentage of children in each school achieving five or more GCSEs, to considering the progress children made since leaving primary school. This aimed to provide a more precise account of the school-level effect on attainment, in taking account of the prior achievement of the student cohort at key stage two (aged 11  years). Education policy critics, however, contended that this ‘value added’ measure failed to take account of children’s demographic and socio-economic backgrounds and therefore favoured schools that had more middle-class children (Reay et al., 2009a, b). In response to this, the English government introduced a measure called ‘contextual value added’, which used a multi-level modelling analysis to produce a flexible predictive grade by which to measure projected achievement, by taking account of age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. While not a perfect indicator, this method reflected a fairer basis upon which inequality in school and community neighbourhood, had upon the effectiveness of school (see Goldstein, 2011). Following a change of government in 2011, however, the ‘contextual value added’ measure was dropped in favour of measures resembling the previous ones used, which failed to take account of the compositional differences between students. Since September 2016, the English government has introduced the Progress 8 measure, which calculates student’s performance across eight GCSE subjects taken in areas approved as academic by the government. This measure compares students’ achievements with the national average achieved by students with the same prior achievement at key stage 2. A student will be evaluated as under-performing if s/he achieves an assessment that is half a grade point or more less than the national average (Leckie & Goldstein, 2016, p6). Serious concerns, however, have been raised about the Progress 8 measure, especially in view of the COVID-19 pandemic (Prior et al., 2021) and accordingly the measure was suspended in 2020 and 2021, prior to its proposed re-introduction in 2022 with the latest guidance at the time of writing signalling that ‘a broadly similar approach to calculating Progress 8’ will be taken (DfE, 2022, p4). These shifts in the ways in which school attainment and progress are measured have significant impacts on the ways in which schools are judged to be performing, which has, created intense competition between schools, as well as for the students and families that schools serve.

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Neighbourhood Effects on School Access Within an Educational Market The spatial dimension of changing performance indicators has been considered with respect to the socio-demographic redistribution of children to schools whereby those families with the cultural and economic capital to do so have directed their children to the highest-performing schools. Ball et  al. (1995) have called the effects of the middle-class vis-à-vis working-­class strategies of school navigation, ‘circuits of schooling’, in identifying fundamentally different options for children within a similar geographic range. This concept recognises that while children of high and low socio-economic backgrounds may in principle have access to the same options for school choice within a given geographical region, in practice the type and quality of the schools they can enter are of a fundamentally different track. Hamnet and Butler (2016) have explained the ways that middle-class parents are able to leverage an advantage within this system. In considering the region of East London they show how a spatial politics can be seen to operate in key areas where the demand for popular schools has overridden the supply. The East London region is an interesting case for considering the parameters of school choice for parents. East London is subject to the pan-London application system agreed upon by LEAs operating in London since 2006. In this system parents can specify their preferences for up to six schools. This is because allocation is made according to strict criteria whereby the ratio of preference to place could in some cases be seen to exceed 10:1 (p54). In consulting the admissions data for the East London borough, Hamnet and Butler showed how the distance-­ to-­school criterion and the ‘quasi’ distance-to-school criterion of ‘sibling attendance’ were the two most important criteria in determining the allocation of places to schools in demand (p58). As a result, they conclude that, ‘place of residence is of considerable importance in influencing access to schools and educational outcomes’ (p59). The educational inequalities of these findings are considerable given that while middle-class families can afford the premium placed on house prices in the near catchment areas of popular schools, lower-income families cannot, and are therefore systematically excluded. Hamnet and Butler further argue that the admissions protocol merely confirms and reinforces parents’ perceptions of ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’ schools, thus stigmatising as well as elevating, the status of schools, pupils and teachers. This empirical study of market forces operating at the exo-level can be seen to problematise the policy

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aspiration of so-called ‘free’ choice, in highlighting how many families will be unable to achieve their preferred choice of school and instead be compelled towards tactical strategies for avoiding the least popular schools. Questions concerning parents’ differential power to exert choice are all the more complicated in England under the successive Coalition and Conservative governments following the rise of the academy programme and the introduction of Free schools, both of which control their own admissions protocols. For those schools,-that are often oversubscribed, there is little stopping ‘popular’ schools from selecting only those students for whom they expect high performance to reflect well on the school. Indeed, if anything, macro-level forces that drive competition based on exam performance provide the kind of environment which would encourage schools to act in this way. In arguing for a fairer system of educational access, Hamnet and Butler (2016) point towards alternative models of school allocation required to counter the middle-class bias instigated through allocation by geography, such as a lottery system or banding by key criteria such as prior attainment or socio-economic-status, to compel schools to employ a fair cross-mix. Through an exo-level lens upon the educational market operating within the region of East London, we are confronted with the geographic dimension of educational inequality in access to good schools. We can also appreciate the potential of the exo-level to mediate macro-policy imperatives. Interconnection of the Meso- and Exo-Levels: Familial and Neighbourhood Factors Framing School Choice The policy mechanisms by which school places are awarded are one part of the picture of spatial inequality, the second part is with respect to parents’ agency and information upon which to inform such choices. In illuminating how the neighbourhood effects of an educational market translate into ‘choice’ mechanisms for parents, meso-level analyses reveal the divergent narratives expressed by parents from privileged versus socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This is illustrated within a study of third- and fourth-grade (aged 8–11) elementary (primary) school children in America, Horvat et  al. (2006) provide the example of Ms Marshall a middle-­class Black mother who explained the process by which she disputed her daughter’s failed attempt to pass the school’s entrance exam necessary to access the gifted and talented programme:

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I found out about Terry Hoffman [an educational psychologist] from a White friend of mine…(t)hey had gone through the same thing with their son. Her son had not made it through the screening test at his elementary school. And June [the mother] is very, um… aggressive and assertive and she kinda hit the roof ‘Well wha’d’ya mean?’ If you don’t make it you can challenge it… And she had found this Terry Hoffman. (Ms Marshall quoted in Horvat et al., 2006; p462)

Ms Marshall was therefore able to contest and overturn the school’s decision not to include her daughter, by using her privately commissioned educational psychologist’s report. The parents from lower SES backgrounds in their study, in contrast, felt that they lacked the autonomy to challenge school decisions, and were passive to the authority of school with regards to issues of school inclusion. For example, while very concerned by the headteacher’s suggestion to transfer her daughter into specialist schooling, Ms Driver voiced her impotence to affect choice over which school her child attended: I think they just want to keep it [her daughter’s reading difficulties] in the school for now and then when they get to a point where they can’t figure it out I guess they’ll send me [and daughter] somewhere else… So I figured I’d wait until the first report card to see what they’d say. (Ms Driver Horvat et al., 2006; 462)

While Hamnet and Butler’s quantitative analysis of the educational market may therefore illuminate the ways in which macro- and exo-­policies translate into issues of educational disadvantage in access, these qualitative accounts illustrate the psychological, material and cultural factors that explain such inequalities in access. It is not just the financial resources to enter school catchment areas that create an educational advantage or penalty for socio-economically privileged and disadvantaged families, but it is also their cultural capital to dispute school authority on questions of school access, as well as the social capital to garner the support to contest these decisions. This further calls into question how social class identity comes into play here, in terms of the way working-class groups struggle to navigate middle-class educational and school cultures, feeling ‘out of their depth’ and lacking the confidence to assert themselves in these contexts.

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Neighbourhoods in Flux: Urban Regeneration, School and Community Identity Another area in which exo-level forces shape educational concerns is through the impact of neighbourhood effects brought about by issues of urban redevelopment and renewal. While on the face of it, urban investment may be perceived to be a positive influence upon the spatial landscapes of the region, the reality is more complex. Even where neighbourhoods experience economic prosperity, this does not always translate into increased educational inclusion for socio-economically deprived families. Indeed, inequalities of access to education in a market economy can be seen to connect with place-based power struggles for recognition and regional identity and belonging. As the following discussion indicates, a given neighbourhood’s increasing status following financial investment may not confer automatic entitlement to all of its citizens. A major factor in the construction of neighbourhood status is the level and type of economic investment and development of housing and infrastructure. This is not a straightforward linear pathway whereby increased investment leads to increased recognition, because town-planners often initiate processes of denigration as a pre-cursor to neighbourhood renewal; ‘Before communities can be restructured, they have to be devalued, prepared for development, and reimagined as places of value’ (Lipman, 2007; 168). As a consequence of disinvestment in housing and infrastructure, the value of place can be seen to be conflated with the value of its citizens, or what Wilson et al. (2004) identified as a public perception of feeling ‘easily discardable people and social life’ (1181). Pauline Lipman (2007) has researched this in considering the role of schools in the material and cultural reconstruction of urban space, through the case studies of three low-income African American communities in Chicago. Schools in these three districts were systemically de-invested in and closed to make way for the development of new schools aimed at attracting a higher socio-­ economic demographic of students following the projected urban investment and development. The proposed schools had a remit to include only a third of the children from the existing low-cost housing estates. Lipman’s qualitative research with the community groups that campaigned against the school closures uncovered the anger and frustration felt by the community at the displacement of children, families and teachers of schools serving these socio-economic groups classified as ‘distained’ by the local authorities and city planners; ‘We’re being pushed out of the

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neighbourhood under the guise of school reform’ (veteran teacher at Englewood high school, Lipman, 2007; p166). In giving a platform to the voices of those silenced by educational policy reform, Lipman was able to counter the political rhetoric that presented urban regeneration as a benign if not positive force upon community and social life, in showing how external efforts to change the identity of schools is a hub in the transformation of the meaning of places. In the words of one school child involved in campaigning against school closure: ‘When you destroy a community’s school, you destroy the community’ (p168). In considering the exo-level within her analysis, Lipman was able to demonstrate that despite their omnipotence, capitalist processes of urban regeneration are not unilateral, in provoking grassroots political action from communities affected. This work is an important injunction to consider that even the most powerless of community citizens can exert struggle and resistance in the face of educational (and resource) inequalities, and occasionally with significant gains. One such example provided by Lipman was the 19-day hunger strike by 14 mothers and grandmothers in protest for a school to serve Chicago’s Little Village Latino community in 2002. The protest garnered widespread community support and was eventually successful resulting in the opening of a $63 million school three years later, which reflected the most expensive public school in the city’s history (Lipman, 2007; 169–170). Sadly, examples of such grassroots success may be few in relation to the numerous whose access to good quality education is further disadvantaged by processes of urban regeneration of neighbourhoods. What such research into the neighbourhood effects of exo-level issues highlights, is some of the ways in which local-level economic factors, housing and buildings policy, and the patterned distribution of resources, can shape both educational inequalities such as access to good quality education as well as the ability to construct valued citizen identities.

Regional Inequalities in Access to School in a Low-­Income National Context So far, the discussion has centred on an exo-level focus on educational inequalities in a high-income context. In lower-income countries, factors raised at the exo-level have the potential to create even greater challenges and disparities. The issue of access to schools is complicated by the subjection of national governments to political forces, and the mobility of

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resources outside as well as inside of the nation. The coupling of poor infrastructure and geographical terrain that does not lend easily to human transportation, can also present compounding factors. In her study of the inequalities of access to education in the Philippines, for example, Symaco (2015) observed the disproportional concentration of school funding to the capital Manila, despite the vastly accentuated and dire need for schooling in rural areas. In explaining this, Symaco pointed towards the far greater voter power of the population in the capital, as well as the country’s approach to natural disaster management, which relied on external aid in response to national crises as opposed to preventative disaster management policies, an approach that has been acknowledged elsewhere with respect to Ethiopia’s approach to drought management; ‘If prevention is costly and relief is free, governments will underspend on prevention’ (Cohen & Werker, 2008; 810). There is also the issue of religious identity and politics where the southern Muslim-dominated provinces of the southern island of Mindanao have been subject to internal conflict concerning governance and authority and identity politics. In a region marked by greater poverty and less developed infrastructure, issues of educational access can be seen to become even more complex. Drawing upon empirical research, Symaco recounts a ‘typical’ commute for school teacher Norisa who worked at one of the less remote elementary schools in the region: Norisa would need to walk for around half an hour from her home to take the motorized banca to cross the river, which takes another 30 minutes, after which she would then need to walk another 20 minutes or so to reach school (Symaco, 2015; 96).

As one of only three teachers in the school where she taught, the children would not have a replacement if Norisa was ill or unable to attend. Symaco observes how these remote and under-resourced schools relied on teacher commitment in lieu of satisfactory government investment. In the words of another teacher at the only school in the remote region Abasolo; ‘I will die teaching here because no teacher will accept this post. Besides, I don’t have the heart to leave these kids’ (Symaco, 2015 p98). These examples highlight how on the other end of the spectrum where national governments rebuke an aspiration of equality of access to education, the issue is less about choice between options than it is about opportunity to access any formal education. While the dedication of individuals and

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community can go so far, this does little to counter the failure of structural forms of disadvantage. These examples indicate how exo-level factors such as economic resources and natural topography can be seen to shape and limit both educational opportunities but also pedagogical identities. Working in the face of such dire resourcing educators can be seen to have assumed identities as essential pillars of the community, thus demonstrating how exo-level factors can also be seen to shape psychological conceptualisations of what it means to be a teacher and learner.

An Exo-Spatial Lens on Within-School Processes of Inclusion/Exclusion The bearing of neighbourhood and community effects upon educational inclusion is not just about access to ‘good’ schools, but also about the experiences of teachers and learners within the educational institutions, as well as the allocation of resources to them. So profound is the impact of neighbourhood context, as a mediator of social background effects, that it accounts for 85–92% of the difference in students’ performance (as opposed to the impact of school efforts) (Reynolds et al., 1996; Sammons, 1999). As one of the most highly respected scholars researching neighbourhood effects upon educational outcomes, Ruth Lupton (2006) conducted a mixed methods study exploring the contextual factors shaping school quality. In firstly conducting a quantitative analysis of the relationship between school Ofsted reports and area deprivation, Lupton was able to select four case study schools located in the 5% most disadvantaged areas of England, but varying by quality of Ofsted inspection, as well as by contextual factors including; region, area type (i.e. inner city/industrial/ rural), ethnic and gender mix, and housing. Through interviews with senior managers and teachers, complimented by analysis of school policy documents, and in-school observations, Lupton’s study revealed the impacts of local-level factors that affected the children’s school performance and hence schools’ Ofsted ratings. She distinguished contextual factors into two categories; firstly, ‘pupil social and economic characteristics’ including, ‘family income, ethnic origin, gender, family structure and relationships and resources such as housing transport, books and computers’ (p662) and secondly; ‘culture and attitudes of children and their families’ (ibid). The key difference between these categories was that while teachers believed that the first category conferred to pragmatic challenges,

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the second category referred to the entrenched values and customs that teachers believed were harder to tackle. Despite the cross-cutting impacts of contextual factors, school quality could be relatively distinguished between the higher-attaining inner-city schools and the lower-attaining schools on the periphery of major cities. This finding has significantly spatial implications. The geographical proximity of schools within their respective neighbourhoods and communities could be seen to reflect the educational inclusion versus exclusion that children and learners in the varying schools experienced. Children and families within more centrally situated schools held higher aspirations for their schooling and educational futures, while those situated on the peripheries reflected low value and low expectations for their schooling which may well chime with a sense of lesser valued citizenship identity identified in Lipman’s (2007) study. In accounting for the distinction in pupil and family attitudes in the different schools, Lupton (2006) pointed to (on the one hand) the emotional and practical needs of children coming from disrupted or violent families in the white working-class schools on the peripheries of their communities. Such behavioural needs were seen by teachers to be more challenging than the familial responsibilities and language challenges of children from the ethnically mixed inner-city schools. The key distinction rested on the higher level of (albeit minority) behavioural social and emotional difficulties at the white working-class schools and the lower parental faith in the value of schooling to raise their children’s work and life prospects. While familial responsibilities and language barriers interrupted parental participation within the ethnically diverse schools, teachers expressed few disciplinary problems with minority ethnic groups. Furthermore, Lupton (2006) observed that ethnicity was not the only cultural factor that affected performance. She further identified gender and prior attainment, economic opportunities, social networks, and school and neighbourhood reputation as causal factors. Boys presented more behavioural problems than girls, as did the levels of prior attainment with behavioural issues increasing among the lowest attainers. Furthermore, while all neighbourhoods had experienced downwards economic prosperity within the inner-city schools, new industries presented new opportunities for some, and relationships with business links in a large law firm strengthened the labour market aspirations of children in one of the inner-­ city schools. Lastly, was the impact upon self-esteem conferred at the school level, where teachers observed the impact of school status upon

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children’s learner motivations; failing the 11-plus and being allocated to the ‘worst’ school meant that some pupils, ‘just walk through the door and just give up’ or that ‘kids come here because no-one can be bothered to get them into somewhere else… those kids come in with those chips very firmly on their shoulders’ (teacher quotes in Lupton, 2006; 665). As Lupton’s study (2006) has highlighted, the impact of the neighbourhood level upon educational inequalities is more than just about access to education; it is also about the types of identity that differentially resourced localities allow. Studies such as those reviewed in this chapter highlight the power of an exo-level lens in focusing the analysis of community and neighbourhood factors in shaping the kinds of citizen identities that learners and their families can hold. Whilst there was a swathe of North American and European school effectiveness research from the 1970s onwards that identified factors that could improve schools, the question of neighbourhood effects was for many a stumbling block in this process. The work of Lupton, as well as others such as Martin Thrupp’s (1999) study, contend that the actions of teachers and school leaders are inhibited by their school mix and neighbourhood effects. We now turn to consider the processes of in-school of identity construction with respect to learners’ opportunities to feel valued and recognised within the school community. While a micro-level lens on learner identity was explored in Chap. 2 and a meso-level lens considered pedagogical identities in Chap. 3, the focus in the following section is on how children’s schooling identities may be shaped by the nature and status of the neighbourhoods in which schools are situated. Neighbourhood Effects Upon Learner Identity At the start of this chapter, we considered how a neoliberal educational market may contribute towards the variable statuses and identities of educational institutions. This section deepens this analysis in demonstrating the ways in which learners challenge and redefine the subordinating labels that are produced from value hierarchies, in negotiating and reconstructing learner identities in attempt to uphold a sense of personal and collective sense of self-value. Reay and Lucey (2000) ascribe such processes to be acts of ‘reclassification’, to depict working-class resistance so as not to be defeated by daily educational experiences. In exploring the neighbourhood effects upon agents’ responses within educational settings, an exo-lens is well positioned to appreciate the types

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of resistance that learners can variously engage in, thus enabling a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of educational inclusion and exclusion. This is illustrated in Dillabough et  al.’s (2007) study of peer rivalry within one inner-city high school in Southern Ontario, Canada, in providing an exo-spatial lens on how processes of neighbourhood development can shape within-school learner identities in explaining social and educational exclusion. The focal school Tower Hill served a neighbourhood of declining economic prosperity and low-cost high-rise apartments, as well as state-subsidised social housing. The ethnic composition of the area included established immigrant groups of Portuguese, Italian, as well as working-class white Canadian populations and a more recent influx of migrants and refugees. Industrial deprivation in the area coupled with cuts to social support meant that families were increasingly working longer hours, often through maintaining two or three jobs concurrently, and were required to travel further to their places of work. The area was subject to recent zoning policies sanctioning an increase in temporary social housing alongside low-cost non-state housing in addition to existing social housing. A high level of residential and school turbulence was caused by both the replacement of social housing by private sector development, as well as the effects of school stratification as parents sought to send their children to higher-performing schools in alternative neighbourhoods. Dillabough et  al. (2007) named this process the ghetto or ‘warehousing’ effect of demonised schools such as Tower Hill, in highlighting the ambivalent attachments that students held towards their school and neighbourhood. On the one hand, the young adolescents in their study expressed a desire to stay in their ‘home’ territories of school and neighbourhood, while on the other there were times in which they did not feel safe: ‘I’m kind of happy [in Tower Hill] but my mum just had a baby so I don’t think it’s the proper neighbourhood for the baby to grow up in’ (Cecilia quoted in Dillabough et  al., 2007; 148). Dangers were experienced right on their doorstep; ‘My building someone got killed there… cause he… I think he was dealing drugs or something’ (Clara quoted in Dillabough et al., 2007; 147) or in the tower block corridors that must be crossed to get to school and where ‘suspicious’ strangers lurked (p149). The effects of living in a neighbourhood perceived to present a constant sense of danger could be seen to manifest within school in the form of tough ‘gangsta’ identities whereby boys and girls responded by monitoring and deriding what they labelled as the ‘Gina/Gino’ identities of softer more pro-schooling learner orientations; ‘If you’re a guy you

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can’t be girlish, the school is filled with Ginos’ (Randy, self-identified ‘gangsta’ quoted in Dillabough et al., 2007p144); ‘At recess you’d always have to go and pick on a kid and make his life like hell… to fit in, to be cool’. (Renissa self-identified ‘gangsta’ quoted in Dillabough et al., 2007; 142). While Cohen has explained such ‘tough guy’ identities as a process of de-identification in attempt to master an environment where they feel powerless (1999; 136), McRobie (1978) has spoken of a narrative of ‘tough femininity’ as a working-class form of subcultural capital that reflects a sense of familiarity and ‘being in the know’ within public neighbourhood spaces. Such examples illustrate the extent to which learners carry the weight of neighbourhood troubles into their schooling experiences and highlight the parameters upon children’s efforts to construct a sense of being a valued and recognised learner. What these examples highlight is the relative and relational value of young people’s identities. The young people in this study weren’t free to construct the identities of their choosing but rather felt compelled to assume a ‘tough’ identity that aligned them with the dangerous nature of the places in which they lived, as well as protected them from physical and social threats. One of the concepts used to explain the role of identity in connecting young people with the neighbourhood and localities in which they live, is that of ‘belonging’. Recognised as playing a critical factor in young people’s engagement and sense of citizenship (see Stevenson, 2001), the study of belonging is a further avenue in which we may profitably explore the role of the exo-level on young people’s educational and work trajectories.

Belonging in Places and the Impact on Education and Work Aspirations While it has been argued that ‘belonging’ is complex and nuanced concept to operationalise, Baumeister and Leary (1995) identify a number of criteria for belonging which are helpful in understanding young people’s connection to neighbourhood and locality and connect squarely with their ability to maintain valued social identities; it must be long-lasting, positive, stable and has an emotional dimension that young people feel to the places they live (pp497, 500–01). Furthermore, it has been argued that while belonging is a sense of connection that is rooted in place(s) it is nevertheless highly relational in referring to the relationships that young people

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have within the places they live (Antonsich, 2010). We may therefore consider belonging as a relational form of identity to place. So far, we have considered the types of identities produced in neighbourhoods of economic challenge and deindustrialisation, we now turn an exo-lens upon studies that have explored efforts to rebuild and reconstruct young people’s sense of connection with their localities. One such study by Boland (2018) considered the impact of ‘City of Culture’ (CoC) status upon Derry—in Northern Ireland—on young people’s sense of belonging and civic pride in the city that they lived, as well as on their work and educational aspirations. The mixed methods study carried out with 743 school students aged 13–18 identified that over 84% of survey respondents reported a greater sense of pride in their city following the CoC status; 81% felt more excited about participating in events in the city; and 73% agreed that the city was a better place to be since 2013 (the year the status was awarded). However, older participants in the study also reported their disillusionment between the public narratives promoted on the purported gains to young people, with the reality several years following its award. These concerns related to their perceptions of the economic prospects mobilised through the CoC status, both for their city and for themselves. Only just over half of young people agreed that CoC had brought jobs to their regions (52%) with only 17% agreeing that CoC had increased their confidence in gaining a job in their region. Furthermore, a mere 22% of young people claimed that they wanted to remain in their home region in seeking employment or further/higher education. Follow-up interviews and focus groups carried out with young people shed further light on this finding in identifying that young people believed that the employment brought to the area was only temporary and not high-quality jobs. These findings raise important questions concerning the extent to which young people align quality work prospects with quality of life and the desire to leave their home regions. The implications from these findings show that regional investment in cultural activities can have a significant impact upon young people’s sense of belonging and connection to the regions in which they live. However, perhaps the more significant factor that informs older young people’s aspirations to leave or stay in their home regions concerns the employment and education prospects that their region offers, in the absence of which young people may feel disillusioned, highlighting the point made by others in the field of youth studies that ‘raising young people’s aspirations without providing labour market opportunities  …  is dangerous’ (Allen & Hollingworth, 2013,

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514). These findings demonstrate that young people’s identification and sense of belonging in the regions, they live, can be strengthened and weakened through the efforts of policy, de/investment and cultural discourses at the exo-level. But they also highlight the limitations of exo-level structural forces, such as in the absence of macro-level resources and policy. Another exo-level issue that has attracted a lot of attention among policymakers both in regional and national governments is that of ‘brain drain’ (highly skilled graduates and workers leaving local areas). While Boland et al.’s (2018) study highlighted some of the challenges in how regions might respond to the issue of ‘brain drain’, a more positive account is offered in a study conducted in the borderland regions in Portugal that considered local policymakers’ interventions to motivate young people to settle in the area (Silva et al., 2021). In a survey of nearly 4000 school-­ aged respondents (14–18 years), findings indicated that a significant number of young people intended to leave their home regions to continue education or seek employment, while at the same time, 72% of young people retained a strong sense of belonging to their local regions. Follow-up biographical interviews with young people revealed an interesting phenomenon by which participants sought to pursue outwards mobility in order to generate educational and work experiences, but later returned—or planned to return—to their local regions to settle. Interviews with municipal authorities revealed the tactics that local policymakers employed to strengthen young people’s motivations to stay or return to their local regions, following a strategy that the authors defined as a ‘walk the line’ dual-pronged approach. On the one hand, this involves investing heavily in further and higher education in the region as well as financial incentives and tax breaks for employers to bring work to the region. On the other hand, it involved offering opportunities and placements for young people to study and train outside of the region in order to gain valuable national and international work experiences. Another study based in a region of declining coal industrialisation in the US also invested in education in a bid to avoid the ‘brain drain’ of young talent (Terman, 2020). This included investing in an extensive scholarship programme offering significantly reduced fees for home students in the region with grades above a given level, which was found to be effective at keeping young people in their local regions. This study also highlighted the effectiveness of community engagement schemes in attracting young people from outside of the region such as VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America, sometimes described as an

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intra-national Peace Corps) and youth activist groups that got involved in local issues such as anti-de-forestation. Both approaches were found to strengthen a sense of connection and belonging for existing as well as new youth groups. These measures respond to the findings from Boland et al. (2018) and Terman’s (2020) study that young people’s aspirations to leave their home regions were motivated by the desire for broader life experiences. Such examples highlight that outward mobility for education and work can support, as well as obstruct, young people’s desires to settle in their local regions, in demonstrating the power of exo-level local policymaking in shaping learners’ decisions to stay, leave and return. Studies into young people’s educational and labour market aspirations highlight the importance of place identity at the exo-level, in that a sense of belonging to the city, locality, or region forms a fundamental part of learners’ connection to the places they live and their prospective learning and work trajectories. Such research demonstrates that the effectiveness and limitations of exo-level policymaking is contingent upon the resourcing of learner’s opportunities to generate a sense of work and social identity within their local areas. So far, we have taken an exo-level lens in considering the impact of local government policymaking on young people’s sense of belonging and work and educational aspirations, and we will now move on to consider another factor that bears on young people’s sense of belonging, identity and engagement in the localities in which they live: the role of emergent and digital technologies.

An Exo-Spatial Lens on Digital Space and Social and Educational Inclusion Since the emergence of digital technologies scholars have been keen to analyse the affects upon social and cultural life. Early accounts have argued that the new digital platforms foreshadowed the erosion of local lived places in lieu of alternative ‘virtual’ realities lived through cyberspace (see Gibson, 1984; Mitchell, 2003). Such accounts suggested that the analysis of the digital is best achieved through a macro-lens, given the possibility to access a global database of information and interact with digital users all over the world. However, as technology has evolved through Global Positioning System (GPS)—capable mobile devices and the correlated geocoding of information, digital platforms have worked their way into

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mainstream daily living through mobile phones, and more recently smartphones, laptops, tablets, and even wearable body function monitoring devices (like running bracelets or rings to measure menstrual cycles or sleep patterns). It is therefore arguable that these technologies are far more relevant to our relationships lived and carried out in our homes, schools, communities and neighbourhoods. Indeed, spatial theorists have argued that far from eroding local lived realities, virtual worlds are rather mapped onto and indeed built into real places: Apps such as Foursquare1 depend on people who use it “logging in” at favourite libraries, shops cafes or restaurants. Other apps tell you about local history and show you images of the place you are in from a hundred years earlier. You can find which of your friends are nearest to you and then meet them for a drink… Indeed, it is not just our GPS-enabled mobile devices that are linking bricks and mortar to virtual worlds; the bricks and mortar themselves are being “augmented” with all manner of devices that make the world increasingly interactive in new ways. (Cresswell, 2015; p146).

It may be that digital technology is an aid for building identity construction within the neighbourhood. Satellite mapping applications standard in most smartphones can generate in the user confidence to explore the materiality as well as the topography of the neighbourhood, safe in the knowledge that they can’t lose their orientation or get lost. Digital technology can also be used by young people to earn a stake in their local community, especially important for those who are excluded or disadvantaged, due to their socio-economic, religious, ethnic or cultural backgrounds. An example is offered in the case of the work of De Martini Ugolotti (2016) who conducted an ethnographic study into the role of capoeira and parkour for immigrant young people (men) in navigating alien and hostile public spaces within Turin. De Martini documented how young people constructed a video-documentary film narrative of their experiences of public spaces, and in the process used filming and hosting of material on social media so as to contest their (subtle and patent) exclusion from public spaces in achieving—albeit partial—forms of recognition in the city where they lived.

1  Foursquare is a commercial online application which describes itself as ‘the most trusted independent location data platform for understanding how people move through the real world’. (Available online: https://foursquare.com/) Accessed 04.09.22.

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Interconnection Between Exo- and Micro-Levels: The Role of Region on Education in Digital Space With respect to the impact of digital technology in shaping educational spaces within formal education, an interesting case study is offered in the example of the Open University, premised on the concept of distance learning achieved through digital online groups and individual tutorials and online lectures. The Open University brings higher education to a geographically diverse set of learners, in catering for flexible work and living arrangements, and given that ‘social inclusion’ and ‘widening participation among diverse student groups’ are cited as core aspirations.2 While the majority of learning is conducted online, regular opportunities are also offered for face-to-face learning through attending the nearest regional centre. This learning model has been supported by research highlighting that the most successful forms of online learning take place alongside as opposed to instead of face-to-face interaction between teachers and learners (Ng, 2007). When the Open University (OU) announced the closure of seven of its nine regional centres, therefore, the university staff were highly dismayed at the dismissal of what they saw to be a key aspect of the learning approach; ‘all the values and ethos of the institution [are] being torn apart’ (O’Sullivan OU lecturer and UCU rep quoted in Swain, 2015). Their reasons highlighted the centrality of the digital online experience mapping onto and expanding upon a sense of community that is established first and foremost in the real world: But it [the OU experience] really only works when they have met face to face to face. It’s very hard to create a sense of community from scratch online. All the evidence shows you meet face to face, then you can continue your relationship online… without that, students won’t feel connected to the university and to one another, which is really important. (Coughlan, OU lecturer quoted in Swain, 2015)

Of course, digital technology does not only enhance learners’ micro-­ level educational experiences, but it can also be used for more malign intentions in shaping learners’ educational experiences in negative ways. Researchers have discussed how the nature of bullying has transformed following the encroachment of digital technology into the life worlds of 2  See widening access and success strategy: http://www.open.ac.uk/cicp/main/widening-­ access-­and-success/widening-access-and-success-strategy

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children and young people, in expanding the settings in which learners can experience bullying from formal educational settings into the home and community (Smith et al., 2008). This is an important issue to consider in a post-pandemic context given the evidence that suggests that cyber bulling (alongside other mental health issues) may have increased during stay-­ at-­home orders issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, given the additional amount of time learners were spending online (Allkins, 2021; Cowie & Myers, 2021). Furthermore, given that the effects of cyberbullying have been found to be most harmful on young people when carried out by people known to the victim, alongside traditional face-to-face forms of bullying in school (Beran & Li, 2007) this points to an urgent need to for research to consider the implications of the pandemic on learners’ longer-term experiences of bullying following return to their formal education settings. Research into the affordances and drawbacks of digital technology highlights that digital space can be seen to play a key role in mediating learners’ experiences both of their formal, in/non-formal educational settings but also of the localities or ‘places’ in which they are set. Digital space has therefore not replaced the local level—as earlier social theorists warned—but rather can be considered to be co-constitutive of learners’ social and educational experiences.

Concluding Remarks This chapter has outlined some of the ways in which an exo-level spatial lens on education can enable the study of educational inequalities, with particular reference to the role of identity making in the spatial contexts of the school, neighbourhood and region. We have addressed some of the features of a neoliberal approach to the educational market and how this has translated into impacts upon the neighbourhood, and region, which in turn shape learners’ experiences in formal (and informal) learning settings. We have identified a number of key issues that are appropriate to explore through exo-lens. These include but are not limited to: • The study of educational markets, both in terms of factors contributing to the issue of (pre/)school and university choice, but also their implications.

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• The bearing of neighbourhood contextual factors upon the within-­ school educational experiences, learner identities and outcomes of (dis/)advantaged social groups. • The connection between place identity and education and work aspirations. • The role of local and regional policymaking on young people’s sense of belonging, cultural, educational and economic engagement in the localities and regions where they live. • The role of digital technologies in shaping learners’ spatial and educational experiences and sense of belonging. The studies that have been discussed in this chapter have but scratched the surface of the potential enabled through an exo-level spatial lens in considering the ways in which they can be seen to mediate and interact with the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. The following chapter will develop and expand upon these—and further educational issues—through examining the macro-level as a lens on educational and social inclusion. In complimenting the focus of earlier chapters upon schooling and in/non-­ formal education settings, the following chapter will reflect further upon higher education contexts from a spatial and identity perspective. Through an in-depth consideration of studies that shine a light on the interconnection between space and identity, we hope to develop within the reader an appreciation for not only the key issues of educational inclusion enabled through the various lenses of an ecological model, but also the methodologies, particularly mixed-method approaches for data generation that are suited to profitable educational research into space, place and identity (see Chap. 6).

References Allen, K., & Hollingworth, S. (2013). ‘Sticky subjects’ or ‘cosmopolitan creatives’? Social class, place and urban young people’s aspirations for work in the knowledge economy. Urban Studies, 50(3), 499–517. Allkins, S. (2021). Online safety: The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on children in the UK. British Journal of Child Health, 2(2), 69–72. Antonsich, M. (2010). Searching for belonging: An analytical framework. Geography Compass, 4(6), 644–659.

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Horvat, E. M., Weininger, E. B., & Lareau, A. (2006). From social ties to social capital: Class differences in the relations between schools and parents’ networks. In H.  Lauder, P.  Brown, J.  Dillabough, & A.  H. Halsey (Eds.), Education, globalization and social change (pp.  454–467). Oxford University Press. Leckie, G., & Goldstein, H. (2016). The evolution of school league tables in England 1992–2016: ‘Contextual value added’, ‘expected progress’ and ‘progress 8’ (Bristol working papers i education series). University of Bristol. Lipman, P. (2007). Education and the spatialisation of urban inequality. In K. N. Gulson & C. Symes (Eds.), Spatial theories of education: Policy and geography matters. Routledge. Lupton, R. (2006). Schools in disadvantaged areas: Low attainment and a contextualised policy response. In H. Lauder, P. Brown, J. Dillabough, & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Education, globalization and social change. Oxford University Press. McRobie, A. (1978). Working class girls and the culture of femininity. In Women take issue. Hutchinson. Mitchell, W. J. (2003). Me ++: The cyborg and the networked city. MIT Press. Ng, K.  C. (2007). Replacing face-to-face tutorials by synchronous online technologies: Challenges and pedagogical implications. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 8(1). Prior, L., Jerrim, J., Thomson, D., & Leckie, G. (2021). A review and evaluation of secondary school accountability in England: Statistical strengths, weaknesses and challenges for ‘Progress 8’ raised by COVID-19. Review of Education, 9, e3299. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3299 Reay, D., & Lucey, H. (2000). I don’t really like it here, but I don’t want to be anywhere else; children and inner city council estates. Antipode, 32(4), 410–428. Reay, A., McCormack, T., & Evans, H. (2009a). Value added in English schools. Education, 4, 415–438. Reay, D., Crozier, G., & Clayton, J. (2009b). ‘Strangers in paradise’? Working-­ class students in elite universities. Sociology, 43(6), 1103–1121. Reynolds, D., Sammons, P., et al. (1996). School effectiveness and school improvement in the UK. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 7(2), 133–158. Sammons, P. (1999). School effectiveness: Coming of age in the 21st century. Swets and Zeitlinger. Silfver, E., Sjoberg, G., & Bagger, A. (2016). An appropriate test taker: The everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden. Ethnography and Education, 11(3), 237–252. Silva, S. M. D., Silva, A. M., Cortés-González, P., & Brazienė, R. (2021). Learning to leave and to return: Mobility, place, and sense of belonging amongst young people growing up in border and rural regions of mainland Portugal. Sustainability, 13(16), 9432.

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Smith, P., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russel, S., & Tippet, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact on secondary school pupils. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 376–385. Stevenson, N. (Ed.). (2001). Culture and citizenship. Sage. Swain, H. (2015, October 20). This change will be the end of the Open University as we know it’ the Guardian newspaper. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/20/open-­university-­strike-­ou-­regional-­centres-­moocs Symaco, L.  P. (2015). Geographies of social exclusion: Education access in the Philippines. In L. P. Symaco & C. Brock (Eds.), Space, place and scale in the study of education (pp. 93–105). Routledge. Terman, R. (2020). Social identities, place, mobility, and belonging: Intersectional experiences of college-educated youth. Journal of Rural Studies, 77, 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.033 Thrupp, M. (1999). Schools making a difference: School mix, school effectiveness, and the social limits of reform. McGraw-Hill Education. van Ham, M., Manley, D., Bailey, N., Simpson, L., & Maclennan, D. (Eds.). (2012). Neighbourhood effects research: New perspectives. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-­94-­007-­2309-­2 Wilson, D., Wouters, J., & Crammenos, D. (2004). Successful protect-community discourse: Spatiality and politics in Chicago’s Pilsen neighbourhood. Environment and Planning A, 36, 1173–1190.

CHAPTER 5

A ‘Macro’-Spatial Lens on Identity and Education

Introduction The micro-, exo- and meso-levels are deeply entrenched and entangled within the broader macro-level forces, that are the focus of this chapter. The national level is, therefore, one way in which we can see the macro to operate, for example through the law and policy to which a nation both prescribes and subscribes to. The macro can, however, extend beyond nations to include a set of nations when subscribed to legal, ideological or economic frameworks (such examples might include the European Union and United Nations). It is the broader systems and structures that shape (often in subversive and unconscious ways) what happens at other levels, including ideological underpinnings, power structures and ontologies. As put by Bronfenbrenner (1979): The macrosystem refers to consistencies, in the form and content of lower-­ order system as (micro-, meso, and exo-) that exist or could exist, at the level of the subculture or the culture as a whole, along with any belief systems or ideology underlying such consistencies’. (p26).

Macro-level forces are considered here as spanning varied spatial scales (from national to international) and refer to (1) structures of power that are complicit in social reproduction, and (2) political, social and cultural discourses that circulate. The chapter contextualises the macro-level forces © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_5

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of education within broader power structures within which they are inextricably linked. In this sense, education is understood to be inseparable from power within society, or put another way, can be seen as a manifestation of power. Education needs to be appreciated from a historical perspective to delineate its development in tandem with societal power, and so its association with powerful groups at the micro- and meso-levels. These macro-level forces mandate, and are (re)produced by, the kind of micro-, exo- and meso-processes described in the earlier chapters. On one level, they do so by shaping the fundamental basis upon which education and the educated person are grounded; this represents core questions about the purpose, logic and role of education. This is important because thinking on education drives action by policymakers, institutions, families and individuals in very pervasive ways. We begin by tracing the operation of macro-level forces through education and power.

The Operation of Macro-Level Forces: Education and Power Macro-level power structures are crucial to understanding education and identity. Structures of power determine the unequal distribution of resources manifest across and within nations; they constitute systems that reproduce the advantage of dominant groups through institutions, especially the family (meso-level), schools (micro-level), and other education functions or providers (meso-level). They establish positional advantage amongst social groupings, shaping the kind of identities that are privileged and rewarded, for example, these are manifest in the labour market in terms of the identities recognised as ‘talented’ from their behaviour, credentials and dispositions. Macro-level forces constitute the fundamental basis upon which social advantage is reproduced and the way socially disadvantaged positions are maintained over time. Education systems are complicit in processes of social (re)production, embodying the values and identities of dominant groups within society. Education systems are part of, and in many ways manifestations of, broader macro-level power structures that maintain the social and economic positions of dominant and dominated groups within societies. Historically, societies have always been socially structured around dominant and dominated groups, and systems of education have always played an important role in reproducing the status quo of these unequal power

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relations—though this has changed, and continues to evolve over time. Higher education participation is a key lens from which to observe these changes. At the turn of the century, a tiny fraction of UK society held a university degree (just 4357 degrees were awarded in 1920) compared to nearly 50% of young people today, with a huge sum of 350,800 graduates in 2011.1 Whilst it was only dominant groups in society who went to university in 1920, today, a more substantial proportion of graduates are ‘non-traditional’ (being the first generation in their family to gain a degree). On the face of it then, dominant groups have loosened their grip on education. But the subtle change over time, as higher education has expanded, has been its deeply entrenched stratification, with new universities opening to accommodate an influx of non-traditional students having a low status. Dominant groups now maintain their advantage through their choices within a highly diversified higher education system, which is increasingly complex to navigate, requiring knowledge of what is valued and valuable in terms of institutions and courses. In this sense, little has actually changed in terms of how dominant groups maintain their advantage through higher education; rather, it is how they do this which has evolved over time. There is an inherent spatialisation to processes of social reproduction through higher education participation. Within the UK, for example, the high-status universities that are inextricably linked to positions of power within wider society are geographically concentrated in particular localities, especially what is referred to as the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Oxbridge, Bristol and London universities (Wakeling & Savage, 2015). Indeed, Wakeling and Savage’s (2015) analysis of the destinations of 85,000 graduates identified a distinct stratification of graduate outcomes by university attended, with steep gradients in levels of economic capital for those attending these geographically concentrated elite universities. Research has shown that having an elite university in close proximity significantly increases the chances of attending one (Mangan et al., 2010). This would make sense in the UK context given that lower social class and ethnic minority young people are less likely to be geographically mobile for university (Donnelly & Gamsu, 2018). The UK is not alone in the way space interacts with higher education in processes of social reproduction. In the United States, Hillman (2016) has shown that geographic areas with high Hispanic populations and low levels of attainment are those localities with 1

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the fewest colleges located nearby, referred to in the research as ‘educational deserts’. In Australia, distance from university has been found to significantly impact on chances of application and entry, but especially for lower socio-economic groups (Parker et al., 2016). Recently, research has shown that in the UK context, disadvantaged young people living in urban centres could stand a better chance of gaining access to elite universities (Davies et al., 2021). In demonstrating how complex spatial factors are in their interaction with the production of educational inequalities, the research found that whilst rural areas had a higher raw entry level to elite universities, when the entire range of background factors were account for, the converse was true. It was claimed that the class and ethnic-based differences of those in urban centres could offer one explanation, whilst a proliferation of educational interventions and widening participation activity in urban areas could also explain why disadvantaged urban youth appear to do better in gaining access to elite universities. The education system and its spatialisation functions in a variety of ways to reproduce the advantage of dominant groups, and Bourdieu’s (1998, 2013) theories have been influential in explaining these processes. There is a plethora of research within the sociology of education that has drawn on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, whose work has been influential in explaining how the education system works to privilege dominant groups and reproduce their advantage through processes of cultural reproduction. His concepts of field, capital and habitus have been used to illustrate the mechanisms by which those with power reproduce their privilege (Bourdieu, 1990). The forms of capital include economic, cultural and social, and appear in their embodied and objectified states, with families said to hold differing levels of each. Economic capital is arguably the most important as Bourdieu argued it was the most easily ‘transmutable’ in its ease of conversion into other forms of capital and resource such as cultural and social capital. Cultural capital can be manifest objectively (through cultural goods, books and art), in its embodied form (language, manner, style and preferences) as well as institutionally (educational institutions and credentials). Social capital refers to the status and positioning of an individual’s social network in terms of the benefit and value these can accrue. A good example of the way in which economic capital can convert to social and cultural capital is through the families’ investment in private education, which can bestow valuable networks and cultural capital through socialisation which can create an advantage in terms of connections for work experience or employment opportunities. However,

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Bourdieu’s explanation for how dominant groups maintain their power and status, largely centres around processes of socialisation at home. His concept of habitus is important here and refers to the lasting set of dispositions that direct and guide behaviour and are largely acquired through socialisation. Field is the concept Bourdieu developed to make sense of a given arena or area of production in terms of the status and relative positioning of actors in relation to their accumulation of resources and goods. There is an important spatialisation to social class identity and elite class formation in particular. Drawing on a substantial survey, which measured and attempted to produce a categorisation of social class groups in the UK, Savage et al. found that there was a particular clustering of elite classes within particular localities (Savage, 2015). Unsurprisingly, these were clustered in areas of the south east, but also there were significant clusters in specific localities of the North of England. Whilst these broad, macro-­ level patterns hold true, it is also the case that these clusterings are not uniform within particular localities, with divisions apparent within the south east of England, for example. Indeed, drawing on the same data, they have illustrated the intensification of social class divisions within the city of London, especially between outer and inner localities (Cunningham & Savage, 2017). Examining the experience and perceptions of social class divides along spatial lines, research has also used the lens of accent to illustrate spatialised class divides within the UK context. This research consisted of a unique multi-sited qualitative dataset, which contained the narratives of over 200 young people (aged 16/17) across 17 UK localities, spanning all nine English regions and the three ‘home’ nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was found that young people were complicit in the construction of a normative accent, against which all other accents were judged and ‘othered’, with accents of subjugated deindustrialised parts of the North of England facing particular negative judgements. The spatialisation of class structure links to the historical geographic development of nations, in terms of geographic patterns of development between and within nations. Education plays a key role here; in terms of the way it mediates the classed and racial identities of dominant groups internationally and nationally as well as differentially positions groups. In terms of understanding the macro-level divisions that are reproduced through education at an international scale, Gerrard et  al. (2021) have applied the idea of racial capitalism to education. Gerrard and colleagues’ work identifies three modes by which racial capitalism manifests itself

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within education; these include (1) enclosing/dispossessing, (2) dividing labour and (3) through the extraction of value. First, they point out that education is fundamentally a phenomenon based on enclosure and dispossession, in other words the valorisation and disavowal of cultures, ways of knowing, languages and knowledge(s). Education systems are all about enclosure, their core purpose is to induct people and groups into cultures and knowledges ‘worth knowing’, and in doing so, automatically and by implication work to dispossess others. Gerrard et al. (2021) make the case that in education we know less about the material conditions of enclosure and dispossession, which are the key components of racial capitalism, in terms of, for example, how land becomes ‘propertied’: ‘a ‘thing’ to be laboured on and have value extracted from it’ (p. 430). Indeed, racial capitalism is based on the appropriation of land that serves to displace existing communities (and consequently knowledge(s)/ways of knowing) and at the same time imposing racialised conceptions of ‘value’. Second, Gerrard et al. (2021) argue that capitalist practices of enclosure/dispossession are based on, and contribute to, racialised divisions of labour. (Racialised) divisions of labour are the basis upon which educational institutions function (and indeed, in the wider economy, racialised divisions of labour sustain capital), such as racial divisions of labour within hierarchically organised schools and universities as well as how education systems themselves then contribute to racialised divisions of labour within the wider economy (through sorting of groups into unequal labour market economic functions). Morales-Doyle and Gutstein (2019) provide a good example of this when writing about STEM high schools in the United States, which serve the interests of local commerce in sorting ethnic minority groups into low-paid occupations within the local labour market. Third, Gerrard et al. (2021) illustrate how education is a process of extracting value (through enclosure/dispossession and dividing labour) and there are multiple forms from which this value can be extracted along racial lines. Examples of extractable educational goods which accrue value include credentials, data, buildings and curricula. In terms of data, higher education institutions are complicit in using data sources to position themselves in relation to other institutions, positional value that itself stems from racialised divisions of labour and processes of enclosure/dispossession. For example, the privileging of White and Western ways of knowing. Value is even extracted from so-called diversity work of institutions, who have been quick to capitalise on movements such as Black Lives Matter, positioning themselves as passionately committed to the cause of

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addressing racial inequalities but at the same time not disrupting any of the structures that maintain racial inequalities—with elite universities still dominated by White privileged groups. For example, Oxbridge in the UK is still dominated by privately educated students who make up nearly 50% of their intake despite only 7% of the UK population being privately educated. Without disrupting these social structures that produced the racial inequalities in the first place, it is not unreasonable to interpret their campaign work around racial inequality as vacuous, and merely virtue signalling, to say the least. As Gerard et al. (2021) point out: … at the very same time that universities valorise what they can cannibalise—knowledge, cultural support, images of diversity—they diminish and reject all efforts to unsettle liberal power hierarchies and disrupt the processes of racial capitalism. (Gerrard et al., 2021, p. 436)

In relation to macro-level divisions that exist internationally, Gerrard et al.’s (2021) application of racial capitalism to education illustrates the processes by which White Western institutions and nations maintain their advantage and contribute to the subjugation of Global South knowledge and educational goods. Space and identity intersect here, with the identities of White Western nations dominant and dispossessing knowledges and identities of the Global South. A good example here is the opening of branch campuses overseas in lower-income Global South nations by British and American universities. The exponential growth of international schools and Western curricular (such as the IB, English/American National curricular, Cambridge certificate, etc.) is a further example. Whilst international schools and curricular began with the purpose of serving expatriates working overseas (so their children could continue their education they had at home), the phenomenal recent growth has come from ‘local’ children and families in the Global South attending them. These examples at the university and school level clearly illustrate what Gerrard et  al. (2021) refer to as enclosure and dispossession, reproducing the idea of White Western educational goods as ‘valuable’ and working to dispossess forms of knowing and education from Global South contexts. At a smaller macro-spatial scale, the implications of uneven economic development for education can be found within nation states (though these are manifest in different ways). As is the case with uneven economic development internationally, divisions within nation states are also

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historically contingent. Hechter (1977) has provided a richly detailed historical account of Britain’s economic development from the 1500s. He illustrates the dominance of London and the South East of England, while the minority home nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were subjugated on the periphery. Doreen Massey’s Massey (1994) writing on power geometries has also illustrated the dominance of London as the controller of capital, with former industrial areas outside of the dominant South of England, positioned as places of labour and servicing the controllers of capital. From a relational perspective, Massey’s (1994) argument clearly shows the uneven economic development as a macro-level phenomena in the way dominant and dominated places and regions are held together and co-constitutive in tandem. Dominant regions and places produce the dominated regions and places, and vice versa—they can only be understood in relation to one another. Importantly, we see the implications of these historical spatial divides in contemporary experiences of children and young people’s schooling and educational outcomes. Indeed, the close links between poverty and education are clear (Brown, 2014), and it is not unsurprising that the least economically developed parts of the UK are also those with the lowest levels of intergenerational social mobility through education (Bell et al., 2022). The field of higher education is a good example of how space and identity manifest as crucial dimensions to the (re)production of advantage through education. The marketisation of higher education systems has resulted in universities competing for top positions in global university rankings, what Naidoo has written about as the ‘competition fettish’. But the rankings were designed in a way that favours countries with the best-­ funded higher education systems, with universities able to invest in world-­ leading research in the terms the rankings understand it. It is no coincidence then that the North American and European institutions dominate the top positions in these rankings. While global rankings are an example of macro-level forces at the international scale, it is also the case that even within nations, nationally, the same forces are evident, especially in regionally divided nations like the UK. Taken together, Bourdieu’s concepts have undoubtedly been enormously influential in sociological work on education, to explain processes that maintain the unequal power relations between groups. Crucial to understanding how dominant groups maintain their advantage within societies is the way education systems themselves (as an instrumental macro-level force) come to exemplify the kinds of high-status cultural

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capital held by dominant groups, for example, as manifest objectively and in its embodied form. Here the role of identity is important as a signifier or carrier of power status and advantage at the macro-level. There is a significant body of research that describes the way educational systems, institutions and forms of organised cultural activity are complicit in embodying the values, identities and dispositions of dominant groups within society. For example, a study by Burke and McManus (2009) examined the admissions practices of art and design colleges, drawing on observations of admissions interviews between tutors and prospective students. Importantly, they found that the idealised student and notions of what constitutes ‘art’ was highly racialised and classed, with the art of minority ethnic groups not recognised or valued equally. It was ‘knowledge’ reflecting an appreciation of classical English art and artists that were regarded as the kind of knowledge that denoted a ‘talented’ prospective student who was deserving of a place at the elite art school. These elite art schools were positioned highly in the field of art, and as such their graduates were able to secure high-status positions and labour market success. This is a striking example of how the cultural capital of dominant groups is ingrained into the fibre of educational institutions, in other words, the game itself is rigged from the beginning. Indeed, if the notion of ‘talent’ is intimately connected with holding embodied and objectified cultural capital of dominant groups, then the dominated groups do not stand a chance at all. The ways in which artistic culture privileges the identities and dispositions of dominant groups can also be found in music. A study by Bull and Scharff (2017) examined music production and consumption for young people (aged 16–21) in the south-east of England, in particular those involved in youth choirs, orchestras and opera groups. They found that the practices of classical music production/consumption (such as the spaces used, the dress, and modes of listening) were intertwined with middle-­class culture and identities. Moreover, when musicians made value judgements about music, classical music was seen as more valuable than other genres. Urban music genres were often interpreted as ‘illegible’ or assessed according to the criteria used to judge classical music, and thus failing to fully recognise the qualities of urban music genres on their own merit. This underlines the arbitrariness in judgements of taste that have evolved historically over time. Space and identity are central here to the ways in which inequality is (re)produced. It is not a coincidence that classical music derived historically from powerful spaces of Europe and

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Northern America, and is closely connected to whiteness and Western identities. Elite universities that are part of the UK’s mass higher education system are good examples of institutionalised cultural capital. There is a plethora of research that has demonstrated how it is dominant groups who value and are knowledgeable about the significance of choosing the ‘right’ kind of university and degree course, with early socialisation in the home ensuring their children continue to dominate elite universities. A study by Ball (2002) identified two types of higher education ‘choosers’; the ‘embedded’ and ‘contingent’. The embedded choosers, most likely to be from dominant social groups within society, were found to interpret the positional status of a university as important (in terms of its relative status and standing within the field of higher education), whilst dominated groups viewed status as less important and were reliant upon a more limited set of information sources. Importantly, they had not had the kind of unconscious socialisation at home about higher education, and elite university choice, being the anticipated next step and expectation as part of their assumed forward trajectory. As dominant groups have historically taken hostage of the education system, imbuing it with their class consciousness (especially through the ‘hidden curriculum’) and instilling notions of what constitutes ‘talent’ that align with their identities and dispositions, they have concomitantly led to the self-exclusion of dominated groups. There is a plethora of research within the sociology of education illustrative of how working-­ class and ethnic minority groups self-exclude themselves from places where they perceive themselves to be excluded (in other words, the places that dominant groups have colonised and instilled with their identities, dispositions and worldviews). Arguably, in one sense, this self-exclusion is more powerful than the systemic exclusion that working-class and ethnic minority people face from education because it comes from a place of belonging and identity that is hard to disrupt. Archer et al.’s (2013) work has illustrated this point in relation to gender, social class and science education, with working-class girls in their research constructing scientist subjectivities and those who study science in ways that did not correspond to their own identities. More generally, Archer (2007) has also examined self-­ exclusion in relation to urban working-class young people’s perceptions of higher education as ‘not for them’, owing to a conflict with the styles and tastes they valued.

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Political, Social and Cultural Discourses Intertwined with structures of power, are the political, social and cultural discourses circulating, that are pervasive in shaping micro-, exo- and meso-­ forces through their subtle yet powerful effects. They do so by setting the agenda and starting points about the fundamental bases of education and identity; the purpose of educational institutions, what/who is valued and ‘valuable’, how institutions should be organised, what is taught and how, the kind of ‘learner’ identities valorised, and so on. This can be observed cross-nationally as well as nationally and even within nations. Human capital theory is an all-pervasive and dominant doctrine that drives many macro-level forces nationally and internationally. Orthodox human capital theory is wedded to the idea that the more skilled a worker, or nation’s workforce, becomes, the higher their individual or collective productivity becomes—and therefore the higher pay they receive, and higher gross domestic product (GDP) a country develops. It is a view that governments and international NGOs have been gripped by, believing that it offers a path to economic development for countries around the world, and a solution to lift individuals and families out of poverty, or drive intergenerational social mobility. It offers an alternative to redistributive economics, rather than redistributing wealth, politicians offer the hope to individuals and families that they can acquire wealth and prosperity through investment in their education. Importantly, following the meritocratic principle, this path to wealth and prosperity is open to all regardless of social class, race, gender or where you are born—all those who try hard and put in individual effort can climb the credential ladder and will be rewarded by success in the labour market. This is obviously a doctrine that appeals to Conservative and Republican politicians, who can put the blame of poverty and deprivation on the individual’s lack of effort in education and skills development. In countries like the UK, where Government is dominated by Ministers who attended elite private schools (and often from wealthy backgrounds), the doctrine provides them with a convenient way to not talk about their own privilege that underlies their success, and instead offers them a narrative of hope to the masses. But this hope is a false hope, it turns out. Many sociologists of education and labour markets have written on the ‘flawed logic’ here (Kang & Mok, 2022; Keep et al., 2019; Jelonek, 2022; Powell, 2021). Brown et al. (2020) have written about how the logic of human capital theory misses the demand side of the equation, and assumes

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a plentiful supply of highly skilled and high-paying jobs which all those acquiring the necessary credentials will land. The assumed never-ending supply of highly skilled jobs has not rung true, especially as transnational corporations have off-shored labour and often taken advantage of technological developments, which will no doubt worsen the problem as Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances even further. In terms of the claim that education provides a route out of poverty and drives chances for intergenerational social mobility, Brown (2013) makes the point that this misses sociology’s ‘inconvenient truth’. That is to say, it misses the way advantage is reproduced. As societies become generally more educated, the dominant groups within society will seek new ways to maintain their advantage. For example, in the UK, internships have become an important factor in securing top graduate jobs. But only those with the financial means to live in London without an income for a year or two can add internships to their CV (Friedman & Laurison, 2020). Individual dispositions, style, conduct, character and manner will also become more important to discern between a large pool of equally educated candidates. Those with the desired middle-class dispositional styles and comportment will be the most likely to win the race here. The fact that the UK has not become an ‘engine for social mobility’ despite increases in working-class people attending university illustrates Brown’s point—focussing only on education credentials and not addressing deep-seated structural problems will do little to disrupt the UK’s deeply unequal society. Despite its ‘failed promise’ (Brown et al., 2020), human capital theory continues to be an all-pervasive and incredibly powerful macro-level discourse which has highly tangible effects on regions, communities, educational institutions, and the lives of individual people. Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, raised alarm in summer 2022 about the apparent failure of universities to provide graduates with improved labour market returns, The Guardian reported that he ‘vowed to end low earning degrees’, and reported him saying: A good education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet when it comes to making people’s lives better. These proposals represent a significant stride towards parity of esteem between vocational and academic ­education. And they will take a tougher approach to university degrees that saddle students with debt, without improving their earning potential.

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The comments by this prospective leader of the UK Conservative party are almost antagonistic towards the education system and its assumed ‘failure’ to deliver high-paying jobs for people. There is a sense of frustration that these educational institutions are not ‘delivering’ (in labour market returns); but in doing so the logic of human capital theory is not criticised, instead the solution is to look for other more lucrative forms of human capital to replace the poorly performing degree courses—in this case, the possibilities offered by vocational education. The political faith in human capital theory is unwavering. It is striking that other possible explanations for why not all graduates are getting high-earning jobs are not considered—perhaps because such explanations would point towards uncomfortable truths about how labour market success is achieved in deeply unequal societies like the UK.  As Brown (2013) alluded to, the advantaged groups in society will seek new ways to make themselves stand out in crowded graduate labour markets. Rishi himself attended one of the most expensive private schools in the UK, Winchester College, and then Oxford, before taking an MBA from Stanford. An MBA from an Ivy League American university and a place at Winchester (together with all of the social connections that this provides) does not come cheap, and he was able to acquire such a distinctive educational CV only because of his wealthy family background. Of course, the illusion that education can simply be chopped and changed to address the problem of entrenched labour market inequality is a convenient myth to avoid other more egalitarian redistributive policies that might be economically painful to wealthy families like the Sunaks. The knowledge economy represents a ubiquitous set of assumptions and associated discourses which drive policy and action around the world. This doctrine is mediated at the macro-level by influential multilateral organisations that drive much policy and thinking within nations, which include the World Bank, the OECD, the WTO and the EU. These organisations, in their different ways, act to frame the education debate and are often influential in steering thinking and action. These organisations are said to play a major part in pushing market-based ideologies and performativity agendas across nations, inflecting this logic upon nations that is entrenched with a human capital agenda and set out as international competition. By far the bluntest and most pervasive policy instrument of these organisations is the OECD’s international large-scale assessment testing systems. The most well-known, PISA, is administered across 80 countries and makes possible the comparison of nation states in their educational

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performance; in essence it is a global macro-level space of measurement and comparison. It has instigated an army of social science researchers who use the data to churn out papers pouring over the data to answer questions about why countries perform better than others. Conclusions are reached about how ways of organising systems of education in different contexts must account for variances in performance—with the implications that other countries must now ‘follow suit’ and organise their education systems in this way. This can clearly play a major part in framing policy and practice at the meso-, exo- and micro-levels; for example, the kinds of pedagogical techniques and practices ‘found’ to be effective transposed into other contexts. Each time PISA results are announced, there is a political and media frenzy over the results and the relative positioning of countries on the rankings. Countries like Wales, in the UK, have historically under-­ performed in PISA which has led to calls for policy chiefs to do more and address the so-called ‘problem’ of the countries’ PISA results. However, amidst the media frenzy, little attention is paid to what is being measured by PISA and the internal validity of the tests themselves and data they produce. Critiques have varied. Komatsu and Rappleye (2017) have made a powerful argument as to why the statistics underlying PISA comparisons are invalid, questioning claims about links between PISA results and a country’s GDP. Other research has contributed strong evidence as to why PISA results are not necessarily reflective of the educational structures and systems of nations states—a central tenet of PISA, that its results reflect differences in how countries do education (Feniger & Lefstein, 2014). If the results do not reflect how education systems in different countries are arranged and organised, what exactly does it represent? One view would be that it is more a measure of individual- and group-based differences, some of which are cultural and tied to nations (not necessarily the public policy of nations, however). Crucially, PISA has been lamented as a reductionist policy instrument, which limits the aims and purpose of education to acquiring ‘skills’ and ‘competencies’ (Labaree, 2014), and more fundamentally limiting ways of knowing and knowledge(s) that are privileged by the OECD and multilateral agencies. In this sense, it narrows the curriculum and ways of knowing, in terms of what Bernstein describes as the instrumental and expressive orders of education. This includes instrumental orders of the facts, knowledges and skills taught in schools, as well as the expressive dimension of conduct, character and manner. An example of the instrumental dimension might be the kind of mathematical

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knowledge taught, whilst the expressive dimension might include ways of formulating an argument or communicative styles. We can see here a macro-level force which is pervasive and intoxicating in how it has the potential to frame the very starting points about what education is, who the educated are, and who they are not. By virtue of manipulating the data, it has the ability to frame the educated and uneducated at the group level and country-level, framing Wales as a ‘problem’ nation in its educational provision and lamenting girls or boys for their differing performance in subjects. Importantly, the power of macro-level instruments like PISA can be found in their potential to shape educational and social identities on a global scale. As nations adapt their education systems and schools to fit the PISA test, they are implicitly privileging the identities and knowledges imbued within the architects of PISA. It is a fundamental way in which macro-level forces impact on identities at a broad spatial scale. Whilst PISA would claim that the test is ‘adapted’ to its context, these ‘adaptations’ do not alter the fundamental knowledge(s) and underlying premise of what constitutes the knowledgeable and educated person. Indeed, critics of international large-scale assessments argue that they lead to a uniformity of curriculum around the world, privileging largely White Western ways of knowing (ontologies), knowledge content and identities (Spring, 2008). On one level, this makes sense as countries seek to change their economic performance through education and win the global race for educational supremacy. But there are important spatial implications here for identity. This privileging of Western ontologies and knowledge content serves to dispossess (as writers on racial capitalism argue, see) non-­ Western ontologies, knowledge and identities from the Global South. This privileging of Western identities and ontologies/belief systems through education contributes to the wider eroding of identities from the Global South. By measuring and assessing a country’s education based on the measures designed by Western educational architects, it serves to reinforce the idea that only Western ways of knowing are valued and valuable. Over time this serves to erode and erase non-Western identities and knowledge(s). Political ideologies represent powerful macro-level forces within and across nation states, shaping the logic and underlying rationales for policy development. Whilst global organisations like the OECD have been criticised for spreading neoliberal educational agendas around the world (d’Agnese, 2017; Rutkowski, 2007; Spring, 2008), it is also true that the

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macro-level of nation is a spatial scale with contested political ideologies. Many Nordic countries have often been interpreted as socially democratic in their education policy development, that is to say there is an overt focus on addressing social disadvantage and addressing how poverty impacts on educational outcomes. Equality of outcome and equality of opportunity are important ideas here in understanding the basis of political ideologies. Crucially, the distinction between the two stems from the degree to which they take account of equal starting points. Equality of opportunity holds that fairness exists when everybody is given the same opportunities in life, such as a chance to succeed at school, go to university, etc. Equality of outcome focuses on outcomes in life, and holds that fairness can only be achieved when everybody has the same starting points. Regardless of whether people have access to the opportunity of attending university, those who started life in poverty with family who never went to university will likely have less chance of securing a place at Oxford or an investment bank compared to their wealthy privately education counterpart who has a family tradition of sending children to Oxbridge. Equality of opportunity and outcome therefore represent distinct political stances on education, and imply very different policy solutions. In one sense, they are two distinct ways of conceptualising what causes inequality in educational outcomes between different groups, and so signal very different courses of action. England has often been interpreted as adopting neoliberal policy agendas over the past few decades. Taking the case of England, Ball (2021) has reviewed policy development over successive Governments. Beginning with Thatcherite reforms, he argues that the 1980/1990s saw education being gripped by Hayekian free-market economics, with the public interpreted as ‘inefficient’, with market principles introduced to drive reform and efficiency—the key here was the acceleration of competition between providers, and choice for ‘consumers’. This consumerism and competition lasts to this day in England and has permeated almost every aspect of the education system. Competition between providers was enabled through greater autonomy of institutions that were loosened from the ‘shackles’ of local education authorities (a reform which only intensified under successive Governments of all political persuasions). Parents were given greater choice over which school to send their child, with the underlying logic here that choice and competition would incentivise institutions to improve and drive efficiencies. This is a political ideology that was rampant in Government at the time, with swathes of public policy areas undergoing

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similar reforms bringing market principles to save essential services like health, transport, energy and education. It is a logic which was said to have a major impact on the way schools operated and the identities of teachers, parents and learners. It drove a consumerist mentality which pervades contemporary parenthood, shaping a fundamentally distinct way of seeing the purpose of schools and the role of parents, children and education professionals. Under this logic, there is a construction of the ‘good’ parent investing time and energy in researching the local education market, discerning the ‘best’ school and also holding that school to account in what they deliver for their child. This logic no doubt reduces the professionalism and trust in education and schooling, impacting on the identity of teachers, whose job now becomes more about satisfying the parent consumer as well as the job of teaching. Successive Governments in England continued and intensified these reforms, enshrining market principles permanently into how the education system operates. The New Labour Government went further and opened up education to private providers, believing that the public sector would benefit from outside influence and innovation found in the private sector. This followed what was dubbed their managerialist logic, which privileged the notion of ‘what works’ as driving educational developments. The neoliberal and managerialist logic of education in England has intensified monitoring and assessment of educational outcomes in recent decades, with children and young people continually tested almost every year of their school life (see Chap. 4). Schools are ranked according to their examination results, with a publicly available rating based on the results of national inspection on their standards of education. These data have powerful impacts on local education markets, with wealthy parents able to buy houses in the catchments of the ‘best’ schools, increasing house prices in these catchments to ‘lock out’ poorer families from attending the schools. In such a highly scrutinised and monitored educational space as England, schools know only too well that ‘doing well’ and surviving depends upon a positive league table ranking and positive judgements from school inspectors. Gillborn and Youdell (1999) have produced a powerful analysis of macro-level educational reforms in England on the micro-level processes of schooling. They show how headline indicators of educational standards (in this case, the indicator of 5 A-C grades at GCSE) impacted on everyday and routine processes in schools which contributed to inequality. They borrow the idea of ‘triage’, which is used in the medical field to determine the prioritisation of patients in terms of who is in

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most need and stands the best chance of survival. In a similar vein, the idea of ‘educational triage’ is used to explain how schools concentrated their efforts on pupils who were deemed to be at the borderline of achieving the crucial headline indicator of 5 A-C grades, who with a bit more effort could achieve this standard and so ensure the school performed well in the eyes of the public and policymakers. In this sense, ‘need’ is based and shaped entirely around macro-level forces. Those who were deemed to be very unlikely to achieve this standard set at the macro-level, regardless of any amount of effort from teachers, would, like the patient in hospital, deemed the lowest priority. Invariably, Gillborn and Youdell (1999) show that this was working-class ethnic minority young people. It is an example of how macro-level forces of national policymakers reinforce the disadvantage faced by minority groups through the micro-level forces of schooling. The continual assessment of children and young people, under neoliberal regimes like England, has been shown to have other more pervasive effects on wellbeing, mental health and self-efficacy. At the primary level, Reay and Wiliam (1999) have studied the experiences of children approaching the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests, exploring how tests contributed to their sense of self as learners (see Chap. 2). They found through focus group interviews with the children that the tests were interpreted as a rather definitive statement on themselves as learners, revealing something intrinsic about themselves and their ‘ability’. Ability was seen here as fixed, measurable and objective. Their research showed the anxieties and fears these children experienced, with one child making the comment ‘I’ll be a nothing’ if they do not perform in these tests. It is likely that these fears stem from the importance impressed upon them by the school about these tests—a pressure that ultimately stems from the macro-level of policymakers holding schools to account based upon performance in tests. On the one hand, whilst policymakers would argue that such testing is necessary to hold schools and teachers to account, it is also clear the deleterious effects on children’s learner identities, even at such a young age as primary level, that such macro-level monitoring regimes can produce. In discussing the case of the UK, it is important to point out that there are four separate education systems that form part of a devolved political system of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Whilst the systems of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland developed in tandem with England, and share some fundamental similarities, it is also the case that since devolution the countries have begun to diverge significantly in some

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areas. In Wales, for example, education policymakers have never followed suit with some of the more neoliberal regimes in England of competition and choice, with no academic selection or diversification of school type (academies, free schools, etc.) (Power et al., 2003). Power (2003) writes that Welsh politicians have stated their preference for more egalitarian socially democratic policies which target co-operation over competition, opting not to have school league tables and having less assessment of young people. The Welsh Foundation Phase was introduced with the stated aim of addressing the unequal starting points of children, focussing support at a young age when it is thought that inequalities are best addressed. Power (2003) points out that this curriculum follows Scandinavian models of education, focussed on wellbeing and experiential learning. Wales then has made significant breaks from England since gaining powers over its education system. It is likely that given these divergences, the micro-level processes of schools, and learner experience will to some extent have also diverged within the UK dependent on which home nation a child is educated in. These variances in experience have so far attracted little attention amongst education researchers, but represent a compelling agenda for future research. Education systems in Scandinavian countries have long been held up as examples of distinctive political ideologies based around social democratic values that have driven public policy reforms in the second half of the twentieth century. Referred to as the ‘Nordic model’, education policy has long been approached from more socially democratic and egalitarian perspectives, privileging the inequalities in outcome and concentrating efforts on compensating for different starting points in life (Imsen et al., 2017; Antikainen, 2006). Distinctive approaches have been adopted on pedagogy, school organisation and teacher professional development which stood apart from the creeping neoliberalisation seen in other parts of Europe and North America. Whilst difficult to isolate the impact of education from other public policy, and the robust social protection from a more egalitarian welfare state in particular, it is clear that Scandinavian countries do not have the same stark inequalities in education seen elsewhere. However, since the turn of the millennium, their more progressive stance has been increasingly under threat by the growing influence of international NGOs. The influence of global macro-level forces on macro-level forces at the national level can be seen most acutely in examples of ‘policy borrowing’. We can see here how policies from afar seep into and are re-contextualised

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at the national level. The example of Wales’ Foundation Phase reflecting Scandinavian approaches to learning and child development underlines the point that macro-level policy development at the national level is never done in isolation from the global level. Indeed, free schools in England are very close to the charter schools of the United States, in terms of their autonomy and independence from local/state control. As Ball (2021) argues: …national policymaking is inevitably a process of bricolage, a matter of borrowing and copying bits and pieces of ideas from elsewhere, drawing on and amending locally tried-and-tested approaches, cannibalising theories, research, trends and fashions, responding to media panics and not infrequently a flailing around for anything at all that looks as though it might work. (Ball, 2021, p. 39)

The PISA data is often reflected upon in terms of how high-performing countries organise their systems of education. How is maths taught by those countries who do well in math scores? Indeed, English policymakers have often taken trips and looked to places like Singapore who have done well in maths, to look at what they can learn or borrow in their pedagogy or approaches to education. Some of the more stealthy effects of education policy at the macro-level can be found in the construction of individual subjectivities and the shaping of personhood. These kinds of effects are those which influence how people see judge and monitor themselves, their actions and behaviours as well as those of others. They shape perceptions about what characteristics and attributes reflect the successful learner or young person. Brooks (date) has analysed the social construction of young people embodied within the education policies of the UK Government during the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat Coalition administration. Her insightful analysis revealed the continuities from previous administrations, but also important changes. One important construction of young people was that of active consumers, assumed to be rational and considered in deciphering their educational and life choices. This point aligns with and is a continuation of the neoliberal regime, but it also holds important implications for social class inequalities—it is an assumption based upon the belief that all young people will have the support and knowledge from home that makes them well placed to decipher the education market and make the ‘right’

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kind of choices. This is a highly problematic assumption, as much sociological research on social class inequality attests.

Concluding Remarks The macro-level constitutes those broader level structures that encase micro-, meso- and exo-level phenomena, representing those fundamental ‘rules of the game’ that drive and dictate much educational phenomena and identity processes. The forces we have considered in this chapter include: • Classed and racialised structures of power that maintain dominant and dominated positions in wider society, which are mediated through education systems, such as the kind of dispositions privileged in schools and universities. • Human capital theory as a dominant doctrine driving much thinking and action in relation to education globally. • The knowledge economy as a prevailing set of discourses which intrinsically link learning with national/individual prosperity, which drives the agendas of international NGOs such as the OECD, as seen through its PISA instrument that has the effect of narrowing the curriculum and educational practices. • The influence of political ideologies within and across nations, such as socially democratic and neoliberal policy regimes, and their pervasive impact on educational systems. At their most fundamental level, this chapter has linked education and identity to macro-level power structures circulating within society in terms of how dominant groups maintain their advantage—as explicated so well through Bourdieu’s framework on social reproduction. Education systems themselves, at their core, are not neutrally configured and have historically emerged as mediating the class consciousness of dominant groups nationally and internationally. The exponential growth of international schools in Global South countries are one legacy of this historical hold dominant groups have had on education and the ‘educated person’. There are clear linkages here to micro-level and meso-level processes identified in earlier chapters. But it is not just internationally where spatial divisions in education and identity are configured, within nations we see working-class groups disadvantaged by a national education system designed for and by

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higher social class groups. This undoubtedly impacts on the ability and likelihood of different social class groups to forge positive and valued learner identities as discussed in Chap. 1. In the context of these broader power structures are the political discourses and policies that manifest themselves nationally and internationally, delivering the agendas of dominant groups. There is no more powerful macro-level force than human capital theory in driving thinking, practice and behaviour across and within nations, propelled by the instruments of international NGOs like the OECD. The doctrine that national and individual prosperity is driven by education (or rather normative Western notions of education) is a driving force behind policy development as well as the choices of individuals and families. It has consequences for how, at the meso- and micro-level, working-class and middle-class families navigate educational and labour market trajectories. This is despite its serious flaws that result in the working classes not accruing the kind of promised benefits that education is expected to deliver. At a global spatial scale, human capitalist instruments like PISA will only likely narrow the curriculum and lead to the erasure of dominated minority cultures and languages. Political ideologies, of the kind that drive policy instruments like PISA, have real consequences for the macro-level organisation of national education systems that structure meso- and exo-level phenomena discussed in previous chapters. The prevalence of neoliberalism in nations like England, with its overt focus on choice and competition, has led to the pressures experienced by families and schools, for example. We can see how the mental health struggles many young people face, discussed in Chap. 3, are undoubtedly linked to the neoliberal testing and measurement regimes they find themselves in—which have been shown to increase anxiety even in very young children. Indeed, we can see how macro-level forces here trickle down not only to the configuration of local educational markets and families but also to the consciousness of individuals in the way they think, construct and imagine themselves and their futures. For example, consumerist notions of education (common under neoliberal regimes) are an instrumental way of conceptualising education that is distinct from more seeing education in more experiential and nurturing ways. The macro-level organisational structures of education systems have real and tangible effects on educational outcomes, which is clearly evident from lower levels of inequality we see in Nordic countries, where a social democratic policy regime has prevailed.

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Davies, J., Donnelly, M., & Sandoval-Hernandez, A. (2021). Geographies of elite higher education participation: An urban ‘escalator’ effect. British Educational Research Journal, 47(4), 1079–1101. Donnelly, M., & Gamsu, S. (2018) HOME AND AWAY: Social, ethnic and spatial inequalities in student mobility. Feniger, Y., & Lefstein, A. (2014). How not to reason with PISA data: An ironic investigation. Journal of Education Policy, 29(6), 845–855. Friedman, S., & Laurison, D. (2020). The class ceiling: Why it pays to be privileged. Oxford University Press. Gerrard, J., Sriprakash, A., & Rudolph, S. (2021). Education and racial capitalism. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1–18. Gillborn, D., & Youdell, D. (1999). Rationing education: Policy, practice, reform, and equity. McGraw-Hill Education. Hechter, M. (1977). Internal colonialism: The Celtic fringe in British national development, 1536–1966. Univ of California Press. Hillman, N. W. (2016). Geography of college opportunity: The case of education deserts. American Educational Research Journal, 53(4), 987–1021. Imsen, G., Blossing, U., & Moos, L. (2017). Reshaping the Nordic education model in an era of efficiency. Changes in the comprehensive school project in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden since the millennium. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 61(5), 568–583. Jelonek, M. (2022). Universities and the labour market: Graduate transitions from education to employment. Routledge. Kang, Y., & Mok, K. H. (2022). The broken promise of human capital theory: Social embeddedness, graduate entrepreneurs and youth employment in China. Critical Sociology, 08969205221088894. Keep, E., Vignoles, A., & Lauder, H. (2019). The case against education: Why the education system is a waste of time and money. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(3), 430–440. Komatsu, H., & Rappleye, J. (2017). A new global policy regime founded on invalid statistics? Hanushek, Woessmann, PISA, and economic growth. Comparative Education, 53(2), 166–191. Labaree, D. F. (2014). Let’s measure what no one teaches: PISA, NCLB, and the shrinking aims of education. Teachers College Record, 116(9), 1–14. Mangan, J., Hughes, A., Davies, P., et  al. (2010). Fair access, achievement and geography: Explaining the association between social class and students’ choice of university. Studies in Higher Education, 35(3), 335–350. Massey, D. B. (1994). Space, place, and gender. U of Minnesota Press. Morales-Doyle, D., & Gutstein, E. R. (2019). Racial capitalism and STEM education in Chicago public schools. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 525–544. Parker, P. D., Jerrim, J., Anders, J., et al. (2016). Does living closer to a university increase educational attainment? A longitudinal study of aspirations, university

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entry, and elite university enrolment of Australian youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(6), 1156–1175. Powell, L. (2021). Planning for freedom: From human capital to human capabilities. Journal of Education (University of KwaZulu-Natal), (84), 85–105. Power, S., Edwards, T., & Wigfall, V. (2003). Education and the middle class. McGraw-Hill Education. Reay, D., & Wiliam, D. (1999). ‘I’ll be a nothing’: Structure, agency and the construction of identity through assessment. British Educational Research Journal, 25(3), 343–354. Rutkowski, D. J. (2007). Converging us softly: How intergovernmental organizations promote neoliberal educational policy. Critical Studies in Education, 48(2), 229–247. Savage, M. (2015). Social class in the 21st century. Penguin. Spring, J. (2008). Research on globalization and education. Review of Educational Research, 78(2), 330–363. Wakeling, P., & Savage, M. (2015). Entry to elite positions and the stratification of higher education in Britain. The Sociological Review, 63(2), 290–320.

CHAPTER 6

Towards a Multi-Scalar and Multi-Method Spatial Analysis of Identity and Education

Introduction The majority of this book has been dedicated to advancing the importance of taking a multi-scalar perspective on identity and education; therefore, the focus of this chapter is upon how this can be operationalised, through multi-scalar/multi-method research designs. We acknowledge the enormous challenge this kind of design presents, not least theoretically and methodologically, and are realistic about what may be possible. But we also advocate that the ‘pay-off’ from such an approach and design would reap a far greater breadth and depth of understanding than can be achieved by any single-scale analyses. Many of the ‘go to’ methods in the social sciences—and the study of education and identity in particular—can decontextualise the object of research from the richness of their spatial environment. Traditional survey methodology that does not pay attention to spatial context is an essentially decontextualising way of extracting information from individuals and groups, with little regard for important aspects of space and place. Material dimensions of place, and rich experiential aspects of encounters within spatial environments, are both difficult to elicit through a traditional survey. We attempt to advance here a multi-scalar and multi-method approach that uses creative methods, and some examples are provided of the kind we mean—though we do not claim to cover every innovative method being developed. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_6

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The chapter reviews the kind of methods that dominate each scale of analyses, with a critical discussion of their ability to capture education and identity phenomena at each scale. Innovative and creative methodological advancements are also introduced at each scale as examples to inspire new kinds of spatially sensitive analyses. In recognition of the challenge in combining data at the different scales of analysis, especially at the point of interpretation, the final section then focuses on analysis within multi-­ scalar/multi-method research. It offers practical approaches to addressing analysis including the kind of challenges that this is likely to present. As is the case in the wider book, the chapter begins with how we can generate knowledge of micro-level phenomena.

Micro-Level Methods Information on micro-level phenomena, such as the school classroom, has been elicited through a variety of methods, including surveys, observation (including ethnographic research), creative methods (artistic medium, photographs, etc.) and other more innovative means, such as new interactive video technologies. Each of these methodological approaches allows for a particular depth of insight into micro-level settings. Survey design has the advantage of collecting information on an entire population of micro-level phenomena—such as the characteristics or experiences of a representative sample of school settings. A good example of this is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)testing, which involves each school completing a ‘school survey’ to sit alongside the test scores from pupils. The survey is aimed to provide contextual information on the school, facilitating research on how school context and characteristics could be associated with differential outcomes in the test. This survey considers school context in terms of: • School background information School management Teaching staff Assessment and evaluation Targeted groups School climate (taken from the OECD PISA School Survey 2018)

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Many of the questions ask about measurable and objectifiable aspects of school life, such as class sizes, proportion of pupils from socio-­economically disadvantaged backgrounds, specific questions on aspects of what is taught (e.g. ‘intercultural understanding’—the term used to describe taught attributes to appreciate and respect different cultures), teacher numbers and professional development, with particular reference to computing— questions here are specific on IT infrastructure such as number of computers per pupil. Some of the questions delve into more attitudinal aspects, asking schools staff their perceptions of specific aspects of school life, such as: Our school supports activities that encourage students’ expression of diverse identities (e.g. national, religious, ethnic or social identities). (taken from the OECD PISA School Survey 2018)

On the face of it, the survey would seem to be collecting useful information that provides some understanding of what the school context is like. Given that the data are collected from a nationally representative sample of schools, it theoretically allows a more complete understanding of the full range of school contexts in a given country and how they compare. This is something which case study research on a handful of school contexts cannot possibly claim to achieve. But it is the decontextualised way in which it does this which is problematic from a spatial and identity-based perspective. The spatial context of the school is reduced to measurable indicators, such as number of computers per pupil or class sizes, which misses the richness of the micro-level aspects of a school setting. For example, it misses the gender-based dynamics within micro-level settings on how computers might be used and how teachers and pupils might interact. Focussing on objective measurable aspects of the school environment, such as number of pupils in a class or number of computers in a classroom, gives a very superficial understanding of the school context and environment. There are other questions which seek information about how strict teachers are and the pupil discipline procedures in the school. Again, this is a very superficial way of understanding how order and behaviour is maintained within a school that misses the latent mechanisms that have been found to be crucial. For example, research on the architecture of school buildings has illustrated their importance for imposing order and control. Brown’s (2012) study of two school buildings, one old and one new, examined the way their distinctive architecture and design impacted

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on the social control and monitoring of pupils. Exploring qualitative aspects of ‘everyday life’ in each school, the research found that the school design could heighten or lessen the need for control of pupils—this stemmed from the particular layout and arrangement of school buildings and their internal architectural features. A school’s support of activities that encourage diversity says little about how ‘diversity’ is understood by the school (race, class, gender, sexuality?), nor does it tell us anything about the richness of how these activities are experienced. For example, the study by McKeown et al. (2016) on faith-­ based classroom segregation in Northern Ireland (see Chap. 2) examined the seating plans of teachers and pupils’ own seating arrangements within the classroom (based on recorded observations of where pupils sat). The study found sustained segregation in the seating of pupils, with Catholic and Protestant pupils sitting apart, and importantly, the seating plans of teachers were not found to help the situation—hindering the possibility of friendships that could emerge organically. The methods here involved the collection of data on where the students sat through participant observation of the classroom setting. Often—especially in ethnographic research— researchers will draw plans of the class to show where the teacher is stood or moves to, where groups of pupils sit, and the arrangement of furniture, posters displayed, equipment and other classroom objects. Whilst these mundane aspects of school life might well be all too familiar to those who have passed through them, they can yield critical insight into education and identity. Binary outcomes measures of whether or not a school supports activities to encourage diversity (such as those captured by PISA) does not compare to the depth and richness of these data, that unearth more authentic accounts about the reality of school life. Some of the questions in the PISA school survey ask about the degree to which schools sort pupils by academic ability, but this focuses on the formal sorting of pupils into ability groups. This misses what have been shown to be the informal means by which pupils self-sort themselves within classrooms and school settings, which have been found by past research to be significant aspects of the school context (elicited through ethnographic research approaches). In Brown’s (2017) research, the children of lower ability sets had particular ways of sorting themselves in the classroom, but importantly they also valued different spatial aspects of the wider school environment with ‘favourite places’ that were valuable in building a sense of belonging. The rich ethnographic methods of observation and interviews were undoubtedly important in eliciting this level of

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detail in Brown’s (2017) insightful study including hand-drawn representations of children’s favourite places. The intention behind PISA collecting their information on school ability groupings is perhaps to use for understanding its impact on achievement outcomes within and between countries. But missing this vital contextual information on the qualitative experiences within these ability groups provides only a partial and limited picture. There have been a plethora of ethnographic studies within the sociology of education which have elicited more in-depth and richly detailed information on micro-level settings than survey data can possibly allow. Ethnographic research provides an insightful glimpse into micro-level settings because it attempts to capture the social worlds of those in the setting, in terms of their experiences, how they themselves experienced the setting. This is distinct from how others see them, or how they are assumed to experience the setting. For example, as in the case of the PISA school survey, information can be collected on the nature of activities that go on in a school, but this tells us little about how they are experienced through the eyes of those taking part in them. Ethnographic approaches can provide unique insights on differences between social and ethnic groups in how they experience settings, with a plethora of studies that have examined the social worlds of specific groups. Bhatti’s (2002) study of British South Asian children’s social worlds at home and at school is one such ethnographic study that provided a rare and insightful glimpse into children’s daily life. It privileged children’s voices, respecting and valuing what they had to say about their experiences and reporting these experiences in detail. The researcher spent time with the children at home and school, gaining their trust and building rapport, so that they felt comfortable revealing their social worlds of home and school. In terms of their experiences in the school, a chapter of the book is devoted to what the children said about their teachers, based on their encounters and experiences in the classroom, exploring what they meant by ‘good teachers’, ‘bad teachers’ and ‘normal teachers’. In discussing ‘bad teachers’, these were sometimes teachers who the children felt were racist towards ethnic minority children, with a high number of children reporting occurrences such as ‘not given the chance to answer questions in class’, ‘being ignored’ and ‘teachers not believing complaints against white peers’. Detailed accounts were reported by the children of incidents of racism in the classroom. It is through the ethnographic approach taken, with Bhatti (2002) gaining the trust of the children over a prolonged

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period of time, that is likely to have elicited these painful but illuminating experiences. Indeed, it is less likely that such detailed accounts would be offered during a one-off focus group, or survey that school staff might see, for example. Ethnography has proved to be an effective method for opening up the ‘black box’ of schooling; in other words, exposing a hitherto hidden look at how formal learning settings operate and function, including all of their everyday practices and processes. Ethnographic research approaches have often allowed for important insights to be developed on aspects of education and aspects of identity and sub-cultures, especially those relating to factors such as class and gender (see, e.g. Willis, 2017; Charlesworth, 2000; Renold, 2001; Bhatti, 2002). Of utmost importance in ethnographic research is gathering the perspectives of the researched on their lives, experiences and world-views. We can be creative in coming up with a plethora of methods to help elicit this information, in addition to, and combined with, the traditional methods of participant observation and ethnographic interviewing. Many of these creative methods are attempting to involve the participant in the research process in a more meaningful way, often described as participatory research. This set of approaches involves breaking down the barriers between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’, working with those with whom we research so that they can construct meaning in their own terms. It is especially important for marginalised groups who may not recognise the framing of social reality researchers use, for example, the assumptions that researchers make about ‘education’ and the importance of school. Some classic participatory methods include asking participants to collect images or artefacts and produce drawings or other creative/artistic means (such as producing songs or poetry). It is thought that these diverse forms of expression allow participants to express difficult thoughts and feelings, or provide an alternative medium to communicate complex ideas. Some marginalised groups may find it difficult to take part in traditional interviews and questionnaires, which might be perceived as form and interpreted in a threatening or intimidating way. Clark and Moss (2011) have written about the ‘mosaic approach’ as a way of ‘listening’ that respects children and adults as co-constructors of meaning. In other words, it acknowledges children’s voices in a more fundamental way through the research process. The mosaic approach was developed with three- and four-year-olds in an early childhood educational setting. Recognising children’s competencies, it is a set of creative participatory methods that do not rely on the written

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word. Their underpinning philosophy is one that is concerned with knowledge creation as opposed to knowledge extraction, placing an emphasis on meaning from the child’s perspective. Knowledge is co-constructed using different modes of communication, including cameras, child-led tours, role-play exercises, mapping and observation. The term ‘mosaic’ acknowledges that no one singular method is given primacy, rather, understanding is generated through the triangulation of different methods and—fundamentally—involving children in the process of data selection and analysis whereby they give voice or expression to the meanings of the visual, material or audio artefacts that are gathered or created through the research. Each method reflects a ‘piece’ of the design in which the ‘picture’ of the educational problem under focus becomes clear by the illumination enabled through the combination of datasets in conjunction. Following a ‘mosaic’ design it is imperative that methods are selected in consultation with children, and in befitting the spatial setting in which the research is conducted. Furthermore, it is always necessary to include some ‘pieces’ of the mosaic ‘blank’ at the outset of the study to allow the freedom for children to choose their own methods to complement those chosen by the researcher. The collection of visual imagery, photo elicitation, drawing and mapping (see macro-level) are now commonplace qualitative methods (Gauntlett & Holzwarth, 2006; Pink, 2013). They can be used as part of an ethnographic study into micro-level phenomena or as stand-alone methods. Photos have been used in a variety of ways; researchers might ask participants to take pictures of places, things or objects that have meaning to them in relation to a given topic. Or researchers can bring visual images to aid focus group discussion, for example using them to generate discussion about a given topic. In Brown and Dixon’s (2020) research, participants were asked to collect images that best represented what mental health and wellbeing meant from their point of view. This has the advantage of providing a means to communicate a complex topic such as mental health, acting as a starting point to begin focus group discussions. It allowed participants to construct meaning around mental health and wellbeing in their own terms, without being overly framed and structured by the research process. Brown and Dixon’s (2020) research had spatial implications, as young people took images in their neighbourhood that held meaning for them, as places they went to find solace (see Fig. 6.1) or

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Fig. 6.1  Young person’s photograph of a place in which they felt ‘wellbeing’

with which they identified, for example in representing ‘the difficulty in being yourself in having to be strong’1 (Fig. 6.2). Drawing can similarly be used to aid participants in the construction of meaning around topics, it can prove especially effective with children given its playful associations (Literat, 2013). Participants can use the method to express meaning about a given topic, for example, they might be asked to draw a picture about what comes to mind when they think of the subject mathematics. Follow-up interviews could then be used to bring out the meaning behind the illustrations that the participant 1  See the Instagram page @youngpeoplesmentalhealthstudy to view these and other images collected and annotated by young people. Findings from the study are reported in Brown and Dixon (2020) and Brown and Shay (2021).

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Fig. 6.2  Young person’s photograph of a place reflecting conflicting feelings of resilience

drew—for example, they might be asked to describe their drawing, what it means, why it links to the topic in question, and so on. In this example children may draw their maths classes, or activities such as going to the supermarket. It is likely that this will stimulate narratives that are rich in the meaning participants construct themselves about the issue in question. More recently, research in the fields of architecture and engineering has explored innovative methods in researching the micro-context of the school building, in pursuit of interactive and visual methods to elicit learners’ perspectives of their learning spaces. One such example is the Interactive Space Analysis Tool (ISAT) developed by Joe Jack Williams, a researcher for a prestigious architectural firm specialising in school design

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(Williams et  al.  2015, 2017). The ISAT aims to provide an automated method of collecting guided and unguided feedback from learners on their perspective of the microenvironment. In using a strategically positioned 360-degree camera to photograph every angle of the spatial environment under focus, the ISAT platform enables a virtual recreation of the micro-setting online. ISAT users can then immerse themselves in a digital version of their setting, through which they can navigate using the click-­ and-­scroll function, much like the popular online platform Google streetmaps. The unique function of the ISAT is that it enables users to record their opinions on any aspect of the spatial setting—simply by selecting the areas of their environment that are relevant—and leaving a textual comment (see Fig. 6.3). The methodology can be used in a guided or in an autonomous way in either tasking users to record their perspectives freely or alternatively in guiding more focussed lines of enquiry by inserting in the textual box prompts to record their reasons for visiting the area they selected, or

Fig. 6.3  A screenshot of the ISAT tool with text box open to record comment (Williams, 2017, p243)

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their feelings or experiences within those spaces, and providing an area for free text, to illustrate their reasoning. The ISAT methodology enables not only a close exploration of the spatial aspects of a school environment (or equally any spatial setting under investigation), but it also enables an analysis of the temporal dimensions of participants’ spatial engagement. For example, Williams (2017) was interested in which parts of the schools were most utilised by students and teachers and which were not. He therefore provided the instruction to ISAT users to navigate through the setting in replicating the movements of their normal school day. In this way data was gathered on students’ and teachers’ trajectories through the building and the ISAT produced ‘heat maps’ indicating those areas which are most and least utilised (see Fig. 6.4). Using such methods Williams was able to elicit far more detailed, honest and probing data as to how learners and teachers experienced their new school building.

Fig. 6.4  ISAT heat-map indicating the average visits per user of different parts of the school (Williams, 2017, p238)

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Meso-Level Methods In this book we have scored a clear line between the formal education settings at the micro-level, and the informal and non-formal educational settings offered in alternative forms of education that take place in the home or community. Another key aspect of a meso-level lens is in considering the links between in/non-formal education and formal settings. One of the most important meso-level settings is the home setting. It is notoriously difficult to research the home environment, unlike the public space of the school, the home environment is very much in the private sphere. Whilst the researcher may be able to physically enter this private space, the degree to which they will be able to access the authentic everyday encounters and experiences of the home is another matter. Indeed, the difficulties and challenge of researching what is the intimate, domestic home environment have long been acknowledged (Myers, 2020). The way family members construct meaning, as well as the ‘norms’, everyday realities and experiences within this private space may be very different from their outer public presentation. Sociologists have long debated the public (re)presentations of self, especially in relation to class and gender. Therefore, this represents a particular challenge for generating knowledge on the private sphere of the home setting. While ethnographic observation may well provide one of the best means to capture everyday realities of the home, this may require an especially trusted observer who spends a long period gaining the trust of family members. This would require a significant investment in time. One method that has proved fruitful in capturing everyday realities of the home has been the diary method, which involves participants recording everyday happenings, experiences and events over a sustained period of time (Plowman & Stevenson, 2013). There have been a plethora of research studies taking such an approach. A recent study on the experiences of working-class families in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic asked participants to record their daily lives for a 28-day period during the ‘lockdown’ (when ‘stay at home’ orders were in place with restrictions on daily life, including, for example, only being allowed to go outdoors to exercise once per day) (Mckenzie & Dines, 2022). The diaries provided rich and revealing detail on the daily lives of working-class people during the lockdown, and how these were experienced in the private sphere of their homes. In a study by Plowman and Stevenson (2012), 11 sets of parents were asked to send ‘experience snapshots’ six times daily to

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researchers, showing the activities their child was engaged in at different parts of the day. The method provided a valuable source of information to understand the variety in children’s daily activities. As noted by the researchers, however, there is a question here about what is included and what is excluded in the images sent by parents, in terms of how they wanted to (re)present their parenting styles and the child’s daily life. Other researchers seeking to understand the space of the home and children’s education have sought traditional methods of interview and surveys, asking parents to record, and reflect upon, what goes on in the private sphere of the home. Again, while these methods can elicit valuable information, they do raise the question of whether what is being reported is an authentic account or is a representation of what is normatively considered to be a ‘good parent’ and positive home environment. To try to get closer to more authentic accounts of home life, a cross-national study (UK, India, Hong Kong and Norway) of father-child interactions developed an innovative mixed-method approach using film footage of the home environment and film-elicitation interviews (Chawla-Duggan et al., 2020). The study examined the home life of 12 families across these four national contexts, collecting 5–10 hours of film footage and conducting 24 film-elicitation interviews with the fathers and children. The richness of the data came from the film footage which captured everyday encounters, but it was the interviews where important meanings behind these interactions were generated. The researcher asked the child and parent to watch back the footage and then reflect on what was happening, showing the meaning-making that lay behind interactions between father and child. Importantly, it was the child and father’s interpretation of the video footage that was collected (not the researchers’ interpretation, as is often the case in video/photo research). This methodology perhaps got closer to the everyday realities of home life than many other studies taking conventional methodological approaches have been able. The learning that happens in non-traditional educational settings can also pose a challenge for researchers, especially when these settings involve physical activities in outdoor centres or exploration of the great outdoors. The use of wearable technology (such as cameras or audio recorders)— which participants use to capture their first-hand experiences in natural environments—can be an effective approach to researching these kinds of settings. Importantly, the method captures the individual and unique encounters of ‘being-in-the-world’ (Green, 2016)—recording what they see, hear, say and interact with in the setting. For example, the particular

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engagements with objects in the setting are recorded, along with the things they notice, like or dislike. It provides the kind of first-hand data that observational research benefits from, and so relies less on the ability of participants to recount from memory what happened in a setting. Green (2016) refers to the method as ‘Sensory Tours’, and argues that it has the affordance of being a non-intrusive method (participants are left alone to engage with the setting, whilst simultaneously collecting the data) which also gives the participant full control over what data they collect. These data can then be explored in a follow-up discussion between the researcher and participant, allowing participants to interpret their videos and talk about their experiences, revealing what they mean to the participant (as opposed to relying only on the researchers’ interpretation of them). The researcher can also take a more active role in the setting by walking with the participants as they record what they see and hear, what Pink (2007) refers to as ‘walking with video’. This has the advantage of being able to question participants ‘in the moment’ as they notice things of importance, asking participants to elaborate on the meaning of these things within the setting as they experience them.

Exo-Level Methods As a broader context than the meso- and micro-levels, the exo-level requires a lens wider in scope, with implications for the kind of data researchers require and where they look for it. Indeed, the exo-level concerns the intra-national settings of the community, neighbourhood or region that shape and are shaped by the schools, colleges, universities and nurseries that learners attend. The exo-level lens is upon the contexts of children’s lived social worlds that may not involve the child as an active participant, but still affect them. Whilst not as broad as the macro-level, the exo-lens is focussed on region, neighbourhood and locality. As is the case for the macro-level, the use of policy analysis can also prove fruitful at the exo-level, in terms of examining regional and locality-based policy documents and published information. For example, the policies of local authorities which may construct parents and learners in particular ways. Local authorities in England still have a major role in some aspects of educational provision and governance locally, such as provision for children with special educational needs. As discussed in the macro section below, discourse analysis can provide an effective means for eliciting aspects of power that underly text, including the messages that are communicated

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implicitly by the spoken or written word. In the case of special educational needs, for example, we can think of ways in which different local authorities can convey messages here about learner identity through their texts and documents. In analysing texts, it is also important to consider not just published documents, but the visuals and texts that appear on websites, social media channels and other online forms as well as how narratives around certain places are constructed (e.g. as being ‘left behind’). A key concern for education and identity at the exo-level is how aspects of identity at the neighbourhood/regional levels, especially race and class, come to shape the social/ethnic composition of schools/universities. There is a plethora of research that has been focussed on questions of school choice, and how educational institutions are shaped, and shape, the neighbourhood and regions where they are situated. Large-scale quantitative datasets have proved informative data sources to understand the extent and nature of how neighbourhoods/regions and identity intersect through education, especially questions of educational choice. Many researchers use student record data that are routinely collected by universities and schools when students register (e.g. in the UK there is the National Pupil Database (NPD) at school level, and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student records data at university-level). Given that it is based on student registrations, it is data that are on the entire student population and rich in detail, including a breakdown of background and family information (including socio-economic status) as well as historical educational information (prior educational performances at different stages). Focussed on East London, researchers have used school census data to analyse distances travelled to differentially performing schools according to social class (Butler et al., 2007). Their study revealed the high-performing schools recruiting from a much wider geographic pool of families, who travelled much further and from a more diverse range of neighbourhoods. The least performing schools tended to have an intake that was proximally closer and from a narrower range of neighbourhoods. These data used by Butler et al. (2007) allowed for the extent and nature of broader patterns to be identified in a way that is not possible through the study of a relatively smaller number of parental narratives on school choice. Importantly, however, the findings reflect what ethnographic research on school choice has shown: that there are classed differences in parental choice of secondary education, with higher social class groups spending a concerted amount of time researching schools and often moving house to send their child to the school of their choice

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(Crozier et al., 2008; Reay & Ball, 1998; Ball, 2003). This illustrates the affordances of combining quantitative and qualitative data to understand complex educational phenomena such as neighbourhood, social class and school choice. Without the data on the entire regional population, it would be difficult to make claims about the extent of patterns identified from the narratives of individuals—but these narratives are crucial to explaining what underpins the broader patterns. Far from being ‘post-racial societies’, countries like the UK have witnessed significant public outrage in recent years centred around racial injustices. In the UK, student protests in higher education have been seen around the representation of colonial figures in older universities such as Oxford and Bristol (e.g. ‘the Rhodes must fall’ campaign). The outrage stems from a context in which ethnic minorities face substantial inequalities: education and labour markets, not to mention wider society, in the criminal justice system, for example. For example, using HESA university student records data in the UK, researchers have examined the question of how the ethnic composition of where students grow up may be linked to where they attend university (Gamsu et al., 2018). It involved creating a ‘diversity score’ for every UK university (in terms of its ethnic composition) which was compared to the ethnic composition of its surrounding neighbourhood. This provided the basis for examining whether students move to more or less ethnically diverse universities compared to where they grew up. It was an important question to ask given the uneven spatial distribution of ethnic groups within the UK, for example, cities like Bath or Cambridge are over 95% White compared with greater diversity in places like London, Leicester and Birmingham. Indeed, the analysis showed that many universities did not reflect the ethnic composition of their local neighbourhood. Through multi-level analyses, the study also showed that White groups were more likely than ethnic minority groups to move to a university that was more diverse than their home neighbourhood. This underlines the uneven spatial distribution of ethnic groups in the UK and points to the spatial and ethnic dynamics that progressing to university entails. At the school level, other research in the UK, using school census data and neighbourhood statistics data, has examined ethnic segregation of schools, revealing that segregation by school is more or less reflective of segregation at neighbourhood level (Harris et al., 2007). There are also interesting questions to address here about the ‘effect’ neighbourhoods can have on educational inequality, and the relationship between neighbourhoods and identity, in terms of the degree to which

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identities are spatially contingent—in other words, whether particular identities are associated with certain localities. Large-scale datasets can again be useful in understanding neighbourhood effects on life outcomes, including education, and have been used across a variety of contexts to address various outcome measures. In terms of educational outcomes, a substantial meta-review of over 1500 studies has found mixed results on whether neighbourhoods impact on educational outcomes when controlling for other known factors (Nieuwenhuis & Hooimeijer, 2016). According to this review, whether a relationship was found appeared dependent upon the kind of controls used and scale of analyses. In the United States, researchers have examined the ‘lingering effects’ of neighbourhoods on cognitive ability across generations, using large-scale spatial and demographic datasets. The study found that exposure to neighbourhood poverty across two consecutive generations has a significant impact on a child’s cognitive ability by more than half a standard deviation. This is a significant finding because we know that there is substantial continuity in families’ neighbourhood environment across generations—raising concerns about a multigenerational and lasting ‘poverty trap’. Other studies have suggested that the ‘neighbourhood effects’ are mediated by schools and school composition, for example, research in Finland and Holland have both demonstrated through large-scale datasets the role of schools in mediating neighbourhood effects on educational outcomes (Kauppinen, 2008; Sykes & Musterd, 2011). Again, without the analytical power that these large-scale datasets provide, it would not be possible to make such claims. There is a plethora of neighbourhood statistics data that can be innovatively combined to carry out rich analyses of educational phenomena at the exo-level. National census and survey data are often used here, for example, in the UK, the national census carried out every 10 years, provides neighbourhood-level data on indicators of education and labour market participation, socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, faith and for the first time in 2021, sexuality. Census data in the UK is openly available online, with historical data reaching as far back as 1901. It can be put to a variety of uses by educational researchers interested in how the composition of a neighbourhood (such as its ethnic composition, socio-­ economic status of residents, etc.) is related to educational phenomena. These neighbourhood statistics data can be combined with other datasets, such as educational administrative records data (e.g. school census data, attainment data, etc.). The research mentioned above has used these data

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to examine questions around neighbourhood ethnic segregation and school ethnic segregation. In a context like the UK, where political debate has often centred around geographic divides, there is the potential to use these neighbourhood statistics to examine how types of neighbourhoods (in terms of their historic local economic conditions, types of industry/ commerce, employment/labour market conditions) relate to educational aspirations and anticipated labour market trajectories. It could be that post-industrialised areas with limited and narrow local employment opportunities (centred around low-pay service sector type jobs, such as call centres) have some effect on the aspirations and horizons of young people from working-class backgrounds. It might be that middle-class groups in these localities are able to ‘buffer’ such effects because of their aspirations from home. Of course, separate survey data on educational aspirations and labour market trajectories would also be needed, in combination with the neighbourhood statistics, in such a study. Whilst there have been studies on educational outcomes, this kind of research on aspirations could be revealing. Researchers can think creatively about how neighbourhood statistical data may be innovatively combined, explored and used to address these kinds of questions. Whilst large-scale datasets at the neighbourhood and regional exo-­ levels can be invaluable at identifying patterns and effects of varying kinds, they are perhaps less powerful in explaining the generative mechanisms that underly them. There are powerful qualitative methods that have been deployed at the neighbourhood level to address this lacuna. Researchers have engaged participants to interact physically with their neighbourhoods to access their perceptions and emotions about different parts of their locality. An especially informative way of doing this has been to use the method walking tours, which involve walking with participants in the neighbourhood and collecting data as they encounter places. This can be approached in creative ways, especially making use of digital technologies. Research by Fink (2012) in the UK has used photography walking tours to examine the everyday lives of people living in disadvantaged communities. The study asked participants to engage in the walking tours by photographing places they either valued or saw as problematic in their local area. Talking to the participants about their photographs provided insightful data on the way they constructed and re-constructed meaning and their sense of community within their local areas. A team of Canadian researchers have integrated spatial analysis tools in their approach to using walking tour methods (Loebach & Gilliland, 2010). Their study consisted

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of a group of seven–nine-year-old children in Canada leading the researchers on a tour of their school neighbourhood to discuss places of significance. The children were equipped with maps and photographic equipment, and researchers recorded the dialogue that ensued as well as tracking their routes and dialogue with Geographic Positioning Software (GPS). Children’s photographs were then used to facilitate a post-walking tour discussion to gather interpretations and meaning from them. Location data from the GPS then provided the basis for an analysis of children’s comments and photographs within a Geographic Information System (GIS), spatially plotting these data to identify patterns, for example, any clustering. The analyses revealed complex patterns in how children used and perceived their local neighbourhood, with the data providing an invaluable and rich source of information.

Macro-Level Methods The macro-level is likely the most difficult to research and ‘get at’ not least because it constitutes the broader systems of power education phenomena operate within—often those things we ‘take for granted’, are overly familiar, and cannot ‘touch’ see or observe so tangibly as observing interactions in the classroom (micro-level), for example. As explored in Chap. 5, these can include broader power structures within and across societies, social and political discourses as well as policy regimes within and across nations. To understand some of the fundamental social and political discourses circulating, nationally and internationally, the method of discourse analysis has proved especially important across a plethora of studies. Discourse analysis can be seen as much as a theory as it is a method, a way of understanding the power and meaning that is communicated via text. It is an approach to analysis which takes the wider social and political system into account in making sense of data, which makes it ideal for understanding macro-level phenomena—given that these broader power structures are the main foci of this level. The analytic approach differs from other kinds of qualitative analysis, such as thematic or content analysis, in that it focusses not on the text per se but rather on what the choice of language is doing, in terms of what underlying messages are being conveyed through text. In education, there is often identity work being done through texts, whether these be policy texts, documents and reports produced by NGOs, school texts, curriculum texts and textbooks or other imagery. These documents can prove fruitful in understanding macro-level phenomena in

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education (as well as exo-level local authority policy). Drawing on the approach of feminist critical policy discourse analysis, Monkman and Hoffman (2013) have analysed over 300 policy documents in the field of international development education to understand the discursive framing of their policy initiatives relating to girls’ education. They found that the discourse framing girls’ education used by these organisations limited the potential for discussing complex issues relating to the challenges faced by girls in developing country contexts. The study highlights how discourse can shape what is included and excluded in debates such as girls’ education. As discussed in relation to the meso-level, large-scale international and national datasets can also be a powerful means for understanding macro-­ level phenomena—these could be large-scale surveys, psychometric testing and assessment data, national administrative datasets or population censuses. Large-scale data provides the means to make observations of the entire population at large through representative sampling—whether that be entire nations, or groups of nations. It therefore allows for the observation of populations who are subject to national and international social/ political discourses or policy regimes and across nations. Claims can then be made about the impact of different policy regimes on different aspects of education and identity. The case of ‘home-international’ comparisons is a good example of research that has sought to use large-scale data to isolate the impact of different education systems that exist within nations. Past research has addressed such comparisons within nations that have distinctive education systems across different states and regions, such as Australia, Switzerland, the United States, India and the UK. Often, these studies have used large-scale datasets to draw out the possible impact these distinctive systems of education within countries could be having on children and young people in education (Brown & Donnelly, 2020; Donnelly & Brown, 2022; Donnelly et  al., 2020a). Indeed, they are thought to provide a degree of power to make such claims given the scale and representativeness of the data. In the UK, like many other nations, there are a range of high-quality longitudinal datasets that were designed to provide the scope for geographical analysis. For example, the Millenium Cohort Study has been tracing children born in the year 2000 throughout the lives, carrying out data sweeps to collect a comprehensive range of information on their lives and trajectories, including their education experiences and outcomes. Taylor et  al. (2013) have used the data to draw comparisons in child development between England and Wales. They found that there is no single ‘success story’ and that countries’

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performance depends on the cognitive ability being measured—though England does significantly out-perform Wales in literacy. On the one hand, given the cultural and social similarities between the UK nations (and within other nations, too) there is a case for why such comparisons can be taken seriously—ostensibly, these are similar children subject to different education systems. We could perhaps think of policy interventions since 1990s/2000s that could account for England’s success in literacy (such as the literacy/numeracy hours policy). But the researchers point out that there is also a need for some caution and greater consideration in thinking through the analyses of data and the impact of such macro-level forces. For example, they point out that the literacy performance of children in England is largely concentrated in London, where a large proportion of England’s ethnic minority population is concentrated—which could account for some of the differences. They also point out that other differences between children, especially their social background, are much more impactful than which education system they are situated within. The study is a good example of why interpretation and sensitivity to questions of scale are crucial in drawing comparisons at the macro-level—this becomes an even more crucial issue when comparing between nation states with large-scale data such as PISA. Researchers should caution against drawing conclusions about the impact of education systems or practices based on differences in achievement between nations, and instead, look to what else these differences could be representations of. In taking seriously the macro-level, there are methods of analysis that are especially well placed to capture the importance of place at national and international levels. Most obviously, Geographic Information Systems have been pivotal to advancing spatial analysis at the macro scale, especially techniques like spatial flow analysis, choropleth mapping and weighted spatial regressions. The mapping of spatial flows can be an effective way to present the movement of people across space. Whilst sometimes only providing a descriptive analysis, these techniques can nevertheless be an impactful means to present large-scale data showing instantly broad patterns that are quick and easy to interpret. Social Network Analysis (SNA) has also proved an effective means of uncovering network structures that exist across macro-level spaces, including national and international contexts. It is a statistical technique which examines network structures according to the nodes (such as people, institutions or objects) and ties (relationships) which connect them. It is the relative strength of the ties that is crucial in identifying network structures across

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space. The technique can be instrumental in uncovering relationships according to different aspects of identity such as social class, ethnicity and gender/sexuality. Researchers could use it to study the way social class identity is reproduced through education, by looking at the relationship between different social class groups and different educational institutions (individual schools, for example). In the UK context, this has been done in relation to students attending university, using community detection techniques which identify distinct groupings within a network (Gamsu & Donnelly, 2021). The research identified ‘an archipelagic geography of elite formation’ through school to university flows, with an elite university cluster detected, that is nationally based, as well as a number of regional boundaries of student flows (see Fig. 6.5).

Fig. 6.5  Image showing school-­ university flows with community detection applied. Source: Gamsu and Donnelly (2021)

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Crucially, the communities detected transcend across traditionally conceived borders, for example, the northern England community spills over into North Wales, whilst the south west England community does the same by verging into South Wales. This detection of communities helps to better clarify the regional boundaries and borders that exist within nations. It is only possible through large-scale data such as students’ records data, which provides information on the entire student population, in the case of UK higher education student records. Research has also used SNA methods to present the global flows of international students and the destination hubs that have historically been important in the flow of students (Shields, 2013). The scale of participants and observations made possible through large-­ scale datasets is not possible to match through in-depth qualitative means, though, as discussed above, qualitative data provide an arguably superior means for understanding the processes, mechanisms and subjective experiences that underly broad-based patterns. Qualitative researchers are often lamented for drawing on small-scale case studies of single geographic locations. But other qualitative studies do attempt to take macro-level issues seriously, with multi-sited qualitative research designs that attempt to capture some degree of macro-level breadth to their analysis. For example, within national contexts, to study the question of gender and subject choice across different types of geography, such as former industrialised communities (with a history of male-dominated heavy industries, for example), rural areas, metropolitan cities and small towns. This captures a broader cross-section of macro-level economic conditions as well as types of geography in terms of population scale/composition—drawing comparisons between these locales could elicit a better understanding on the impact of macro-level concerns. The ESRC-funded Spatial and Social Mobilities programme of research adopted this kind of qualitative multi-­ sited case study design, with over 200 participants located across 17 diverse localities in each region of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (Donnelly & Gamsu, 2020; Donnelly et  al., 2020b, 2022). In doing so, the study acknowledged Desmond’s (2014) point on relational ethnography, which is that ethnographic research designs should attempt to capture the entire field of relations, for example, researching the full range of social class groups that exist not just a single social class group. In relational terms, this is thought to bring about a better understanding of how dominant social class group positions are held together through dominated positions, for example.

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In an attempt to get close to understanding the relational construction of places through this multi-sited case study design, the study developed a ‘mapping method’ (Donnelly et al., 2020b) which invited participants to colour in maps of the UK according to places they were positive, negative, or ambivalent about (see Fig. 6.6, exemplar completed maps). The exercise was then followed by an interview when participants were asked to ‘talk about their map’ which elicited rich descriptions of places. Crucially, participants were able to talk about places in relation to one another, for example, the place of London, whilst at the same time talking about their immediate locality (such as Liverpool). This generated responses about how places are relationally constructed, in keeping with Desmond’s (2) point on the need to keep in view the entire field of relations—for example, the dominance of London can only be understood in terms of how it is constructed in relation to dominated places outside London.

Fig. 6.6  Exemplar completed maps from a ‘mapping exercise’ (as part of the ESRC-funded spatial and social mobilities project Donnelly et al., 2020b). Source: part of the ESRC-funded spatial and social mobilities project (Donnelly et al., 2020b)

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A Multi-Scalar, Multi-Method Analyses This chapter has brought together a diverse range of research methodologies and methods that have contributed to generating knowledge on micro-, exo-, meso- and macro-level phenomena in research on education and identity. Two points in particular stand out. First, it is clear from this review that owing to points of scale some levels are more naturally aligned with either qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Second, there are strengths and limitations to both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which can be overcome through combining them—for example, addressing the limitation of qualitative designs in terms of their lack of scale and breadth by supplementing with quantitative data that provides a broader picture and context wherein cases are situated. Acknowledging these issues, the argument we have advanced in this book is that a multi-­ scalar analyses must be multi-method. Much education research addressing questions around space, education and identity has incorporated some of the different spatial planes discussed in the book, though rarely are they afforded equal weight in the analyses, and it is also not often that all of the spatial levels are included. Often, research focuses only on one of the spatial levels, addressing meso-level questions such as how young people in Northern England (UK) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) use and experience spaces and places relating to work, life and learning (Thompson et  al., 2014). These studies provide a detailed and comprehensive picture of the level, such as the micro-level study by Donoghue (2007) addressing the performance of masculinities in school spaces outside of the classroom within schools. Other research has provided multi-scalar analyses of education and identity, but only in limited ways. Often this could be by drawing on data on a particular scale of analyses that is intended to provide context or is intended to frame in some way the major level of concern. For example, Brown and Dixon’s (2020) study that is mainly concentrated at the micro-level also carried out a critical analysis of policy texts to understand the macro-level framing of micro-level questions of how mental health and wellbeing were constructed in school. Some studies provide very good examples of research that provides a sustained focus on two levels of analyses. The research by DugonjicRodwin (2022) examined the question of how being international relates to privileged subjectivities. It involved a micro-level ethnographic analysis of a role-play game, the Students League of Nations, where students from

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elite international schools simulate the UN General Assembly in Geneva— which was combined with a macro-level analysis of how the Students League, as an ‘institutional rite’, is understood in its broader societal context, using document analysis, interviews and statistical data to examine the social composition of the schools. In adopting this multi-scalar design, the study was able to show that these role-play games are part of elite class formation in terms of the wider societal context, as well as explain how they are in terms of the process of the role-play game itself. Without the broader societal picture of social structure (macro-­level), for some, there could be a question about the significance of the role-play game (Microlevel). This is not to say that stand-alone ethnographic analyses are not valuable and important in their own right, but embedding them within other spatial scales can draw out their significance further, in a way that could appeal to policy-makers, for example. Our own research has attempted to study the macro- and micro-levels of education and how they intersect in relation to the question of children’s social and emotional wellbeing (Brown & Donnelly, 2020; Donnelly & Brown, 2022; Donnelly et  al., 2020a). This study was a ‘home international’ study of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, examining the policy regimes of each education system, and how they impacted the practices of schools in each nation. It involved analysis of policy documents from each nation combined with a nationally representative survey of their schools. The research showed that Wales and Scotland appeared to have the greatest policy ‘traction’ in terms of schools being more likely to be aware and use policies in their country—with England faring worst in terms of schools adopting their Government policies (Donnelly & Brown, 2022; Donnelly et al., 2020a). The policy analysis illustrated how a more embedded and cohesive history of policy development in Wales and Scotland, compared to the piece-meal and stand-alone policy-making of England, are likely factors explaining these disparities. Whilst research of this kind are important examples of how a considered study of two levels can expand knowledge on key educational issues, they also raise further questions about the levels they miss. For example, the work on social and emotional skills did not consider the exo-level influence of how ‘chains’ of schools could be further mediating and impacting on what happens in terms of school practice—or how Government policy is interpreted and adopted. Nor did it consider the home-school connection (e.g. meso-level) mediating the

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types of SES activities that children could access due to financial or other barriers, or the way regional geographies and places could be important in shaping school practice, especially in regions where children’s wellbeing may be at greater threat. Indeed, there is evidence to show that wellbeing differs according to geography, with poorer and post-industrial regions often recording lower wellbeing (Griffith & Jones, 2020). We can think of other studies where a spatial scale could be ‘missing’ from the analyses, potentially impacting the richness and nuance of knowledge generated on educational topics. The impact of each spatial level on questions of education and identity demonstrates that they need to be taken seriously and considered holistically if a fuller understanding of research topics is to be reached. That said, researching in a considered and in-depth way each of the four levels described in this book in a single study clearly presents a significant challenge for any research team. There are challenges in the skills development and capacity of researchers, especially if an effective study of an issue at each level requires advanced level skills in qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The availability and accessibility of data to adequately capture each level also presents major challenges, especially in contexts with weak data infrastructures. As is often the case in social sciences research, it is perhaps more a consideration of what is possible and feasible given available resources, capacity and data. But even paying some attention and consideration to each of the levels is valuable given the potential breadth and depth of understanding this may generate. Box 6.1 provides an imaginary research agenda to address how policy and practice can address socio-economic inequalities in educational achievement—with examples of the kind of methodologies, methods and data that can be drawn upon at each level. These are provided as examples of the kinds of empirical enquiry that could be undertaken, but there are many more examples of data and methods we could creatively imagine and think of. This imaginary study adopts the kind of multi-scalar approach we advocate in this book—comparing 10 countries (macro-level), out-of-­ school and home learning (meso-level), local education markets and regional education networks (exo-level) and schooling experiences (microlevel). Of course, it would be very unlikely that all of the scales, and all of the data collection described here, could be enacted in a single moderately sized study, and the scale of work here reflects more a major long-term

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programme of work—with a substantial multi-skilled team, or research centre. Indeed, we argue this poses the potential for greater inter-­and within disciplinary working, in contrast to the traditional siloed approach to academic work that higher education has propelled so for long. But it could be possible to select one method from each scale within a single research study, even if there is only a limited coverage of some scales. Such an approach goes some way to address the critique raised by Purcell (2003) that scalar research within critical geographic studies is limited by the methodological and epistemological paradigms of macro- versus micro-‘islands of practice’. In citing the Marston/Brenner debate (discussed in Chap. 1) Purcell argues that scalar geographers are often locked into the particular scales of their epistemological approach, that is, political economists are interested in the macro or exo-level scales, while those interested in feminist perspectives on the role of social reproduction and consumerism favour more micro-level studies of the home space. He argues that while those on either end of the scalar spectrum may recognise in principle the value of the other approach, invariably this does not lead to an ‘agreement in research practice’ (p322 italicisation in original). More often than not this is due to the limitations of methodological expertise, with micro-level foci often explored through qualitative methods and macro-level foci explored through quantitative methods. Twenty years on from this canonical debate, it could be argued that the geographies of education have moved much further along the path of mixed methods research. However, the extent to which mixed methods approaches can collaboratively align and harmonise is variable and often limited by the nature of funding structures which are orientated towards one-off stand-­ alone projects. A multi-scalar research programme (such as the one outlined in Box 6.1) aims to overcome such limitations by orientating a co-ordinated, long-term programme of research such that may be conducted by an evolving group of people, over a period of years or decades.

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Box 6.1 A Multi-Scalar and Multi-Method Education Research Programme

How can socio-economic inequalities in educational achievement be addressed by education policy and practice? Macro • A discourse analysis of education and social policy from multiple countries, with particular attention paid to the way ‘disadvantage’ is constructed and conceived in each nation. An examination of specific policies and systems of support for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the same countries. • A multi-level quantitative analysis of educational achievement according to socio-economic status across the 10 countries, using administrative datasets and student records data to control for the full range of variables impacting on achievement. • A network analysis of relationships between socio-economic background, education and the labour market within each nation. Exo • Case study research into local education networks within each region of the 10 countries, for example, regional systems of education Governance, ‘chains’ of schools and other collaborative activity locally. • A qualitative study, or national survey, of local ‘education markets’ within each region of the 10 countries, examining how school ‘choice’ operates and how parents of different socioeconomic backgrounds experience and navigate choice of school. • Ethnographic research into the diverse neighbourhood contexts of 10 nations, drawing on mapping, walking tour, or other visual and digital methodological approaches such as photographs and wearable video cameras.

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Box 6.1  (continued)

Meso • An ethnographic study into ‘out-of-school learning’ activities with regions each of the 10 countries, including clubs, activities, museum and theatre visits, outdoor education experiences, and other informal learning experiences—the research would examine how these are facilitated, learners’ experiences and outcomes. • An ethnographic study of parenting practices relating to education and learning in lower and higher socio-economic families across the macro-, meso- and exo-considered above. Micro • An ethnographic study of children from lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds, examining their everyday lives at home and school (including the use of technology and creative methods)—a series of case studies across the meso-, exo- and macro-levels considered above. • Qualitative observation and interviews with education professionals around their views, capacity and training relating to addressing socio-economic disadvantage in educational achievement. • The application of various sensory methodologies to capture children’s experiences of school (annotated) ‘maps’ of the school design or children’s own visual ‘maps’ of school spaces, photographs of the parts of school that are (not/) valued, childled guided tours of the school grounds, documentary analysis of work samples visually displayed in school (and those that are not) and facilitated focus groups where children assemble and discuss the meaning of artefacts gathered from the school. In concluding our argument for a multi-scalar analysis, it is apposite to highlight an example of innovative educational research that has attempted to engage with a spatial and identity analysis across the multiple scales of micro, meso, exo and macro. The following study is all the more powerful in the methodologies employed, for being rooted in an Indigenous ontology and epistemology, with an inherent respect for identity and land.

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Our Stories, Our Way: A Multi-Scalar Approach to Researching Identity and Indigeneity Our Stories, Our Way is a ground-breaking study that represents an excellent example of research on education and identity right across each of the spatial scales. The research was carried out with over 100 young people within six diverse secondary schooling contexts, across two jurisdictions, and three education systems in Australia. It aimed to build relationships between learners, schools and the Indigenous communities they served through a project aiming to build and affirm the cultural and social identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people that attended them (Shay, Sara and Woods, In Press). With respects to the macro-level, the research was conducted from an ontological position that respected and adhered to the Indigenous knowledges and cultural values of first nation Australian peoples. In ensuring that the study was guided by an Indigenous ethical and cultural code of conduct, Local Indigenous Researchers were involved in all elements of the project. The outset of the study involved a foundational research phase that elicited exo-level spatial forces by paying community Elders to ground the whole research team, student participants and school facilitators in an ontological historical and relational connection to their land of heritage/residence. The historical biographic narratives gathered at the exo-level detailed the evolving relationships between Indigenous communities and the land and country in their local region, as well as detailing the ways in which macro colonial invasions of territory were contested and navigated. As opposed to situating such meetings within static indoors spaces, they were invariably conducted outdoors and involved guided tours of the land, conducted not to collect ‘data’ per se., but rather for participants to generate understanding of the history and connection between Indigenous communities and their land. Shay and colleagues noted that this phase broke with established social science conventions that fieldwork activities and economic resources be directly linked to data outputs. As Indigenous researchers themselves, Shay and colleagues countered that such tours of the land: were critical to the research, and just as important as collecting data, as they ensured Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies grounded the research from the onset as well as providing grounding for more rich and deep data to come as a result of undertaking this process (Shay et al., 2022 in press)

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This study reflects an innovative approach and one that honoured a spatial and place-based ontology in a research design that specifically aimed to excavate and nurture the researchers’ and participants’ identity connections to the land. These exo-level activities also laid the groundwork in people’s minds and bodies for all the research activities that followed. Following these initial spatial orientation tours young people were supported by Local Indigenous Researchers who were employed in each regional community to facilitate the engagement of the young people, in supporting the production of artefacts that formed lasting representations of their identity and wellbeing experiences, perspectives and understandings. The superseding methodology employed methods situated in the micro-setting of the school, but aimed to elicit experiences of the meso-­ level, whereby young people participated in a diverse range of cultural, arts-based, textual, and participatory research activities in a series of workshops hosted in the schools involved in the study. The workshops were designed so as to explore young people’s experiences of wellbeing, identity and education, both that encountered within their socio-cultural communities, as well as their experiences of where these knowledge and values were met by the school communities of non-Indigenous students and teachers. Topics raised included issues such as racism, identity, culture, healthy bodies, educational opportunities, equity, fairness and economic constraints. The qualitative research methods resulted in a diverse range of data being produced all of which was grounded in Indigenous epistemes and ontologies. Accordingly, the traditional methods of qualitative data such as focus groups and interviews were eschewed in favour of methods that put a greater emphasis upon multi-sensory and creative methods valued in Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the production of artworks, drawings, multimodal texts, still and moving images produced by the young people, collective responses that resulted during a method called collaborative yarning (Shay, 2021) whereby ideas are collected and worked up into visual and artistic representations (such as storyboards, charts, drawings and paintings). One such data output included the ‘me map’ as ‘a creative activity that allowed young people to draw, paint, or write (in English, Aboriginal English or their language) things that they felt made up their identities’ see Fig. 6.7. These workshops then formed the basis of projects designed by young people with the support of the Local Indigenous Researchers to represent their collective positioning of identities within their lives. These projects

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Fig. 6.7  Me map example

culminated in identity artefacts including ‘rap songs (written by young people) with film clips, clothing designed by young people with artwork representations and textual representations of their identities, posters, and art displays’. These meso-level outputs were also applied to effect the micro-level through using the knowledge gained in order to shape and inform schools’ understanding and inclusion of Indigenous children. In supporting this the schools hosted young people in their collaboration to plan and conduct an event to showcase their projects for school and meso-­ level community partners, with follow-up impacts including the adoption of children’s designs on the school formal shirt. Accordingly, Shay et al’s. (in press) study is a case example of how schools can support wellbeing through identity building and affirming, in generating lessons for nonIndigenous researchers for how to conduct ethically principled, creative and genuinely participatory research than leads to meaningful change and impact.

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Challenges to Multi-Scalar Analyses A key challenge for any multi-method study is how different kinds of data and methodologies can be combined and interpreted. One way forward here is to frame the multi-method analyses around the central over-­arching multi-scalar research question of the study. Treating the data collected at each scale as ‘contextual information’ to help develop a greater depth and breadth of understanding about the question, and its nuanced spatially contingent form. This may mean beginning with findings from one spatial scale, and then cascading these up or down the scales to further interpret their meaning—to ensure that one spatial scale does not frame the entire study, we can then repeat this again for each scale. For example, the socio-­ economic composition of schools could emerge as a major finding at the macro-level, which we can then use to interpret data at the meso-level (e.g. how does parent-school interaction differ across schools with varied socio-economic compositions), exo-level (e.g. how do systems of school choice relate to the socio-economic composition of schools within local education markets) and micro-level (e.g. what is life like for working-class students in schools with different socio-economic composition). We could then begin with another spatial scale, and do the same thing again—beginning next time with the micro-level to frame our interpretation of data at the other levels. Some challenges here include how you might interpret contradictory findings between the different scales of analysis, for example, a macro-level analyses of educational achievement (using large-scale data) may point to a conclusion that is in conflict to that reached by ethnographic research within school settings (at the micro-level). In addressing such challenges, it is important to acknowledge the point made by Gorard and Taylor (2004) that we should treat the data collected at each scale with caution, and think of it merely as contextual information in a sense, helping us arrive at an understanding of the topic in question. Indeed, if research is about raising questions as much as it is about finding answers, then contradictory findings are to be welcomed—and can be used to fuel further research enquiry to understand why the contradiction came about. Was it the way the data were collected? Is there another factor we are missing? A multi-scalar analysis of education and identity presents major challenges for research in terms of data collection and analyses, not least in terms of the research skills required. But the potential for a more comprehensive and richer understanding that goes beyond a limited single-scale

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analysis outweighs these challenges and makes multi-scalar analyses a compelling way forward. In a global political context where there is increasing focus on both local and global, and the myriad of spatial scales in between, this kind of research is much needed.

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Desmond, M. (2014). Relational ethnography. Theory and Society, 43(5), 547–579. Donnelly, M., & Brown, C. (2022). ‘Policy traction’ on social and emotional wellbeing: Comparing the education systems of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Comparative Education, 1–19. Donnelly, M., & Gamsu, S. (2020). Spatial structures of student mobility: Social, economic and ethnic ‘geometries of power. Population, Space and Place, 26(3), e2293. Donnelly, M., Brown, C., Batlle, I. C. et al. (2020a). Developing social and emotional skills. Donnelly, M., Gamsu, S., & Whewall, S. (2020b). Mapping the relational construction of people and places. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(1), 91–108. Donnelly, M., Gamsu, S., & Baratta, A. (2022). Accent and the manifestation of spatialised class structure. The Sociological Review, 0(0), 00380261221076188. Donoghue, D. O. (2007). ‘James always hangs out here’: Making space for place in studying masculinities at school. Visual Studies, 22(1), 62–73. Dugonjic-Rodwin, L. (2022). Becoming ‘international’: Transgressing national identity as a ritual for class identification. Ethnography, 0(0), 14661381221082909. Fink, J. (2012). Walking the neighbourhood, seeing the small details of community life: Reflections from a photography walking tour. Critical Social Policy, 32(1), 31–50. Gamsu, S., & Donnelly, M. (2021). Social network analysis methods and the geography of education: Regional divides and elite circuits in the school to university transition in the UK. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 112(4), 370–386. Gamsu, S., Donnelly, M., & Harris, R. (2018). The spatial dynamics of race in the transition to university: Diverse cities and White campuses in UK higher education. Population, Space and Place, e2222. Gauntlett, D., & Holzwarth, P. (2006). Creative and visual methods for exploring identities. Visual Studies, 21(01), 82–91. Gorard, S., & Taylor, C. (2004). Combining methods in educational and social research. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Green, C. (2016). Sensory tours as a method for engaging children as active researchers: Exploring the use of wearable cameras in early childhood research. International Journal of Early Childhood, 48(3), 277–294. Griffith, G.  J., & Jones, K. (2020). When does geography matter most? Age-­ specific geographical effects in the patterning of, and relationship between, mental wellbeing and mental illness. Health & Place, 64, 102401. Harris, R., Johnston, R., & Burgess, S. (2007). Neighborhoods, ethnicity and school choice: Developing a statistical framework for geodemographic analysis. Population Research and Policy Review, 26(5), 553–579.

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Kauppinen, T.  M. (2008). Schools as mediators of neighbourhood effects on choice between vocational and academic tracks of secondary education in Helsinki. European Sociological Review, 24(3), 379–391. Literat, I. (2013). “A pencil for your thoughts”: Participatory drawing as a visual research method with children and youth. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), 84–98. Loebach, J., & Gilliland, J. (2010). Child-led tours to uncover children’s perceptions and use of neighborhood environments. Children, Youth and Environments, 20(1), 52–90. Mckenzie, L., & Dines, M. (2022). The lockdown diaries of the working class. The Working Class Collective. McKeown, S., Stringer, M., & Cairns, E. (2016). Classroom segregation: Where do students sit and how is this related to group relations? British Educational Research Journal, 42(1), 40–55. Monkman, K., & Hoffman, L. (2013). Girls’ education: The power of policy discourse. Theory and Research in Education, 11(1), 63–84. Myers, M. (2020). Gypsies and other homeschoolers: The challenges of researching an alternative education. In Handbook of qualitative research in education. Edward Elgar Publishing. Nieuwenhuis, J., & Hooimeijer, P. (2016). The association between neighbourhoods and educational achievement, a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 31(2), 321–347. Pink, S. (2007). Walking with video. Visual Studies, 22(3), 240–252. Pink, S. (2013). Doing visual ethnography. Sage. Plowman, L., & Stevenson, O. (2012). Using mobile phone diaries to explore children’s everyday lives. Childhood, 19(4), 539–553. Plowman, L., & Stevenson, O. (2013). Exploring the quotidian in young children’s lives at home. Home Cultures, 10(3), 329–347. Purcell, T. (2003). Island of practice and the Marston/Brenner debate: Towards a more synthetic critical human geography. Progress in Human Geography, 27, 317–332. Reay, D., & Ball, S. J. (1998). ‘Making their minds up’: Family dynamics of school choice. British Educational Research Journal, 24(4), 431–448. Renold, E. (2001). ‘Square-girls’, femininity and the negotiation of academic success in the primary school. British Educational Research Journal, 27(5), 577–588. Shay, M. (2021). Extending the yarning yarn: Collaborative yarning methodology for ethical indigenist education research. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 50(1), 62–70. Shay, M., Sarra, G., & Woods, A. (in press). Grounded ontologies: Indigenous methodologies in qualitative and cross-cultural research. In P.  Liamputtong (Ed.), Qualitative cross-cultural research: A social science perspective. Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Shields, R. (2013). Globalization and international student mobility: A network analysis. Comparative Education Review, 57(4), 609–636. Sykes, B., & Musterd, S. (2011). Examining neighbourhood and school effects simultaneously: What does the Dutch evidence show? Urban Studies, 48(7), 1307–1331. Taylor, C., Rees, G., & Davies, R. (2013). Devolution and geographies of education: The use of the millennium cohort study for ‘home international’ comparisons across the UK. Comparative Education, 49(3), 290–316. Thompson, R., Russell, L., & Simmons, R. (2014). Space, place and social exclusion: An ethnographic study of young people outside education and employment. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(1), 63–78. Williams, J. J. (2017). A socio-technical method to assess the holistic impact of new buildings on English secondary schools from the perspective of the students. Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London). Williams, J. J., Sailer, K., & Priest, R. (2015). Use of an online interactive space analysis tool to understand student perceptions of four secondary schools. In Proceedings of the 10th international space syntax symposium (p.  38). Space Syntax Laboratory, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Willis, P. (2017). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. Routledge.

CHAPTER 7

Conclusion

The Value of a Spatial and Identity Lens on Educational Issues In contributing to the burgeoning geographies of education field of research, this book has put forward a conceptual approach for understanding how identity issues in education play out geographically. Within the geographies of education field of research, it is more often than not geographers looking into the spatiality of education. Written by sociologists of education, our book provides a conceptual analysis from the perspective of education looking out geographically. Our perspective foregrounds identity and education, beginning from the issues that have been found to be crucial in understanding differentiated experiences of education, and developing a model to understand their spatial configuration. For example, the study of educational institutions that have incorporated Indigenous identities/languages and looking at their spatiality—in terms of how the different spatial planes impact and are impacted by them (see Chap. 6). This is distinct from approaches that use education as a ‘lens’ to study geographic questions, for example the geographic study of migration phenomena through the lens of international student mobility. The unique perspective this book speaks from offers a number of affordances in understanding education, identity and space. In many ways this book can be read as an injunction to educationalists, policymakers and researchers to explore and understand the ways in which © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0_7

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space, place and identity can be seen to configure and reproduce issues of educational inequality. Through the course of this book, we have attempted to map out a framework, and provide the conceptual tools by which identity and space can be researched and theorised. Space, identity and education contribute to the burgeoning geographies of education field of research. This interdisciplinary field is diversely represented by scholars interested in topics like mobilities and materialities of education, learning, curricular and pedagogy; educational institutions; learner identities and processes of social (re)production (Kraftl et  al., 2022). What unites researchers in this field is a concern with how the spatial is implicated in these kinds of educational phenomena, and a focus on being sensitive to space and place. Rather than mentioned in passing, space and place are seen to be central to a more developed understanding of educational phenomena. This book contributes a framework for thinking about education and identity at different spatial scales of analysis, which can afford more holistic accounts of major educational research challenges. In doing so, it has put forward an integrated multi-scalar approach to advance these more holistic understandings about how space and place come to influence identity and education.

Towards a Multi-scalar Approach This book is littered with examples of contemporary research challenges in the area of education and identity, exploring how they manifest at each spatial scale. What is clear from these examples is that phenomena relating to education and identity have complex and interconnected spatial stories. The importance of spatial scale in understanding these contemporary challenges is clear. The chapters of this book have traced at length the impact each spatial scale has on education and identity—but crucially, their interconnections and linkages reveal the analytic power of a multi-scalar approach in understanding and developing solutions to address major research challenges. An approach which focusses on any one of the spatial scales can yield rich insight into its impact—such as the way classroom processes (micro-level) impact on gender identities, for example—but what we have set out here shows that it gives only a partial look at the question of gender and education, missing the way national curricular differentially positions boys and girls (macro-level), or the way gendered classroom processes are mediated by home-school relations (meso-level) or regional identities (exo-level). In

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this example of gender and education, the depth of understanding can be substantially enhanced through a multi-scalar approach. We can see not only how higher-level forces impact on lower-level forces, such as how macro impacts the meso, exo and micro, but also how lower-level scales then contribute to reproducing the forces at higher-level scales. This can work in a cyclical way. For example, in the case of gendered educational identities, classroom interactions at the micro-level can themselves reproduce macro-level patterns such as gender inequalities in the labour market. Gendered labour market inequalities can be an instrumental part of how girls and boys ‘do gender’ in terms of how they talk about different career options. A multi-scalar analysis allows for greater analytical precision in understanding phenomena in relation to education and identity, teasing out the relative significance of factors at different spatial scales to provide more accurate explanations and solutions. It can help to ensure more comprehensive accounts are given as to what lies beneath problems in education, rather than simplistic solutions developed from partial understandings. For example, in the case of research on how to improve the engagement of parents in their child’s learning at school, research at the micro-level might put forward solutions such as improving opportunities to interact (e.g. more open evenings and events in school). But these solutions will only be limited without an understanding of the issues formed at meso-­ level (e.g. parents’ confidence as educators or conversely disagreements with the school’s curriculum). They may also overlook challenges raised at the exo-level (e.g. crime and antisocial behaviour in precarious neighbourhoods or the closure of a local major employer) as well as challenges raised by macro-level forces (e.g. economic challenges brought about through changes to welfare payments) all of which could impact the ability of parents to interact with their school. Examining—for example—macro-level forces here could raise questions around the understanding working-class parents hold about middle-class educational institutions, and their level of confidence to engage within the social arena of the school. It might also necessitate questions around the class-based differences in how parents use their time, their availability and flexibility. For example, given what we know about differentiation within labour markets, it is likely that many working-class parents will have jobs that provide less flexibility, poorer working conditions and which do not provide the kind of ‘family friendly’ working arrangements that the middle classes enjoy. These are macro-level questions around social structure, which provide an important insight into

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educational challenges when combined with other spatial scales, such as the micro-level spaces of interaction within schools. Taken together, they provide the richness and depth of understanding that would enable a more complete set of solutions to address research challenges of this kind.

Why Do Policymakers Ignore Space and Identity in Responding to Educational Challenges? When laid out on the slab in this way, it does not take much imagination to consider how such multiple challenges raised at the various scalar levels complicate and obfuscate educational challenges, that at first glance, may be mistaken for being simplistic. This is because policymakers and politicians continue to see the business of education as being purely about the actions of learners, teachers and school leaders, and the measurable and quantifiable outcomes of learning such as test and exam results. A prime example of this is the English government’s policy on behaviour in schools (DfE, 2022) with a primary objective to advise schools in ‘creating and maintaining high standards of behaviour’ (p6) through outlining the expectations that should be held of children—as well as of their families who are positioned as little more than the handmaids of school authority in ‘reinforcing the policy at home’ (p13). In this document the expectations of high behaviour are made incumbent on children; ‘pupils should be taught that they have a duty to follow the school behaviour policy’ (p13) and there is guidance for school leaders, teachers and school staff over how they should ‘respond’ to bad behaviour including through ‘the use of reasonable force’ (p22) and ‘searching, screening and confiscation’ (p23). There is little to no mention, however, of the multiple contextual factors that may lead a child to misbehave, due to—for example—an inappropriate learning environment, a lack of learning resources, misunderstanding of children’s complex needs, or even the fact they feel overlooked and undermined by their teachers. This is but one example of a broader global trend. Indeed, a survey into what policymakers and practitioners tend to get wrong about education research, carried out with the top 200 university-based scholars who shape educational practice and policy in the US, highlighted the short shrift given to context: Factors outside of schools account for most of the problems [policymakers] are trying to remedy. When pressed, I believe most education researchers will admit this, but since factors outside of schools are so hard to impact with policy, [they] mostly ignore them.

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Policymakers fall into the danger of assuming schools are more powerful than they are and ignoring profound consequences of before-school and out-of-school influences. Context matters, and it’s seldom wise to assume a finding will work as projected across all, or even most, contexts. (survey responses, 2022 RSHE Edu Scholar Public Influence rankings)

What is more, there is good reason to think that policymakers become less sympathetic to the impact of spatial and contextual factors, and their influence on learners’ identities, during times of economic uncertainty. For example, the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme of investment for secondary schools in England launched in the mid-2000s under a New Labour Government represented one of the most significant government investments in children’s school buildings since the Victorian times with the ambition to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England at an allocated cost of £55 billion. This was promptly scrapped by Michael Gove, under a Conservative change of government in 2010 for being too expensive, amidst what came to be known as the ‘great recession’ of the late 2000s in response to the global banking crisis. The replacement investment programme launched by a conservative government, The Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) slashed the building budget to a mere £4.4 billion, to be allocated only to those schools in most dire need of reparation, and employing a standardised low-cost approach to building design costing approximately one-third of the budget, and in line with Michael Gove’s didactic approach to teaching. As economists warn of the approach of another global recession in response to significant global events such as the cost of living crisis precipitated by global events such as climate change, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and Brexit, governments are already speaking of austerity spending measures and ‘tightening our belts’, it is therefore, highly likely that the political will to give due attendance (and resourcing) to spatial and contextual factors will be further dampened. There are obvious political reasons which are likely to explain why this broader multi-scalar approach to tackling the major educational problems that societies and the world faces is overlooked. Political ideologies form the basis of how policymaking is derived and are often not open to question at all. It would be politically inconvenient, for example, to question why children’s achievements increase by 15% in the two years after a school building project has been completed (Williams, 2017) or whether ‘education markets’ contribute to

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inequalities in educational achievement between classed and racialised groups. In order to explore why policymakers, therefore, ignore spatial and identity factors it is necessary to consider the reasons for which policymakers do consider research evidence. Following a neoliberal ethic under a New Public Management approach to policymaking (discussed in Chap. 5) is the assumption that good outcomes in education will lead to social and economic progress. Following this logic, policymakers have moved towards a greater reliance on research evidence collected through nationally prescribed texts and exams, which on the surface of it may therefore problematise why it is that contextual factors are so frequently overlooked. In order to understand this phenomenon, Wiseman (2010) have argued that it is necessary to understand the key reasons by which policymakers use research evidence in education. There are three reasons, they argue, that justify policymaker interest in evidence: the first theory is in order to ensure quality in educational provision, the second argument is to maintain equality of provision, while the third argument is the goal to control education, and by extension, society and the economy. While on the surface these may appear to be unrelated goals, Wiseman (2010) argue that the three goals are inextricably linked whereby each goal relies in part on the other two: The quality of schooling is affected by the equality of education that is available in a classroom, school, or community. And quality is a large part of the official reason certain individuals and groups can officially use assessment to directly or indirectly control or guide education. (p10).

It has been argued that while quality and equality may therefore be the purported aim of data collection on educational outcomes, these are little more than the cover for an overall goal of social control, whereby policymakers are interested in educational research less for the rigour bestowed than for the legitimacy that it serves (Brewer & Goldhaber, 2008). In supporting this claim Wiseman (2010) point to the most frequently cited public objective of educational research in pursuit of educational quality: that of identifying ‘best practice’, in arguing that the assumptions that underpin this aspiration are frequently de-contextualised (and a-­spatial) both in the methodologies they employ and in the solutions they point to. Quantitative methods are those preferred, precisely for the reasons of ‘eliminating’ awkward (and politically inconvenient) contextualising

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details to give a broad picture on data patterns, such as learning achievements associated with any given policy intervention. More fundamentally the most valorised type of evidence is that produced from the randomised control trial (RTC), as the most ‘legitimate’ method for determining causal relationships between educational phenomena—both in understanding the problem and then in ‘prescribing’ the solution. Qualitative research on the other hand, ideally positioned to explore the impact and contextual basis of educational phenomena, is complicated and messy, generating findings that rarely point towards singular interventions, with an attention to spatial factors that makes a one-size-fits-all policy recommendation neither feasible nor advisable. This is perhaps why narrow approaches focussed on single spatial scales are prescribed by policy, such as the micro (e.g. RTCs to develop ‘best’ teaching practices) or macro (e.g. changes to national school inspection regimes). Scholars writing on area-based policy to address inequalities in education have often advocated the importance of developing policy which respond to the specific challenges facing regions and neighbourhoods, rather than rolling out a standardised set of solutions in the same way across different geographic contexts (Baars, 2021). This really underlines the point about acknowledging in equal measure the different spatial scales. Solutions that are developed at the macro, national spatial scale, such as more ‘effective’ approaches for schools to work with parents, which are then applied in a uniform way across different regions and places will fail likely to recognise important meso- and exo-level phenomena. This is important because these more local-, meso- and exo-level factors could be crucial to understanding what drives inequalities. Failing to account for them and address them alongside macro-level solutions is often seen to be a missing part of the jigsaw. Area-based policy initiatives in education—that is, the targeting and deployment of interventions in particular localities—are rife within countries marred by place-based educational inequalities. These range from school-based improvement initiatives to funding to support young people to attend university. In the United States, for example, some States with low rates of college entry provide prospective low-income students with far greater financial support to attend college  than others. In the UK, there have been successive area-based education policy initiatives aimed at addressing spatial inequalities in educational outcomes—often critiqued on the mismatch between their intentions and outcomes. Examples include Education Priority Areas (1960s), Education Action Zones

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(EAZs) (1998–2003), Excellence in Cities (1999–2006), and right up to the most recent Education Investment Areas initiative (2022–present). As one of the most researched initiatives, the Education Action Zones (EAZs) deserve particular attention. It was introduced by the New Labour Government as a policy specifically targeting areas of deprivation, taking a so-called Third Way approach to addressing the problem (Gewirtz et al., 2005; Reid & Brain, 2003). This policy ideology involved a continuation of neoliberal marketisation, but also a more socially democratic acknowledgement of unequal starting points in providing support to disadvantaged families. The initiative began in 1998 but was discontinued five years later. It aimed to forge partnerships between schools, community organisations, businesses and the third sector, in the belief that this would drive innovation and private sector investment. The policy targeted specific localities identified as disadvantaged on account of their low levels of educational achievement, and promoted solutions based upon developing the social capital of socially excluded families. But the policy was critiqued on the basis that it did not attend to the real socio-cultural environments in which the policies were implemented—and were largely based upon imagined contexts and socio-cultural processes assumed to be driving educational exclusion (Gewirtz et  al., 2005). Rather, Gewirtz et  al. (2005) argue that there was a need to listen to the voices of socially excluded groups to better understand the choices and values of those the policy sought to help. This was a clear case of developing policy that misses the meso-level of family-school relations to its detriment. Other critiques pointed to the way this area-based policy initiative failed to grasp the magnitude and scale of the problem. A critical review of area-based education policy initiatives makes clear the central argument of this book: that educational inequality requires solutions based upon knowledge of its complexity across the spatial scales. A policy initiative that is developed based upon macro-level knowledge of the phenomena alone, without understanding the meso- and exo-levels, will undoubtedly develop solutions that are based on only part of the story. In the case of EAZs in England, they may also be based upon flawed understandings of meso-level phenomena (in this case, family and school relations). As Reid and Brain (2003) allude to, addressing a problem of the magnitude of educational inequality within a spatially divided country like the UK requires more substantial engagement with its complexity. The framework we advance in this book provides a skeleton for researching its multi-scalar spatial complexity. Unlike the Education Action Zones

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policy in England, policy solutions are likely to be more successful if they are based on a rich and in-depth understanding of these scales, and the way they combine to contribute to problems like educational inequality.

Towards a Non-Linear Methodological Approach Theory and method go hand in hand in our exploration of space, identity and education. They interact in important ways—with theoretical vantage points ascribing methodological approaches—and methods always having an underlying theoretical perspective. Ultimately, we show here that to truly capture the interaction and importance of macro-, micro- and exo-­ levels, a mixed methodological approach is needed. Macro-level discussions always necessitate methods of greater scale and breadth than found at the micro- and exo-levels, and it is only through this breadth can the micro-level relationships and identity formations be discussed in a way that draws out their wider significance. Micro-level phenomena are best captured through in-depth methods that are sensitive enough to capture identity formation, relationships between actors, perceptions and feelings of place, and it is only at this depth that any meaning is derived to macroand exo-level processes. Some would go as far as to say that without the human interactional element captured at the micro-levels, it is impossible to say what macro-level phenomena are worthy of being researched at all. For example, in developing country contexts, it only becomes meaningful and relevant to examine educational participation at the macro-level when an understanding is reached about its importance and relevance for individual actors at the individual, micro-level. Some Indigenous populations in Latin America do not ascribe to Westernised and individualistic models of educational access and labour market transitions that macro-level agencies try to push. On the other hand, following the political arithmetic tradition (Lauder et al., 2004), some might argue that we need a macro-­ level picture of identity-based educational phenomena in order to understand what the key issues are—and where we need to direct our micro-, exo- and meso-gaze. For example, the question of educational disadvantage might best be addressed by understanding the relative positioning of different social groups in their aim to understand the extent and nature of achievement gaps. This information can then be used to direct the researcher’s attention to the lower spatial scales. The book attempts to advance an approach to researching and addressing issues of education and identity in a way that fully appreciates the

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multi-scalar approach it sets out. All too often policymakers and researchers alike consider identity-based educational ‘problems’ devoid of their spatial story, in terms of tracing the spatial scales from which they derive and need to be addressed. This is perhaps best illustrated by the way central governments often address place-based problems—such as low rates of social mobility or higher education progression within particular localities or regions of a country. More often than not, there are centrally-­developed uniform solutions developed and then rolled out nationally to the localities and regions. In this way, policymakers are addressing an essentially spatial issue in an a-spatialised way. As others have pointed out, the individual regions and localities where the one-size-fits-all policy is rolled out will have very specific issues and challenges derived from their specific history of development, culture and identity. The book challenges this a-spatial thinking to policy development in a way that emphasises the need for more holistic solutions, which attend to each spatial scale.

The Multi-scalar Relevance of Identity and Education The social, environmental and political challenges that contemporary societies face are inherently spatial in character. The climate crisis, rising far right nationalism, growing polarisation between rich and poor, racism, sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia—all  contemporary global challenges of our time,—are by their nature geographic, and as such require solutions that engage properly with all spatial scales of analysis. Rising far right nationalism has been blamed on the spatially uneven development that has escalated in countries like the UK, which is now the most regionally divided nation in Europe. Anger and frustration that has spilled over in recent years about the continuation of racism (e.g. the Black Lives Matter movement) have not been adequately addressed. Homophobic and Islamophobic attacks are still common in countries assumed to be tolerant of diversity and difference. The climate crisis is undoubtedly grounded in spatial division at a macro-level, with Global South countries often those that suffer the most from the effects of climate change, despite Global North countries being the biggest polluters (e.g. the devastating floods that put a third of Pakistan under water in 2022. Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global emissions).

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Education and identity play a crucial role in all of these contemporary global challenges, and we can more rigorously think through their role by addressing them at each of the spatial scales outlined through the book. For example, thinking through rising far right nationalism requires an appreciation of the macro-level uneven economic development of countries, how that has spilled over into the historical stigmatisation of regions and places, and the way this trickles down to the level of school and community. It is not good enough just to focus on the regions themselves and how they might ‘lift themselves out’ of ‘their’ problems. The problems of spatially uneven economic development are macro-level concerns as much as exo-level, and require solutions that comprehend and address both scalar levels. A spatialised and identity approach requires responses of developing solutions that speak to each of these scales in a fundamental and comprehensive way. As the world grapples with the challenges it faces, we hope this book plays a role in showing the multi-scalar relevance of identity and education.

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Wiseman, A. W. (2010). The uses of evidence for educational policymaking: Global contexts and international trends. Review of Research in Education, 34(1), 1–24. Williams, J. J. (2017). A socio-technical method to assess the holistic impact of new buildings on English secondary schools from the perspective of the students. Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London).

Index1

A Academies, 125 Agency, 9–12, 40–42, 44, 47, 86, 120, 179 Architecture, 3, 47, 135, 141 Aspirations, 3, 5, 12, 72, 86, 90, 92, 95–98, 100, 102, 150, 176 B Ball, Stephen, 11, 36, 38, 85, 116, 122, 126, 147, 148 Bauman, Zygmunt, 9, 11, 14 Beck, Ulrich, 9–11 Belonging, 7, 8, 13–15, 34, 88, 95–98, 102, 116, 136 Bourdieu, Pierre, 6, 110, 111, 114, 127 Brain drain, 97 Brexit, 175

Bronfenbrenner, Urie, 18–22, 24, 29–31, 33, 57, 65, 81, 107 Brown, Ceri, 2, 3, 8, 9, 35, 38, 41, 43, 63, 69, 75, 114, 136, 137, 139, 152, 157, 158 C Capital cultural, 87, 110, 115, 116 social, 13, 87, 110, 178 Charter schools, 64, 126 Circuits of schooling, 85 Class, 6, 8, 10, 11, 16, 21, 23, 35, 37, 38, 40, 60, 66, 69, 87, 109–111, 116, 117, 126–128, 135–138, 141, 144, 147, 148, 150, 154, 155, 158, 166, 173 COVID-19, 2, 33, 60, 63, 68, 69, 84, 101, 144, 175

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Brown, M. Donnelly, Space, Identity and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31535-0

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D Digital, 20, 22, 33, 39–41, 63, 64, 98–102, 142, 150 Donnelly, Michael, 2, 69, 109, 152, 154–156, 158 E Education alternative, 59, 67, 73–76 formal, 19–21, 50, 57, 59, 60, 71, 74–76, 81, 90, 100–102, 144 higher, 3, 8, 96, 97, 100, 102, 109, 112, 114, 116, 148, 155, 160, 180 home, 20, 66 informal, 21, 58, 67, 72, 74–75 non-formal, 58, 67, 74–75, 101, 102 outdoors, 20, 70 Educational binds of poverty, 4 Educational inequality, 1, 3, 8, 15, 18–19, 43–46, 63, 74, 85, 86, 89, 93, 101, 110, 148, 172, 177–179 Educational triage, 38, 124 Employment, 4, 96, 97, 110, 150, 157 Environment natural, 50, 68, 69, 71, 76, 145 Ethical values/principles, 74, 165 Ethnicity, 8, 10, 16, 73, 84, 92, 149, 154 Ethnography, 60, 138, 155 Exclusion digital, 100 educational, 44, 94, 178 social, 72 spatial, 45 F Flows of students, 155

G Gender, 6, 8, 10, 11, 44, 73, 84, 91, 92, 116, 117, 136, 138, 144, 154, 155, 172, 173 Genius loci, 49 Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 151, 153 Giddens, Anthony, 9–11 Globalisation, 9–12 Grouping practices, 38–39 H Harvey, David, 4–6 Holloway, Sarah, 32, 33, 44, 59 Home learning, 20, 47, 60–65, 76, 159 Home schooling, 19n1, 60, 63–69, 76 Human capital theory, 117–119, 127, 128 I Identity gender, 44, 172 learner, 3, 12, 14–18, 20, 23, 24, 30, 35, 37, 38, 41, 44, 46, 50, 51, 58, 59, 63–65, 69, 71–74, 76, 93–95, 102, 117, 124, 128, 147, 172 personal, 12–14 place, 49, 98, 102 relational, 14–15 sexual, 9 social, 8, 13–16, 22, 59, 63, 71, 73, 76, 95, 98, 121, 135, 163 Indigenous methods, 163–165 Inequality, 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 15, 18–19, 23, 26, 29, 33, 38, 41, 43–46, 57, 62, 63, 74, 82, 84–91, 93, 101, 110, 113, 115, 119, 122, 123, 125–128, 148, 159, 172, 173, 176–179 Interactive Space Analysis Tool (ISAT), 141–143

 INDEX 

J Justice, social, 1, 2, 24, 75 K Kraftl, Peter, 32, 59, 66–68, 71, 74, 75, 172 L Learner identity, 3, 12, 14–18, 20, 23, 24, 30, 35, 37, 38, 41, 44, 46, 50, 51, 58, 59, 63, 64, 69, 71–76, 93–95, 102, 117, 124, 128, 147, 172 Learning digital, 39–41 home, 20, 47, 60–65, 76, 159 online, 40, 63, 64, 100 Local government, 14, 21–22, 81, 98 Lockdown, 60–62, 66, 69, 144 M Macro level, 17, 22–25, 36, 38, 51, 59, 71, 76, 82, 86, 97, 102, 107–117, 119–128, 139, 146, 151–160, 162, 163, 166, 172, 173, 177–181 Maps/mapping methods, 5, 6, 21, 41, 151, 156, 162, 165, 172 Market, educational, 22, 76, 83–87, 93, 101, 128 Massey, Doreen, 4–7, 31, 38, 114 Mental health, 26, 66, 101, 124, 128, 139, 157 Meso level, 19n1, 20–21, 30, 57–60, 63, 67, 68, 71, 74–76, 81, 82, 86, 93, 107, 108, 127, 144–146, 152, 157–159, 164–166, 172, 173, 178

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Micro level, 8, 19–21, 24, 25, 29–34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 46, 49, 51, 57–59, 63, 71, 74–76, 82, 93, 100–101, 108, 120, 123–125, 127, 128, 134–144, 146, 151, 157–160, 165, 166, 172–174, 179 Mosaic approach, 138 Multi-level modelling, 84 Multi scalar (research), 24, 134, 160–162, 166 Museums, 20, 60, 68, 72–74, 162 N Nature, 4, 10, 25, 57, 67–72, 93, 95, 100, 137, 147, 160, 179, 180 Neighbourhood, 20–22, 25, 49, 57, 59, 74, 81–84, 86–89, 91–96, 99, 101, 102, 139, 146–151, 161, 173, 177 Neighbourhood effects, 83, 85–86, 89, 91, 93–95 Neoliberalism, 24, 128 New Public Management, 36, 176 Norberg-Schulz, Christian, 49 O Open University (OU), 100 P Participatory research, 138, 164, 165 Pedagogy, 20, 25, 35, 36, 39, 72, 125, 126, 172 Photographic methods, 140–143, 154, 156, 165 PISA, 16, 23, 25, 119–121, 126–128, 136, 137, 153

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Place, 1–9, 14–16, 19, 21, 22, 25, 31–34, 43–47, 49, 50, 58, 59, 68, 74, 76, 81, 82, 85, 86, 88, 89, 95–102, 113–116, 119, 122, 126, 133, 136, 137, 139–141, 144, 147, 148, 150, 151, 153, 156, 157, 159, 172, 177, 179, 181 Policy, 1–3, 18, 21–25, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 51, 59, 64, 70, 72, 76, 82–87, 89–91, 94, 97, 107, 119–122, 125–128, 146, 151–153, 157–159, 161, 174, 177–180 Poverty, 63, 64, 90, 114, 117, 118, 122, 149 R Race, 11, 73, 117, 118, 121, 136, 147, 149 Racism, 2, 17, 137, 164, 180 Region, 22, 49, 50, 62, 66, 81–83, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 96–98, 100–102, 111, 114, 118, 146, 147, 152, 155, 159, 161–163, 177, 180, 181 Religion, 6 Resilience, 3, 141 S Sack, Robert, 12, 30, 42 SATs testing, 83 Scalar, multi, 24, 25, 133–167, 172–174, 178, 180–181 School buildings, 33, 34, 135, 136, 141, 175 Schools, forest, 69–71 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), 72 Sexuality, 9–11, 44, 136, 149, 154

Social and emotional skills, 71, 158 Social and emotional wellbeing, 158 Social Identity Theory (SIT), 13 Spatial flows, 153 Special educational needs and disabilities (SEN/D), 66 Stay-at-home order, 68, 101 Structure, 5, 6, 9–12, 17, 22–24, 37, 47, 58, 59, 76, 91, 107, 108, 111, 113, 117, 120, 127, 128, 151, 153, 158, 160, 173 Surveillance, 32, 38, 41–46 T Territorialisation, 12, 14, 30 Time, 2, 5, 6, 9–11, 13, 16, 29, 32, 33, 35–37, 39, 40, 42, 46, 47, 47n5, 49, 60, 61, 68, 69, 72, 75, 84, 94, 97, 101, 108, 109, 112, 113, 115, 120–123, 137, 138, 144, 147, 149, 156, 166, 173 U University, 2, 5, 12, 15, 16, 19–20, 31, 33, 59, 75, 100, 101, 109, 110, 112–114, 116, 118, 119, 122, 127, 146–148, 154, 177 V Valentine, Gill, 32, 33 W Walking tours, 150, 161 Wearable cameras, 145, 161 Wellbeing, 45, 51, 124, 125, 139, 140, 157, 159, 164, 165 social and emotional, 51, 158