A presentation from Tine Beneker at the IGU-CGE 2021 Conference from the GeoCapabilities 3 project which looks at academic geography and the importance of teachers connecting with disciplinary knowledge and teaching about challenging geography topics in schools, framed by a social justice context. This presentation explores (the role of) access to and use of relevant and ‘new’ academic knowledge by teachers in the project.

1. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
Bridging the divide: teaching about
migration and drawing on academic
geography to support the development
of the school geography curricula
Paper Session – Teaching about migration: Exploring the
potential of a GeoCapabilities approach in schools in challenging
circumstances
Tine Béneker
with colleagues Mary Biddulph, Martin Hanus, Caroline
Leininger, David Mitchell, Luc Zwartjes and Karl Donert

2. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
Q: how to make the teaching of migration more
powerful and meaningful for students?
In this presentation: (the role of) access to and
use of relevant and ‘new’ academic knowledge
(by teachers in the project)

3. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
• Human capabilities (why)
• Powerful knowledge (what)
• Curriculum leadership (how)
GeoCapabilities 3 seeks to redistribute knowledge as a
resource, and better enable knowledge integration
between school and academic geography…
GeoCapabilities

4. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Recontextualisation: A process of selection and
transformation of knowledge
scholarly
to be
taught
taught learned
Research Societal Educational
Context
knowledge
Inspiration from process of didactic transposition. Adapted from: Department of Science
Education, University of Copenhagen (after Chevallard & Bosch (2015)

5. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Project: Netherlands, Belgium,
France, UK, Czechia
Interviews
• 12 academic experts (geographers –
migration studies): ‘state of the art
knowledge and its relevance for project’
• 12 schools: 1-4 (geography) teachers per
school: ‘what is taught and what to teach’

6. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Teachers
Knowledge to be taught Taught knowledge
Not often course in itself
Part of larger topics
Objectives:
-specific skills (maps oa)
-facts / basics
-debate
Preparation of exams
Demography
Origin & Destination
Push & Pull model
EU policies
Mexican-US border
Forced migration
Migrants in society

7. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Teachers’ wishes and ideas
• Wish for time and space to develop new lessons and study
materials
• Need for specific knowledge: new insights, more reliable data
and sources
• Ideas for making abstract ideas (‘flows’) meaningful to students
• Attention for migration & identity, consequences and benefits
of migration, positive aspects (instead of negative framing)
• Questions of how to address stereotypes and handle different
voices

8. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Experts
Scholarly knowledge (past 10 years)
1. Migration dynamics, role of technology (globalisation), role of
networks;
2. Migration policies, border regimes;
3. Migrants remaking of places and society, citizenship, belonging,
home making;
4. Diasporas, remittances (financial, social), brain
drain/gain/exchange;
5. Representation of migrants in media, political debate;
6. Environmental migration, climate refugees;
7. Migration research issues: ethics, interdisciplinary field of study;
8. Other

9. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Experts’ ideas on what
to teach
• Migration patterns and processes:
• Migrants:
• Representation:
• Multi-disciplinarity:

10. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Differences Academic and
School knowledge
Academic School
Phenomenon Dynamic Static
Perspective Transnationalism Receiving country
Migrant
population
Majority (agency,
contribution)
Minority (poor)

11. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Topics for schools identified
• Dynamic processes: looking at multiple pulls/pushes, role of
ambitions and competences, information and networks,
migrant trajectories
• Migrants using / shaping space: migrants’ agency, majority-
minority, transnationality, superdiversity, identities,
belonging and home making
• Representation: migrations as crisis, fact and fiction (of real
processes and patterns), data, media, public and policy
debates

12. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Vignettes: thinking deeply

13. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
vignettes
https://www.geocapabilities.org/vignettes/
Dynamic processes
Migrants & space
Representation

14. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Evaluation
• Value of meetings, discussions, sharing with academic
geographers specialised in migration studies
• Engagement with new approaches and concepts (also
reading, listening and discussing)
• Academic geography/geographers as tools to enable
teachers’ own geographical thinking
• Added benefit of cooperation, co-construction
(teachers, geography educators, geographers) for
curriculum making

15. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Web site reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
http://www.geocapabilities.org
GeoCapabilities 3
http://www.geocapabilities.org
Conclusion
scholarly
to be
taught
taught learned
Research Societal Educational
Context
knowledge
Inspiration from process of didactic transposition. Adapted from: Department of Science
Education, University of Copenhagen (After Chevallard & Bosch (2015)