Creating stories of educational change in and for geography: what can we learn from Bolivia and Peru?

ABSTRACT

This article will explore the potential for embedding education outputs within contemporary geographical scholarship to provide a disciplinary resource for school teachers’ curriculum thinking and pathways to impact for academic geographers. In particular, the article will draw upon two projects to show the empirical depth that can be achieved by developing resources that give teachers and students insight into the particularities of places (in this case Bolivia and Peru) in relation to sustainable development agendas via a focus on the co-production of geographical knowledge. Through engaging with research pursued by geographers, this article sheds light on the relationship between environmental justice and sustainable development, which can play an important role in shaping geography teachers’ curricular decision-making. It also recasts expertise where Indigenous leaders and others with first-hand experience of their local environment are at the forefront of complex decisions and conflicts to determine trajectories of sustainability.

Funding and acknowledgements

The Bolivia project was supported by the Royal Geographical Society through an RGS-IBG Innovative Geography Teaching Grant. The resource (Geographies of Sustainable Development, 2020) was made possible because of the collaboration and help of the Indigenous leaders and organisations filmed in Bolivia. We are hugely grateful for their time, help and insights; with particular thanks to: Adolfo Chavez Beyuma (CIDOB Orgánico & COICA), Lázaro Tacoó Laberán (CIDOB Orgánico), Tomas Candia (Orgánico, CIDOB), Pedro Moya Hermosa (TIPNIS Sub-central), Emilio Noza Yuco (TIPNIS Sub-central), Beatriz Acertaria and Hernan Avila Montano (CEJIS).

The Peru project was supported by the AHRC under Grant AHRC AH/T004444/1. The resource (FENCO, 2022) is the result of a collaboration between the University of St Andrews, UK, the NGO PRISMA and the Sechura School Board. It was made possible through the innovative efforts of the teachers and students in Daniel Alcides Carrión School, Mala Vida, Sechura, Peru, whose videos, testimonies and artwork are at its heart. We owe special thanks to Roberto Pascual Sojo Ancajima, Nancy Icanaqué, Juan Carlos Chávez Castillo, Marcela Cornejo Zapata, Marie Carmen, Amada Vasquez, Oliver Calle and Iona Bell.

Thank you also to the anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grace Healy

Grace Healy (corresponding author) is Education Director (Secondary) at the David Ross Education Trust, a PhD student at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and an Honorary Research Fellow at University of Oxford, UK (Twitter: @GraceEHealy).

Nina Laurie

Nina Laurie is Professor of Human Geography at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, UK (email: [email protected]).

Jessica Hope

Jessica Hope is Lecturer in Sustainable Development at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, UK (email: [email protected]; Twitter: @JessCHope).