Children age 9–11 making meaning in geography

This paper reports on classroom based research into how children make meaning in geography carried out over a ten‐year period. The focus for the research is children at Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum in the UK. The research took place with children in Years 5 and 6 (ages 9–11 years) and data are presented in the form of classroom dialogue between children working in collaborative settings. The theoretical analysis draws on a socio‐cultural approach to teaching and learning that takes seriously the notion that learning is situated in contexts, and that children bring personal understandings of the world to bear in constructing their understanding of people and places of which they have no personal experience.