Geographies of family learning and aspirations of belonging

Abstract

In recent years the ‘geography/ies of education’ has emerged as a more coherent and defined area of research. Education in this context has been primarily interpreted as either compulsory or higher education and figured around the geographies of school and university. Other education sectors and spaces – both formal and informal – have been less visible. This paper gives a geographical reading of an area of further education that has been hitherto overlooked by geographers by focusing on mothers' participation in family learning. Drawing on the notion of belonging, and mothers' aspirations to belong, it explores how the immediate site of family learning is tied to multiple and concurrent geographies that work through a range of spaces, scales and subjectivities. Focusing on these aspirations, this paper argues that thinking through the ‘geographies of learning’ recognises the multiple spaces and scales through which education is conceived and translated.

Keywords:

• further education
• mothers
• belonging
• aspiration
• West London

Acknowledgements

This paper stems from a project funded by the British Academy small grants scheme (award no. SG-42092). Particular thanks to reviewers for their very detailed comments that have helped focus the paper. We are particularly grateful to the editorial team for their patience and lenience with deadlines. Final thanks to Joe for sleeping just enough to allow the paper to be written.

Notes

Learning and Skills Councils were set up by the UK Government in 2001 with responsibility for planning and funding post-16 further education and training (excluding higher education). They were abolished in 2010.

See special by Kathleen Mee and Sarah Wright in Environment and Planning A (2009) on this issue.