Asset-Based Geography Education: Teaching for and About Elements of Justice, Equity, and Inclusion

The discipline of geography has long been associated with a justification for colonialism, nationalism, exploitation, and territorial expansion. Despite the evolution of geography as a discipline and as a school subject, there continue to be documented challenges associated with its teaching across social difference and contexts. This chapter examines ways in which asset-based pedagogies and teaching about/for justice are understood in primary and secondary geography. It examines possible reasons why these have proven challenging to geography teaching, both theoretically and practically, and describes how the geography education literature has addressed teaching practices related to (1) students’ socialized identities and the communities from which they derive, (2) educational justice relating to geographical knowledge and curriculum, and (3) the formation of students’ critical consciousness and social action. More empirical research collaborating with and through educators would deepen our collective understanding of the work that is already underway inside classrooms and schools and would strengthen the field’s commitment to teacher agency. By focusing on historically minoritized and marginalized students, geography can reorient itself as an educationally just school subject which counts with educators and researchers who aspire to develop young people with the knowledge and understanding needed to enact more socially just societies and futures.