We’re Not Migrating Yet: Engaging Children’s Geographies and Learning with Lands and Waters

Considering the places, the geographies, of children’s learning, of human learning, is fundamental to seriously considering not only the “whats” or the content of learning but perhaps more importantly the “whys” and the “hows” of learning and the overall goals of education. The whys and hows of education construct what is deemed relevant and irrelevant as well as what is rendered invisible to the “here and now” to children’s lives (Apple, 2004; Iorio & Parnell, 2015; Nxumalo et al., 2011; Tesar, 2015). We argue in our work that issues of place, and relevancy to the “here and now”, is always intertwined with constructions of relations between the human world and the more than human natural world and the ways in which culture, history, and power shape these constructions. With this, we must consider ways in which human and more-than-human relations inform the design of learning environments toward thriving, more just futures