Perspectives on place in education

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis explores the philosophical role of 'place' in contextualizing educational reform throughout the 20th century. It is argued that educational reform movements can be understood in terms of how they construct and reconstruct the geographical and ideological landscapes of education. The thesis begins with a general introduction to the study of place in education, focusing particularly on the role of ideology and developmentalism in the study of education and place respectively. Subsequent chapters then integrate these two foci by contrasting the different ways in which a number of educational reform movements have organized classrooms and other learning spaces throughout the 20th century. Until the mid-1960s, all reform movements by definition were committed to the physical construction of learning spaces, but with the rise of the cyberschooling movement, a new focus on virtual learning places has now taken hold. A latter chapter of the thesis examines the cyberschooling agenda for education from the vantage point of place. A concluding chapter considers how changing societal and technological conditions could impact on the future of place in education.Ph.D