Location, location, location: rethinking space and place as sites and contexts for learning

This essay considers the role of context and site in common understandings of learning in general and describes models of learning that exist as complement, supplement or remediation with ‘standard’ versions of schooling especially those invoked by the idea of informal learning. It then looks at the ‘geo-social’ relationships of learners, homes, communities, non-formal learning spaces, regions, schools, nations and the globalised economy trying to tease out what may or may not change in future scenarios to offer different kinds of learning processes, experiences and activities in all of these domains. The essay concludes by reflecting theoretically on how our dominant paradigm of learning – socio-cultural frames – both constitutes and is constituted by the idea of space, contexts, and sites.

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