Geographies of Schooling

Abstract

Knowledge and SpaceThis book series entitled "Knowledge and Space" is dedicated to topics dealing with the production, dissemination, spatial distribution, and application of knowledge. Recent work on the spatial dimension of knowledge, education, and science; learning organizations; and creative milieus has underlined the importance of spatial disparities and local contexts in the creation, legitimation, diffusion, and application of new knowledge. These studies have shown that spatial disparities in knowledge and creativity are not short-term transitional events but rather a fundamental structural element of society and the economy.The volumes in the series on Knowledge and Space cover a broad range of topics relevant to all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences focusing on knowledge, intellectual capital, and human capital: clashes of knowledge; milieus of creativity; geographies of science; cultural memories; knowledge and the economy; learning organizations; knowledge and power; ethnic and cultural dimensions of knowledge; knowledge and action; and mobilities of knowledge. These topics are analyzed and discussed by scholars from a range of disciplines, schools of thought, and academic cultures.

Long-Term Impact of Closing Rural Schools on Local Social Capital: A Multiple-Case Study from Poland

“…al., 2009). Recent research concerning rural school embeddedness in Norway concentrates mostly on place-base and place-conscious education (Kvalsund, 2019). Also, Kramer (2019), while studying rural schools in Germany and Austria, uses an educational perspective, touching also on the problem of commuting.…”

“…They consciously seek to permit cross-site comparison without necessarily sacrificing within-site understanding" (Herriott and Firestone, 1983, p. 14). For instance, case studies were used in many research projects carried in Norway in 1990s while analysing rural schools embeddedness in local communities (local curricula, schools as local cultural centres and other issues) (Kvalsund, 2019) and in research on schoolcommunity partnerships in the USA (Zuckerman 2019). Yin (2002) proposes one to carefully select the units of study during the planning of multiplecase studies to enable the study to either predict similar results, or "produce contrasting results but for predictable reason" (Yin, 2002, p. 46).…”

“…Around the mid-20 th century small schools were built in many villages to ensure easy access to them for pupils, then the schools were merged into larger, but more sparsely distributed educational centres (Aberg-Bengtsson, 2009), as the belief was that a school with only one teacher provides a lower level of education than a bigger unit (Hargreaves, 2009;Kalaoja, Pietarinen, 2009;Aberg-Bengtsson, 2009). With time the authorities returned to the idea of small schools close to the pupils, just to shut them down again, already in the 21 st century, as too costly, which was heavily influenced by both the decline in the number of school-aged children and the shift in the responsibility for schools to local governments without a significant increase in distributed resources (Kalaoja, Pietarinen, 2009;Aberg-Bengtsson, 2009;Kvalsund, 2019). In recent years, due to changes in financing, the number of rural schools declined also notably in Hungary (Kovács, 2012) and Poland (Domalewski, 2006).…”

Space, Place and Educational Settings: An Introduction

“…The main idea is to create an open arena for exchange and cooperation, drawing upon and going beyond the ongoing research activities in geographies of education (Butler & Hamnett, 2007;Hanson Thiem, 2009;Holloway & Jöns, 2012). Complementing other volumes in the Knowledge and Space series, such as Geographies of Schooling (Jahnke, Kramer, & Meusburger, 2019), we explore the nexus between education, space, and place. The majority of the chapters assembled in this volume are based on papers presented on the occasion of the Knowledge and Space Symposium on The Role of Socio-Environmental Settings for Learning and Educational Attainment that was held in Heidelberg in September 2017.…”