Greg Mannion

This article explores the consequences of the view that the identifications of children and adults and the spaces they inhabit are intimately related. Firstly, the article reviews the rationales that suggest we should consult with children and young people and encourage their participation. Arguments are made, using examples, to support the view that policy and practice and research on children's participation are better framed as being fundamentally about child–adult relations. Secondly, the emerging field would benefit from becoming more sensitive to how place and space are implicated in identity formation.

Citizen science is a growing field of research and practice, generating new knowledge and understanding through the collaboration of citizens in scientific research. As the field expands, it is becoming increasingly important to consider its potential to foster education and learning opportunities. Although progress has been made to support learning in citizen science projects, as well as to facilitate citizen science in formal and informal learning environments, challenges still arise. This paper identifies a number of dilemmas facing the field—from competing scientific goals and learning outcomes, differing underlying ontologies and epistemologies, diverging communication strategies, to clashing values around advocacy and activism. Although such challenges can become barriers to the successful integration of citizen science into mainstream education systems, they also serve as signposts for possible synergies and opportunities. One of the key emerging recommendations is to align educational learning outcomes with citizen science project goals at the planning stage of the project using co-creation approaches to ensure issues of accessibility and inclusivity are paramount throughout the design and implementation of every project. Only then can citizen science realise its true potential to empower citizens to take ownership of their own science education and learning.

Encouraged by transnational organisations, curriculum policy-makers in the UK have called for curricula in schools and higher education to include a global dimension and education for global citizenship that will prepare students for life in a global society and work in a global economy. We argue that this call is rhetorically operating as a ‘nodal point’ in policy discourse – a floating signifier that different discourses attempt to cover with meaning. This rhetoric attempts to bring three educational traditions together: environmental education, development education and citizenship education. We explore this new point of arrival and departure and some of the consequences and critiques.

The nature-based excursion has been a significant teaching strategy in environmental education for decades. This article draws upon empirical data from a collaborative research project where teachers were encouraged to visit natural areas to provide an understanding of their roles and experiences of planning and enacting excursions. The analysis indicates that teachers’ sensitisation towards place was aided by collaboration, advance planning visits and the very practice of making place-responsive excursions with pupils. The authors build on the analysis to propose a theory of place-responsive pedagogy. At its core, place-responsive pedagogy involves the explicit efforts to teach by means of an environment with the aim of understanding and improving human–environment relations. Some implications for teacher professional development are offered.

Part 1: What Are The Issues? 1. Literacies as a resource for learning in college Part 2: What Does The Research Tell Us? 2. What students do with reading and writing in their everyday lives 3. Ways of understanding literacy practices 4. Literacies across the college curriculum 5. Comparisons across contexts: The textual mediation of learning on Childcare courses Part 3: What Are The Implications? 6. Making a difference: The conception, implementation and analysis of changes in practice 7. Recontextualizing the research: Bilingual literacies for learning in Wales 8. Conceptualizing the interface between everyday and curriculum literacy practices 9. Implications for learning in college and beyond