Confronting the deafening silence on race in geography education in England: learning from anti-racist, decolonial and Black geographies

Abstract

School geography in England has been largely silent on issues around race, which stands in contrast to important strands of thought in the discipline. In this intervention, we explore two influential approaches in education – cultural literacy and powerful knowledge – to argue that we urgently need to address the silence on race by making substantive anti-racist changes in the curriculum. Within cultural literacy, we argue that anti-racist geographies provide powerful frameworks to address white supremacy and institutionalised racisms. Working within powerful knowledge, Black and decolonial geographies bring attention to knowledge creation and the great potential that exists to learn from anti-racist conversations and internal debates within academic geography. Our argument is for a more holistic and sustained anti- racist school geography education that empowers young people to understand the complex and shifting politics of space, place and knowledge and contribute to meaningful anti-racist futures.