The geography GCSE curriculum in England: a white curriculum of deceit

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Black Lives Matter movement has increased attention paid to whiteness and education. This paper contributes to this attention by investigating epistemologies of Geography and their enactment in two ‘multicultural’ schools. Through textual analysis, lesson observations and interviews with GCSE Geography students and teachers, I inquire into the discourses of whiteness in the Geography GCSE topic of ‘Global Development’. Analysis showed three main technologies at work: ‘Dividing the World’, ‘”Race”, Whiteness and Colour-blindness’ and ‘Performativity’. The geography curriculum promoted an ‘us’ and ‘them’/’white’ and ‘Black’ narrative, with which students and teachers complied to achieve target grades. Students’ in-school and out-of-school narratives conflicted. Teachers avoided or deflected the latter by prioritising their ‘professional responsibilities’ to teach white knowledge. The findings deepen understanding of the constituent elements of whiteness in education more generally and in Geography specifically. I conclude by offering hope for the future.