Emplacing Learning, Emplacing Research: Performances, power and inequalities

The phrase ‘out-of-school learning’ has place at its centre. The very thing we (the authors and readers of this book) are interested in is defined by the fact it goes on ‘outside’ or ‘beyond’ a place which tends to be highly regimented and normalised: school. However, where exactly ‘out-of-school’ happens varies. In some chapters in Part 1, ‘out-of-school’ refers to another major axis of children’s lives, the family home. In others, learning takes place in the community; youth centres, public spaces, and outdoor recreation centres. Others discuss ‘out-of-school’ learning which takes place physically on the school premises, yet is considered a ‘space outside’ the formal learning context of the classroom– a sports or gaming club run by adults who are not teachers, or parent-teacher interactions facilitated by researchers or community leaders. In some case studies, these places are clearly connected. In any case, ‘place’ is never an inert backdrop and out-of-school learning is in part constituted by the material and social organisation of place- the parameters it affords and the operation of people and resources within and across places. Furthermore, the activities, performances and contestations around out-of-school learning also create ‘senses of place’ and reconstitute place-meanings.