Today’s world is characterized by several interrelated crises, including the growing challenges of globalization, migration, climate change and global sustainability, as well as the persistence of social inequalities on different spatial scales. Education and classroom practice have to respond to these challenges not only content-wise but also with regard to the way teaching and learning are conceptualized and put into action.

In the context of geography teaching, Nöthen and Schreiber (2023: 7) next to others, lately discussed transformative education as an important concept, that has the potential to fundamentally change the way learners experience and conceptualize the world as individuals and as part of society. At the same time, transformative learning can be understood as a possibility for a collective emancipation process (Singer-Brodowski 2016: 13).

Geography as a subject, as well as Geography and economic education as it is taught in Austrian schools, seem to be particularly promising for the implementation of transformative education in schools. The key challenges mentioned above are central to the subject and its focus on the interdependencies of ‘society – economy – politics – environment’ (BMBWF 2023: 101).

The aim of the proposed session is to present and discuss how transformative learning can be realized in the geography (and economics) classroom. We would like to reflect upon possible criteria for transformative educational processes by debating illustrative examples, classroom experiences and case studies.

BMBWF (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung) (2023): Lehrplan der Mittelschule, Geographie und wirtschaftliche Bildung. Wien. (= BGBl. II, Nr. 1 v. 2.1.2023, Anlage 1 zu Art. 3). https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/BgblAuth/BGBLA_2023_II_1/Anlagen_0005_602132D5_6AB7_4D68_B4E4_6CF508085BA2.pdfsig (03.07.2024)

Nöthen, E. & V. Schreiber (2023): Transformative Geographische Bildung: Schlüsselprobleme, Theoriezugänge, Forschungsweisen, Vermittlungspraktiken. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum.

Singer-Brodowski, M. (2016): Transformative Bildung durch transformatives Lernen. Zur Notwendigkeit der erziehungswissenschaftlichen Fundierung einer neuen Idee. In: Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik 39/1, S. 13-17.