The challenges of educating young people in global contexts whilst considering their local lives and communities.

Young people do not grow up in abstract societies, but rather in real local communities so it is imperative that we refer to the every-day socio-materiality of rural living when we are thinking about young people, their families, schools and communities. The place where a child grows up makes a difference and is highly relevant for all those working with and on education and schooling. Drawing on work from Europe with Rune Kvalsund, David Gruenewald, Marta Soler and Ramon Flecha, amongst others, this presentation engages with ideas about learning in and as communities. It also considers the importance of acknowledging place in schooling and looks at the possibilities for making space for place in school curricula. Isolated rural schools are ideally placed to work creatively and collectively as and with communities; engaging with local issues, making use of local embodied and material resources while contextualising national and international agenda.