Curriculum as Spatial: Rethinking Educational Policy through Black Geographic Thought

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Abstract

This paper advances a spatialized approach to curriculum theory and education policy analysis by conceptualizing curriculum as a racialized spatial imaginary. Drawing on Black geographic thought, critical spatial theory, and critical policy genealogy, the study analyzes educational policy document as spatial-discursive texts. It argues that policy functions not as a neutral directive, but as a curricular artifact that organizes knowledge, value, and futurity across racialized geographies. Three insights emerge: (1) the state curriculum encodes spatial logics of governance; (2) the hidden curriculum includes uneven geographies of access and recognition; and (3) spatializing policy enables abolitionist critique. Space is not metaphorical—it is central to how education produces and contests social order.

Author

• Gabrielle M. Warren, University of Toronto - OISE