Theoretical And Practical Research In EU-funded GeoCapabilties Project

Rooted in the international GeoCapabilities Project, this paper applies case study and narrative inquiry method to analyze theoretical and practical research in the EU-funded project, in order to benefit geography education research in China. Focusing on teachers as curriculum leaders, the project can bring some enlightenment to Chinese geography educators in context of curriculum reform. "School teacher story", consisted of personal interview, classroom observation and students’feedback, also supports new ideas to the future development of online teacher training courses.GeoCapabilities is an ongoing European Union funded project till November 2016, aiming at developing curriculum leadership among teachers. The solid theoretical basis integrated capabilities approach in welfare economics, powerful knowledge in sociology of education, and curriculum making idea from Geographical Association. During one semester in London (Spring 2015), the researcher developed pilot case studies of the secondary school’curriculum making’ process. Since, according to the project, the process is unique to the school, and it is the disciplinary knowledge inside the specialist teachers’heads which makes the geography curriculum’powerful’, the case studies were designed to provide a story for school teachers and the peers to reflect on their own teaching, and especially to reconsider the goals behind their own teaching.