A nation’s education system plays a key role in future economic competitiveness. Political attention to education has fuelled geographical interest in the role of formal education and informal learning environments in the cultivation of future citizen-workers. To date, formal and informal learning have largely been considered separately, but this paper responds by critically evaluating the intersections between the two spheres. This agenda is pursued through in-depth analysis of two state-funded, mainstream primary schools in the Midlands, UK, which adopt a Forest School programme. Qualitative in nature, the research involved 37 semi-structured interviews with teachers and children in the Foundation class and Year 4 (ages 4-5 and 8-9 respectively). The findings demonstrate that children understand classroom learning to contribute to their future pathways in a credentialised labour market, yet some struggle to frame Forest School activities as educational. Although presented as an antidote to the regimen of the school day, Forest School can thus be justified by some participants in relation to curriculum alignment and the future efficacy of the skills and knowledge acquired. In conclusion, this paper contributes to debates on the intersections of formal and informal education to examine how alternative education can function to counteract the institutionalisation of mainstream settings, whilst paradoxically developing skills in children that are valued by neoliberal states. More broadly, this furthers debates in Geographies of Education about what constitutes valuable learning in the primary school setting, and draws attention to the ways innovations might further exclude children currently disadvantaged in the education system.

中文翻译：

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反思学习？在将森林学校融入主流教育环境中挑战和适应新自由主义教育议程

一个国家的教育系统在未来的经济竞争力中起着关键作用。对教育的政治关注激发了对正规教育和非正规学习环境在培养未来公民工人方面的作用的地域兴趣。迄今为止，正式和非正式学习在很大程度上被分开考虑，但本文通过批判性评估这两个领域之间的交集来回应。该议程是通过深入分析英国米德兰兹两所国家资助的主流小学来实现的，这些小学采用了森林学校计划。该研究本质上是定性的，涉及对基础班和 4 年级（分别为 4-5 岁和 8-9 岁）的教师和儿童进行 37 次半结构化访谈。调查结果表明，孩子们理解课堂学习有助于他们在有资质的劳动力市场中的未来道路，但有些人努力将森林学校活动定义为教育活动。尽管作为上学日的解毒剂被提出，但森林学校因此可以被一些参与者在课程调整和所获得的技能和知识的未来功效方面证明是合理的。总之，本文有助于就正式和非正式教育的交叉点展开辩论，以研究替代教育如何发挥作用以抵消主流环境的制度化，同时矛盾地发展新自由主义国家重视的儿童技能。更广泛地，