Superare una didattica eminentemente “rappresentazionale”. L’educazione geografica può davvero essere attiva, individuale e attenta alle differenze?

During the last decade both the well-known «turn to the body» (Colls e Hörschelmann, 2002) and the «non-representational theory» (Thrift, 2004) have pointed out the importance of actions, performances and daily life spaces in the production of private geographies. Even if, during the same period, bodies and daily life spaces have been included as topics and tools of many European Geographical Curricula, we can affirm that the legacy of representative and visual methodologies, such as maps reading, visual representation of landscapes and mental maps, is still keeping its historical predominance in the teaching of Geography. According to Lorimer work on «more-than-representational» knowledge (2005), and to the critical analysis of the «oculocentrism » of Geography (Rose, 2001), the contribute discuss the visual and representative approach to geographical education, underlining how this could be considered a mighty limit for the development of teaching practices that work on differences (instead of denying and trying to overcome them) and emphasize the private and subjective relation among children and spaces