Welcome

Welcome to this archive of John Huckle’s publications.  These outline critical approaches to geographical and environmental education developed over five decades. Please use the contact form if you have comments or wish to get in touch.

Latest addition John is currently writing an ebook on critical realism, the philosophy of knowledge he introduced in Critical School Geography. Critical realism is particularly suited to the teaching of geography as it unites the natural and social sciences and the humanities, explains nature, place and space in terms of underlying structures and mechanisms, prompts critical theories of social change, and supports forms of global citizenship based on universal ethics. The drafts of all six chapters can be downloaded from the critical realism page and these are currently being revised and edited before being joined in a single ebook that should be published later in 2026.

Here is an overview of the lastest chapter to be drafted, the introductory chapter:

This chapter introduces critical realism, a philosophy of knowledge that seeks to understand the structural causes of the world’s problems and suggest solutions that promote universal human flourishing. This philosophy underpins critical geography, critical education, and critical school geography’s aim of developing radical global citizens. Such citizens recognise that the world is divided between the powerful and the powerless who are engaged in a struggle for hegemony that is currently focused on the future of digital capitalism.  It is supported by populist right and opposed by the populist left that sees digital socialism as a viable route to universal human flourishing. This struggle for hegemony is set within a world undergoing a multidimensional crisis that is shaped by and shapes geopolitics The major powers, including the UK, are experiencing fiscal crises and the related austerity serves to intensify the culture wars between right and left populists. The incoming Labour government has failed to find a path to sustainability that resolves its fiscal crisis with the result that its reforms, including its review of the national curriculum, are pragmatic rather than transformative.