Grounding scholarship

A growing repository of the pedagogical scholarship that grounds Athl's work — the research, frameworks and ideas that shape how we design lessons for young people in the SWANA region.

Human Geography

Children's Geography

A subfield of human geography that centers young people's experiences, perceptions and imaginings of place — and the curricular case for treating their everyday knowledge as worthy of study.

Read research

Featured this week

See all lessons

2026-04-26

Illustration of a home set within its surrounding landscape

Mapping exploration

ArtGeographySocial Studies3rd Grade

Learners rotate through mapping stations, starting to define their understanding of space and place through different modalities including geography and art literacies.

Unit:Geographies of Home

Includes

Lesson slides, Heart-map handout, My Map Book, Sarah Fanelli

2026-04-26

A panel of tatreez — traditional Palestinian embroidery

We Went Looking for Home

ArtGeographySocial Studies3rd Grade

Learners begin to understand the idea of home is hard to contain. Learners brainstorm all the feelings, sensations, images, and memories that come up when they think of home.

Unit:Geographies of Home

Includes

We Went Looking for Home but We Found… (Al-Bustan camp multimedia book)

2026-04-26

Oral Storytelling

English Language Arts3rd Grade

Learners will explore different examples of oral storytelling practices like Zajal, hekaye, and harvesting songs.

Unit:Food & Stories

Includes

Food and Stories unit vocabulary, Examples of oral storytelling, Oral storytelling observation tool