Transforming Imaginations of Africa in Geography Classrooms Through Teacher Reflexivity

Abstract

Eurocentric portrayals of Africa remain entrenched in European educational systems, perpetuating stereotypes of poverty, primitiveness, and exoticism. This study investigates how such representations are mirrored in German students’ mental conceptions and how they are interpreted by future educators. Using an interpretivist qualitative design, the study analyzes open-ended responses from 41 Grade 5 and 7 pupils at a lower secondary school in Münster, Germany, and written reflections from 17 teacher trainees enrolled in a master’s course in geography education. Thematic analysis reveals five dominant pupil schemas: poverty and deprivation, environmental determinism, racialization and othering, infrastructural deficit, and the wildlife-tourism gaze, rooted in media, textbooks, teachers, and social networks. Teacher trainees’ reflections ranged from emotional discomfort to critical awareness, with many advocating pedagogical pluralism, the normalization of African modernity, and the cultivation of critical consciousness. However, most proposals remained reformist, lacking a deep epistemological critique. The findings highlight the urgency of integrating decolonial theory, postcolonial critique, and epistemic justice into teacher education. Without such structural reorientation, schools will risk reproducing the very global hierarchies they purport to challenge.

1. Introduction

“When some children in German classrooms describe Africa, they speak of wild animals, extreme heat, and poverty. These ideas are inherited, not original, and transmitted possibly through curricula, stories, and systems that continue to silence African agency and reproduce colonial knowledge hierarchies.”

—Emmanuel Eze

Defying decades of scholarly critique and curriculum reform, Eurocentric representations of Africa persist in European educational systems, especially within textbooks, teaching materials, and classroom discourse. These representations commonly depict Africa through a lens of lack, exoticism, and dependency, emphasizing images of wildlife, conflict, and poverty while marginalizing African agency, diversity, and intellectual contributions (Mudimbe, 1988; Mbembe, 2001; Wa Thiong’o, 2009). Beyond being problematic, these portrayals are also pedagogically potent, as they inform how young learners come to view the African continent and, by extension, their place in a globalized world.

Previous research efforts document the framing of Africa, especially within geography and history curricula, as a passive space, ripe for intervention, resource extraction, or pity, rather than as a site of innovation, cultural complexity, or knowledge production (Hickling-Hudson, 2006; Andreotti, 2011). This pattern of representation aligns with what de Sousa Santos (2007) describes as “abyssal thinking”, where non-Western epistemologies are rendered invisible or illegitimate, and only Western frameworks are seen as credible or universal. Such curricular and discursive imbalances are perpetuated through what Quijano (2000) unpacks as the coloniality of knowledge, wherein Eurocentric assumptions about global hierarchies remain embedded within supposedly neutral educational systems.

Across Europe, and especially in Germany, colonial legacies continue to mar the representation of Africa as development education materials, textbooks, and children’s literature continue to circulate images of Africa that are ahistorical, monolithic, and deficit-oriented (Marmer & Sow, 2013; Bendix, 2018). These portrayals reduce a vibrantly plural continent to a single story of poverty, primitiveness, and passivity, which Marmer and Sow (2013) suggest could be structurally embedded across federal states and grade levels in a country like Germany. For example, empirical textbook studies across Germany, such as Marmer et al. (2011) and Marmer and Ziai (2013), consistently reveal depictions of Africa that exoticize, infantilize, or erase its complexity. These studies also show that History curricula often begin with European “discovery” and climax with colonization, thereby relegating African actors to the margins as passive recipients of Western intervention. On the other hand, social studies and geography materials continue to highlight themes of underdevelopment, conflict, and dependency, rarely introducing students to African intellectuals, innovations, or cultural dynamism (Marmer et al., 2011; Marmer & Ziai, 2013).

Parallel critiques have emerged in the field of development education, where materials designed to foster global citizenship and solidarity have paradoxically reinforced hierarchical narratives. Bendix (2018) and Ziai (2013) argue that German development education frequently functions as a monologue rather than a dialogue, presenting Africa through a lens of Northern benevolence and Southern deficiency. The 2013 glokal e.V. report, as cited in Bendix (2018), based on an audit of over 100 development education publications, exposed a widespread “eloquent silence” around colonial histories and their contemporary legacies. Even where colonialism is acknowledged, it is often framed as a neutral or civilizing influence, rather than a structure of domination with enduring consequences.

Importantly, these narratives are not confined to formal schooling. German colonial art, popular literature, and children’s books have long contributed to the construction of Africa as an exotic, feminized, and subordinated space. Wilke (2006) traces these racialized imaginaries in the works of Fritz Behn and others, highlighting how visual representations reinforced myths of European superiority and African inferiority. Moreover, Marmer and Sow (2013) show how these tropes continue in contemporary children’s media, shaping perceptions from an early age and embedding long-lasting mental schemas.

The digital age has not disrupted these patterns, but rather intensified them. For example, Hershey and Artime (2014) report that students’ reactions to the viral Kony 2012 campaign revealed a widespread replication of colonial scripts, depicting the continent of Africa as chaotic, voiceless, and in need of external salvation. Similarly, Weiner (2016) finds that Dutch textbooks still portray Africa as poor and stagnant, while Europe emerges as rational and progressive. These findings confirm that across European contexts, educational discourses continue to racialize and essentialize Africa, shaping both public consciousness and the geopolitical imagination of future citizens.

What emerges from this body of literature is a picture of epistemic continuity, depicting the persistence of colonial narratives despite the rhetoric of global learning and critical pedagogy. In the German context, reforms remain fragmented and symbolic. While joint publication of the Standing Conference of the German Ministers of Education and Culture (KMK) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (Schreiber & Siege, 2016) gestures toward inclusivity, Bendix (2018) critiques its lack of conceptual depth and structural commitment needed for meaningful change. Aside from Schwarze (2019), who had observed geography lessons on the portrayal of sub-Saharan Africa, most previous empirical studies focus either on textbook content or development education. Few explore how these representations affect teacher identity formation, especially when filtered through the real, often shocking, perceptions voiced by children themselves. This study addresses that gap.

Hence, by moving beyond curricular analysis, this study investigates how real representations voiced by children provoke reflection and pedagogical change in future teachers. Unlike prior studies confined to curriculum analysis or adult introspection, this research triangulates the representational field, combining pupils’ perspectives, trainee reflections, and pedagogical intent. The study examines how Africa is imagined by children, how these images are received by pre-service teachers, and how this encounter reshapes their professional intentions. In doing so, it offers a novel contribution to debates on critical global citizenship, teacher identity formation, and the deconstruction of Eurocentric knowledge in education.

Framing these issues within cognitive and pedagogical theory, this study draws on schema theory and teacher cognition literature, showing that stereotypes about the African continent are not absorbed passively. The schema theory in cognitive psychology suggests that early exposure to stereotypical representations forms durable mental frameworks, or schemas, which then shape how individuals interpret and assimilate new information (Bartlett, 1932; Anderson & Pearson, 1984). When children are repeatedly exposed to images of Africa as poor, primitive, or wild, especially through authoritative sources like school textbooks and teachers, such schemas become cognitively entrenched (Devine, 1989; Macrae et al., 1994). Once embedded, these mental models are resistant to change, even in the face of contradictory evidence (Nickerson, 1998). As a result, representational biases acquired in early education can persist into adulthood, shaping perceptions, attitudes, and pedagogical practices across generations.

Recent empirical research confirms that stereotyping in geography education remains a persistent issue in Germany. Dörfel et al. (2025) found that secondary school geography teachers frequently encounter stereotypical representations of Africa in curricular materials and student perceptions. While many teachers are aware of reductive portrayals such as poverty, war, and underdevelopment, they report a lack of adequate training to effectively challenge them in classroom settings. The study further revealed that teachers tended to rely on vague strategies and rarely engaged critically with the epistemic roots of such stereotypes. These findings highlight the urgent need for more reflexive and professionally grounded approaches to teaching about Africa within German classrooms (Dörfel et al., 2025). Our study responds directly to this call by foregrounding teacher reflexivity as a transformative lens through which such representations can be re-examined and restructured.

The issue of stereotypical representation in education cannot be separated from broader social processes of racialization. For instance, the study of African migrants in Germany by Lukate (2024) shows how racial identity is not simply inherited but socially imposed through interactions steeped in historical narratives of otherness. The study argues that the category of “Blackness” is constructed externally, often through colonial discourses that continue to permeate media, education, and public life. These findings warrant our position that learners’ and teachers’ representations of Africa are not developed in isolation, but are shaped by deeply rooted racial imaginaries within German society. Moreover, comparable trends are evident beyond Germany. In a comprehensive content analysis of Austrian school textbooks and curricula, Igler (2024) identified a striking overrepresentation of Africa in contexts of poverty, conflict, and exoticism. We therefore propose through this study that reflexive teaching must be implemented to address both curricular content and the socialized lenses through which educational content about Africa is interpreted.

Within this context, the role of teachers, and crucially, teacher trainees, becomes paramount. Teachers are not just conduits of curricular content; they are cultural mediators who decide how knowledge is framed and interpreted in the classroom (Freire, 1970). However, as studies in teacher cognition have shown, educators often carry into their professional practice the unexamined assumptions they internalized during their own schooling (Pajares, 1992; Borg, 2003). Without deliberate opportunities to reflect critically on inherited knowledge structures, future teachers may unintentionally reinforce the very stereotypes they hope to dismantle.

This study intervenes in this underexplored research space by investigating how pre-service geography teachers respond when directly confronted with the stereotypical perceptions held by children. Specifically, the study analyzes two datasets: (i) open-ended reflections from Grade 5 and 7 pupils in Germany on how they imagine Africa, and (ii) written reflections by master’s level teacher trainees who engaged with those school pupils’ responses as part of a university seminar on critical and transformative geography education. Through this dual-layered inquiry, the study explores the representational content absorbed by children and the reflective, emotional, and pedagogical responses it evokes in their future teachers.

To interrogate these dynamics empirically and pedagogically, the study focuses on two interlinked aspects. That is, how German pupils imagine and represent Africa, and how teacher trainees critically reflect on these representations within a structured reflexive exercise. By connecting pupil imagery with teacher intention, the study explores the potential of reflexivity to transform entrenched narratives and promote more just and inclusive geography teaching practices. Hence, two interrelated questions guide the study:

• What dominant images of Africa emerge from pupils’ open-ended responses?
• How do these responses affect the reflections and pedagogical intentions of pre-service teachers?

In answering these questions, the paper makes several contributions. First, it provides fresh empirical insight into how early representations of Africa are constructed and transmitted within European schooling contexts. Second, it documents the real-time reflective processes of teacher trainees, offering a rare view into how stereotype confrontation can foster transformative learning. Third, it proposes a replicable model for integrating stereotype analysis into teacher training programs as a means of promoting decolonial, inclusive pedagogy. Ultimately, this study seeks to show that listening to how children imagine the world and inviting future educators to reflect critically on these imaginations can serve as a powerful catalyst for pedagogical transformation. It makes the case that if education is to be a tool for equity and justice, it must begin by unlearning what has long been taught, and by listening to the imaginations of children as both mirrors of inherited knowledge and catalysts for transformative pedagogy.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Research Design

This study adopts a qualitative, exploratory case study design, grounded in an interpretivist epistemology, which, according to Hiller (2016), assumes that reality is socially constructed and meaning is shaped through human experience and interaction. This paradigm is particularly suited for this study, which seeks to explore how individuals, both school pupils and teacher trainees, make sense of complex social representations like the image of Africa. Specifically, pupils’ open-ended responses reveal their dominant images of Africa, while teacher trainees’ reflections illustrate their pedagogical intentions after engaging with the pupils’ views. Rather than seeking generalizable truths, the study prioritizes context-dependent meanings that participants assign to their lived experiences. Hence, this epistemological stance aligns with the study’s focus on subjective reflections and the interpretive depth needed to understand stereotype formation and pedagogical transformation.

The study triangulates two aspects of representation, namely, pupils’ imagined geographies and trainees’ reflections, to illuminate how inherited knowledge can evolve into pedagogical transformation. An interpretivist, dual-layered design is deemed especially appropriate for understanding how stereotypes are internalized, challenged, and potentially reimagined within teacher education.

2.2. Study Context

The research was conducted in a lower secondary school in Münster, a city in western Germany, within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Within a master-level course titled “The Image of Africa in German Geography Textbooks: A Critical Analysis”, developed and facilitated by the lead author at the Institute for Didactics of Geography, University of Münster, Germany. The course was part of the Master of Education in Geography Teacher Education Program, and the pupil reflections were collected through a geography school teacher as part of an evaluation exercise after one of their school lessons. Responses from the pupils were then incorporated as a pedagogical tool to stimulate teacher trainee awareness of stereotypical discourses in early education.

2.3. Participants

2.3.1. Lower Secondary School Pupils

A total of 41 pupils from Grade 5 (n = 18) and Grade 7 (n = 23), aged approximately [10–13 years], participated in the first phase of the study. The pupils’ age ensures their exposure to Africa in school lessons, at least to some extent, but, at the same time, they might be less aware of social desirability due to their relatively young age. This combination allows for a precise and clear set of data for this study. Pupils were invited to provide open-ended written responses to the prompt: “Describe in five bullet points what images, feelings, or ideas come to your mind when you think of the continent of Africa.” and “Where did you learn your information about the African continent? (e.g.). Name as many sources as possible.” Their responses were collected originally in German to avoid potential language barriers that could interfere with their ability to express their conceptions. No identifying information was collected, and participation was voluntary and anonymized.

2.3.2. Master’s-Level Teacher Trainees

The second dataset consists of master’s level geography education teacher trainees (n = 17) enrolled in a seminar focused on critical and transformative geography teaching. Participants were invited to read the pupils’ responses, then write reflective essays or entries responding to the representations, their emotional reactions, and the implications for their future teaching practice. Participation in the research aspect of the seminar was voluntary and also approved through informed consent.

2.4. Data Collection Instruments

Two qualitative instruments were used. Firstly, a short open-ended prompt was administered to pupils during a class by a collaborating schoolteacher participating in the master’s course described earlier. Pupils responded individually and anonymously to these prompts, exploring their perceptions of Africa and their likely sources. Secondly, individual written reflections of teacher trainees were collected by the lead author through Google Forms as part of a structured reflection exercise within the teacher trainees’ course. The reflection prompt was designed to invite critical engagement with the children’s views and encourage introspective writing about future pedagogical implications.

2.5. Ethical Considerations

Ethical clearance was granted by the Institute for Didactics of Geography. Given that no personally identifying information was collected, nor did the study pose any physical or emotional danger to the responding minors, no further institutional ethics approval was required. However, strict anonymity was agreed to ensure the utmost protection of the identity of the school and its pupils. Also, all participants were assured of their right to withdraw at any time without penalty. Since the data was collected by a teacher in the pupils’ school who had already encountered content about Africa with the kids, administering the printed papers prompting the pupils’ response, both school administration permissions and necessary consent were completed accordingly. On the part of the teacher trainees, participation in the anonymous reflection exercise implied consent. Hence, 9 out of 26 participants in the course abstained from the exercise.

2.6. Data Analysis

Consistent with the study’s interpretivist stance (Hiller, 2016), data analysis emphasized meaning-making over measurement. Thematic analysis was chosen as it allows for a flexible yet rigorous exploration of participants’ subjective interpretations. Codes and themes were derived to reflect not only surface-level content, but also the underlying values, assumptions, and worldviews embedded in participants’ language. This analytic approach honors the contextual richness of the data and foregrounds the voices of pupils and trainees as meaning-makers in their own right.

The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, following the reflexive approach outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). This method was chosen for its flexibility and its suitability for uncovering patterned meaning within qualitative datasets, particularly when working within an interpretivist paradigm. The analysis proceeded in two phases, first with the pupil responses, then with the teacher trainee reflections.

For both datasets, the analysis involved the six iterative stages of Braun and Clarke (2006): (i) familiarization with the data through repeated reading; (ii) systematic extraction of key words and phrases; (iii) initial coding of recurrent patterns and ideas; (iv) collation and review of codes into preliminary categories; (v) development of broader themes through interpretive synthesis; and (vi) refinement and naming of final themes to capture the underlying meanings. For the pupils’ data, emphasis was placed on clustering similar expressions of imagination and representation into thematic categories.

Moreover, both emotional and pedagogical content were coded to identify affective responses and action-oriented intentions within the teacher trainee reflection data. Also, each teacher trainee’s response has been assigned a unique identifier in the format TT01–TT17 (where TT denotes “Teacher Trainee”). These codes correspond to the order in which reflections were received and are used consistently throughout the results section to attribute quoted excerpts without compromising participant confidentiality.

2.7. Positionality and Reflexivity of the Researcher

The lead researcher is a Nigerian-born geography education scholar with professional experience teaching in both Sub-Saharan African and European educational settings. This transnational academic trajectory, combined with lived experience navigating Eurocentric spaces as a researcher of African descent, informs the study’s epistemological stance, its critical interrogation of representational systems, and its methodological choices. The researcher’s prior work in heritage conservation, disaster risk reduction, and critical pedagogy also provides a basis for interests in decolonial frameworks and learner-centered inquiry.

These contexts both enrich and complicate the analysis for the lead author. On one hand, it enables a heightened sensitivity to subtle forms of stereotype reproduction and erasure often normalized in Western curricula. On the other hand, it necessitates careful reflexivity to avoid over-identification with marginalized perspectives or imposing singular interpretations on participants’ responses. To address this, the researcher engaged in reflexive journaling throughout the data analysis process and consulted peer debriefers to challenge assumptions and surface blind spots to balance neutrality with ethical clarity throughout this study. Thus, drawing on the concept of situated knowledge of Haraway (1988), the researchers acknowledge their positional lens as a source of both insight and limitation.

2.8. Limitations

This empirically rich and theoretically grounded study also has its limitations. First, it is context-specific as it is conducted within one German school and one university seminar. As such, the findings are not meant to be statistically generalizable but analytically transferable to comparable educational settings where similar representational challenges persist. In addition, the data rely on self-reported, written reflections from both pupils and teacher trainees. While this format allows for honest, introspective expression, it may also be shaped by social desirability bias or limited by the participants’ writing fluency and confidence. Moreover, the reflections capture a snapshot in time, offering insight into initial cognitive and emotional reactions but not into how these responses may evolve into long-term pedagogical change or classroom practice.

Despite these limitations, the study offers original empirical evidence on a largely underexplored phenomenon, highlighting the dialogic potential of children’s inherited stereotypes as catalysts for pedagogical reflection and transformation. It thus lays the groundwork for both future research and curriculum innovation in teacher education.

3. Results

3.1. Lower Secondary School Pupils’ Responses

This section presents findings from the first part of this study’s analysis, comprising open-ended responses of Grade 5 and 7 pupils (n = 41) in a German lower secondary school located in Münster. Pupils were asked to describe, in five short bullet points, what came to their minds when thinking about the continent of Africa. The responses, while varied in style and expression, revealed a striking thematic consistency marked by deficit-based and stereotypical imagery, highlighting critical gaps in German geography education and the persistent influence of colonial discourse in contemporary pedagogical contexts.

3.1.1. Dominant Representations of Africa Among Pupils

This section presents findings from the first phase of analysis, comprising open-ended responses from Grade 5 and 7 pupils (n = 41) in a lower secondary school in Münster, Germany. Pupils were asked to list five ideas or associations that came to mind when thinking of the African continent. Although stylistically varied, their responses displayed a striking thematic uniformity rooted in deficit-oriented, essentialist imagery, which reveals critical gaps in geography education and the enduring influence of colonial discourse (Figure 1).

Five major thematic categories emerged: (i) poverty and deprivation, (ii) environmental and climate reductionism, (iii) racialization and ‘othering’, (iv) infrastructural/technological deficit narratives, and (v) the wildlife-tourism paradigm. These themes reflect entrenched mental models of Africa as a distant, underdeveloped, and exotic space.

The “Single Story” of Poverty and Deprivation

The most dominant narrative was that of Africa as poor and lacking. Pupils used expressions like “arm” (poor), “Armut” (poverty), “nichts zu essen” (nothing to eat), “gibt nicht so viel Essen” (not much food available), and “kein Wasser” (no water), indicating a perception of Africa as deprived of basic necessities. Statements such as “Leider ein armes Land” (unfortunately, a poor country) and “Die Kinder gehen nicht zur Schule” (the children do not go to school) further illustrate an entrenched mental schema of helplessness and lack. These findings echo what Adichie (2009) calls the “danger of a single story,” wherein complexity is erased in favor of simplistic, pathologizing narratives. Such overwhelmingly deficit-focused characterizations demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of Africa’s economic diversity and educational achievements.

Environmental and Climatic Reductionism

A significant number of responses portrayed Africa as uniformly hot, dry, or desert-like. Pupils referenced “sehr heiß” (very hot), “viel Wüste” (lots of desert), “bis zu 42 Grad” (up to 42 °C), “trocken” (drought), and “kein Wasser” (no water). While a few pupils mentioned “Wald” (forest), the dominant ecological vision was overwhelmingly reductive. This climate determinism echoes outdated geographical theories that link underdevelopment to harsh environments and overlook the ecological diversity across African biomes.

Racialization and Othering

Pupils frequently invoked racial identifiers such as “alle sind schwarz” (all are black), “dunkelhäutige Personen” (dark-skinned persons), or “Schwarze Menschen” (black persons). Others used simplified cultural references like “sie tanzen mit Trommeln” (they dance with drums). Some comments attempted to be positive, e.g., “hübsche Menschen” (pretty people), “höffliche Menschen” (polite people), “süße Kinder” (cute children), and “sehr freundlich” (very friendly). Still, they were often presented through a paternalistic gaze. This racial framing positions Africa and Africans as fundamentally ‘other,’ affirming Said’s (1978) orientalist discourse, where difference is exaggerated to maintain imagined superiority.

Infrastructure and Technological Deficits

Numerous pupils depicted Africa as technologically backward: “kein Strom” (no electricity), “keine Handys” (no mobile phones), or “keine Elektrizität oder Handys” (no electricity or mobile phones). These framings erase Africa’s growing technological ecosystems and digital economies, reflecting what Ferguson (1999) critiques as “abjection”, a representational strategy that locates Africa outside modernity.

Wildlife and the Touristic Gaze

The most exoticized responses included references to “Löwen” (Lions), “Elefanten” (Elephants), “Zebras”, and “viele Tiere” (many animals), situating Africa as a wild, uninhabited safari park. These views reinforce the continent as a spectacle rather than a lived space and reflect colonial and touristic discourses that commodify African nature while erasing its robust urban life and societal complexity.

3.1.2. Pupils’ Reported Sources of Knowledge About Africa

In a follow-up question, pupils were asked to list the sources from which they acquired their knowledge about Africa. The results reveal a media-dominated landscape: social media (56.1%), television (53.7%), textbooks (51.2%), and teachers (48.8%) ranked as the top sources, followed by films, parents, and friends. Less frequent sources included music, travel, and news (Figure 2).

These findings illustrate that representational models of Africa are constructed through a mix of institutional, popular, and interpersonal channels. From an interpretivist stance, children absorb information passively (e.g., from social media) and participate in systems of meaning-making, where school, other media, and family collaboratively shape their schemas, often reinforcing stereotypes across domains.

3.2. Teacher Trainees’ Reactions and Pedagogical Intentions

This section presents the findings from the second phase of the study, focusing on written reflections submitted by pre-service geography teachers (n = 17; Female = 13, Male = 4) enrolled in a Master of Geography Education course at the University of Münster, Germany. As part of a structured seminar relating to critical and transformative geography education, all anonymized pupil responses from Grade 5 and 7 children were shared with all the teacher trainees, who engaged with the data. The trainees were then asked to reflect and document their reactions, as well as their future pedagogical strategies for addressing representational distortions of the African continent. Their responses yielded key themes presented in two subsections below.

3.2.1. Affective-Cognitive Reactions to Pupils’ Stereotypical Views

Teacher trainees displayed a complex range of emotional and cognitive reactions, clustered into three interrelated sub-themes: shock and emotional discomfort, critical expectation and institutional critique, and ambivalence with recognition of nuance. Across these themes, respondents demonstrated both emotional engagement and epistemic reflexivity, signaling shifts in teacher cognition.

Shock and Emotional Discomfort

Several trainees described visceral emotional responses upon encountering the pupils’ stereotypical portrayals of Africa. The language of “shock,” “sadness,” and “concern” was frequent, suggesting affective dissonance triggered by the confrontation with deficit-laden imaginations. As one participant reflected:

“My initial reaction was a mix of surprise and concern. The children believed Africa was completely poor, which showed how strong stereotypes still shape young people’s views. It made me realize how important education is to show a more accurate and balanced picture of the continent.”

[TT17]

Others described the experience as “confusing” or “concerning,” with TT01 noting, “I was surprised at how strongly the children’s answers were shaped by stereotypes.” Another respondent expresses “Confusion. I would not have anticipated many of the answers and perceptions in this way. Some of the answers show a very distorted image of Africa.” [TT09]

These affective reactions align with Mezirow’s (1997) theory of transformative learning, where emotional disruption catalyzes reflective reassessment.

Critical Expectation and Institutional Critique

A larger group of respondents expressed no surprise, attributing the children’s views to entrenched institutional discourses. These trainees linked pupils’ stereotypes to curricular, media, and textbook influences:

“I was not surprised at all… their perception is based on very typical Western stereotypes that go far back into history.”

[TT03]

“I expected such answers, as they reflect what one learns through many textbooks and lessons.”

[TT07]

“This is what German children learn in school books, movies about Africa.”

[TT10]

Rather than emotional distress, these reflections by teacher trainees revealed a critical awareness of structural epistemic injustice. They demonstrate alignment with postcolonial critiques of curriculum and what de Sousa Santos (2007) terms “abyssal thinking,” in which non-Western realities are rendered invisible or inferior.

Ambivalence and Recognition of Nuance

A smaller subset of the responding teacher trainees displayed cognitive ambivalence, expressing both concern over dominant stereotypes and appreciation for nuanced or less stereotypical pupil responses. One trainee commented:

“Many of the students saw Africa as one single country and gave very simplified answers—like all children there being poor or not going to school. However, a few responses were more thoughtful. Some students understood that life in Africa can be very different depending on the region or country. Still, most answers reflected common clichés.”

[TT14]

Others reflected:

“I expected some responses to foster stereotypes… however, some of the children’s responses were differentiated and more detailed, which I didn’t expect in that age group.”

[TT16]

“Depended on the answer. Obviously shocked when there was racism. A bit amused by some answers, even though it actually is sad that they don’t know enough to know that Brasil/Turkey is not in Africa, and Neymar is not African just because of his skin or something. But also reassured by some diverse answers.”

[TT05]

By these responses, teacher trainees suggest a more nuanced interpretivist stance, which acknowledges the heterogeneity of learners’ conceptual frameworks while remaining critically alert to dominant discourses.

3.2.2. Envisioned Pedagogical Commitments for Transformative Geography Education

Across responses, teacher trainees demonstrated a shared resolve to implement more inclusive, critical, and diversified representations of Africa. Their reflections clustered around three pedagogical strategies: pedagogical pluralism, reclaiming African modernity, and facilitating critical consciousness.

Pedagogical Pluralism

Nearly all respondents voiced commitment to replacing Eurocentric materials with more diverse sources, including African voices, contemporary visuals, and multi-perspective narratives. While a respondent vows, “I will incorporate diverse perspectives and, where possible, include voices from Africa, for example, through texts, videos, etc., by African authors. I will try to reflect on and challenge stereotypes with the students.” [TT07], another offered a comprehensive plan:

“In my future teaching, I would consciously avoid presenting Africa as a single, homogeneous space and instead highlight the great diversity of cultures, countries, and living realities. I would incorporate different perspectives and use African voices and sources to challenge stereotypes. Additionally, I would help students understand how media and history shape perceptions of Africa. My goal would be to promote a nuanced and respectful understanding that reduces prejudices and shows the continent’s complexity.”

[TT14]

Other trainees emphasized breaking the monopoly of textbooks and introducing African cities, cultures, and landscapes as core case studies:

“Not using the German geography textbooks without other materials. Including the continent Africa into topics untypical to mention Africa… cities of Africa as an example, instead of New York or London.”

[TT06]

“I will include a more diverse view of living conditions, nature and politics in class to combat the stereotype of “Africa” being one single, poor and underdeveloped place. In addition, it became obvious to me that the image of Africa in textbooks is (still) seriously flawed and needs discussion in class.”

[TT08]

These responses reflect a commitment to epistemic disobedience (Mignolo, 2011) and signal a movement toward participatory and multi-perspectival pedagogy (Stradling, 2003).

Reclaiming African Modernity

Several teacher trainees explicitly addressed the need to normalize modern, urban, and innovative dimensions of Africa, countering the wildlife-poverty binary entrenched in mainstream depictions. Examples include:

“I plan to include diverse perspectives. I also want to present African countries in everyday and modern contexts and not only through the lens of problems.”

[TT01]

“To make sure that the students are aware that Africa is a diverse continent and not one country. Showing different views and perspectives, and not only promoting stereotypes but also, for example, showing booming cities.”

[TT03]

“Show pictures/clips/texts that rather don’t feed the stereotypes. For example, showing modern cities with skyscrapers, etc. Or wetlands.”

[TT04]

“I will use diverse sources, highlight African voices, and include positive examples from different countries. I want students to see Africa’s richness in culture, history, and innovation—not just its challenges.”

[TT17]

Such responses directly challenge the representational tropes of Africa as abject or ahistorical (Ferguson, 1999), instead emphasizing contemporary African agency and complexity.

Facilitating Critical Consciousness

A final strand of responses reflected a shift toward reflexive and dialogic didactics. Trainees proposed methods such as stereotype analysis, pupil-led inquiry, and textbook critique:

“Questioning one’s own perception. Try to include as many aspects, stories and realities as possible. Try to create lessons that are as sensitive as possible and show as many aspects as possible.”

[TT09]

“Create my own materials. Let students find these stereotypes in schoolbooks and reflect on them.”

[TT10]

“Question schoolbooks! Let the students reflect on their perception of Africa, and where it is rooted. Let the students gather a more broad Information next to the schoolbook (Interviews, Documentation, etc.). Let the students develop a critical view of what they learned about Africa.”

[TT16]

These statements signal a move beyond additive content inclusion toward deeper pedagogical transformation. Freire (1970) conceptualized this as praxis, or the combination of reflection and action aimed at liberation.

4. Discussion

This study examined the mental representations of Africa held by German lower secondary pupils and the pedagogical reflections of teacher trainees who engaged with these representations. The findings highlight deep-rooted stereotypes, persistent colonial epistemologies, and limited pedagogical disruption. Taken together, the pupils’ associations and teacher trainees’ responses reveal both the durability of Eurocentric knowledge systems and the emergent but constrained possibilities for transformative geography education.

4.1. Colonial Knowledge Structures in Pupils’ Representations

The findings from Grade 5 and 7 pupils reveal an overwhelmingly deficit-oriented and essentialist view of Africa. The prevalence of themes such as poverty, infrastructural deprivation, heat and drought, exotic animals, and racialized difference is consistent with the “single story” trope identified by Adichie (2009). These patterns are not merely random individual misconceptions but are better understood as expressions of what Bartlett (1932) and Anderson and Pearson (1984) describe as schemas (i.e., culturally inherited mental models reinforced by socialization and experience).

From a postcolonial standpoint, these schemas reflect the persistence of what Quijano (2000) terms the “coloniality of power”, which is a structure that orders knowledge hierarchically and situates Africa as Europe’s constitutive ‘Other.’ The racial framing of Africans in pupils’ responses aligns with Said’s (1978) concept of orientalism, wherein racial and cultural difference is exaggerated to justify global asymmetries. The portrayal of Africa as inherently poor, hot, technologically backwards, and wild evokes what Mbembe (2001) calls the postcolonial condition, a temporal and epistemic displacement that situates Africa in a permanent state of not-yet-modern.

This is further evidenced by pupils’ emphasis on what Africa lacks rather than what it possesses. Their reliance on reductive tropes echoes Ferguson’s (1999) concept of “abjection,” in which Africa is imagined as the anti-modern, legitimizing its positioning as a recipient of aid, pity, and intervention. The wildlife-tourism lens compounds this view by transforming the continent into a spectacle for Western consumption. Such constructions are shaped by colonial-era travel literature and perpetuated by contemporary media.

Crucially, the top sources pupils reported (i.e., social media, television, textbooks, and teachers) mirror the very vectors previously critiqued in German educational research. Studies by Marmer and Sow (2013), Bendix (2018), and Schwarze (2019) have documented the dominance of deficit-based portrayals in German textbooks, while Wilke (2006) highlights the exoticism in German media representations of the Global South. Thus, the pupils’ responses are not isolated errors of cognition but are scaffolded by layered institutional, popular, and interpersonal systems of representation. Schema theory helps explain how children filter new information through these entrenched lenses, reinforcing stereotypes unless explicitly disrupted (Devine, 1989; Macrae et al., 1994).

4.2. Interpretivist Insights and Epistemic Implications

Interpreted through schema theory and interpretivist inquiry, the pupils’ responses highlight how cognitive structures are embedded within cultural and institutional discourses. The striking thematic uniformity across different pupils, despite individual variation (Grades 5 and 7), depicts the socialized nature of knowledge formation. These findings reaffirm that geographical imaginations are not neutral; they are shaped by the representational economies in which learners are embedded.

Moreover, the environmental determinism in student responses, where climate is seen as the root cause of African underdevelopment, demonstrates the persistence of colonial geographical thinking. Such deterministic views not only flatten the diversity of African ecologies but also erase the historical and political dimensions of development. As Bartlett (1932) and Devine (1989) suggest, without intentional pedagogical intervention, these default schemas become cognitively entrenched.

4.3. Reflexivity and Reform Using Teacher Trainees’ Interpretations

The reflective responses of teacher trainees provide a critical window into the epistemological tensions of teacher education. While a subset of trainees expressed emotional discomfort upon encountering the pupils’ views, using terms such as “shocked,” “sad,” or “concerned”, a larger group exhibited what de Sousa Santos (2007) calls “abyssal thinking”, which is the normalization of colonial knowledge boundaries. Many anticipated such stereotypical responses, locating their origins in textbook content and broader media exposure. This normalization illustrates the internalization of Eurocentric curricula, what Wa Thiong’o (2009) terms “the colonization of the mind”.

Interestingly, a small group of trainees demonstrated cognitive ambivalence, recognizing both stereotypical patterns and counter-examples within the pupil responses. This nuanced engagement aligns with interpretivist principles that acknowledge multiplicity and variance within learners’ meaning-making systems. However, across all three response types, the affective and epistemological engagement of teacher trainees indicates a critical awareness of the limitations of existing curricular content.

4.4. Prospects for Pedagogical Transformation

The second dimension of trainee reflections focused on pedagogical commitments. Here, three broad orientations emerged: pedagogical pluralism, reclaiming African modernity, and fostering critical consciousness. First, pedagogical pluralism was expressed as a clear rejection of textbook hegemony. Trainees proposed using African-authored texts, multimedia content, and multi-perspectival representations to challenge dominant narratives. Their commitment echoes the De Andreotti (2014) framework for critical global citizenship education and the Mignolo (2011) call for epistemic disobedience.

Second, trainees emphasized the normalization of African modernity. By including visuals of urban infrastructure, political systems, and technological development, trainees sought to counteract the wildlife-poverty binary. These proposals reflect a nascent counter-discourse that affirms African agency and complexity, moving beyond depictions of deficit.

Third, a minority of trainees advocated for reflexive didactics by interrogating textbooks, facilitating pupil-led inquiry, and enabling students to critique their own assumptions. This aligns with Freire’s (1970) praxis of education as liberation and Hickling-Hudson’s (2006) emphasis on addressing “cultural complexity.” However, these transformative intentions were limited in scope, often constrained by a lack of systematic engagement with postcolonial theory within the teacher education curriculum.

Indeed, as noted, the course within which this research was embedded did not systematically address epistemological foundations or power relations in geography education. This limitation helps explain why many responses, while well-intentioned, remained within what De Andreotti (2014) terms “soft” postcolonialism, being superficial reforms that do not challenge the underlying knowledge structures.

4.5. Toward a Decolonial Pedagogy in Geography Education

Taken together, the findings show the urgent need to integrate decolonial and transformative pedagogies into both school curricula and teacher education. Pupils’ mental models reflect institutionalized hierarchies of knowledge, while teacher trainees, though aware, remain insufficiently equipped to disrupt these structures. The literature offers clear directions: decolonial education must actively interrogate epistemic power (de Sousa Santos, 2007), decenter Eurocentric content (Quijano, 2000), and equip learners with analytical tools for critical reflection (Freire, 1970; De Andreotti, 2014).

In this sense, the study contributes to geography education by illustrating how critical engagements with stereotypical imagery can serve as entry points for rethinking pedagogy. By linking learner representations to broader knowledge regimes, the study situates itself within the emergent field of transformative geography education, offering empirically grounded insights for curricular reform, teacher training, and policy innovation. Despite its insights, the study has limitations that must be acknowledged. The sample size is small and contextually specific, involving pupils from a single German school and teacher trainees enrolled in a specific university seminar. While the qualitative nature of the study does not aim for statistical generalizability, these limitations suggest caution in extending findings across broader educational contexts. Further research in diverse institutional settings would help test the robustness and adaptability of the reflexive approach.

To translate these findings into pedagogical practice, we propose three actionable steps. First, teacher education programs should include guided stereotype-reflection activities using real pupil-generated data, enabling future teachers to confront their assumptions. Second, curricula should deliberately integrate African-authored texts, images, and voices to diversify narrative authority. Third, professional development modules should train teachers to detect and deconstruct representational biases in instructional materials, using participatory tools like textbook audits and collaborative resource creation. Implementing these reforms will not be without challenges. Institutional inertia, lack of time and resources, and varying levels of teacher preparedness may all hinder the uptake of reflexive, decolonial teaching approaches.

5. Conclusions

This study examined how pupils in Germany imagine Africa and how teacher trainees respond to and plan to address these representations. The findings confirm that pupils’ views are overwhelmingly deficit-based, rooted in stereotypes perpetuated by media, curricula, and informal discourses. These mental models are not isolated misconceptions but reflect deeply embedded cognitive schemas produced by colonial knowledge systems. Teacher trainees, though emotionally and intellectually engaged, demonstrated limited pedagogical strategies for epistemic disruption. While many expressed commitments to multi-perspectivity and source diversification, their responses rarely interrogated the structural conditions of knowledge production. Only a minority articulated reflexive and transformative strategies grounded in postcolonial critique.

Thus, this study calls for decolonization within geography education and teacher training. It recommends the systematic integration of postcolonial and decolonial theory into curricula, the promotion of critical global citizenship, and the development of pedagogical practices that foreground epistemic justice. Without such reforms, educational institutions risk reproducing the very stereotypes they aim to challenge. By documenting pupil imaginations and teacher reflections, this study contributes to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to reframe geography education through a transformative lens. Beyond highlighting the dangers of representational injustice, it demonstrates the potential of critically engaged educators to shift dominant narratives and build more inclusive epistemologies for the future. Teachers trained in critical methods are better equipped to challenge the mental models, which this study shows are acquired early in childhood, and lower the possible risk of transferring deficit-based assumptions of Africa and the Global South to adulthood.

Beyond the classroom, the production of knowledge about Africa in Germany has been critiqued for its persistent Eurocentrism and exclusion of African voices. Iroulo and Tappe Ortiz (2022) challenge German academia to confront its colonial legacy and take responsibility for its role in shaping epistemic hierarchies. They argue that knowledge about Africa is too often generated without African authorship, partnership, or theoretical grounding. This critique extends naturally to educational practice, meaning that if teacher education is to advance, it must capture African perspectives as contributors to pedagogical design. Moreover, Ndlovu-Gatsheni et al. (2022) have similarly critiqued German African Studies for failing to meaningfully decolonize its knowledge production. Despite growing attention to Africa within academic and policy circles, they insist that the underlying logics often remain extractive, decontextualized, and disconnected from African epistemologies. In educational contexts, this translates into curricular content that emphasizes what is “known” about Africa from Western perspectives, rather than engaging students with plural, lived, and African-authored narratives. This study seeks to disrupt such patterns by placing teacher reflexivity at the center of representational change. Future research should explore how sustained professional development and curriculum co-design processes can mitigate these challenges. Also, studies tracking changes in teacher perspectives and classroom practices over time would also deepen understanding of the impacts of reflexive pedagogy.