Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we show that modern schooling introduces rural Mongolian youths from herding families to an urban modernity. Yet, through their participation in rural informal learning and engagement with digital ICTs, they maintain their connection to Mongolia's countryside and its rural futures.

Paper long abstract:

The geographies of Mongolia’s rural population have long been mobile. Yet, a specific form of nomadism has come to characterize the lives of rural children and youth: education nomadism. Young rural Mongolians spend most of the year in urban-based schools interspersed with substantial periods in their herding communities in the countryside. In this paper, we describe the experience of modern schooling, as well as how informal learning in the countryside also equips young people with relevant skills. The rural-urban divide is further blurred by young people’s engagement with digital ICTs. By conceptualising the geographies of education broadly, we narrate Mongolia’s transition from a generation perspective showing that young rural Mongolians from herding families are indeed introduced to an urban modernity. Yet, this does not imply a delinking from their rural origins or that rural futures are necessarily foreclosed.