Virtual reality (VR) is an immersive medium that represents a particularly powerful form of geographical visualization due to the physical and emotional involvement of users. Against the backdrop of previous research on VR in geography teaching, this study examines the extent to which geography teachers’ beliefs of space change when they engage with virtual reality learning environments in the context of teacher training. The starting point is the assumption that understandings of space are individually distinct and organized in belief systems.
The framework for the qualitative study is a four-part training series with 13 geography teachers from Berlin and Brandenburg. Guided individual interviews were conducted before and after the training, and group discussions were held during the training events. The evaluation was carried out using content-structuring content analysis. 
The results show that teachers’ understandings of space can largely be classified according to Wardenga’s four concepts of space. The understanding of space as a container and as a construct are centrally anchored in the belief system and largely stable. In addition, an alternative understanding of space becomes apparent, which focuses on the emotional, affective, physical, and bodily dimensions of space and is theoretically linked to emotional and non-representational geographies.
Changes in the course of the training are particularly evident in this alternative understanding of space, which has become more central and differentiated through the use of VR and remains significant in the understanding of space. At the same time, it becomes clear that power structures and socialization processes that shape the physical-affective experience of space are insufficiently reflected. For geography teaching, this implies that emotional and physical perceptions of space must be systematically incorporated and critically reflected upon.