Geography education: Reimagining its visibility and enactment

Presenting author: Roger Baars (Kyoto University)

It is generally agreed upon that both texts and educators affect student perceptions of climate change. Textbooks have a legitimising role in education as learning outcomes are often evaluated in relation to their content and as teachers often believe that curriculum requirements are met by following textbooks. However, it is important to note that many students see textbooks as neutral descriptions rather than the political instrument of social engineering they really are. Hence, it is crucial for teachers to provide critical and sometimes challenging insights into the complexities of socially contested issues, such as climate change.

At secondary schools, climate change is often taught in science classes. However, many science teachers are reluctant to engage in the social, economic, and political dimensions of climate change when teaching relevant geoscience concepts. They are reluctant to teach climate change "beyond the science" as many of them do not have the educational background to do so. Nevertheless, some have tried to take on this challenge.

The presentation focuses on two related issues: 1) How are complex problems, such as climate change, portrayed in geography textbooks currently used in Japan's education system? and 2) How do teachers navigate the "pedagogical minefield" of challenging problematic texts in class? Although the study is based on secondary schools, similar challenges are encountered at other levels of education. Thus, the suggested steps towards a more critical and holistic climate change education in Geography will be useful for all educators.

Presenting author: Alaric Maude (Flinders University)

The paper addresses the conference emphasis on acknowledging First Nations sovereignties, and assesses whether the Indigenous content in the Australian school geography curriculum is contributing to this aim. The paper first discusses the criteria that will be used for this assessment, drawing on a range of literature by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars within and outside Australia. It then identifies the different groups who produced the Indigenous content of the Australian geography curriculum, describes this content, and discusses how it can be evaluated against the criteria selected.

The paper suggests that the content in the geography curriculum satisfies three of the five criteria, partially satisfies a fourth, but probably fails the fifth and the one that Indigenous people may consider to be the most important. The paper concludes that the curriculum does make a contribution to acknowledging First Nations sovereignties, but that much depends on how teachers use the opportunities contained in the curriculum.

Presenting author: Eyüp Artvinli (Eskesehir Ozmangi University)

One of the main challenges for school geography is that it can “be boring” as a subject for the students. On the other hand, school geography has some geographical skills which are interesting to students, however, geographical skills cannot be taught only inside the classrooms. Many times, it is necessary to complete field work and observations outside the classroom. This kind of organization is not easy for teachers to organize for their students. Furthermore, the current pandemic-era causes less opportunities for learning in geographical education to occur outside the classroom. Geographical skills require an ability to think at a higher level and can be utilized in extra-curricular learning environments. For this reason, it is important that games, defined as GeoGames, are distributed and are available for geographical learning, particularly during the pandemic. We argue that GeoGames can be used to teach and develop some geographical skills in school geography. Thus, the purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of interactive GeoGames for the development of geographical skills. During the research process, GeoGames have been investigated about the extent to which they can help students develop and acquire geographical skills. Data collected by document analysis, has been analyzed in-depth within the framework of both the Social Studies curriculum in Turkey, and GeoGames. GeoGames are not only an entertainment tool they also have the capacity to create a suitable learning environment for geographical education in schools. When the right GeoGame is combined with the right learning environment, an optimum learning environment can be created so students can learn while having fun. As with other disciplines where extracurricular activities need to be intensively applied, in geography education, play is a learning tool. Today's pandemic conditions have brought students closer to an interactive education model. Although moving classroom conditions into an online education environment now occurs frequently, such a situation requires a different dimension for geography lessons.

Presenting author: Alanna Kemp (Western Sydney University)

I am the Unit Coordinator of People, Place and Social Difference (PPSD), a first year unit in the School of Social Sciences, WSU. PPSD has over 1200 student enrolments per year and is compulsory for all undergraduate social science students (policing, criminology, heritage and tourism, social work, geography and planning etc). PPSD is a geography unit that examines the nexus between society, economy, culture and place with an emphasis on diversity and social justice. In 2020 I began to decolonise the PPSD curriculum, initiated by an understanding of the discipline's ties to processes of colonisation and interrogation of the ways teaching and curriculum may perpetuate colonialist methods and knowledges. A primary revision made to the unit was the introduction of Indigenous issues, experiences and voices in all aspects of the curriculum-lecture content/material, readings, workshop activities and assessments.

Using PPSD as a case study, this presentation provides insights (and hopefully inspiration) into why we need to decolonise our curriculums, what Indigenous content and postcolonial approaches can be embedded in curriculum, and how this can be done in engaging and meaningful ways for diverse cohorts of students. The presentation also provides insights into the transformative potential of the decolonised learning experience, how students envisaged implementing the learning in their future careers, and therefore the student-recognised usefulness of geographical approaches/skills in diverse careers and contemporary society more broadly. 

Presenting author: Richard Bustin (Geographical Association)

The notion of GeoCapabilities attempts to articulate the values and purposes of a geography education. As an approach to curriculum thinking it focuses on what a young person is able to do, to be or to think like as a result of studying geography. These 'capabilities' enable a young person to make choices in life and become active and engaged citizens in a changing world. At the heart of GeoCapabilities is the 'powerful knowledge' of geography, based on the work of Michael Young and colleagues. This is specialist geographical knowledge that takes young people beyond their everyday experience; is the 'best' knowledge we have of the world but is not given and can be replaced with new insights. Thinking in this way enables us to envision a 'Future 3' curriculum, as an alternative to a narrow focussed Future 1, with an emphasis on rote learning of facts, and Future 2, with an over emphasis on generic skills and competencies.

Based mainly on work developed in the UK, this session will outline some of the main ideas behind GeoCapabilities, and its emerging critique, as a means to reimagine the purpose of geography in education.

Presenting author: Shu Jun Lee (University of Melbourne)

Other author: Jeana Kriewaldt (University of Melbourne),  Margaret Roberts (University of Sheffield)

Internationally there is a clear turn towards inquiry as a core approach to learning school geography. This research critically compares how inquiry learning is expressed and justified in six jurisdictions (Australia, China, England, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA). Through content analysis of national curriculum documents, we found that most of the jurisdictions, and notably most strongly for Australia, England and the USA, have placed inquiry prominently in their curriculum.

This represents a response to global trends in educational research that inquiry helps students understand the nature of knowledge construction in the discipline, and also achieve broader educational goals. Despite national variations, we found that inquiry is justified as a desirable pedagogy to develop conceptual understanding, build disciplinary knowledge and enable students to assess knowledge claims. An inquiry-rich curriculum in school geography promises to recalibrate the balance between how existing knowledge of geography is valued and taught, and how the skills of geographical inquiry can be integrated to expand students' experiences of building knowledge. 

This research addresses a research gap on powerful pedagogies like inquiry in the intended curriculum of school geography. We argue that pedagogy needs to be examined in tandem with knowledge in curriculum analyses and as we consider the future of geographical education, because enabling students to access knowledge and developing their capacities to inquire are intricately linked. 

Presenting author: Anne Dolan (Mary Immaculate College)

Primary geography has the potential to develop 21st-century competencies. This paper explores the concept of powerful primary geography. In the 21st century, teachers and learners require curiosity, imagination, creativity, problem-solving skills, flexibility, digital learning and collaboration. The year 2080 will represent the beginning of retirement for children entering primary education today, all things being equal. Our children's journey towards 2080 will continue to be defined by changes in technology and globalisation. Change prompts new ideas and new solutions.

Our children will have to be more knowledgeable, creative, innovative and flexible. They will have to be more resilient cognitively, socially and emotionally. Such resilience requires comprehensive education including environmental and international knowledge, 'the twin pillars of modern geography' (Bonnett, 2008: 54). International and environmental knowledge are absolutely critical in a globalised world defined by issues of injustice, inequality, overconsumption and political instability.

Equally important is a pedagogy of hope whereby children can appreciate their own agency and role as problem-solvers. Building on discussions of powerful knowledge and geo-capabilities, this paper discusses powerful primary geography in the context of globalisation, increased inequality and an uncertain future. Powerful primary geography is presented in terms of knowledge, aesthetic qualities, enquiry and skill development.

Presenting author: Dr Philippa Chandler (University of Melbourne)

Schools are some of the most underutilised assets in Australia, and most schools are barely used outside of school hours. Nevertheless, school sites are increasingly being recognised as valuable resources that can support the education, health and wellbeing of individuals, families and community groups – especially in rapidly growing areas of Australia’s largest cities and regional centres.

However, operating a school as a community hub involves considerable time and energy, particularly when this involves challenging entrenched attitudes about the role a school can play in society. This qualitative research paper will use Hochschild’s concept of ‘emotional labour’ to explore key themes that have emerged in interviews and research workshops with Australian education practitioners, architects and bureaucrats involved in the establishment of schools as community hubs. These themes include vision, leadership, conflict, organisational culture and collaborative work. 

The paper makes three arguments; Firstly, that there are competing discourses circulating among Australian education practitioners regarding the leadership of schools as community hubs. Secondly, that the role of community hub ‘champion’ requires emotional labour. Finally, spatial concepts such as access, privacy, risk, security, barriers and borders are important factors in understanding the challenges facing ‘champions’ of community hubs.  

The paper concludes with recommendations for those who seek to foster sustainable governance structures in such schools.   

Presenting author: Dr Nina Scholten (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen)

Other authors: Professor Sandra Sprenger (Universität Hamburg), Susan Caldis (Macquarie University)

The training of geography teachers is a complex process. Pre-service teachers are required to develop content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge and most importantly pedagogical content knowledge for geography teaching. With the start of the twenty first century a call for evidence-based education emerged and has also entered teacher education.

Evidence-based education presupposes quasi-experimental studies, which examine the effects of an intervention on an outcome of interest. They comprise an experimental group as well as a control group. The research aim is to describe the research field of quasi-experimental studies in ITE geography to understand the breadth, purpose and extent of research activity. This understanding can be used to describe the status-quo, identify research gaps and to inform possible directions for the future of initial teacher education in geography.

Presenting author: Laurie Chisholm (University of Wollongong)

Other authors: School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong

The importance of the field experience in geographic education is well for skill development, as a means of extending geographic thinking, and to provide a bridge linking the real world to theory. Within biogeography the field experience is crucial to foster understanding of how the distribution of plants and animals relate to the physical landscape formed from past evolution and shaped by recent processes and human impacts. In 2020 the education sector reeled from the emergence of the pandemic, implementing emergency teaching strategies where often the "field" experience became the "virtual" experience while to still meet existing learning outcomes on the fly. This year has prompted educators to re-engage with pedagogical literature, to revise learning outcomes and adjust assessment items for a more holistically planned framework in which fieldwork is embedded.

A case study of hybrid delivery will be presented to illustrate field-based scientific enquiry and creativity culminating in inductive learning to produce insights to perceptions of natural spaces. Student engagement with the natural world can be successfully structured to promote deeper levels of observation, to give space to experimentation and play and personal expression. Preparing students for doing their own fieldwork ensures continuity despite disruptive events whilst ensuring equity amongst participants.