Bringing geography back to life: the role of the geospatial revolution in the US school system

Abstract

ABSTRACTFor the past 35 years, geography educators have sought to change the status and nature of geography in the school system in the USA. This is an exercise in disciplinary selfpreservation and a response to the needs of twenty-first century citizens. However, systemic change is difficult to achieve in what amounts to a highly conservative, zero-sum game. The fortuitous confluence between an increasingly important way of thinking, spatial thinking, and an enabling technology – geospatial technologies – offers the chance to redirect the trajectory of K-12 (5–18 years-old) geography education. The changes to the nature of the geographical world brought about by the ‘Geospatial Revolution’ have significant consequences for the education of members of Generation M, or those students born after 1990. Fostering the necessary levels of spatial literacy will require an across-the-curriculum approach to infusion, one in which, as this article demonstrates, geographers should play a leadership role.