Current Trends of Teaching of School Geography in Romania

Abstract

In recent decades, human society has undergone a series of changes unforeseen a century ago, and traditional education systems around the world have been forced to adapt to the new ideological shifts. Geography is one of the school subjects that has constantly adjusted its value and educational priority system in order to assimilate new approaches. Technological development and digital interconnection have reshaped the entire social structure, changes that didn’t take long to reshape the ways of teaching geography in schools. Meanwhile, the unprecedented economic development is being fueled by the growing costs of the increasing human pressure in all of the planet's geospheres. Under these circumstances, school geography has adapted its content in line with new environ-mental policies, which focus on eco-education through sustainability and sustainable development. The core information of school geography needs to include approaches that are adapted to each generation, corresponding to its problems, interests and dilemmas. Currently, the research in this area highlights two main directions of thematic and methodological innovation present in geography lessons worldwide: a) teaching/learning about digitization, technology, GIS platforms; b) educating generations about sustainable development and environmental responsibility. Therefore, this study proposes an analysis of the convergence of Romanian school geography with current international teaching directions. For this purpose, the construction, contents and ways of approaching these concepts in the current pre-university geography literature were examined through the documents that officialize the trends and teaching priorities – the textbooks and school curricula.