Geography Curriculum and Instruction in Three Fourth-Grade Classrooms

Abstract

There have been a number of recent proposals to reform geography curriculum and instruction in American schools. Rather than inculcation of geographic facts and discrete skills, reformers have emphasized teaching for meaningful understanding of geographic relationships. If the reform proposals are to be effectively implemented, however, educators first need to understand existing geography curriculum and instruction. In this article, we report a qualitative study of geography curriculum and instruction in 5 fourth-grade classes taught by 3 teachers at 1 school. 3 major facets of curriculum and instruction are considered. First, we contrast the teachers' conceptions of the geography curriculum with those held by reformers. Second, we describe how school and district policies appear to undermine the likelihood of building a coherent and substantive geography curriculum. Third, we describe instruction. In particular, we analyze 2 contrasting lessons-1 focused on facts and 1 that gives more attention to meani...