Geography Education

Abstract

The evolution of the profession of geography as an academic discipline has been intertwined with the teaching of geography in schools and colleges (Warntz 1964; Blouet 1981; Cormack 1997; Douglas 1998). Even today, the largest proportion of members of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) is employed in higher education and is charged with teaching high school graduates. The short-term fortunes of academic Departments of Geography are a direct function of student credit hours generated. Therefore, the long-term viability of Departments is a function of significant numbers of students being willing—or required—to take college geography courses. Motivation for optional or mandatory participation in geographic learning at all levels of instruction is a cause of and a response to society’s valuation of geographic knowledge. Over the past two decades, American society has placed an increasing value on geographic literacy, although what it means to be geographically literate remains subject to debate. In this chapter, we use the definition from the National Geography Standards (hereafter referred to as the Standards) (Geography Education Standards Project 1994: 34), “The outcome of Geography for Life is a geographically informed person (1) who sees meaning in the arrangement of things in space; (2) who see relations between people, places, and environments; (3) who uses geographic skills; and (4) who applies spatial and ecological perspectives to life situations.” The increasing valuation of geographic knowledge has been facilitated by an infrastructure ranging from the National Geographic Society’s (NGS) state alliance network to the AAG’s Commission on College Geography, publicized through activities such as the National Geographic Bee, and Environmental Science Research Institute (ESRI)’s “Geography Matters” campaign, and codified through public commitment to programs such as the Standards and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In light of the changing role of geography in American society, the Geography Education Specialty Group (GESG) adopted a revised mission statement in 1999. Its goal is, “To promote research on the lifelong development of knowledge about the world through geography; to develop the theory and foster the practice of teaching and learning geography in formal and informal educational contexts; and to be an advocate for geographic literacy” (AAG GESG 1999: 1).