Race, Racism and the Geography Curriculum

Abstract

Changes in the nature of knowledge production, plus rapid social and cultural change, have meant that the ‘curriculum question’ - what is to be taught, and by extension, ‘whose knowledge’ - has been hotly contested. The question of what to teach has become more and more controversial. This book asks: what is an appropriate curriculum response to the acute, renewed interest in issues of race and racism? How does a school subject like geography respond? The struggle over the school curriculum has frequently been portrayed as being between educational ‘traditionalists’ and ‘progressives’. This book suggests a way out of this impasse. Drawing upon and extending insights from ‘social realism’, it explores what a Future 3 geography curriculum might look like - one that recognizes the importance of the academic discipline as a source of curriculum-making but at the same time avoids geographical knowledge becoming set in stone. The book focuses