Why the World Needs Geography Knowledge in Global Understanding: An Evaluation from a Climate Change Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines two critical concepts of global understanding as outlined by the international year of global understanding (IYGU). How do we transform knowledge about global issues into action and how do we unpack our understanding of the connections between local action and global issues? While climate change is featured as a key theme in the IYGU discourse, global understanding transcends a concern for environmental challenges to include issues in the social, political and cultural milieu. Nonetheless, the authors will focus the discussion based on the empirical evidence collected over the last five years of their research on climate change education to discuss the relationship between knowledge and curriculum that empowers individual action, with a view to engage global issues. There is a deliberate focus on geographical concepts such as space, place, scale, physical and human processes, environmental and cultural diversity and interdependence in the discussion, so as to explain how geography as a subject connects science to students’ everyday action. The chapter will also provide recommendations on how school geography curricula can empower students to move beyond knowledge to taking action for global understanding.