Geography Content Research Articles

AN ANALYSIS OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHER EDUCATORS' PERCEPTIONS OF CURRICULUM 2005

ABSTRACT The implementation of Curriculum 2005 and outcomes-based education within the South African education system is posing a considerable challenge to geography teachers and teacher educators. Many fear that the place of geography in the school curriculum is under severe threat and that much more than the name ‘geography’ will be lost as geography content is fragmented across different learning areas. This paper explores the feelings, concerns and plans for action of leading South African geography educators as they prepare to face these challenges. The insights emerging from the analysis of in-depth interview material will, it is hoped, contribute to clarifying the issues and illuminating the way forward.

Mastery of Content and Pedagogy: Evaluation of Strategies for Teacher Institutes

Considerable attention has been paid to the evaluation of the effectiveness of various components of summer institutes conducted by many state alliances, but little attention has been focused on the mastery of geography content. This study shows that six minor modifications in the standard format for such institutes can modestly increase the mastery of geography content by participants. Outcomes were compared between two summer institutes in successive summers, both of which focused on similar environmental geography topics. Changes were made in the format for inservice lessons, the daily evaluation form, the group investigation process, staff-presented demonstration lessons, consultation by faculty and geography students as participants prepared inservice lessons, and geography material available.

The Effectiveness of Interactive Maps in the Classroom: A Selected Example in Studying Africa

As computers become commonplace in the nation's schools, interactive maps are finding their way into the geography classroom. Students can use electronic atlases to access information as well as use authoring software to produce their own interactive maps. Does this change in media correspond to better geography education for our children? This article addresses whether using interactive maps for gathering and presenting information can have a positive influence on learning geography content. A two-week experiment was conducted in five 7th grade classrooms. Students in four of the classes researched and produced map products using both traditional and computer-assisted techniques. The fifth class was a control group. A pretest and two post-tests were given to quantitatively assess student learning after each project. Also, students were given a qualitative questionnaire to determine their attitude towards the different techniques. Quantitative results of the study indicate that there was no significant difference in student post-test performance after using each of the techniques, but qualitative results suggest that students prefer using the computer techniques over the traditional methods for gathering and presenting information.

初等教育地理教科書類にみる第三世界 (途上国地域) 記述の変化

The United Nations has declared 1996-2005 as the decade to root out problems of poverty all over the world. Recently in Japan, education for international understanding has became very popular. However most students are only interested in developed countries, such as those in Europe and North America. Although Japan is located in Asia, Japanese people look down on developing countries; the Third World, like Asia, Africa and Latin America.It's not good for us to add to the North-South Problem. So we need to promote and spread the idea of Development Education. Through this type of education we can learn equal aspects about people of the Third World, and they have an equal right to development.I believe that Japan's negative image of the Third World started at the begining of the Meiji era, in the late 19th century. Until the end of the Edo era, almost all Japanese had been respectful of other Asian nations, like China and Korea.FUKUZAWA Yukichi (1835-1901) one of Japan's most prominent educators and propagator of Western knowledge, wrote SEKAIKUNIZUKUSHI in 1869 (World Geography for children and women). In this book he insisted that westernization was the most important factor for Japanese development. Also the first contemptuous expressions against the Third world can be found. Since that time, percentage of Europe and North America has increased in World Geography texts, compared with Third World areas.The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was the big turning point for Japanese geographical education. From the outset of this war, Japan started other invasions overseas and aquired new territories, like Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria and other areas in Asia. So in Japan's World Geography textbooks the contents regarding Asia and Oceania gradually increased until the end of World War II. Subsequently the percentage of information devoted to Europe and North America decreased.The Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere (Dai Toa Kyoeiken) was a slogan used by the Japanese government during World War II to express the idea of a politically and economically integrated Asia, free from western domination.This idea had great influence on geographical education throughout the period of World War II. At that time geography teachings and textbooks also supported ultra-nationalism. So geographers and geographical educators shoud reflect on this in earnest.Today internationalization regarding the Third World is very important, especially in geographical education. We need to study and truly understand the harsh realities of the Third World, in order to eradicate the problem of poverty.In spite of these situations, the contents of World Geography have decreased in recent Social Studies textbooks. It is regrettable that elementary students have no chance to study World Geography; especially about Third World countries.In effect, the students' right to study has been taken away. I therefore hope for the comeback of World Geography in elementary school textbooks, including a Development Education point of view.

Geography Departments in the Pacific Northwest

Geography Departments in the Pacific Northwest E d w a r d T. P rice Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 This overview of academic geography in the Pacific Northwest summarizes and interprets a series of histories of individual geography departments published in this Yearbook in the period 1990-1994.1 Chronological Sketch ofGeography in the Northwest M ost OF THE NORTHWEST INSTITUTIONS with roots in the 19th century offered courses in geography early in their existence. These courses were given in a variety of departments by people with very diverse preparation— few, if any, with their primary training in geography. Data on early courses and instructors are so spotty that generalizations and comparisons about them are hazardous. Likely, more of these courses were offered as teacher preparation than for any other purpose. Western Oregon claims the oldest roots of all the campuses in this study, its predecessor, Christian-oriented Monmouth University, having been founded in 1856. Very likely, then, it had the first geog­ raphy course. The odd logic of the time and milieu, it is suggested, focused on the teleologically “perfect” terrestrial sphere, approached, 158 PRICE: Geography Departments in the Pacific Northwest 159 however, through a deductive mathematical analysis. A geology course on physical features of the earth given at the University of Oregon in its first year, 1876, seems to have paralleled first-year courses in physical geography, but nearly two decades went by be­ fore “geography” tentatively appeared in its title. Geography courses were offered at Oregon State at least as early as 1882. Geography at Eastern Washington was clearly established by 1890, but it probably goes back to the founding of the Benjamin B. Cheney Academy eight years earlier. Geology courses at the University of Washington dealt with geography content by 1890, and were labeled as “physiogra­ phy” by 1895. (See Table 1 for dates of “first” geography events.) Geography instruction dated from the foundings of several newer institutions— Central Washington (1891), University of British Co­ lum bia (1915), Southern O regon (1926), and Sim on Fraser (1965)— and was not more than a year or two behind the beginnings at Western Washington (1899), Alaska (1922), and Portland State (1946). Lower-division geography courses were introduced at the University of Victoria’s predecessor college in 1947, 12 years be­ fore it became a 4-year institution. Geography instructors during the 19th century came from many disciplines, geology and history probably most prominent among them. In the early 20th century, professional geographers were still scarce in the Northwest, but there is evidence that more instructors were specializing in geography than earlier. The Universities of Co­ lumbia and Chicago appear more frequently than others in the pedigrees of these instructors, which may have been mostly in edu­ cational geography. Geography as a subject for teachers may have reached its clearest focus in the Normal School period of the present Western Oregon State College. A faculty member appointed to teach geography is identified as early as 1894, and catalogs of that day showed aware­ ness of national efforts to make geography more systematic. Three faculty members whose service averaged 25 years were appointed Table 1. Years of “First” Geography Events on Northwest Campuses 160 APCG YEARBOOK • VOLUME 58 • 1996 Institution I II III Event IV V VI VII VIII Oregon State 1882 1946 1949 1952 1967 19527 1966 1970 1970 University of Oregon 18761 '2 1944 by 1935 by 1935 1960 19295 1957 1982 1982 Portland State 1948 1953 1959 1969 1959 1985 1985 Southern Oregon 19262 1958 — — — 1974 1985 1985 Western Oregon by 1872 1934 1923? 1965 — 1923-47 19601913 — U. of Washington 1890 1927 1895 1928 1928 1928s 1935 1932 1932 Central Washington 18912 1938 1947 — — 1962 1988 1990 Eastern Washington 18823 1929 1946 — — 1955 1921 1986 Western Washington 1899 1952 1952 1965 — 1959 1974 1974 Montana State 1922 1950 19474 1979 1970s — 19476 1983 1983 University of Montana 1956 1956 1957 1958 — 1956 1957 1957 University of Idaho 1917 1951 1955 1968 1988 1933?5 1969 by 1974 — University of Alaska 1923 1970 1957? — — 1967 — — U. of British Columbia 19152 1946 1941 1947 1962 19225 1959 1964 1986 Victoria 1947...

Looking Toward the Future: A Concepts, Themes, and Standards Approach to Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract Preservice teacher education based on content, skills, and perspectives specified in Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 is essential for dissemination of the Standards to classrooms all across the country. Curricular materials are often structured around the five fundamental themes of geography; however, it is essential that teacher preparation courses integrate the content of the Standards into the themes of location, place, human—environment interaction, and region. One model of this approach to preservice education, as summarized here, provides future teachers with a conceptual basis for learning and teaching geography, enhancing opportunities for disseminating solid geography content to all grade levels nationwide.

The Y of Geography: Developing a Model World Geography Course for Pre-service Teachers

Abstract “World Geography for Teachers” is a unique four-credit college course offered for pre-service elementary and secondary education majors at Keene State College. This article outlines the origins of the course as an outgrowth of activities sponsored by the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance. The course is a model of integrating basic geography content with teaching strategies based on the National Geography Standards. Pre-service teachers develop geographic knowledge as they plan and design lessons for future classroom use.

Being and Becoming a Geographer: An Agenda for Geography Education

Abstract The field of academic geography is poised at a pivotal moment—a moment compounded of equal measures of crisis, challenge, and opportunity—as it redefines its relationship to the American educational system, pre-school through post-collegiate. The crisis is reflected in the murmur of threats to the survival of geography departments in American colleges and universities; the challenge is presented by the widespread public acceptance of the need for increased geographic understanding; and the opportunity comes from the development and implementation of voluntary National Geography Content Standards for K—12 geography education. If we, as professional geographers, are to respond convincingly to the federally mandated education goal that all American students demonstrate competency in geography by the year 2000, then we must understand the processes of being and becoming a geographer. Systematic (i.e., empirical and theoretical) understanding of those processes is in large measure lacking. Therefore, if professional geographers wish to meet the challenge and take advantage of the opportunity, we must develop and execute a program of research on developing competency in geography. Using Carl Sauer's classic article, The Education of Geographer, as a foil, I present a research agenda for geography education. The agenda uses two frameworks—life-span development and novice-expert mastery—to define competency as geographic expertise and to identify six research questions about the character, genesis, nature, ontogenesis, identification, and the training of geographic expertise. I draw upon ideas from developmental psychology, cognitive science, education, and geography to analyze the meaning, significance, and implications of each question for understanding what is entailed in being and becoming geographically competent. Shaping the next generation of geographically competent people requires that we, as professional geographers, commit ourselves now to a systematic program of research in geography education. Such a commitment is in our communal self interest for survival and growth as an academic field, and of personal interest for understanding how and why we became professional geographers.

Geography Teaching in Israel: A Retrospective View

Abstract Israel is a relatively young society. The educational system was designed by immigrants who came mostly from Eastern and Central Europe, where the tradition of academic research in geography is short. The educational system is controlled centrally by national planning bodies that determine both goals and the contents of study for all ages. Thus geography is perceived by those responsible for shaping the educational system as a subject with a national educational message of the highest importance. These people have stressed the affective targets of the discipline and have emphasized localism in the content of geography. How has the teaching of geography changed over the present century in Israel? Which social ideas and which channels of geographic thought have shaped methods of instruction, the curriculum, and the development of school textbooks? These are the central questions of this paper.

Materials

This paper examines the number and type of books of geography and geographical periodicals in the eighteenth-century German-speaking territories and the place and chronology of their publication with reference to recent work on geographical print culture in the Enlightenment. The paper extends recent studies on Aufklärungsgeographie (Enlightenment geography) by taking a broadly quantitative approach and in presenting, for 345 books and 109 geographical periodicals, geographies of authoring, editing and publishing in the German-speaking territories between c.1693 and c.1815. Attention is paid to differences of content, to contemporaries’ interests in geography as a form of ordered knowledge (wissenschaft) and to the purposes of their work: broadly, education, polite sociability, and the ‘completeness’ of geography as a form of Enlightenment knowledge. We show how writing and publishing geography—and Aufklärungsgeographie—was spatially distributed and how the rise in numbers and increased diversity of geographical works raised questions about authorship and credibility and the content of geography.

Into the 1990s: A gendered agenda for political geography

The 1983 article, ‘Sexist bias in political geography’ (Drake and Horton, 1983), was a lone response to the research agendas outlined in the early issues of Politica/ Geography Quarter/y. This is hardly surprising given that knowledge is a social creation; the content of political geography simply reflects the ove~helming~y male dominance of the discipline; gender is absent from the political world and its spatial organization as interpreted by political geographers. The ‘big’ issues of traditional political geography-boundaries, state structures, international conflicts-have seemingly little to do with gender. They are, after all, the affairs of statesmen. Furthermore, if women are taken into consideration, they are primarily seen as passive beings devoid of political identities and irrelevant to our understanding of the allocation and distribution of resources in society. But feminist geographers and political scientists have now begun to expose the vanishing acts performed on women in their disciplines (for a typology of tricks of the trade, see Thiele, 1986). Hence, in this article we begin with a brief review of current developments in these respective fields. We then present suggested areas of research for a reconstructed and gendered political geography. By no means is this intended to be an exhaustive agenda, but rather an exploration of the contributions that gender perspectives can make to a fuller understanding of some of the key areas of political geography, such as the global economy and politics, the state and urban politics, and to the introduction of new concerns. such as sexual politics.

Geography Education in West German High Schools: Do Four Years Make a Difference?

Abstract In the wake of renewed interest in geography study at the elementary and secondary levels in the United States, American geography teachers might wish to take time now to consider expanded course content and alternate pedagogical approaches to foster both learning of and long-term enthusiasm for geography. That secondary students from other industrialized nations consistantly out-score those attending our high schools is not surprising when the geography curricula of those nations are compared with what is usually offered in our schools. This article's overview of geography as taught in West Berlin, FRG is intended to stimualte discussion among American geography teachers as we ride the wave of renewed interest in geography. We need to educate our superintendents, curriculum directors and/or principals in the ways of sound geography content and pedagogy in order for them to lend moral and financial support for strengthened geography programs.

SOVIET GEOGRAPHY AND ISSUES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE USSR

The author examines 170 issues of Soviet Geography published during the period 1969-1985 and describes trends in thematic and regional coverage, non-Soviet (Western) versus Soviet authorship, and variations in Soviet authorship by different regions of the country. These trends support recommendations for change in the content and structure of geography in the USSR: diversification of research in outlying geographical institutions, increased opportunities for Siberian authors to publish in “central” periodicals, and increased emphasis on social/economic geography and relevant global issues (translated by Andrew R. Bond).

Impact of the Quantitative Revolution on Leading Graduate Departments of Geography in the U. S.

This paper is concerned with the impact of the Quantitative Revolution on leading graduate departments of geography in the United States through two indices: proximity of graduate departments of geography in terms of PhDs granted; and fundamental dimensions of departmental specialties. Data sources are 1) Directory of College Geography of the United States, Academic Year 1962-1963; 2) Guide to (Graduate) Departments of Geography in the United States and Canada 1976-1977, 1984-1985, 1985-1986; and 3) AAG Directory 1982. In addition to those analyses, the recent development of the Scientific Geography movement was briefly described on the basis of Scientific Geography newsletters.First, in order to examine the supply of quantitative geographers, Smallest Space Analysis-II was applied to PhD transaction matrices. The resulting two-dimensional column solution is termed “proximity space”, revealing an outflow pattern of graduates. Less than thirty departments were selected for study, most of which appeared in Morrill's (1980) department ranking (Fig. 2). The faculty members included were associate professors and full professors.Proximity space for 1962-1963 is shown in Fig. 3. Major departments are grouped into two clusters: 1) Washington, Northwestern and Chicago, and 2) Wisconsin and UC Berkeley. According to Raup (1961), the former group in partcular consists of economic geography-oriented departments. The proximity space clustering shows a pattern in which, while major departments specializing in a single research field or emphasizing synthetic research occupy the central part, others employing graduates from these departments surround them.Proximity space for 1976-1977 (Fig. 4) shows a pattern in which departments producing many geographers are located in the center, and others employing graduates from these departments occupy the periphery. In contrast with 1962-1963, when major departments were divided into two groups, they form one group as a whole across the 1976-1977 proximity space. This may be due to the fact that personnel interchange was accelerated among major departments. Considering the space in detail, such departments famous for their quatitative research as Washington, Chicago, Northwestern, Iowa and Ohio State form a sub-group in the lower rightward portion. This suggests that the Quantitative Revolution is no longer a revolution, and that departments exclusively producing quantitative geographers have come to form a cluster.Proximity space for 1984-1985 is shown in Fig. 5. Its fundamental character is the same as in 1976-1977: departments producing large numbers of geographers are located in the central part. The “quantitative”-oriented group occupies the Left portion; this group is in turn sub-divided into the “long-established” departments of Washington, Northwestern and Iowa, and the “emerging” departments of Ohio State, Toronto and McMaster. This is related to the fact that the content of quantitative geography is beginning to be differentiated to some extent, though departments exclusively producing quantitative geographkrs still form a cluster.Second, in order to ascertain whether quantitative geography has already taken root in American geography, the fundamental dimensions of departmental specialities were elicited. A binary data matrix indicating the presence of 37 specialties in 29 departments were standardized so that the sum of squares of each row vector is equal to 1.0. The resulting data matrix as an input data was subjected to factor analysis. Two major factors were extracted, accounting for 65% of the total variance (Table 3). In the case of Factor I, loadings are highly correlated with the number of specialties of the depertment (r=0.917**). Scores are completely correlated with the number of departments offering the specialty concerned (r=0.999**).

Early uses of the term ‘social geography’: H. Gougeon's ESSAI sur l'enseignement de la geographie (1873): A note

Abstract An earlier reference to the term ‘social geography’ than those described by Dunbar (Scot. Geog. Mag., 93 (1977) 15–20) has been identified in a MS. by H. Gougeon dated 1873. The broader circumstances of the movement to reform geography teaching and the secondary school curriculum at the beginning of the IIIrd Republic are described as a necessary context for evaluating the Gougeon MS. An English translation of Gougeon's views of ‘social geography’ is provided, and although his outline provides no more than a sketch of the possible content of social geography several of the traditional topics of this sub‐field are readily recognizable.

The Scottish geographical magazine, its first thirty years

Abstract Early numbers of the Scottish Geographical Magazine from 1885 were dominated by the ‘scramble for Africa’ but there was also a continued interest in geographical education and numerous papers discussed the content of geography. The Magazine had several articles on political concerns of the time, such as a series on possible British Empire federation for economic and political purposes in 1891. Physical geography, including climatology and oceanography, was well represented with some fine survey work such as the mapping of the depths of Scottish lakes: vegetation mapping in Scotland was recorded in articles from 1900 and Polar exploration was also studied.

The Content and Relationships of Physical Geography: Discussion

The Content and Relationships of Physical Geography: Discussion

The Content and Relationships of Physical Geography

It is observed that at the present time physical geography is internally unbalanced because geomorphology plays too dominant a role. Furthermore an integrated physical geography has been rediscovered, largely by non-geographers, under the title 'environmental science It is questioned whether human geography any longer need pay heed to the physical world except in a general and elementary sense and whether or not there is a danger of physical geography ceasing to be an integral part of geography and its content being taken over by environmental science. This paper examines the possible implications for geography.

Environmental Education: The Geography Teacher'S Contribution

Abstract Environmental education is best achieved through the established disciplines among which geography has a major role to play. Both pattern and process are incorporated in the spatial concepts used by geographers to aid understanding of the environment. Recent emphasis upon cognitive/behavioural approaches has enhanced geography's claim to provide effective environmental education. Implications for curricula are contained in the concepts, models and content of contemporary geography which possesses a wealth of potential relevance if applied through wise selection of strategies and materials. Both the cognitive and affective domains must be involved in geographical learning about and for environment which should be regarded as a means of education rather than as a means of producing geographers.

Fifty Years of Development of Soviet Geographic Thought

AbstractA review of trends in Soviet geography covers the increasing specialization of physical-geographic disciplines and attempts to integrate physical geography through landscape-study techniques and the theory of a physical-geographic envelope of the earth. Economic geography has focused on regionalization problems and the formation of territorial-production complexes. The controversy over the content of geography is reviewed, and cartography and regional geography are viewed as frameworks for the generalization of geographic information. The new constructive school of Soviet geography is described.