Mapping Out Geography: An Example of Epistemology and Education

Abstract

Geography has recently emerged as a topic of considerable interest among educators, but there is little consensus about either content or pedagogy in the precollegiate geography curriculum. However, geography education is essential if students are to develop a sense of (( geographic literacy" and an ability to reason spatially. A major problem is that many teachers who never studied geography are now being asked to teach it. This literature review discusses the epistemology of geography and the rationale for including it in the curriculum. Research about geography learning and teaching is then reviewed. Finally, a previous, unsuccessful attempt to reinstate geography into the high school curriculum is examined in the light of today's geography education reform efforts. Without an understanding of both the core epistemological themes and concepts of geography and the problems that students face as learners, the five themes currently being proposed for use in the K-12 curriculum are of limited use.at Bobst Library, New York University on June 25, 2015 http://rer.aera.net Downloaded from Mapping Out GeographyBiology, geology, meteorology, political science, economics, and anthropology developed separate disciplinary identities, and, consequently, geography seemed to be stripped of its content, until all that was left was the study of regions and places (Tuason, 1987). Such study was thought to lack the rigor and complexity of these other subjects. Once the exploration of the land masses of the planet had been substantially accomplished, many people thought that there was little need to formally study a subject that focused on faraway people living in exotic lands (Cirrincione & Decaroli, 1977).A second major reason why geography was phased out of the curriculum is that educational policymakers of the early twentieth century decided that an integrated social studies curriculum would better answer the needs of American students (English, 1989; James, 1962). 1 Theorists who continue to support the integrated approach believe that geography's main value is to help people reason about current events and historical phenomena (Green, 1984;Salter, 1989). In their view, therefore, instruction in geography should be situated in the integrated social studies curriculum (Libbee & Stoltman, 1988; Savage & Armstrong, 1987; Vuicich & Stoltman, 1975). The assumption made by those who promote the integrated curriculum today is that all of the important and relevant knowledge that students need to learn about cultural geography (as well as other fields such as history, economics, or political science) can be acquired as a consequence of studying particular topics within social studies. They likewise assume that physical geography knowledge will be acquired as students learn about the earth in science class. Although the social studies have been criticized since the 1960s for failing to teach challenging and substantive content (Vining, 1990), social studies still continues to be the primary vehicle of instruction for geography at the...

The Border Between Core and Periphery: Geographical Representations of the World System

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