Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

In the Primary school curriculum, Geography is included in a unit called “Knowledgeon social and natural environment”, where Geography, History and Civics, areintroduced. In lower Secondary school, Geography is included in the Social Studiesarea where it represents 40% of the expected study load. In upper secondary schools(students aged 16−18) there are 105 hours of Geography taught in the second yearas a compulsory subject for those students taking Humanities and Social Sciencesstrands. Overall this is a very low level of provision in the curriculum. The consequenceof this limited presence will probably result in too few future Geographygraduates training to be teachers and the persistence of History graduates teaching inthis area; A degree in History has during the last three decades, been a very popularoption among those students going to the faculties of Humanities and Letters and thuswilling to teach in secondary schools. This also implies that Geography will continueto be taught by professionals not adequately trained in Geographical competences.The researchThe idea of this research arose after participating in international research coordinatedby Sanders and Stoltman presented at the meeting of the International GeographicalUnion in Glasgow (Stoltman 2004). This work was designed to compare geographycontent and methods used by classroom teachers in Europe and the United States.Taking it as a starting point, a new enquiry was designed. The objective was toinvestigate the teacher’s professional profile, as it was considered to have a closerelationship with the geographical approaches and resources that teachers use. Theresearch was carried out with a group of 35 Secondary schools; 12 of them, togetherwith their 30 geography teachers, constitute the sample which will be analysed in thispaper. The schools in this sample belong to three near cities (Sabadell (pop. 193,000),Cerdanyola del Valles (pop. 56,000), Ripollet (pop. 33,000)). They are located veryclose to each other separated by a distance between 2−5 km, nine of them are publicand three private, although recognised by the state.The enquiry presented three main groups of questions to the teachers:1. scientific background (academic degree, years of teaching, in-service trainingcourses attended, specialization),2. Geographical approaches (topic preferences, contents,...) and3. the use of resources in the classroom.The teachers were asked to rank from 1 to 6 (1 = least, 6 = most) different questionsand also from 1 to 6 (1 = disagree, 6 = totally agree) a number of differentstatements. Finally, a last open question was added in order to get their opinions andpoints of view on Geography in the curriculum and about the role of Geography inCitizenship education.Main survey findings, results and commentsThe survey results show clearly that 99% of the professionals teaching Geographyin Secondary Schools have not been trained in Geography Departments. 35% ofthem have a History degree and 41%, the former joint degree of Geography andHistory; some other professional backgrounds can also be found, for example Art224