Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

prescription. Interviews showed that departments had invested time and money indeveloping resources on their chosen places and that teachers had developed confidencein teaching them.The use of case studies to illustrate themes extended areas of attention. In theinterview schools, the UK, although not selected as a country for study, was given alot of attention because of its use for case studies to illustrate the themes. This couldbe explained by its dominance in textbook case studies (Hopkins, 2002). The use ofcase studies, while extending coverage of the world, was not without its problems.China was studied mainly as an example of population policy. Bangladesh wasstudied only as an example of flooding. Such studies, if unsupported by a broadercontextual study, could lead to stereotypical and misleading images.There were distinct patterns of neglect. Little or no attention was given to the studyof USA, Russia or the Middle East and only a minority of schools gave any attentionto China or India. These omissions, which were common among all schools, madethe KS3 worlds very peculiar. The interviews showed that the worlds of individualschools were made even odder by additional areas of neglect e.g. the whole of Africa,or Europe or Asia.Several issues have emerged from this small study. First there is the dilemmaof depth versus breadth of study. The interview schools illustrated the value ofdepth of study developed through school exchange links with Zanzibar, throughextended reading on Japan and through the use of the same country for case studiesto illustrate issues and themes. Breadth of study was developed through referencesto similar cases in other parts of the world, through providing overviews of issuesin each continent and through studying the wider context of the countries chosen forstudy, e.g. the European Union. GNC 2000 encourages breadth of study through therequirement to study interdependence of countries and to study at a range of scalesfrom the local to the global, and through the study of topical issues. These aspectsof the GNC requirements related to place were not emphasised in the interviewschools. The disadvantages of studying a few places in depth could be reduced iftopical issues were to be regularly studied in schools. Study of the enlargement ofthe EU and debates about its future would enhance the curriculum map of Europeconsiderably.Second, there are issues related to areas of neglect. The worlds constructed atKS3 excluded the most powerful, the most rapidly changing, the most populous andthe most globally significant countries in the world. Can pupils whose geographicalimaginations are being shaped by such peculiar worlds, really develop much understandingof the world they live in? Are there places in the world that should be includedin every curriculum and if so who should decide? Increased study of global contextand interdependence would inevitably draw these neglected areas, e.g. China andthe USA, into the KS3 worlds.Third, there are issues of representation. The worlds that pupils study in theirtextbooks are very different from the world of current affairs or the world as it isrepresented in photographs, reports and advertisements that pupils encounter intheir particular cultures. A cultural turn in school geography, drawing on develop-62