Volume 22 Number 1

SPECIAL REPORT

A Report on a Roundtable Discussion of the Future of Geography Education

Prepared by The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education

ARTICLES

Becoming Global-minded Scientists: The Short- and Long-term Impacts of International Exchange

Niem Tu Huynh, Patricia Solís, Phillippe Huot, Nwasinachi Menkiti, Aishah-Nyeta Brown, Dara Carney-Nedelman, Alan Coronado & Kayla Soren

Research on international exchange demonstrates multiple positive outcomes for participating students. Using data collected from the participants of a Youth TechCamps program, the research questions are squarely focused on how international experience impacts learners’ understanding of the world and their new cultural awareness. The working hypothesis is that the experiences of working with international peers will influence students’ perceptions and understanding about global matters. This article adds to the literature by showing that some changes have an influence in the short-term while others persist and have a long-term impact. Specifically, the difference between short- and long term impacts relates to how students integrate those changes. The former is passive (i.e., I understand differences exist among people) while the latter mark intentional change (i.e., I incorporate attractive components of another culture to ways of doing things). The findings are couched in research that brings together students in the U.S.A., Bolivia, Panama, and South Africa.

Enhancing Powerful Geography with Human-Environment Geography

Thomas B. Larsen & John Harrington, Jr.

GeoCapabilities and Powerful Geography are advancing the conversation related to improving the relevance and status of geography within K-12 education during the so-called Third Enlightenment. Credibility and success of geography’s contribution to K-12 education will be increased with the addition of capabilities provided by the human-environment identity, such as adapting to emerging circumstances, thinking in systems, and adopting a sense of timefulness. Traditionally, human-environment geography has encompassed three substantive areas: human impacts on the environment, the environment as hazard, and environmental perception. Each of these areas has implications for Powerful Geography’s fundamental premise: to help teachers generate bottom-up curricula that better align diverse student aspirations with the knowledge, skills, and perspectives employed by professional geographers. Contemporary K-12 teachers are members of teams who attempt to integrate curricular activities across their subject areas, which include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Human-environment subjects, such as climatic change, environmental pollution, sense of place, drought, or flooding, provide useful interdisciplinary subjects for integrative teaching. Using an understanding of how K-12 geography education has addressed human-environment issues since the introduction of the five themes in the 1980s, this paper discusses how a marginalized aspect of geography can greatly assist Powerful Geography.

Global Narratives on Education and Sustainability

Aaron Zadrozny & Joann Zadrozny

Education for Sustainable Development has increasingly taken on importance around the world. The Earthducation project has been examining intersections between education and sustainability in climate hotspots worldwide, with six field expeditions completed to six different continents to date. While in the field, the team is documenting culture, environmental issues, and educational practices, and collecting video narratives from individuals discussing the role of, and intersections between, education and sustainability. In addition, the general public has been contributing perspectives on these issues via self-posted videos within an online EnviroNetwork. The data gathered to date illustrate both how education can influence sustainability in different regions of the world, and the complexities that geographic location and culture bring to this topic.