Geography Education

Geography in Elementary and Secondary Education

During the past two decades, geography has made considerable progress in the American school curriculum, having gained a discernible presence apart from social studies and a growing cadre of teachers skilled in modern analytical concepts and technologies. Improving the quality of geography teaching and learning in American education was the focus of a national reform movement that dates back to the early 1980s and that marshaled the talents of some of geography's leading scholars and professional organizations. In 1984, the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and the[Page 183] National Council for Geographic Education established a Joint Committee on Geographic Education to publish Guidelines for Geographic Education, a document that informed teachers, school districts, local and state education authorities, and the general public of the importance of geography in K–12 education through the use of “five fundamental themes” and associated learning activities. Since its publication, more than 100,000 copies of the Guidelines have been disseminated nationwide. This period also witnessed the establishment of the state geographic alliances, a network of organizations whose primary purpose is to promote collaboration between university geographers and in-service teachers. The majority of these alliances were established during the late 1980s and early 1990s with grants from the National Geographic Society to set up an alliance in each state. Most of these alliances are still in operation, in many cases funded through endowments that were matched by the National Geographic Society and other organizations.

Perhaps the crowning achievement of the infrastructure building during the 1980s was the designation of geography as one of five core subjects under the National Education Goals, formulated by the National Governors Association in 1990 and codified by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994. The Goals 2000 Act prompted geographers to conduct an intensive disciplinary review that resulted in the development of national standards for K–12 teaching and learning, namely Geography for Life: The National Geography Standards. By 2004, geography was present in the curriculum standards in every state except Iowa.

Although the reform movement was successful in raising the status of geography in American education, it has yet to make significant headway in raising student achievement and teacher preparation in the subject. The most recent geography assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that more than two thirds of American students in Grades 4, 8, and 12 did not meet proficient competency standards. This situation is likely to continue until concerted efforts are made to reform the pedagogic content knowledge of geography teachers, especially at the preservice stage of the professional continuum.

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