This conceptual article explores the convergence between geography education and the geographies of education. While geography education has focused on teaching and learning about space, the geographies of education examine how education is spatially produced through material, relational, and political practices. The article proposes the future of geography education lies in recognizing the educational world as a geographical one. Schools, policies, and pedagogies are active producers of space. A South American perspective is advanced not as a case study, but as an epistemic vantage point for rethinking the purposes and possibilities of geographical perspectives on education.
This study explores the effect of place-based socio-scientific issues (PBSSI) on scientific argumentation competence (SAC) among pre-service geography teachers (PSGT). Adopting a quasi-experimental design with 160 participants, the experimental group received PBSSI instruction, while the control group received traditional SSI instruction. After a 5-week-long intervention, the findings showed that the PBSSI group performed better in both scientific argumentation disposition and scientific argumentation skills. These findings establish PBSSI as an effective approach for enhancing SAC in geography education, providing empirical evidence for its integration into teacher training programs and curriculum design to foster professional competence.
This study investigates the strategies used by 20 upper-secondary students to familiarize themselves with an unknown general-reference map. A one-minute familiarization phase during an eye-tracking experiment, followed by a questionnaire, examined how students processed key map elements. Students focused mainly on textual labels, particularly settlement names, while devoting less attention to structural features such as terrain or rivers. They also verified familiar legend symbols, indicating deliberate and controlled attention. Although their behavior showed intentionality, students tended to overlook structural relations within the map, suggesting a need for instructional guidance and more intuitive map design beneficial to both educators and cartographers.
Drawing upon constructivism and embodied cognition theories, this study develops a geography project-based learning model designed to foster students' spatial thinking. Centered on project implementation, the model embeds embodied interventions throughout the process. The core elements of spatial thinking-spatial perception, representation, and reasoning-are systematically integrated into the learning process. A 16-week teaching experiment involving 104 junior high school students was conducted. Quantitative analysis revealed that the model significantly improved students' spatial thinking ability, with the overall score increasing by 145.88%. Qualitative analysis further indicated a cognitive progression from terminology memorization to reasoning construction, and from procedural imitation to logical expression.
Writing collaboratively as colleagues who have transitioned from teaching geography in high schools to becoming university-based academics researching and teaching geography education, this commentary offers insights into the challenges of, and opportunities for, geography education research (GER) across the countries in which we live and work: Australia, England, Germany, Singapore and the United States. Drawing on the themed intervention geography in the world, we reflect upon the factors which shape geography education research in our country contexts. Then, through an examination of/across our own situated and relational geographic worlds, we argue the importance of developing practices that support Geography Education Research(ers) across diverse contexts.
We often are told that 'Geography matters'. This paper - which comes from the British school of Geography Education, argues for a political theory of the curriculum 'political theory of the curriculum' and explores how this might be understood in three national traditions - the UK, New Zealand, and the United States. These cases indicate that the representation of national space in geography teaching is always open to contestation, and that geography teachers are involved in acts of cultural critique. The concluding part of the paper identifies some common features and speculates on the implications for teacher development in geography.
Geography is widely recognized as a synthesizing discipline that bridges multiple disciplinary areas. This paper examines how and why geography contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations in education research, particularly amidst current trends toward constructivism and inquiry-based learning. Using two case studies from the Singapore context, it illustrates how geographical thinking through concepts and geography's methodologies strengthened research contributions and partnerships with science and literacy education researchers. The paper also highlights enabling conditions for successful interdisciplinary endeavors like shared epistemic and conceptual frameworks.
This study examines the effectiveness of teaching hypsography through a collaborative immersive virtual environment. An instructional lesson and a custom application called Contour Lines were developed for both immersive virtual reality and non-immersive desktop formats using the eDIVE software platform. A total of 212 high school students participated, with one group learning in the immersive environment and the other in a more common classroom setting-working with the desktop application. While learning outcomes were similar across groups, the results highlight the experiential benefits of immersive technologies, particularly telepresence and task involvement, rather than immediate performance gains, as well as the role of individual learner differences.
This article examines the relationships between geography education and citizenship via a scoping review of 60 studies. Literature focused on a range of countries, primarily in Europe, and five interconnected themes were identified: citizenship as a purpose of geography education; engagement with injustices and issues; constructions of 'the child'; political literacy and participation; and identities in relation to place, nation, and empire. The review highlights a lack of direct engagement with children's perspectives and calls for future research that centers children's (lived) citizenship and examines how we can develop children's knowledges of citizenship, political literacy and participation through school geography.
The ubiquitous growth of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become increasingly important in higher education, yet comprehensive GIS programs remain uneven across Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Although national data on GIS offerings at HBCUs are limited, prior studies (Padgett 2001; Malhotra and Vlahovic 2011) and institutional reviews suggest that GIS availability varies widely across campuses. This case study examines how one HBCU integrates GIS across academic programs, faculty development initiatives, and applied research units. Drawing on curriculum reviews, departmental documents, and faculty interviews, the study documents the growth in students' GIS exposure and the institutional structures that support geospatial learning. It highlights the role of faculty training, library-based support services, external partnerships, and research centers in expanding GIS use across disciplines. The goals of this paper are to provide a more thorough and up-to-date investigation of GIS at HBCUs and offer insights for HBCUs seeking to strengthen GIS capacity and identify practical strategies for sustainable geospatial integration. The paper concludes with lessons learned for building geospatial ecosystems within resource-constrained institutional contexts.
This mapping review synthesizes 110 empirical studies using eye-tracking to examine map use and its implications for geography education. It identifies four core themes: traditional and digital map design, user interaction and behavior, and demographics. Methodologically, it highlights advances in mixed methods, Electroencephalography integration, machine learning, and open-source tools. Findings show that spatial abilities, strategies, and demographic factors influence map-reading. The review concludes each section with research questions to guide future work in educational settings.
The article explores the conceptual trajectories and teaching practices of the increasingly differentiated approach to transformative education. As part of a mixed-methods design, we initially present the results of a quantitative analysis of pertinent English- and German-language publications on geography education from the past 20 years. We focus on how the concept of transformative education has evolved and highlight its connections to related approaches. In addition, interviews with lecturers in geography education at German universities are used to identify key ideas for implementing transformative teaching practices. The article concludes by integrating findings from both methods, thereby strengthening the conceptual and empirical foundations of transformative education.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of interactive and visual GIS tools in teaching global economic geography, with particular emphasis on their impact on content mastery, the development of spatial thinking, and the enhancement of students' learning motivation. The research employed a pre- and post-intervention experimental design and involved 225 students. The findings suggest that interactive GIS tools not only improve students' cognitive skills but also enhance motivational engagement. This dual contribution of cognitive and motivational effects to the educational impact of GIS represents a key element of the study's scientific novelty.
This paper takes the form of a dialogue between its main UK based protagonist and three senior geography educationists based in the US. Tasked with debating the current conditions of geography education research and its possible future development, the exchange centers on the efficacy of research in the field and what continuing research efforts can hope to achieve. This is a long standing debate and the article attempts to suggest ways forward, looking outside as well as looking within the field itself.
This study presents a method for adapting the Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT) to local curricular contexts, illustrated through the adaptation and validation of a 24-item instrument (STAT-24) in Mongolia. The test was built through expert review, student think-alouds, and large national trial in Mongolia (N = 923). Results indicate that STAT-24 is reliable, valid, and fair and rather than reporting single total score, it points to specific strengths and weaknesses, giving teachers clearer guidance for targeted instruction. Although STAT-24 is tailored to Mongolian classrooms, the adaptation process provides practical model for developing context sensitive spatial thinking assessment in other setting.
This study evaluates quiz attempt distribution and grades from a "moderate-flexibility" due date approach. Each quiz was open for two weeks prior to a "preferred" due date, followed by an automatic "extended" due date of one additional week. The approach had several benefits: (1) student workload was distributed across the semester, (2) student quiz grades were higher compared to other due date approaches, (3) real-time assessment available early in the semester allowed for instructor intervention with struggling students, (4) overall decreased student stress and anxiety about due dates, and (5) automatic extended due dates provided flexibility with guardrails.
Improving teaching quality in geography education requires tools that strengthen geographical knowledge and pedagogy, particularly in relation to classroom observation, an area that has received limited attention in geography education research. We developed the Geo4Tea.com application, a self-report tool based on nine conceptions of geography teaching. This study examined its validity by conducting structured, non-participant classroom observations of 108 geography lessons and comparing these findings with teacher self-reports collected through the Geo4Tea questionnaire among 29 pre-service and 27 in-service teachers in Czechia. We analyzed how the self-reported conceptions relate to the observed practices and found the tool valid for identifying dominant conceptions. The findings show that Geo4Tea bridges teachers' stated beliefs and classroom practice, making it a practical, evidence-based tool for teachers' professional development.
This article explores the potential of geography to foster students' subjectification, understood as processes of becoming subjects of their own lives. It establishes an epistemological congruence between subjectification and geography, highlighting the discipline's capacity to open spaces of existential freedom in and with the world. Building on this foundation, the article proposes a curriculum model that provides students with varied opportunities to encounter pluriversal worlds and reconfigure their positionalities through critical exploration. It concludes by discussing the implications for reimagining geography education beyond the established purposes of socialization and qualification, suggesting directions for curriculum policy, classroom practice, and teacher education.
Geographical synthetic thinking is critical when students address complex problems. A Geographical Synthetic Thinking Mind Map (GSTM map) is a combination of the typical structure of mind map and geographical synthetic thinking used for developing students' geographical synthetic thinking. This study discusses how high school geography teachers' teaching of GSTM maps influences students' geographical synthetic thinking. Six geography teachers and 286 students from 6 high schools participated in the study. Teachers who received training on GSTM maps used GSTM maps in classes, and the outcome showed a significant improvement in students' geographical synthetic thinking. Analysis on the results of the mediation effect showed that the quality of teaching directly influenced students' geographical synthetic thinking, in which process the quality of their design of GSTM maps played a mediating role.
Students' over-reliance on the map conventions of textbooks may lead to inflexible thinking and unintended consequences. This study explores StoryMaps' potential advantages as teaching aids to challenge the map conventions. A teaching case with Esri StoryMaps (ESM) was set up for Chinese senior high school students, and their changing thinking patterns were examined through phenomenological reduction approach. It is concluded that the advantages of StoryMaps challenge students' map thinking patterns and are effective in helping them understand regional relationships, integrate self-experiences into maps, and develop an initial sense of place.
