ABSTRACT
In schools geography does not have much of a reputation for tackling overtly political issues, except perhaps in partial, coded and incomplete ways, as in the case of environmental issues (see Lambert, 1999a; also Chapter 10 by John Huckle in this volume). There is a risk that geography lessons claiming to ‘carry’ citizenship will do so in a similarly emasculated way, unless the suite of what is normally done in geography is reconsidered in the light of this explicit political concept, citizenship. Reconsideration includes both curriculum and pedagogical matters. The focus of this chapter is mainly on the former, specifically on content selection, and can be read as a case-study exploration of the kind of material not often selected for study in geography lessons. Taking the chapter as a whole, readers are invited to consider the nature of geography and its educational potential (see Box 9.1 ‘Geography and other disciplines’), together with the education and training needs of teachers intending to address ideas of the kind we discuss.
