ABSTRACT
Why teach geography? Essentially there are two ways to answer this question. Either, because of something intrinsic to the discipline itself, there is something enlightening about learning geography itself, or because it serves some ulterior or extrinsic purpose. Sometimes it is difficult to separate these two. Knowledge and skills learnt in class may be central to understanding, but also have utility in areas of life beyond the classroom. However, this should not detract from recognition of the intrinsic value of geography as a subject. As teachers it is important to know why you are teaching something, because this will determine how to approach a subject and what you choose to teach. A central premise of this book is that how teachers and other educators answer this question has changed at the dawn of the new millennium. Increasingly, extrinsic rationales are being cited to justify geography’s place in US and UK curricula, driven by politicians, policy makers and some leading geographers. These instrumental aims include geography’s contribution to citizenship education, values and attitudes education, pre-vocational skills, and learning about global issues and connections. This development rests upon a second premise, that geography as a body of knowledge that contributes to the education of young people is being undermined by the postmodern challenge. This book will show how extrinsic aims are in many cases serving to fill a moral vacuum previously occupied by geographical knowledge and skills. The outcome is that the intrinsic reasons for teaching geography are being lost to many teachers and students. In the instances where this has taken place, what is left is a fundamentally different subject, that goes by the name of geography and may even involve learning about other places and people, but it does not even begin to teach students about the principles and essential ideas behind the subject of geography.
