ABSTRACT
From its position as a low status integrated school subject in the early twentieth century, geography has progressed to broad acceptance as a high status university ‘discipline’. The story behind this remarkable progress has been told elsewhere (Goodson, 1981 and 1983), but the implications for new contenders for subject status need to be carefully explored. Basically, geography, particularly through the activities of the Geographical Association, has followed the four-point strategy recommended by one of the leading activists, H.J. MacKinder, in 1903:
Firstly, we should encourage University Schools of Geography, where Geographers can be made…. Secondly, we must persuade at any rate some secondary schools to place the geographical teaching of the whole school in the hands of one geographically trained teacher…. Thirdly, we must thrash out by discussion and experimentation what is the best progressive method for common acceptation and upon that method we must base our scheme of examination. Lastly, the examination papers must be set by practical geography teachers. (MacKinder, 1903)
