ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the selection of geography as a foundation subject in the National Curriculum and with both the pre- and post-Dearing changes in the implementation of National Curriculum geography, following the 1988 Education Reform Act. For 100 years the Geographical Association, founded in 1892, has played a key role in support of geographical education. In the calculus of advantage and disadvantage, many geographers would claim that, for all its faults, National Curriculum has strengthened the position of geography in schools. Evidence of the impact of the first phase of the implementation of National Curriculum geography for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 can be found in Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) reports on the implementation of the requirements of the 1988 Act for different subjects. The defects had, however, by the time of the OFSTED reports, led to a general agreement that the National Curriculum in general, and geography in particular, were in need of radical overhaul.
