ABSTRACT
This chapter make the case for research which employs a strategy to observe directly the use of textbooks in geography classrooms. It describes two small-scale research studies on textbooks undertaken in London. The chapter provides the case for opening the classroom door' and, through direct observation of the ways in which teachers, students and text interact, for geography educators and teachers to pursue a research programme in textbook pedagogy. It reveals most strongly the need to rediscover textbooks' in English secondary school geography. The Waugh Effect represents a cultural shift in geography education, tantamount, almost, to the adoption of a shared National Curriculum textbook. The author attempts through personal reflection to identify the somewhat uncertain, or troubled, status of textbooks in geography education at least for lower secondary English school students. The chapter provides quasi-autobiographical reflections on geography teaching, which provide a certain context giving rise to a number of questions and a possible research agenda.
