A GEOGRAPHY CURRICULUM FOR AUSTRALIA Malcolm McInerney: AGTA Chair

THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY WITH A 21ST CENTURY GEOGRAPHY CURRICULUM

THROUGH THE GEOGRAPHICAL LENS

GEOGRAPHICAL THINKING

We know what it is but can we articulate how a geographer thinks?

The public perception of geography is as a fact-based rather than conceptual discipline. Peter Jackson 2006

•The geographers headset•Through the eyes of a geographer•Thinking geographically

.”“I’m a geographer, frankly, I’m proud of that fact even if I have to explain when I meet someone exactly what it is a geographer does.”

Can you spot a geographer from just looking at them?

It was decided that it is through the concepts that we can identify

geographical thinking

What is a concept? • A general idea derived from specific instances or occurrences• Something formed in the mind, a thought or notion• An abstract or psychological thing that can be understood, operate with, and apply• May lead into judgments, propositions or even theories• Concepts have a tendency to be referred to in connection with the general rather than singular terms• Are often used to organise/group and classify thoughts• May be based on a generalisation, abstraction or occurrence

THE CONCEPT SMORGASBOARDfrom the AC: Geography Shape Paper

• change•distance

• diversity

• interaction

• interdependence

• landscape

• location

• pattern

• perception

• place• process• proximity• relationship• risk• scale• space• spatial distribution• sustainability• system

Fine tuning the concepts

• What are the key Geographical concepts to build a curriculum around?

• What concepts best reflect and enhance geographical thinking?

• How many can we say are major and imperative concepts for geographical thinking?

• The 7 major concepts have related concepts dovetailed into them.

• What then are the related concepts?• Are they just geographical concepts – does

geography own them? • Are these concepts what makes geography

geography and unique?• Are all of the 7 concepts of equal importance?• Geographical thinking is more than just spatial

thinking!

Conceptual questions to muse over

CONCEPTS: THE LENS AND KEY TO GEOGRAPHICAL THINKING

• As a discipline, geography is based on a series of concepts that fundamentally underpin the geographical approach to the world.

• They provide a framework and common language to thinking geographically.• These concepts are the lenses through which geographers view the features,

activities, processes, phenomena and issues of our earth in the past, present and future.

THINKING AND QUESTIONING USING THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS

CONCEPTS: THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY

meaning

identity

links

Location

local-global

human

time

uniqueness

pace

justice

trends

association

interdependence

Non-living

Generational equity

zoom

living

distance

Human-physical

processes

natural

biosphere

Triple bottom line

intangible

characteristics

pattern distribution

equilibrium

dynamic

consistency

directions

hierarchies

measurementchange

processes

interconnection

change

system

Impact of change

flowsystem

Human-environment

diversity sustainability

system

interconnection

relative

virtual

proximitydensity

biodiversity

sustainability

sustainability

futures

movement

ecology

futures

local-global

space

maps

The geographical concept wheel

interconnection

• Place describes specific areas of the Earth’s surface, and range from a small place such as a classroom, through to a local area, to a country to a major world region and the solar system. The uniqueness of places is closely linked to identity and culture

• The characteristics of places that are studied in geography include population, climate, economy, landforms, built environment, soils and vegetation, communities, water resources, cultures, minerals, landscape, and recreational and scenic quality.

• Some characteristics are tangible, such as rivers and buildings, while others are intangible, such as wilderness and socioeconomic status.

Place

• Space refers to the location of human features, such as a town or a specific building. Space also refers to the location of natural features, such as a rainforest or a specific habitat. • Human and natural features have locations within space. • Space is also about the distribution of human and natural features, including the pattern of those distributions. • The world is organised spatially i.e. location, distribution and pattern.

Space

What is the difference between place and space? A fundamental question for teachers teaching geography.

•The concept of environment refers to the biosphere including living and non-living elements. •The environment has intrinsic value and is essential to, and interconnected with on-going human wellbeing.

•Environments which have been significantly altered and created by human activities such as rural or built environments (constructed urban places) are sub sets of the bio-physical environment

Environment

• Places, environments and spatial patterns alter over time. • Changes may be quite slow as is the movement of the tectonic plates or they

might be quite rapid as the advancement of a bushfire. • Places, environments and spatial patterns may be in a state of equilibrium or

inertia with little change occurring over a long period of time until an event such as a flood, cyclone or political decision occurs, which rapidly alters the place, environments or patterns.

• Social changes may be rapidly accepted, gradually accepted or actively and passively resisted.

Change

•Interconnection refers to the linking of places, environments and spatial patterns either by tangible links such as roads, railways or by intangible links such as political, economic systems or electronic systems. •Places, environments and systems may also be linked by cause and effect relationships between them.•Interconnections are important in understanding why things are changing or need to be changed in different places or environments. •Interconnections may occur between environmental and environmental (effect on water on soil), human and human (impact of political decision on industry) or between environmental and human processes (impact of water on cities).

Interconnection

• Sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life.

• Sustainability is a broad social goal linking on-going natural environmental (ecological) wellbeing with human (social and economic) wellbeing

Sustainability

Scale is about the hierarchy of divisions from the personal to the local, regional, national, world, regional, global and sometimes, universal.

Scale

Where are the 4 corners of the earth

meaning

identity

links

Location

local-global

human

time

uniqueness

pace

justice

trends

association

interdependence

Non-living

Generational equity

zoom

living

distance

Human-physical

processes

natural

biosphere

Triple bottom line

intangible

characteristics

patterndistribution

equilibrium

dynamic

consistency

directions

hierarchies

measurementchange

processes

interconnection

change

system

Impact of change

flowsystem

Human-environment

diversity sustainability

system

interconnection

relative

virtual

proximity density

biodiversity

sustainability

sustainability

futures

movement

ecology

futures

local-global

space

maps

The geographical concept wheel

The deconstruction and subsequent construction of knowledge/content using the key concepts when

studying geography = geographical thinking

Developing geographical understanding

2. View through the geographical concepts of: Place

Space

Environment

Change

Interaction

Sustainability

Scale

A GEOGRAPHICAL INQUIRY OF BRISBANE WATER SUPPLY

1.Collect all the information you know about Brisbane water supply.

3. Based on the concepts pose the geographical questions for inquiry (can?, should?, what if? why not?)

Harvest

Deconstruct

Question

Construct

Foundation Year: People live in places

Year 1: Places have distinctive features

Year 2: People are connected to many places

Year 3: Places are both similar and different

Year 4: People have a relationship with the environment

Year 5: Human and environmental processes shape places

Year 6: People belong to a diverse worlddra

ft

PRIMARY STAGES OF LEARNING IN GEOGRAPHY

• Water in the world (7)• Places in which to live (7)

• Landforms and landscapes (8)• Shaping the Nation (8)

• Biomes and food security (9)• People experiencing and making geography (9)

• Environmental challenges and geography (10)• Global geographies of human well-being (10)

7 – 10 Year Level Units

draft

WHAT IS 21ST CENTURY GEOGRAPHY?

http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/

SINGH

HAN

So what!

This is data attached to place – we call it spatial data and it is the raw material for modern geography.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/