The Arizona Geographic Alliance has addressed out-of-field geography teaching for three decades by training organisational leaders (called Teacher Consultants or TCs) who become advocates for geographic literacy in their districts and schools. The core recruitment tool has been an annual Alliance Summer Geography Institute (ASGI). Here, we ask the…

This article reports on out-of-field (OOF) geography teaching in Australia. Participants were 298 teachers who responded to a national survey in late 2019. Findings indicate that OOF teaching remains prevalent in Australian geography classrooms which affects students' experience of learning geography. It also reports on the effects of policies in…

This article develops a case for adding human wellbeing as an additional core concept to the Australian Curriculum: Geography, either officially, or unofficially through the practice of teachers. It argues, first, that the addition of human wellbeing will complement the existing core concept of sustainability, which students use to evaluate…

Humans use space as a lens to navigate and make sense of the world, thus successfully applying spatial concepts is an important life skill. Spatial thinking and developing spatial concepts are core components of school Geography curricula. Teachers teach geographical skills systematically aligning to the curriculum; however, students can struggle…

A number of geographical concepts are examined under the rubric of race and racism in Australia. The first section looks at postcolonial perspectives on race and racism and the interconnection between whiteness and European colonisation. The second section, that relies largely on the work of Australian university geographers, is premised on the…

Teachers of geography have an intuitive sense that geospatial technologies are useful additions to their classrooms but the academic literature supporting this intuition is not substantial. This article summarises the documented benefits of geospatial technologies for geography teachers and students. Implementation of geospatial technologies in…

One of the questions being asked in schools is the extent to which Geography can be considered a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subject. While such a question might be driven by those strategic opportunists seeking to elevate the status of the subject within the school's curriculum, or as a means of leveraging an increase…

Australian secondary school students' entitlement to a comprehensive geography education is vulnerable. This study investigates the extent to which Geography is being delivered across Australia by analysing survey data from 270 schools on geography teaching hours, mode of delivery, fieldwork, and senior provision. Nationally, Geography averages 54…

The three-dimensional design of the Australian Curriculum includes the cross-curriculum priorities (CCPs), learning areas and general capabilities (GCs). Geography teachers are uniquely positioned to address the CCPs through the subject's disciplinary focus on interrelationships between physical features of the earth with individual, social and…

Sustainability is an important cross-curriculum priority in Australian education that is not commonly realised in schools and classrooms. In this article, we discuss the challenges and opportunities to enacting sustainability, suggesting that both top-down (systemic schoolwide leadership and support) and bottom-up (individual educator's…

Parramatta Marist High School is a school in Western Sydney, New South Wales, that has over 14 years of experience in project-based learning in Stages 4 and 5 (Years 7-10). Over this period, projects have been constantly developed, redeveloped and improved by teachers based on their experience and feedback from their colleagues and their students.…

Since 2016 an international research process has been underway to design and develop an international geography assessment for implementation in lower secondary education settings. One of the crucial steps in this process is the development and validation of an assessment framework that models the content and cognitive dimensions of geography…

Knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures presents opportunities for geography students to learn about holistic belief systems that are spiritually and intellectually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways. One means that geographers use to examine these connections is through the notion of relational space.…

This paper arises from the Keynote we co-delivered at the 2017 AGTA Conference in Melbourne. In the paper, we outline the main theoretical resources that underpin the GeoCapabilities project (www.geocapabilities.org). This project has sought to engage teachers and teacher educators in geography with the principles of "curriculum…

The article outlines ways that teachers could use the content in Biomes and Food Security unit in the Australian curriculum, and its state and territory versions, to encourage their students to engage with higher order thinking. It first briefly discusses how to describe and classify higher-order thinking and argues that concepts are central to…