Educators need to teach the geographic perspective because spatial and environmental thinking are central to understanding how the earth changes. In the more narrow interest of helping students to excel in school, it is impossible to teach students every possible example that they might encounter on an exam. How to teach perspectives and skills is…

Teaching can be a hard job, and sustaining teachers throughout their career can be a challenge, facing pressure from performativity, increasing accountability, and increases in teacher workload. Geographical stories offer an important source of inspiration, helping to sustain teachers. Findings are presented from an ethnographic study of secondary…

It is important to remember that elections are but one piece--albeit an important one--of much larger processes of politics and governance. Moreover, in the United States they are increasingly implicated in the construction of identities and places. What goes on in the course of electoral politics (creating electoral systems and voting districts,…

The premise of this essay is that energy geographies are complicated, and this in itself presents some pedagogical difficulties. As someone who wants students to critically examine and confront the complexity of energy systems, it can be frustrating when students react to demonstrate frustration, apathy, or even confusion. In what follows, I will…

This qualitative research study explored the ways in which sociocultural and professional emotional geographies contribute to female high school English teachers' perceptions of the work of teaching, as well as how they shape their professional identities. Data collection methods over a 12-week period included a researcher reflective journal,…

Social evolution, globalization, and advances in technology are making it increasingly necessary to offer complete and comprehensive teacher training. This training should produce citizens who are concerned about the planet and its future. These values are embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the breadth of which allows them to be…

In this article, a retired long-time geography teacher offers his perspective on what a geography teacher needs to keep in mind when teaching geography. The author notes that geography is a useful school subject because it helps young people make their way in the world by giving them some tools to become lifelong learners. The author encourages…

Using a stakeholder debate based on a real-world case of regional construction--that of Turkey's application to join the European Union--improved students' critical thinking in an introductory world regional geography course. Such courses are a staple offering among US geography departments, and often the only exposure of non-majors to geographic…

The globalization of the agriculture industry has created an emerging need for agricultural education in the United States to take a more globalized approach to prepare students for future careers in agriculture. The purpose of this study was to identify international agricultural concepts for secondary agricultural education curriculum. A Delphi…

Cognitive skills are associated with academic performance, but little is known about how to improve these skills in the classroom. Here, we present the results of a pilot study in which teachers were trained to engage students in cognitive skill practice through playing games. Fifth-grade students at an experimental charter school were randomly…

The literature suggests that owing to profound difficulties with high school geography curricula, teachers play a vital role in stimulating student interest and in providing a platform for continuation in the study of geography at university. Yet, with little empirical evidence offered in support, it is unclear why students select geography at…

Offering up-to-date information and diverse perspectives on issues, online information can be a valuable resource that supplements traditional course materials like textbooks. In this paper, the source types that students' use for a course assignment and the criteria they apply to determine usefulness of the online information are examined.…

The blurring of the distinctions between pedagogy and curriculum, and experience and knowledge, has resulted in a generation of teachers who are confused about the part that each of these plays in the education of children. Schools may still teach through subjects, but there is little consensus about what constitutes a subject and what they are…

Growing up in Loretto, Tennessee, population 1,700, people called it "going to town" when they went to any city big enough to have a McDonald's, Walmart, or a movie theater. If someone is not from a small town, they may not know what type of economic activities a small town can support. Will the town have a police department? Will there…

The 2001 Geography Standards for Junior Secondary Schools are the first national standards for geographic education since the founding of Communist China. The standards heralded several new ideas for geographic education, and textbook assessments are one important way for understanding their impact. This study examines the changes in assessments…