American Homelands: Classroom Approaches Towards a Complex Concept

Abstract

Geographers, along with anthropologists and sociologists, have been debating the homeland concept as it applies in North America for decades. In recent years, the political ideology of the war on terror has added another dimension to this discussion. If the attention given to the concept by introductory textbooks is any indication, homelands are rarely discussed in our geography classrooms despite their critical relationship to our understanding of world and regional culture. This article calls for increasing our attention to homelands in the classroom as the concept serves as a readily available discussion topic with fruitful conclusions and student comprehension.

Examination of Prospective Teachers’ Perceptions of Homeland: A Phenomenological Study

“…The perception and consciousness of homeland is one of the most important elements of the national identification on which a common past was shared (Turan, 2017). Also discussed by anthropologists and sociologists (Post, 2009), the concept of homeland is an important thought which has attracted geographers, and is studied in geography (Smith and White, 2004). However, it is a long-standing tradition to investigate home, place and spatial concepts in geography (Hurt, 2004).…”

“…Later Nostrand (1992) characterized this concept as three different elements: The human, the ground and the bond that forms a sense of identity between the two. Nostrand and estaville (1993), by adding new ones to these three components, relate the concept of Homeland to People, Place, sense of place, control of place and time (Schnell, 2000;Hurt, 2004;post, 2009). Furthermore, Nostrand (1992) argues that people who live long enough in a particular place to adapt to the natural environment are identified with the environment and the cultural characteristics of the environment.…”

“…As a result, residents of the country have feelings of attachment, ownership and defence (Hurt, 2004). However, although there are quite different opinions about the nature and importance of the concept of homeland, this concept is rarely presented in geography classes and is not very common in textbooks (Post, 2009).…”