Covid-19: teaching primary geography in an authentic context related to the lived experiences of learners

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is an unanticipated event that has exposed human fragility in an interconnected and interdependent world. While impacts are of a global magnitude, they have been felt at the most local of levels. Across the world pupils' daily lives and experiences have been directly impacted by government-imposed measures and restrictions taken to address the pandemic. Existing research on the teaching of primary geography in Ireland, although both dated and limited, indicates the prevalence of didactic, textbook-based methods involving rote-learning. This points to a policy-practice gap whereby teaching methods are not aligned with those advocated by the curriculum. Primary teachers and student primary teachers have been found to hold knowledge-based encyclopaedic images of geography, failing to recognise the subject's relevance to the real-world lived experiences of pupils. This paper frames the Covid-19 as an authentic learning experience that can form the foundation for effective geography education. Pupils learn best and are more motivated to engage in a problem or issue that affects them or that they are connected to. By investigating Covid-19 through geography in the primary classroom, this paper argues that both pupils and teachers can recognise the relevance of geography to their lives and the wider world.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Social Studies in the Context of COVID-19 in Oman

“…Although COVID-19 is a recent phenomenon and is not yet part of the Omani social studies curriculum, the participants viewed the topic as an important event and they stressed several examples of integrating it into their instruction. This view is consistent with the argument that COVID-19 offers rich opportunities for meaningful teaching and learning in social studies and geography education (Kidman & Chang, 2020;Usher & Dolan, 2021;van der Schee, 2020). In line with this finding, the participants stressed the importance of social studies in Omani schools as a vehicle to teach about various aspects of the pandemic along with other rationales-teaching important knowledge, skills, and values associated with the subject.…”

“…Furthermore, social studies educators can discuss the pedagogical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a wide range of content and instructional practices (Kidman & Chang, 2020;Usher & Dolan, 2021;van der Schee, 2020). For example, addressing the COVID-19 pandemic through geography provides teachers with opportunities to connect geography to the real world and everyday experiences and encourages the use of a wide range of student-centered strategies (Usher & Dolan, 2021). In civic education, Akbulut et al (2020) reported several examples of the roles of social media during the pandemic in increasing student participation in national festivals such as National Day and Children Day.…”