Geography Education's Potential and the Capability Approach

Abstract

This book is a very welcome entry into the status of subject knowledge in contemporary schools not only in England but also internationally. By building its theoretical background on the 'powerful knowledge' and the capability approach, it beautifully highlights the role of subject teachers as professional curriculum makers. The book shows how geography as a school subject can develop students' capabilities and enhance their wellbeing."-Professor Sirpa Tani, University of Helsinki, Finland "This book has inspired new curriculum thinking about the broader purposes and values of geography in schools. This book expertly demonstrates how concepts of powerful knowledge, capabilities, and teacher leadership intertwine to support a geography curriculum that develops human potential and freedoms.It offers a road map to improving the relevance, appeal, and applicability of geography as a fundamental and essential subject in education." -Dr Michael Solem, Co-Director, National Center for Research in Geography Education, USA "This is an important book. The ideas in the book enable school leaders and teachers to really focus on why their subject expertise matters in education and how a focus on this can benefit the education of young people. For schools this can be significant as it ensures knowledge development is at the heart of a good school, something so often taken for granted and lost in the push for results and league table positioning." -Andrew McCleave, Headmaster and teacher of geography,

Przyszłość i perspektywy rozwoju edukacji geograficznej w świetle studiów literatury

“…Co ważne, upowszechnienie to dotyczy zarówno uczniów, jak i nauczycieli . Stosowanie TiK będzie się też nasilało z uwagi na nowe środowiska uczenia się (Głowacz, 2015;Busin, 2019;Nieścioruk, Sosik, 2020;Ciepły i in ., 2020) . Przewiduje się natomiast malejącą rolę podręcznika .…”

On the knotty question of ‘Recontextualising’ geography

“…True, access to powerful knowledge would offer no guarantees, but denial would be severely limiting on their life choices. Moreover, as Young and others now argue, specialised disciplinary knowledge teaches the learner how to think in new and different waysan important capability in this day and age (Bustin, 2019). Thus, we have a different interpretation of power: not power done to someone in order the exert control over them, but power as a capacity that can be grasped and developed by someone.…”

Building Teacher Identity in Environmental and Sustainability Education: The Perspectives of Preservice Secondary School Geography Teachers

“…In his theorisations of environmental justice, Schlosberg [19] draws on the capabilities approach [20,21] as a way of understanding social justice and examining what capabilities (or opportunities, or capacities) different groups have for engaging in action that can lead to the enactment of environmental justice [22,23]. The capabilities approach has moved into geography curricula in both higher education [24] and secondary school settings [25][26][27] and has been described as 'geocapabilities'. In the context of higher education, Walkington et al [24] identify five geocapabilities that geography higher education programmes develop in students including: 'use of the geographical imagination; ethical subjecthood with respect to the impacts of geographical processes; integrative thinking about societyenvironment relationships; spatial thinking; and the structured exploration of places' (p. 7).…”