The Handbook of Secondary Geography

What is geography?
Alastair Bonnett is Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle University

Introduction Ordering the world

The world is geography’s logo. It rolls around Geography seeks to find order and meaning in
the pages of countless geographical societies the diversity and complexity of the world. One
and school websites. Perhaps it is cut and of the great monographs of twentieth-century
pasted a little too casually; for this image geography is by Clarence Glacken (1976) and
(2017). The Handbook of Secondary Geography. Sheffield: Geographical Associati'

contains an ambitious argument about has the mysterious title Traces on the Rhodian
geography's scope. It proposes that geography Shore. The title phrase refers to an ancient
is about the world: that to study geography legend: the Greek philosopher Aristippus,
is to study the world, both near and far. It is shipwrecked and lost on an unknown island (the
a dramatic claim; the most far-reaching and island of Rhodes), came across some geometric
ambitious made by any discipline. In this markings in the sand. ‘Let us be of good hope’,
chapter I show just how important, how Aristippus cries out, 'for indeed I see the traces
necessary, as well as how challenging this of men’. Glacken’s survey of over 2000 years of
claim is; for while it establishes geography environmental theories repeats this cri de coeur.
as a modern specialism, concerned with ‘What is most striking in conceptions of nature,
environmental and international knowledge, even mythical ones’, he tells us, ‘is the yearning
it also suggests that it is a current of human for purpose and order’ (1976, p. 3).
activity and thought that goes much deeper, The Greek scholar Eratosthenes, who gave us
and is more fundamental, than the nostrums the word ‘geography’ about 2200 years ago,
and worries of our own era. provides a fine example of this yearning. Not
I will be arguing that geography is a modern only is he credited with drawing one of the first
discipline but one with deep roots. More maps to represent the world, he also devised
specifically, geography's fundamental task a grid-based system to locate places on Earth,
is identified as seeking order in the world; sketched the route of the Nile and worked out
a task that is a necessity for a species that tries why it flooded.
to both survive and find hope in often hostile Eratosthenes’s quest to know Earth also
landscapes. As we shall see, in the eighteenth prompted him to try and calculate its
and nineteenth centuries, this human need circumference. It may seem a prosaic statistic
was translated into the characteristic concerns (we know today that Earth’s equatorial
of human and physical geography. The circumference is 24,901 miles), but this quest
translation of ancient needs into modern represented a startling application of pure
forms is also apparent in the urge to explore; reason to a geographical problem. Eratosthenes
Jones, M.

to discover imaginatively, and sometimes knew that on the summer solstice at Syene
literally conquer, the world 'out there’. This (Aswan), the sun's rays left no shadow, falling
insistent desire is intertwined with the history directly down a well. Eratosthenes knew the
of geography, conferring upon it a colonial distance from this well to Alexandria, the city
pedigree but also, and more happily, a restless where he worked as chief librarian, was 500
desire to break down the barriers between miles. He also knew that on the summer solstice
the classroom and the streets and fields, in that city the sun’s rays fell at an angle of 7*.
and to venture outside into the sunshine Since Eratosthenes already understood that the
and the rain. light from the sun travels in parallel lines and
 Chapter 1: What is geography?

Our understanding
of the fragility of
life gives urgency
to our work on
environmental
management.
Photo © Anna
Totterdell.

that Earth was round, he had enough data to Modern geography: international
calculate the circumference of Earth. He worked
and environmental knowledge
it out at 25,000 miles.
Geography has ancient roots but its long history
However, the need to find order in the world, or is one of adaptation and change. Modern
to impose order upon it, is not just a question of geography has been shaped by modern ideas
scientific enquiry, for it taps deeply into the and concerns. More specifically, over the last
existential function of geography. The search 200 years the increasing need for, and prestige
for meaning in the world helps us - personally of, intellectual specialisation have combined
and as a species - secure our identity within it. with the development of the nation state and
The huge variety of geographical knowledge scientific methods to establish international
and activities - from constructing borders to and environmental knowledge as the two great
changing landscapes; from myths of creation axes around which geography has come to be
to the Earth Sciences - are unified by this primal defined. It is towards geography that people
turn when seeking answers to the questions,
and universal ambition. The words ‘primal’ and
'how and why has the environment altered?’
‘universal’ could equally be applied to a second
and ‘how and why do nations connect and
fundamental driver behind our desire to seek
differ?’ These questions, transformed into
out order in the world, namely the need for a
striking images, are postered across school
sustainable relationship with Earth. Geography,
rooms the world over. They are also well
today as in the past, offers information about represented within television schedules and
landscapes, peoples, routes and resources, and in the print media. The modern geographical
the connections between them, that allows us agenda thrives on its global ambitions, on a
not only to understand and manage these boldly asserted ‘worldliness’, but it also asserts
things, but also to devise ways for our species 'challenges’ and 'problems’ as central to the
to flourish, or at least remain alive. Today, geography student’s vocabulary. Indeed, to
when we recognise that we have the capacity contemporary ears, the words ‘environmental’
to destroy the planet's environmental systems, and ‘international’ can seem a little incomplete
human survival hovers in the background of without that pervasive suffix, ‘crisis’.
many geography lessons. Our new understanding Unique among academic subjects, geography
of the fragility of life gives urgency to our has a roughly equal emphasis on science and
work on global conflict and environmental social science, yet although we have come
management. Although these particular to understand geography as comprising two
concerns may appear novel, they are rooted distinct branches; each of them offers forms
in age-old imperatives. of world knowledge that spring from the
 The rise of
Asian power has
provoked a new
willingness to talk
about ‘multiple
modernities'.
Photo © Bryan
Ledgard.

fundamental human needs that I have already a geographical education with a beneficent
touched on, albeit within a distinct, modem cosmopolitanism, yet this chain of association
context. In the rest of this section I elaborate on is not as straightforward as it might at first
this point, addressing human geography first. appear. After all, it is easy to be ‘cosmopolitan’
when the world is being shaped in your
The story of the emergence of industrialised
image. The rise of Asian power at the start of
economies, and of the rise of nation states
the twenty-first century is already provoking
and, subsequently, of international systems, is
a new willingness to talk about 'multiple
inseparable from the rise of modern geography.
modernities’, and threatens to disturb some of
It is a remarkable transition. Well into the
the cultural confidence that lies behind Western
nineteenth century one could still find people in
cosmopolitanism. Western dominance may,
Europe whose direct geographical knowledge
finally, be on the wane. It will be interesting to
was confined to their immediate locale. Such
see whether coming realignments of global
peasant and folk communities were part of
a fast-disappearing pre-modern relationship power act to affirm Western geography’s
to place. Today they are’gone, not simply in post-national multicultural outlook or create
the West but across the world. Indeed, a very pressures for more defensive versions and
different geographical problem has emerged: visions of 'the world discipline’.
that while through the internet many people In turning to the physical branch of geography
have access to the world, they know little of we again witness how the ancient and universal
their own locale, or even the names of their need to find order in the world has come to
neighbours. We are all, more or less, plugged be shaped by modern concerns. The rise of
into the world economy and world politics. rational, post-religious explanations of Earth's
Geography, as in the past, attempts to describe creation and the systems of nature provided
and explain the world and its peoples but the first and most fundamental step along this
increasingly it has come to be imbued with the path. The birth of modern geology represented
internationalist qualities of modernity itself.
a dramatic reconceptualisation of the world.
Thus its traditional focus, on depicting discrete
Although rocks and landforms had been
and distinct nations and peoples, has come
the subject of geographical description for
to be overlaid, or overtaken, by an interest in
thousands of years, the image of an immobile,
global connections, mobility and development.
completed Earth had nearly always held sway.
This shift also means that issues of prejudice,
James Hutton (1726—97) shattered this image.
ignorance and stereotype have become
His contribution was also early and astute
defining dilemmas for the discipline.
enough to wrestle directly with the challenge
In the West it has become common, it posed to alternative ways of finding order
especially within the larger nations, to identify in the world. In his Theory of the Earth (2007;
 Chapter 1: What is geography?

first published 1788), Hutton takes us through In his 1887 essay ‘On the scope and methods
different ways of looking at landscape geology of geography’, Halford Mackinder argued
in the company of the evidence that he had that ‘Man alters his environment, and the
found of uplift, submersion and slow erosion. action of that environment on his posterity
He challenged the religious orthodoxy that is changed in consequence’ (1996, p.170).
the world could be understood as a finished, An ever more visible component of this cycle-
static artefact designed by an omniscient deity. is our attempts to ameliorate the impact of
Better, he says, to look at it as ‘an organised the very changes to the environment that we
body . [s]uch as has a constitution in which have brought about.
the necessary decay of the machine is naturally
repaired’ (p. 15). Geography as exploration
Hutton is offering a model of nature not as a
Geography surrounds us. We walk, drive and
mechanism but as a self-regulating system;
fly over and through it. At the same time, it is
an active, interconnected set of continuous
distant: geography is the landscape beyond the
processes. This vision extinguished the stable,
horizon and the intriguing distance between
immobile Earth and replaced it with a dynamic
here and there. Geographical study cannot be
planet Twentieth-century geology and
contained by libraries and laboratories. It is
environmental science took Hutton’s world
about our world, and demands that we get
vision and applied it to an analysis of ho'w
out into the world. This makes geography a
energy and matter shape the Earth, setting
difficult discipline to institutionalise or corral.
the continents and climate into motion. These
Geography wants to take children outside the
discoveries not only secularised the notion of
school gates; it wants to take keyboard tappers
an ordered planet but also diminished the role
out of their gloomy bedrooms and make
allocated to humans in Earth’s long story. They
them confront the raw and diverse world.
also showed how vulnerable we are to natural
This yearning for physical sensation and real
and anthropogenic changes.
life makes geography an awkward customer
Thus scientific innovations have worked in contemporary societies that tend to be risk
to i emind us of geography’s bond with averse, remorselessly monitored and highly
sustainability and survival. It is a bond that, bureaucratic; but that might just be to its
today, is often articulated in the language advantage, for it makes geography both
of environmental crisis. However, another unique and refreshingly troublesome.
characteristic of modern societies - and
Geography is constantly urging us to step
hence of modern geography - is that they
have convinced themselves that material outside the door, yet isn’t exploration dead?
problems nearly always have a technological ‘[W]e are now near the end of the roll of
fix. Geography, as a consequence, has come great discoveries’, Halford Mackinder wrote
to take on the role of a ‘solutions forum’; in his prescient essay of 1887: the ’tales of
introducing and surveying an ever-extending adventure grow fewer and fewer’, yet even in
list of practices and interventions that may the nineteenth century exploration was never
assist us in maintaining a habitable planet. simply about Victorian gentlemen, and a few
It may sound like a common sense thing to women, venturing into ‘undiscovered’ lands.
do, but it is an orientation that encourages Exploration is a journey into the world in search
people to believe that they can and should of the new: it is to physically encounter the
construct their way out of crises. Thus, for world and study and learn from it. My point
the most part, tsunamis have caused us not is that exploration is a basic human trait and
to stop building in coastal areas but to build that geography is still about exploration,
better early warning systems. Similarly, knowing but I am also suggesting that the nature of
that the burning of fossil fuels is damaging exploration, what we think it is, keeps changing.
the environment is not leading nations to Defining exploration generously, as something
significantly reduce overall energy consumption we all undertake or hanker for, allows us
but, rather, to find other energy technologies, to identify two of its contemporary forms:
such as cleaner engines and nuclear power. fieldwork and travel.
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

The concept of ‘fieldwork' originated in However, current trends suggest that fieldwork
land surveying. Fieldwork may be defined as has become integral to an expanding market of
firsthand observations and study carried out popular, and often extra-curricular, geography.
outside of laboratories or classrooms. Fieldwork
Something similar can be said of exploration
came to be considered a necessary feature of a
more generally. Most people have an instinctive
geographical education with the development
curiosity about our world. Such yearnings
of mass education. Some of the key figures
once had to be satisfied by tales from afar
who shaped school geography in Britain were
and limited forays from our own native spot;
also instrumental in asserting the core value
the modern era has changed that. A culture
of fieldwork. Thomas Huxley’s influential early
of mass travel and mass exploration has grown
text Physiography: An introduction to the study
up. It takes many forms: from gap years to
of nature (1877) was unequivocal in claiming
package tourism to feats of endurance in
that geography was a field-based science ‘to be challenging terrain. With these new experiences
learned in the village and countryside, not read and opportunities a new global consciousness
about in books’ (cited by Stoddart, 1986, p. 47). has emerged: the world is understood to be
Huxley’s approach influenced the expectations diverse yet obtainable, exciting but also
of school inspectors, who began to insist that reachable. It is a world in which one can, for
the school grounds and the wider locality must example, live in the USA and imagine India as
be seen as resources for geography lessons. exotic and distant but also fully expect to be
This aspect of ‘Victorian’ geography, as Teresa able to be there in a matter of hours (and,
Ploszajska (1999) explains, still resonates moreover, back home, to expect to find people
today, for fieldwork, ‘whether in familiar local from south Asia living round the corner).
surroundings or distant unknown areas’ (p.
270), was seen as a way of enabling students The immediacy and accessibility of the world’s
to see the connections between study and nations and environments has encouraged
the world outside the school gates. It was, she individual biographies to be structured around
explains, ‘widely considered to be a means of acts of travel and moments of geographical
encouraging children to recognise geography' adventure. Ask someone what they have
as a form of knowledge ‘pre-eminently done over the past year and you are quite
concerned with the real world’ (p. 270). likely to hear a roll-call of destinations. It is
Geography was established as the one of the a striking fact - and I think something that
few slots on the school curriculum that allowed academic geography has not yet appreciated
students to escape their stuffy classroom. It has the importance of - that, today, people often
guarded this status - more or less successfully - talk about their lives in terms of the places
ever since. they have been to or want to go. One area
that has kept pace with this phenomenon is
Fieldwork remains a core component of the internet. Blogs, image-sharing sites and
geographical practice. However, with the social media have turned travel documentation
development of leisure and voluntary-based into an everyday activity, both ubiquitous and
environmental and international encounters, myriad. The love of exploration is no longer
there is a growing connection between the preserve of the few and is not something
educational and tourist- or experience-based that geographers should feel ashamed about:
forms of fieldwork. ‘Eco-tourism’, 'geo-tourism’, it has emerged as one of the most creative and
‘geoparks', and the extensive volunteer vibrant aspects of ordinary life.
schemes that keep many environmental
and development agencies staffed, often
An ambitious vision
incorporate fieldwork as a core activity. Ever
more landscapes are designated for protection
for geography
and educational value and growing numbers of It is a little perverse, but one of the reasons
students seek out, and are sold and consume, I am anxious to talk about geography as one
forms of 'fun-learning' that are both active of humanity’s great projects, as something
and outward looking. The quality of these fundamental to culture and identity, is because
fieldwork experiences varies enormously. I have got used to hearing the discipline
 Chapter 1: What is geography?

Fieldwork remains
a core component
of geographical
practice. Photo ©
John Lyon.

discussed in hesitant and less ambitious ways. developing global tick-lists of key facts. At root
The institutionalisation of geography within the both men’s geography was about studying the
National Curriculum, as well as into university world and, more fundamental still, finding and
degree courses, creates a platform for geography, imposing order upon it. The generation of facts
but it also means that it is vulnerable to being was a consequence of this ambition, as it has
shaped by political and policy forces that been many times since, but it would be perverse
narrow its scope and cut it off from its wider of any society - especially societies whose claim
purpose and popular constituencies. There are to modernity is based on a critical approach to
many examples of this, but I will discuss only tradition - to conflate a geographical education
the two most influential, which can be labelled with this particular outcome of geography's will
'geography as core facts’ and ‘geography as to engage with and understand the world.
useful knowledge for global citizens’. Both of
The second argument - that geography should
these, in other ways dissimilar, viewpoints agree
be defined in terms of its capacity to create
on one thing: that geography provides a handy
global citizens - also lacks ambition. However,
toolkit for an interconnected, crisis-prone world.
its modem credentials, by comparison with the
And, in this narrow respect, they are both right.
‘core facts’ approach, are unmissable. Indeed,
Geography can, indeed, deliver useful skills for
it sometimes appears as if the urge to be ‘up to
young people entering a globalised market­
the minute with a changing world’ displaces
place, yet such a focus on the contemporary
any other consideration. Cheri Lucas, writing for
utility of geography also betrays something else
an American teachers’ website on geography’s
both approaches share: a lack of ambition. To
relevance, provides a compelling statement
reduce geography to a helpful gizmo for a
of the position: ‘Ina global society, where
changing planet is to turn something profound
communication with someone in a tiny internet
into something small and transitory.
café in Nepal is instantaneous, geography skills
The ‘core facts’ approach to geography is are more imperative than ever’ (Lucas, 2009).
almost as old as the idea of geography itself, Thus geography is identified as a ‘twenty-first-
yet although this heritage is ancient it is also century skill’. It is an emphasis that has been
superficial. For at the heart of the work of developed in many other statements. In a
geographers such as Eratosthenes or, a few pamphlet from the US-based Gilbert M.
centuries later, Strabo, whose 17-volume Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education,
Geography is one of the discipline's founding entitled Why Geography is Important (no date),
texts, was something far more important than it is concluded that: 'Geographic knowledge,

0
 The Handbook of Secondary Geography

skills, and technology provide a means to It may be formal but it never really sufficed,
comprehend the rapidly changing physical and for it fails to get anywhere near to the beating
cultural environments of the world and, thus, heart of geography. Indeed, there is not only
prepare us to be better global citizens’ (p. 4). a dullness of tone but also an intellectual
So geography is identified as a life skill for the weariness to Hartshorne’s definition. Who, after
early twenty-first century: 'important', to be all, ever thought they would set out to ' provide’
sure, but something handy for ‘now’ rather the inaccurate, disorderly and irrational? Or,
than something of fundamental significance indeed, that one could forgo 'description and
to the human story. interpretation’? The ‘variable character’ of
‘the Earth’s surface’ seems to promise more.
My argument is not that either the 'core
But the term ‘surface’ is misleading, since a lot
facts’ or the 'global citizens' approaches to
of geography is concerned with climate or
geography are wrong, but that they fall short.
subsurface processes. One might admit ‘variable
Like many issue-based representations of
character’ if it did not seem like an attempt to
fundamental forms of knowledge, they fail
turn the obvious into a scholastic achievement
to appreciate the wider and deeper human
(would a historian feel the need to say history
appeal of the topic they wish to speak up for.
concerned the variable character of the past?).
This is shown by their insistence that geography
What are we left with? One thing: the one thing
can be understood as useful knowledge for
that lives and breathes and demands our
the challenges of today. Geography certainly
attention under all the waffle. Earth. Young or
encompasses this urgent agenda. However,
old, we all recognise it as geography’s province.
it is also necessary to think about geography
The idea that geography is the world discipline
as something bigger and grander than a crisis
threads its way through many, more verbose,
response or a ‘solutions provider’. Let us not
definitions like a vein of gold.
forget that geography has been knowledge
for 'now' several times: a century ago, it ‘Geography is the world discipline’. This five-
was knowledge for the 'now' of European word definition carries complex and challenging
imperialism. ‘Now’ is always important, but claims. Geography arises from the necessity of
when you define a discipline around it you are knowing and making sense of the resources
suggesting that that discipline is a temporary and dangers of our environment, but it also
fix. It is a bit like claiming that science matters seeks the bigger picture: geography helps us
because it can help us cure cancer. Itis not imagine that there is meaning and sense in
wrong - indeed, it is vital we know this - the world. Geography allows us to see order in
but it is a superficial way of understanding what otherwise would be chaos. In the modern
what science is or what it offers us. To see era the geographical imagination has been
geography as one of humanity’s most structured into two basic tendencies; namely,
ambitious ideas and to define it as 'the world the pursuit of international and environmental
discipline’ gives us a bigger and, I think, more knowledge. This division reflects modernity’s
truthful portrait of this unwieldy yet utterly global ambitions and its power to establish
necessary and very human project. nature as a discrete arena for exploitation or
wonder. Geography is not just a scholastic
Conclusion venture, it is also an active attempt to engage
and encounter the world. Geography will always
A few decades ago the most famous academic
be associated with exploration. This ambition
definition of geography came from Richard -
to explore, to break down the barriers between
Hartshorne. In Perspective on the Nature of
‘study’ and the real world, makes geography
Geography (1959) he wrote that 'geography
a distinctive contribution to bureaucratic and
is concerned to provide accurate, orderly, and
institutionalised systems of education, as well
rational description and interpretation of the
as a challenge to students who can appear a
variable character of the Earth’s surface’ (p. 21).
little lost when ripped away from the comforts
For many years this was, as Peter Haggett of mediated, internet-based, experiences. Its
notes, the 'best known and most widely used wide sweep, its long history and its curiosity
formal definition’ of the discipline (1995, p. 8). about the raw world outside the window, make

U
 Chapter 1: What is geography?

Geography should
be defined as ‘the
world discipline’.
Photo © Bryan
Ledgard.

Haggett, P. (1995) The Geographer's Art. Oxford: Blackwell.

geography a potentially awkward discipline
both for schools and school students, but this Hartshorne. R. (1959) Perspective on the Nature of
Geography. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
very awkwardness is also geography's strength:
Hutton. J. (2007, originally published 1788) Theory of the
it isn't like other subjects, nor should it try to
Earth. Sioux Falls, SD: NuVisionPublications.
be. Its ambitions are too big and its horizons
Huxley, T. (1877) Physiography: An introduction to the study
too wide. It is an essential component of a
of nature. London: Macmillan.
good education but it is more than that too, for
Lucas, C. (2009) Global literacy: geography for the 21st
geography is rooted in some of our most basic
century. Available at: www.education.com/magazine/article/
and important needs and hopes. Global_Literacy (last accessed 12 /01 /2015).

Mackinder, HJ. (1996, originally published 1887) 'On the

References scope and methods of geography’ in Agnew, J., Livingstone.
D. and Rogers, A. (eds) Human Geography: An essential
Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education
anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 155-72.
(no date) Why Geography is Important. San Marcos,
TX: Texas State University. Available at: http://geography. Ploszajska. T. (1999) Geographical Education, Empire
vt.edu/Why % 20is % 20Geography % 20Important.pdf and Citizenship: Geographical teaching and learning in
(last accessed 02/11/2016). English schools, 1870-19^^. London: Historical Geography
Research Group.
Glacken, C. (1976) Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and
culture in western thought from ancient times to the end of the Stoddart, D. (1986) On Geography and its History.
eighteenth century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Oxford: Blackwell.

Recommended key readings

Glacken, C. (1976) Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and culture in western thought from ancient times to the end of the
eighteenth century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
In this geographical and historical classic. Glacken gives us an ambitious, and sweeping, survey of the development of Western
civilisation’s determination to find order in a chaotic world.

Matthews, J. and Herbert, D. (eds) (2004) Unifying Geography: Common heritage, shared future. London: Routledge.
An enjoyable survey of the geographical imagination, this edited collection offers excellent essays on the importance of fieldwork
and the connections between the branches of the discipline.
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

Thinking geographically
David Lambert is Professor of Geography Education at University College London
Institute of Education

Introduction It also implies a distinctive kind of thought -

geographical thought - that presumably is
Curriculum authorities frequently place a lot less available to those who lack geographical
of emphasis on developing young people's knowledge (and understanding).
capacity to ‘think geographically’. However,
there are enormous divergences in what is
Why 'thinking geographically’?
meant by this phrase, why it matters and
how to promote it. This chapter opens up a Thinking geographically is not ‘everyday
discussion guided by these questions in a way thinking’. If we thought these were the same,
that will be useful and productive to teachers there would be little point in having geography
of geography. It borrows heavily from the lessons, or specialist geography teachers who
Geographical Association’s (GA’s) innovative are grounded in - and indeed part of - the
and influential work on thinking geographically discipline of geography. Neither are schools
as a means of orienting and underpinning everyday places: they introduce students to
localised geographical curriculum making in the world as an 'object of thought' rather
schools. Much of this work was accomplished than as a 'place of experience’ (Young, 2008;
in the context of the 2014 National Curriculum Young and Muller, 2010; Young et al., 201 A).
revision in England (and revisions of GCSE Subjects help organise this thinking by relating
and A level examinations) that anticipated concepts systematically. For example, when
a ‘knowledge turn’ in curriculum thinking in students learn about ‘the city’ as an object
England (Lambert, 2011 a). of thought they are taken beyond the realm
of their experience by learning about form
Renewed emphasis on knowledge is overdue.
and function, or about economic and social
We may have been careless, collectively, about
processes. They are therefore introduced to
what we teach in geography, as if the content
‘theoretical’ concepts that are systematically
of geography lessons was not all that important.
related to each other and which require
Ofsted has made this point (Ofsted, 2011 ) but so
different thought processes from those of
has Margaret Roberts who, drawing on a career-
everyday learning: they enable us to make links,
long perspective of scholarship and practical
comparisons and generalisations. Sometimes
experience, has observed the disappearance of
we use models to help frame such thinking,
geographical knowledge from geography lessons
and when used effectively - with an emphasis
(Roberts, 2013). Bill Marsden warned about this
on the processes they were designed to illustrate
possibility nearly 20 years ago (Marsden, 1997),
rather than the model as a ‘fact’ to be learned
arguing that political, social and pedagogic
- they can be helpful thinking devices. Used
influences can lead us inadvertently to 'taking
badly, taught as 'facts' or as if they somehow
the geography out of geography education’.
represent ‘reality’, they can be arid, confusing
A refocus on geographical knowledge does not
and almost useless.
require us to throw out adventurous and active
pedagogies, or turn back to the futility of rote To introduce the world to students as an object
learning. To focus on thinking geographically is of geographical thought requires pedagogic
one way to embrace the value of geographical ingenuity, for subject knowledge may otherwise
knowledge in the school curriculum partly remain unconnected and ‘inert’. This gets to
because it evokes active intellectual effort. the heart of both the value of subject-specialist
 Chapter 2: Thinking geographically

As teachers, we
induct students
into making
sense of the
world through
geographical
thinking. Photo
© Bryan Ledgard.

teaching and the intellectual and practical subject’ (Lambert, 2011 a). If core knowledge
challenges that face teachers every day. To is geography’s vocabulary, geography’s
have an overall sense of professional identity as conceptual framework forms its grammar.
a geography teacher certainly helps us meet Core geographical knowledge under this remit
such challenges. This identity is provided in part,
was said to be typically the information presented
but crucially, by a clear framework of organising
between the covers of any school atlas. This
concepts that offer an enduring vision of what
aspect of geographical knowledge is in itself
lies at the conceptual ‘heart’ of the subject. It fascinating to many, but as a gazetteer, has
provides the subject resource and the
limited educational value. As the GA (2012)
conceptual map teachers require in order to
stated at the time:
induct students into making sense of the world
through geographical thinking. It is helpful to We need facts in order to think, but we
be able to express such a framework in a also need concepts to enable us to group
manner that is relatively straightforward to bits ofinformation, or facts, together.
grasp - by parents at parents’ evenings; by Simply absorbing lists of geography’s
head teachers allocating subject time and/or vocabulary does not amount to much
making judgements about the merits of more than a dramatic feat of memory:
fieldwork (see Lambert and Reiss, 2014); impressive, but is not in itself a sign of the
and by students, not least at options time. intellectual development that we could
regard as geographical thinking. For this,
Inevitably, by dint of its specialist orientation,
we are looking for a form of conceptual
we cannot avoid the use of some technical and
knowledge development which links facts
precise terminology. However, there are ways to
together through geographic thought'.
help us do this. For example, if we were to
imagine learning to think geographically to be a Thus, thinking geographically is a really important
bit like learning a language, then we need both and useful means of capturing the significance of
geographical vocabulary and grammar. In 2011, what we do in geography classrooms. However,
I argued that the subject’s ‘core knowledge’ if we want this idea to gain traction and to carry
can be thought of as geography’s vocabulary sufficient weight to be convincing then we need
- the extensive, factual basis of the ‘world to think even harder as to what it really means.
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

_______________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -

In what ways
do geographers
‘read’ landscapes
differently from
other specialists?
Photo © Jeremy
Buckingham,
reproduced under
Creative Commons
licence (CC BY 2.0).

What do we mean by ‘thinking ‘there is something coherent about

the idea of geography, [we need to be]
geographically’?
cautious about rushing to “defne" the
As already discussed, there are strong reasons subject once and for all, or even its “core"
for expressing the idea in a clear and of essential knowledge, concepts and skills.
communicable way. But there are also strong More productive is the need for continued
reasons to avoid offering a definition that thought and reflection on the aims and
is so bland as to be useless, so tight as to purposes of teaching geography in schools'
be restricting, or so ‘of the moment’ (or (Morgan, 2013, p. 281). ’
idiosyncratic) as to have limited shelf-life.
This section, therefore, is in three parts: after Hence, we still have to say what ‘thinking
some ground clearing, it takes some steps geographically’ means, even if we remain
towards making a response to the question cautious and open to revision. Morgan offers
through the Geographical Association’s 2009 a number of alternatives, showing through
‘manifesto’ A Different View and then presents a series of examples how different accounts
almost verbatim the GA’s 2012 framework on of - and disputes about - geography have
how to think geographically. emerged. These do not necessarily run
sequentially through time but often occur
Clearing the ground concurrently:

John Morgan (2013) stressed that it was ieographical • 10 fedge

impossible to write a 'once and for all’ definition
Can geography portray the objective
of geography - and therefore, of what it means
'real world' (a singular geography)?
to think geographically. His main point was
that geography as an idea and as a system To what extent is geographical knowledge
of thought is not timeless. It is rather, like all 'socially constructed' (multiple
subject disciplines, a social construct, ‘refracted’ geographies)?
through its particular socio-political context. What is geographical knowledge for
Thus, he concluded that although: (to what uses can it be put)?
 Chapter 2. Thinking geographically

Geogac phy as C V ay of seeing Although it is not meant to suggest a sequential

To what extent is geography (after Mackinder, development in a particular direction, the list
1890) a 'trained capacity’ for thought (rather nevertheless does present a broad transitional
than an assemblage of information)? sweep from specialist ‘knowledge’ towards the
looser conceptual frame of the ‘everyday’,
In what ways do geographers 'read'
finishing with a commitment to take seriously
landscapes differently from other specialists,
‘the popular wisdom of everyday life’ (Jackson,
such as biologists or artists?
quoted in Morgan, 2013, p. 280). This position
In what manner do geographical ways of accepts that ‘children have valid ideas and
seeing contribute to our potential to 'live interpretations, and that academic geographers
sanely’ in the world (to paraphrase (and by extension teachers) do not have a
Fairgrieve, 1926)? "uniquely critical insight" into... cultural texts’
(Morgan, 2013, p. 280).
ieog aphy osan integrated approach
To what degree is geography an attitude of Morgan shows that most of the elements in
the list above can be associated with formal
mind to keep things connected - not least,
geographical thought. It was Halford Mackinder
between classroom learning and the real
(1890) who introduced the idea of geography
world outdoors?
as a ‘trained capacity’ for thought. It was also
What is the significance of geography’s
his generation of geographers who encouraged
refusal to separate the physical and the
us to see the world from the British point of
human (and what are the consequences
view - including the story of Empire. Adjusting
if it fails)?
this lens somewhat, James Fairgrieve (1926)
How successfully does geography provide urged us to think of geography as a means
a 'bridge' between the humanities and for greater international understanding. The
the sciences? long-standing integrated approach to
geographical knowledge is appealing to the
. cogro phy as a fundamental present day (sometimes, as with Rawding
modern) idea (2014), referred to as ‘holistic’ thinking).
To what extent is the ancient need Matthews and Herbert (2008) have developed
(after Bonnett, 2008) to 'explain the a modern integrated approach, but rather
world and its people’ a question, differently from Alastair Bonnett’s (2008)
ultimately, of human survival? arguably more inclusive response to the
How do the questions geography asks question ‘What is geography?’. Bonnett points
change as contexts change, for instance to the benefits of responding to the question
through developments in communication in a multi-perspectival manner - requiring us
technologies? to think of geographies in the plural rather than
a singular discipline in content or approach.
If geography really is a 'fundamental’ idea,
Included in this of course is the notion of
can it really be 'owned' solely by academics
‘everyday geographies’, which we can trace
and be seen only as an academic discipline?
to the interventions of highly influential
icography hrough the everyd y contemporary UK geographers such as Peter
Jackson and the late Doreen Massey who have
What status should be afforded to
also outlined their understanding of the notion
geography in the popular imagination
of ‘thinking geographically’ (see Jackson, 2006;
(including that which inhabits quiz shows)?
Massey, 2006). The latter in particular has
To what extent do the popular geographies been consistent in encouraging geographers to
provided through travel guides, novels and ‘take on the world’ (Massey, 2014), promoting
films undermine or strengthen geography? ' a sense of the global ’ - that is, of the planet as
What attention should we pay to students’ a whole, the globe as a place in which divisions
everyday lived experiences as a source and boundaries are understood to be more
of geographical knowledge (and/or porous and flexible than previously thought.
meaning making)? Not all agree with this of course, and Alex
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

Figure 1:
Cover of-A
Different View:
A manifesto from
the Geographical
Association
Source: GA, 2009.

Geography holds
together ideas such
as place and space.
Image © NASA.

Standish (2012), for example, is keen to warn us is what geographers do' is also 'a deeply
of the ‘false promise’ of global learning. Right unhelpful response and an avoidance rather
or wrong, arguments as fundamental as this are than an answer’ to the question (Morgan,
important as they show the very purpose of 2013, p. 273). So, can we come to an answer
disciplinary communities. worth sharing?
The development of the discipline of geography
as portrayed by the highly compressed Coming to an answer
account above is but one version of events.
In 2009, the GA published a ‘manifesto’
Tim Cresswell (2013), has recently provided
(Figure 1 ). It can be explored in full on the
a different and very much more detailed
GA website. In sum, it was an attempt by the
history of geographic thought, drawing on the
GA to make a strong and perhaps provocative
various paradigm shifts that have occurred in
statement about geography, expressed as
geography. Though different, such versions
a ‘subject resource’, and an approach to
of events are not necessarily inconsistent. It
education articulated partly through Richard
is enough for us to understand and concede
Peters’ (1963) concept of ‘initiation’ using
that geography is not a discipline with hard
his well-known position that to be educated is
edges and generally agreed procedures or
not so much to arrive at a destination, but to
even purposes. We might say the discipline
‘travel with a different view’ (Slater, 1992).
is dynamic, or simply unruly. Basil Bernstein,
the influential education theorist, would say A fundamental component of the manifesto was
geography is a subject that lacks the " verticality ‛ 'curriculum making’. This explicitly recognised
of subjects like physics, and that it is weakly the role of specialist teachers in creating a
‘framed’ (Bernstein, 1999). This diagnosis is 'curriculum of engagement’ (Young et al., 201 A)
hard to deny: and why would anyone even try based on developing the capacity to think
to? Geography's ‘ horizontality’ is in many ways geographically. In short, pedagogic competence
its signature and its appeal. and a respect for children’s experiences and
What do we conclude from this? Do we prior knowledge, though important, are not
conclude that geography is so complicated enough in themselves. In addition, teachers
that it does not lend itself to a single (and need to draw from and interpret the selections
fixed) definition? And that to try to produce of geographical knowledge in the curriculum.
one would be at best a waste of time - or Crucially, it did not advocate turning the clock
worse, needlessly restrictive? To be fair, when back to inert and ‘given’ earlier versions of
it comes to saying what is meant by 'thinking geographical knowledge - the Gradgrind lists
geographically’, Morgan argues that simply to and definitions that have become the very
resort to that well-worn adage that 'geography shorthand of 'boring school’.
 Chapter 2: Thinking geographically

Figure 2:
Curriculum making.
Source: GA, 2016.

Figure 2 attempts to illustrate curriculum geographically. This was referenced almost

making. The diagram is readily interpreted in exclusively to Peter Jackson's (2006) article,
terms of its self-evident invitation to work which discussed the idea mainly in terms of
towards ‘balance’ in the midst of the the importance in geography of 'relational
competing priorities - to serve student needs, thinking’: holding together pairs of ideas such
to demonstrate practical classroom knowledge as place and space, local and global, people
and skill, and to impart knowledge. Of course, and environment, and physical and human.
these categories are rarely as distinct from each
other in practice as this model implies. However, In a separate but clearly connected line of work
teaching that is too focused in any one of these I published a tentative article (Lambert, 2011a)
domains risks being inadequate: that discussed the possible ‘reframing’ of school
geography using a capabilities approach (see
Too child-centred, and the teaching runs the
also Solem et a/., 2013; Lambert et a/., 2015).
risk of failing to move children beyond their
This was a further attempt to pin down thinking
pre-existing everyday knowledge.
geographically as an educational outcome. In
Too subject-centred, and the risk is we fail to asking how school geography may contribute
enable all students to access specialised
to the growth of children’s and young people’s
subject knowledge; we are not sensitive
capabilities I suggested a three-part framework:
enough to the importance of connecting
with children’s pre-existing knowledge. the acquisition and development of deep
descriptive and explanatory ‘world
Too teacher-centred, and the risk is that
knowledge’; we can think of this as
lessons become defined solely by aspects
geography's core knowledge, its ‘vocabulary’
of the teacher’s ‘performance’.
the development of the relational thinking
In this sense the model describes the practical that underpins geographical thought; we
act of curriculum making in terms of merging can think of this as geography’s conceptual
- and applying appropriate balance to - the subject identity, its ‘grammar’
conceptually distinct categories of curriculum
• a propensity to ask questions, explore
and pedagogy (that is, the ‘what’ and the
and apply analysis to alternative social,
‘how’ of teaching). What is important to the
present discussion, however, is that the broad economic and environmental futures in
outcome of successfully making the geography particular place contexts; we can think of
curriculum was expressed in the GA’s manifesto this as ‘geographical enquiry’
as the growing capacity of students to think (adapted from Lambert 2011 a; 2011 b).
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

This formulation is readily communicable to as a place. Places are usually interconnected

parents, colleagues and students. It provides a with other places, often in complex ways. Places
sophisticated but clear view as to what thinking are unique, but do not have to be studied as if
geographically entails. It would be interesting to they were singular, for in seeking understanding
use this as a device for evaluating teaching units geographers often study general processes and
- for both content and pedagogy. However, it look for similarities as well as differences in how
clearly needs some further work - the relational these are played out in particular place
thinking that underpins geographical thought is contexts. In studying place in school we can:
in need of some unpacking, but Jackson (2006) progress from describing the characteristics
offers a good start. of places to explaining them. These
characteristics include population, climate,
A conceptual framework for economy, landforms, built environment, soils
relational thinking in geography and vegetation, communities, water
resources, cultures, minerals, landscape,
The GA's support for school geography has and recreational and scenic quality.
been sustained and consistent for over a Some are tangible, such as rivers and
century. As curriculum thinking always has to be buildings, while others are less so, such as
underpinned by a sense of the goals or wilderness and socio-economic status
purposes of teaching geography, it is inevitable
explore people's aesthetic, emotional,
that the GA has invested considerable energy in
cultural and spiritual connections with
clarifying the organising concepts of geography
places; the role of places in their feelings of
as it applies to the school curriculum. The
identity, sense of place and belonging; and
following section rests heavily on this effort.
the ways they experience and use places
A few large organising concepts underlie recognise that places may be altered and
a geographical way of investigating and remade by people, and that changes
understanding the world. These are high-level promoted by one group may be contested
ideas that can be applied across the subject by others. The values and beliefs of people
to identify a question, guide an investigation, and groups are variables that contribute to
organise information, suggest an explanation our understanding of why change in places
or assist decision making. is often controversial
An enduring suite of main organising concepts use the uniqueness of places to explain why
of geography is place, space and environment. the outcomes of universal environmental
Of course, beneath this level of 'big ideas’ there and human processes may vary, and why
is a multitude of substantive concepts - e.g. similar problems may require different
from river basin to glacial ice; from city to rural strategies in different places.
fringe; from production to consumption -
but by using the big ideas carefully and . p ice (the importance of the
accurately we have a means of identifying sr cticł dimension)
what it means to think geographically about Space in geography is the three-dimensional
the substantive material. surface of Earth. While historians study change
over time, geographical study emphasises
So, what is meant by these three ‘big’
differences across space. This is of particular
organising concepts? How do these link to
importance in understanding the rich diversity
a definition of geographical thinking?
of environments, peoples, cultures and
Place (the importance of context) economies that exist together. In geography
we develop a deeper understanding of space
A place is a specific part of Earth’s surface that
(the ’spatial’) by:
people have named and given meaning to
(although these meanings may differ between • investigating the spatial distribution of
people). Places range in size from the home and phenomena and explaining them, often by
locality to a major world region; as we have seen, looking for a spatial association between
Doreen Massey even urged us to see the planet several distributions
 Chapter 2: Thinking geographically

learning how to evaluate the environmental, and manage environments (intentionally

economic, social and political consequences and unintentionally)
of particular spatial distributions exploring different world views about the
studying the influence of absolute and relationship between people and the
relative location on the characteristics of environment, and applying ideas such as
■ places and on people’s lives stewardship and sustainability in their
recognising that improvements in transport studies of the environment
and communication systems have greatly ■ recognising that studies of environmental
reduced the time taken to send goods, change have an ethical dimension, succinctly
capital and information between places, captured by the question: who gets what,
which has increased the speed at which where and why (and why care)?
economic and cultural impacts spread investigating the effects of the environment
around the world on people and places through the
investigating the ways that space is opportunities and challenges it presents
structured, organised and managed for for economic development and human
different purposes settlement
recognising that people perceive and use reflecting on the extent to which the
space differently, and may feel accepted environment contributes to people’s
and safe in some places and unwelcome or sense of identity.
unsafe in others
The lists above provide an account of the
- understanding the role of values and beliefs broad organising concepts of geography.
in influencing decision making about how They are not to be ‘read off’ as a syllabus:
space may be used in the future they are a device to underpin thinking about
exploring the ways space is represented, what a teaching programme looks like when it
such as by maps, art, literature, films, is directed by broad subject-based aims or
songs, stories and dance, and the influences goals. When we operate with a clear sense of
of these representations on people’s geography’s big ideas we are more able to
perceptions. demonstrate the value of the discipline. Rather
than a curriculum of compliance, which compels
In vironment (the importance of the us to ‘cover the content', what is needed is a
processes tho t mal e our surroundings) curriculum of engagement, where we can move
The term environment refers to our living children and young people, step by step, into a
and non-living surroundings. The features world of ideas: this is what the GA implied by
of the environment can be classified as calling its manifesto A Different View. It is very
natural, managed, or constructed (the built close to what Michael Young has called a Future
environment). However, we also recognise 3 curriculum (Young et al., 2014). In a Future 3
that these categories are fuzzy: there is much curriculum, subjects are not 'given' and static
interaction and cross-over. The concept of (as in Future 1 ), but neither are they arbitrary
environment provides a powerful way of and dispensable, as in the skills-oriented Future
understanding, explaining and thinking about 2 curriculum that has often replaced the
the world. In geography we do this by: traditional notion of a knowledge-led
curriculum. Instead, a knowledge-led Future 3
recognising the environment as an
curriculum introduces students to 'the epistemic
ecosystem - with environmental benefits,
rules of specialist communities' to provide ways
such as genetic diversity, nutrient cycling,
to understand the world objectively, and take
water and energy stores
students beyond their everyday experience (see
investigating the structure and functioning also Young and Muller, 2010). It seeks to induct
of environments as systems: of weather, students into the idea of better knowledge (not
climate, hydrology, geomorphology, ‘anything goes’) and the arguments,
biogeography and soils procedures and processes that help us discern
examining the ways that people use, alter and decide what this is.
The Handbook of Secondary Geography

Although places
are unique they
are connected
to other places.
Photo © Tim Peel.

Final thoughts physical and human world; to keep the world

‘whole’. Geography, through its abiding
Peter Jackson (2006) writes that ‘thinking interest in difference and diversity, tells us
geographically offers a uniquely powerful way how challenging this is, but at the same time
of seeing the world and making connections how important it is to try.
between scales, from the local to the global’
(p. 119). If we accept place, space and Former President of the American Association of
environment as the irreducible ‘heart’ of school Geographers (AAG) Susan Hanson (2004) also
geography it is possible, desirable even, to build makes a strong claim about the distinctive
benefits of thinking geographically, referring
a structure such as Jackson’s that captures,
to what she calls the ‘geographic advantage’,
perhaps even more concisely, the relational
communicating ‘the truth that geographers
thinking that characterises distinctively
have something to offer that others do not’.
geographical perspectives. Jackson’s list,
Geographers consider, she argues:
slightly adapted, is as follows:
relationships between people and the
Space and place: This reminds us that
environment
although places are unique they are not
isolated but connected to other places. the importance of spatial variability (the
The flows between places and through place-dependence of processes)
places are important. processes operating at multiple and
Scale and connection: This is the 'zoom lens’ interlocking geographic scales
attribute of geography that shows how the integration of spatial and temporal
decisions and events at a local level can have analysis (Hanson, 2004, p. 720).
global consequences, and global processes
Although Hanson's list is slightly different, it
■ can have differential effects locally.
does not take much to get the main point
Proximity and distance: This means not just about the relational thinking that perhaps lies
physical distance as expressed in kilometres, at the heart of thinking geographically. The
but perceptions of distance as well. argument in this chapter is that developing
Geographers have had to adopt more young people’s capacity to think geographically
flexible understandings of distance, serves as a broad educational goal for teachers.
especially in the electronic age. And for teachers this goal is their means to
People and environment: This stresses the make sense of content-heavy National
propensity geographers have to link the Curriculum lists and examination specifications.
 Chapter 2: Thinking geographically

Massey, D. (2006) 'The geographical mind’ in Balderstone,

Refares C D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook. Sheffield:
Bernstein, B. (1999) ‘Vertical and horizontal discourse: an essay’, Geographical Association, pp. 46-51.
British Journal of Sociology of Education. 20,2, pp.1 57-73. Massey, D. (2014) "Taking on the world’. Geography, 99.1.
Bonnett, A. (2008) What is Geography? London: Sage. pp. 36-39.

Cresswell, T. (2013) Geographical Thought: A critical Matthews, H. and Herbert, D. (2008) Geography: A very short
introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fairgrieve, J. (1926) Geography in School. London: University Morgan, J. (2013) 'What do we mean by thinking
of London Press. geographically?’ in Lambert, D. and Jones, M. (eds) Debates
in Geography Education. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 273-81.
GA (2016) Curriculum making. Available at: www.geography.
org.uk/cpdevents/curriculum/curriculummaking (last accessed Ofsted (2011) Geography: Learning to make a world
02/11/2016). of difference. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/
publications/geography-learning-to-make-a-world-of-
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difference (last accessed 02/11/2016).
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uk/resources/adifferentview (last accessed 02/11 /2016). Peters, R.S. (1963) 'Education As Initiation'. Inaugural lecture
delivered at the University of London Institute of Education,
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Solem, M., Lambert, D. and Tani, S. (2013) ‘Geocapabilities:
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Standish, A. (2012) The False Promise of Global Learning:
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. commended key readings

Cresswell, T. (2013) Geographical Thought: A critical introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Geography is a notoriously ill-disciplined discipline, in that it can be perplexing to find the common thread between all that is carried
out in the name of geography in universities and beyond (including the contents of the National Geographic Channel for examplel).
This book does a very good Job indeed in giving geographic thought a sense of overall shape and direction. Strictly speaking
the book is not about the act of thinking geographically, but about the value of engaging with geographical ideas. A particular
strength is the historical dimension Cresswell provides and the sense of a discipline of rich and contested theoretical perspectives.

Morgan. J. (2013) 'What do we mean by thinking geographically?' in Lambert, D. and Jones, M. (eds) Debates in Geography
Education. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 273-81.
John Morgan’s interest is closer to the act of thinking in a geographical manner - and in this short but helpful chapter cautions us
against trying to define this too closely. Historical perspective is a great strength of this chapter too. as Morgan illustrates how
thinking geographically has changed over a period of 130 years - roughly its lifespan as a university discipline in English universities.