- Title
- Challenging geography: a South African perspective
- Creator
- Irwin, Patrick R
- Creator
- van Harmelen, Ursula
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date Issued
- 1995
- Date
- 1995
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450132
- Identifier
- vital:74885
- Identifier
- https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.960403836
- Description
- Few teachers and learners have any 'sense of ownership' of 'the place' in which school geography is located. Notwithstand-ing the apparent neutrality of a subject that is concerned with information about climate, settlement, or the economy, these 'geographies' have until now been located, in a political and physical landscape of a South Africa that did not 'belong' to the people at large. This has effectively meant that geography has been taught from a perspective that is perceived to be alien and even hostile, and is therefore often considered to be irrel-evant. Teaching resources and strategies have served to strengthen this sense of alienation. Textbooks are, in style and content, almost exclusively situated in a white South Africa of which many pupils have little or no experience. Furthermore, because geography has been taught 'from a book' with field-work the exception rather than the rule, few children have any concept of geography as' that which is all around us' (Mapha-phuli 1992; King 1994). It is part of the missed opportunities of South African geography that indigenous cultural concepts re-lating to the notion of place have not been widely recognised. The combination of a lack of a sense of political ownership and perceived 'eurocentricity' has had a further impact on the atti-tudes of pupils and learners.
- Format
- 3 pages
- Format
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Geographical Education
- Relation
- Irwin, P. and Van Harmelen, U., 1995. Challenging geography: a South African perspective. Geographical Education, 8(3), pp.35-38
- Relation
- Geographical Education volume 8 number 3 35 38 1995 2049-775X
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the publisher
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Collections
Irwin, Patrick Roger (Prof)
RU Department of Education
SDG 04. Quality Education
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