The Evolution of Research in Geographical Education in France

Abstract

Geography in France has been part of the national curriculum since early in the 19th century; it became a people-environment study under Vidal de La Blache's influence in the last quarter of that century and developed under that paradigm well into the 1960s. Research into geographical education did not take off until the 1970s when new paradigms of geography began to be espoused. Since then great strides have been made through the influence of a dynamic team of researchers at the Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique (INRP) and after the creation of the Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maitres (IUFM). Some of the sources available on such research are examined.