Australasian Geographical Educational Research Trends in the Context of Teacher Education

Abstract

An initial survey of geographical education in Education Faculties across Australia is cause for considerable pessimism about its future per se. Since the late 1980s curriculum development has been guided by a policy document known as the Hobart Declaration of Schooling. For the first time in Australia, State Education Ministers agreed to a common set of goals. The document titled 'Common and Agreed National Goals for Schooling in Australia (1989)' set out principles since translated into eight national learning areas of which Studies of Society and Environment is one. This historic move to bring about some uniformity between states was to see geography included in this umbrella strand with other disciplines, which include anthropology, ecology, political science, economics, history, psychology and philosophy. As a result, the teaching emphasis has shifted the content from a prior discipline emphasis on 'cultural transmission' (Marsh, 2001) of factual information to focus on process and process outcomes. During these successive 20 years, teacher self-interest and optional pre-tertiary studies have largely governed geographic education. The strongest interest for teaching the traditional discipline as a separate subject appears to be in non-government schools where curriculum decision-making is an individual school based issue.