Geographical education in Brazil: past and present in “the country of the future”

Abstract

This paper examines the past, present and future context of geographical education in Brazil and the issues that, in our view, are relevant to understand its ebb and flow in the complex reality of the country. Various trends have affected the development of geographical education since the 1970s. Two pillars of training and school practice reflect the current content of geographical education. Beginning with a historical overview of geographical education in Brazil, we identify the main issues that need to be addressed: What conceptions of geography and geographical education are reflected in the educational materials at schools? How do these reflect the teaching practices? What is the “place” of geography in the official curriculum? From the examination of the past and present of geographical education in Brazil, we see that Brazil is currently best suited for an ideal synthesis in geographical education: at the level of theory, a synthesis of aspects of critical geography and civic education; at the level of public policy, a synthesis of centralization and decentralization in geography curricular designs; and at the level of practice, a synthesis of education about and for sustainable development with education about and with geospatial technologies.

Keywords:

• school geography
• Brazil
• curricula
• teacher training
• school practices
• future studies