What’s in a Name? Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability Key Words and Program Names

Abstract

The academic discipline of geography, faced with increasing competition from cognate fields and declining undergraduate enrollments, continues to suffer an identity crisis. In recent decades, many geography programs have instituted department or degree name changes, or otherwise rebranded, without any evidence guiding these decisions. This study begins to build an evidence base for these decisions by presenting results from a survey of 4,388 undergraduates across four U.S. universities to understand how students rate key words that commonly appear in geography course descriptions and titles and phrases that comprise degree and department names. Undergraduates overwhelmingly and consistently preferred simple, thematic types of terms to those that sounded more technical or science oriented. Forms of the word geography were rated significantly lower than words or phrases containing environment and sustainability. Forms of geography that included the word science were rated particularly low. Student ratings varied by class standing, major, gender, high school location (United States vs. outside of the United States), whether the student had previously enrolled in a geography course, and self-perceived numeracy. Multivariable analysis revealed potential opportunities for targeted undergraduate recruiting and curricular development. This study is an important step toward reconciling contemporary student perceptions of geography and related fields with departmental identities and the disciplinary jargon often used in program and course descriptions. We offer a toolkit for implementing similar research at other institutions and ultimately helping geography programs recruit and retain the next generation of geographers.

地理学科日益面临着其它相似学科的竞争, 本科生数量下降, 继续受到学科定位的困扰。近几十年来, 许多地理专业和地理系都更换了名称, 或者重新进行了专业宣传。然而, 这些决策都没有证据的指导。本研究为这些决策建立了证据基础, 展示了对4所美国大学4,388名本科生的调查结果, 了解学生们如何评价地理课程简介和课程名称中的关键词, 以及学生们如何评价专业名称和系名中的词组。绝大数本科生喜欢简单的专题性词汇, 而不是技术性和科学性很强的词语。对含有“地理学”的词语的评价, 远远低于含有“环境”和“可持续”的词或词组, 而含有“科学”的词语的评价最低。学生的年级、专业、性别、高中所在的位置（美国和美国以外）、是否曾经选修了地理课程、对算术能力的自我评估等, 导致了学生的评价各有不同。多元变量分析揭示了本科招生、课程建设的潜在机遇。在融合当代学生对地理学及相关领域的认知、地理学科的定位、专业和课程介绍中的术语等方面上, 本研究迈出了重要的一步。我们还提供了一个在其它院校开展类似研究的工具包, 可以帮助地理系招生和保留下一代地理学者。

Enfrentando una creciente competencia desde campos afines junto con la declinación en la matrícula de pregrado, la disciplina académica de la geografía sigue padeciendo una crisis de identidad. En décadas recientes, muchos programas de geografía han adoptado cambios en los nombres de su departamento o de los títulos que otorgan, o se han renombrado de cualquiera otra manera, sin que aparezca la evidencia que oriente esas decisiones. Este estudio emprende el trabajo de construir una base de evidencia sobre tales decisiones al presentar los resultados de una indagación a 4.388 estudiantes no graduados en cuatro universidades norteamericanas para apreciar el modo como ellos tasan las palabras claves que corrientemente aparecen en las descripciones de cursos y títulos de geografía, y frases que conforman los nombres de títulos y departamentos. Abrumadora y consistentemente, los estudiantes de pregrado prefirieron los tipos que usan términos simples y temáticos a los que suenan más orientados hacia la ciencia y la técnica. Las formas de la palabra geografía recibieron evaluaciones significativamente más bajas que las expresiones o frases que incluyeran los términos medio ambiente y sustentabilidad. Las formas de geografía que incluyeron la palabra ciencia fueron tasadas particularmente bajas. Las calificaciones de los estudiantes variaron según la posición de la clase, área principal de estudio, género, localización del colegio de secundaria (en Estados Unidos vs. fuera de los Estados Unidos), si el estudiante había estado matriculado antes en un curso de geografía, y habilidades matemáticas auto-percibidas. Un análisis multivariado reveló oportunidades potenciales para el reclutamiento deliberado de estudiantes de pregrado y para desarrollo curricular. Este estudio representa un salto importante para reconciliar las percepciones del estudiante contemporáneo de geografía y campos relacionados con las identidades departamentales y el argot disciplinario usado a menudo en las descripciones de programas y cursos. Ofrecemos un juego de herramientas para implementar investigaciones parecidas en otras instituciones y, en últimas, para ayudar a los programas de geografía a reclutar y retener la siguiente generación de geógrafos.

Key Words:

• academic identity
• administration
• geography education
• program branding
• recruitment
• survey research

关键词:

• 学术定位
• 管理
• 地理教育
• 专业宣传
• 招生
• 调查研究。

Palabras clave:

• administración
• educación geográfica
• etiquetamiento de programa
• identidad académica
• investigación encuestada
• reclutamiento

Acknowledgments

We thank our student team for helping to survey their respective campuses: Crispian Atkins, Megan Huber, Noor Khaled, Kyla Portnoy, Vyanka Sotelo, and Andrea Sullivan (UM); Allison Barrow, Michelle Cabrera-Santana, Allison Cappello, Reanna Kuiken, Alixander Lavaud, Caroline Martin, and Alex Rose (CCU); Vincent Black, Joey Seitz, Ariclenes da Silva, and Hugo Victor (MSU); Leilani Konrad, Empress Holiday, Dalton Kebely, Sue Jane Leo, Samuel Orndorff, Jesse Tenenbaum, and Alexandra Yost (SDSU). Finally, we thank the student bodies of the four participating institutions for allowing us to interrupt their studying, socializing, and eating to learn from them, as well as dozens of professors who graciously allowed us to survey their classes. An earlier version of this article was presented in a panel discussion at the April 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Washington, D.C., and we acknowledge discussants Julie Winkler and Melissa Gilbert for important comments that helped improve this article.

Author Contributions

Justin Stoler, Diana Ter-Ghazaryan, Ira Sheskin, and Piotr Jankowski conceived the study. Justin Stoler, Diana Ter-Ghazaryan, and Ira Sheskin created the study instruments. Data collection was led by Justin Stoler, Diana Ter-Ghazaryan, and Ira Sheskin at UM; Amber L. Pearson and Gary Schnakenberg at MSU; Justin Stoler and Dominique Cagalanan at CCU; and Justin Stoler, Kate Swanson, and Piotr Jankowski at SDSU. Justin Stoler and Amber L. Pearson analyzed the data. Justin Stoler managed the data and drafted the article. All authors edited the article and approved the final draft.

Supplemental Material

An archive of supplemental content is available via Taylor & Francis Online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1766412. The archive contains the original student survey in text format and Qualtrics’ proprietary file format for direct import, a crosswalk for recoding undergraduate majors, survey approach scripts, and a sample classroom prompt (Supplemental Files 1–5), as well as additional data tables related to sampling and bivariate and multivariable quantitative analyses (Supplemental Files 6–10).

Additional information

Funding

We thank Thomas Herman, Director of the California Geographic Alliance, for funding that supported data collection at SDSU.

Notes on contributors

Justin Stoler

JUSTIN STOLER is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146. E-mail: [email protected]. He is a health geographer specializing in global health disparities, particularly those related to the interaction of communicable diseases, geodemographics, and the physical and built environments.

Diana Ter-Ghazaryan

DIANA TER-GHAZARYAN is a Lecturer of Geospatial Technology at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests lie at the intersection of geospatial technology and cultural geography.

Ira Sheskin

IRA SHESKIN is a Professor of Geography at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146. E-mail: [email protected]. His research specializes in survey design and analysis.

Amber L. Pearson

AMBER L. PEARSON is an Associate Professor of Geography at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail: [email protected]. She is a health geographer focused on aspects of the neighborhood built, physical, and social environments that might bolster opportunities for a healthy life, often in the face of socioeconomic adversity.

Gary Schnakenberg

GARY SCHNAKENBERG is an Instructor at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail: [email protected]. He is a human geographer interested in critical cultural geographies of food systems, especially in the Caribbean, and undergraduate geography education.

Dominique Cagalanan

DOMINIQUE CAGALANAN is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC 29526. E-mail: [email protected]. She is a human–environment geographer specializing in the intersection of forest conservation and restoration, livelihoods, and agriculture in tropical forest environments, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Kate Swanson

KATE SWANSON is Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182. E-mail: [email protected]. She has wide-ranging research interests but currently focuses on migration and detention in the U.S.–Mexico border region.

Piotr Jankowski

PIOTR JANKOWSKI is Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are GIScience, spatial decision support systems, geocomputation, and participatory geographic information systems.