Geography’s Position in Education Today

Abstract

The objective of this article is to assess the position of geography in the United States by examining the educational organizations that serve geography. Specifically, I detail four pieces of evidence: (1) the number and distribution of higher education institutions that offer geography; (2) trends in the number and diversity of geography majors; (3) state geography requirements for middle and high schools; and (4) the growth in Advanced Placement Human Geography and its distribution by states. Retaining a strong institutional presence in geography is vital given the precarious status of the discipline. I call for a more systematic approach to collecting and disseminating data on the health of our discipline to ensure its long-term survival. These steps are currently being taken by the American Association of Geographers and will result in a more robust data infrastructure.

本文旨在通过考察提供地理服务的教育机构, 评估地理在美国的地位。具体的, 我详细阐述了四个证据：（1）提供地理服务的高等教育机构数量和分布；（2）地理专业学生数量和多样性的趋势；（3）州对中学地理的要求；（4）美国大学预修课程（AP）人文地理的增长及其在各州的分布。鉴于地理学科的不稳定地位, 保持地理在体制中的强有力存在具有重要意义。我呼吁采取更系统的方法收集和传播关于我们学科的现状数据, 以确保地理的长期生存。目前, 美国地理学家协会正在采取这些步骤, 这将带来更为强大的数据基础设施。

El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar la posición de la geografía en los Estados Unidos, examinando las organizaciones educativas a las que sirve la geografía. Específicamente, detallo cuatro piezas de evidencia: (1) el número y distribución de las instituciones de educación superior que ofrecen geografía; (2) las tendencias en el número y diversidad de las carreras de geografía; (3) las exigencias estatales en geografía para las escuelas medias y el bachillerato; y (4) el crecimiento de la Disposición Avanzada de Geografía Humana y su distribución por estados. Es vital que se retenga una fuerte presencia institucional en geografía dado el precario estatus de la disciplina. Clamo por un enfoque más sistemático en la recolección y diseminación de datos sobre la salud de nuestra disciplina, para asegurar su supervivencia a largo plazo. Estos pasos se están tomando actualmente por la Asociación Americana de Geógrafos, con el resultado esperado de una infraestructura de datos más robusta.

Key Words:

• Advanced Placement
• data collection
• discipline
• higher education
• K–12 education

关键词:

• 美国大学预修课程
• 数据收集
• 学科
• 高等教育
• K-12教育

Palabras clave:

• disciplina
• Disposición Avanzada
• educación K–12
• educación superior
• recolección de datos

Acknowledgments

This article derives from several columns published when I was President of the AAG. I thank Becky Pendergast for working with me on their production and everybody who offered me feedback on these columns. I also want to especially thank Richard Boehm and Joann Zadrozny for supplying me materials from the Grosvenor Center at Texas State University. I also appreciate the vast knowledge of geography, especially community college geography, provided by Mike DeVivo at Grand Rapids Community College. Fiona Allen helped me to assemble much of these data and Jessica Reese and Josie Myers produced Figure 2 and Figure 4. Editor Heejun Chang encouraged and guided the development of this article; I value his efforts and timeliness.

Notes

1 The universe of postsecondary institutions varies depending on the criteria used. The complete database from the IPEDS for 2017–2018 lists 7,153 unique institutions. Yet these include separate campuses of a single university under one administration, many vocational schools, for-profit institutions, and other higher education institutions that would not be expected to offer academic degrees. I filtered most of these out and arrived at 3,152 separate universities and colleges.

2 The variability of the Regional Councilor reports suggests a need to standardize the data gathering for departments within a region.

3 The IPEDS database categorizes majors by four- to six-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes and allows fine calibrations of the number of graduating majors by degree type. For simplicity, I am only counting four-year baccalaureate majors and, in several instances, I have combined multiple CIP categories. Geography departments can offer several different majors. Although the geography major still comprises the lion’s share, more specific GIS majors have increased a bit. In 2018, the geography major comprised 86 percent and GIS/cartography and geography, other took up the remaining 14 percent. In 2007, these other geography majors were less than 5 percent of the total.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David H. Kaplan

DAVID H. KAPLAN is Professor of Geography at Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include nationalism, borderlands, ethnic and racial segregation, urban and regional development, housing finance, and sustainable transportation.