Assessment of future teachers’ geographic knowledge of the territorial organization of Spain using mental maps

Abstract

This study analyzes the knowledge of the Spanish State’s administrative structure (provinces and autonomous communities) of future primary education teachers in Spain. The purpose is to analyze the relationship between the results yielded by a geographic knowledge test and students’ socioeconomic, educational and geographic context. The methodology chosen is based on the analysis of mental maps drawn up by the participants in the study, which included 627 students taking the Undergraduate Degree in Primary Education Teaching at four Spanish universities. A synthetic index supported by a principal component analysis and Cloke’s rurality index has been developed. The results show that students’ origin, their parents’ occupational status, their age and, to a lesser degree, their gender, are variables that contribute to drawing an explanation of the geographic literacy of the participants in the study. Only the indexes of 38% of the total scored above average.

Keywords:

• Geographic knowledge
• map of territorial organization
• mental maps
• Spain

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación project “El conocimiento geográfico sobre España, Europa y el mundo entre los estudiantes de ESO” (PID2021-1243900B-100) and by the University of Salamanca project “Geo-alfabetización a través de mapas mentales. Los conocimientos mínimos sobre el medio físico de España entre los estudiantes del grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria” (PIC2-2021-06).”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.