Does specialization in geography teaching determine teachers’ conceptions of geography teaching?

Figures & data

Table 2 . Item equivalence of multi-group structural equation modeling.

Model	χ2	df	AIC	RMSEA	TLI	CFI	Equivalence
Unconstrained (configural)	208.558	63	406.56	0.047	0.93	0.962
Structural weights (metric)	269.929	93	407.93	0.042	0.95	0.953	0.0090
Structural intercepts (scalar)	313.655	111	415.66	0.042	0.95	0.946	0.0070
Structural residuals (strict)	349.387	129	415.39	0.040	0.95	0.942	0.0040
Saturated model	0	0.0	324	0.182	0.0	0.962
Independence model	3895.819	108	4003.82

Figure 1. Relationships among the conceptions (all teachers). Note: The most distinguished trajectories that are determined by the standardized direct but also by the indirect effects higher than 0.35 are highlighted.

Figure 2. Relationships among the conceptions (teachers with specialization in geography teaching). Note: The most distinguished trajectories that are determined by the standardized direct but also by the indirect effects higher than 0.35 are highlighted.

Figure 3. Relationships among the conceptions (teachers without specialization in geography teaching). Note: The most distinguished trajectories that are determined by the standardized direct but also by the indirect effects higher than 0.35 are highlighted.

Table 1 . Arithmetic means for the conceptions of geography teaching in relation to specialization in teaching geography.

Conception	All teachers		Non-specialization		Specialization		Cohen’s d
	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
Globalist	3.55	0.57	3.56	0.51	3.55	0.58	0.02
Earthist	4.03	0.50	3.84	0.58	4.09	0.45	0.47
Interactionist	4.01	0.58	4.00	0.64	4.01	0.56	0.01
Placeist	3.85	0.53	3.84	0.58	3.86	0.51	0.03
Environmentalist	4.01	0.67	4.05	0.72	4.01	0.65	0.06
Localist	3.82	0.63	3.80	0.60	3.83	0.64	0.05
Map-lover	3.87	0.59	3.79	0.60	3.89	0.58	0.17
Synthesizer	3.93	0.62	3.98	0.52	3.92	0.65	0.10
Facilitator	4.11	0.61	4.20	0.56	4.08	0.63	0.21

Table

Conception	What the teacher wants?	What is the teacher mainly interested in?	What typical questions does the teacher ask?	What does the teacher require?
Globalist	To orient oneself in the world. To get to know the world. To develop general knowledge of the world.	Fact of physical and human geography. Descriptive regional geography of countries and larger regions. Basics of cartography.	Where? What? When?	Knowledge of occurrence/basic facts or simpler rules.
Earthist	To understand the phenomena and processes that occur on the Earth, how things work, how the Earth works.	Topics/themes: volcanism, desertification, earthquake, floods, resources/resource routes, biodiversity, (sub)urbanization, sovereignty, poverty, water resource management, weather and climate. Processes and their causes: avalanches, water and atmosphere circulation, monsoons, desertification.	Why?	Knowledge of causality and more complex rules.
Interactionist	To reveal relationships and interdependence between a man and nature/the environment.	Impacts and effects of human activities on the environment Interconnection and relationships between humans and the environment. (Mutual) interaction of social and natural phenomena and processes.	How is it related to a human activity?	Knowledge of people/environment interactions, patterns, and processes.
Placeist	To get to know different places and activities of the people who live there.	How and why people live somewhere (at the national level or globally). Case studies and comparisons of small regions. Peoples’ cultures and local communities.	Why here in particular?	Knowledge of places as typical examples and cases of geographical phenomena and processes.
Conception	What the teacher wants?	What is the teacher mainly interested in?	What typical questions does the teacher ask?	What does the teacher require?
Environmentalist	To warn against an environmental crisis. To seek its possible solutions. To pursue the idea of sustainability.	Sustainable development, climate change, environmental issues, future. Commitment to environmental protection, attitudes.	How to reduce the impact peoples’ activities have on the Earth?	Knowledge of sustainable practices and the future development risk.
Localist	To orient oneself in the immediate surroundings.	The locality where they live.	How is it manifested in the immediate surroundings? Is it possible to find the same phenomenon around the school? Is it possible to find “our” own place somewhere else?	Knowledge of pupils’ places and local regions.
Map-lover	To analyse, interpret, and create maps.	Using thematic maps and complex map skills.	What to display and how to display it on a map as accurately as possible? What conclusions can be drawn from a map?	Knowledge of/about maps and complex map skills.
Facilitator	To think through geography.	Pupils’ general development through geography teaching and learning. Overlapping of geography and everyday life. Geographical themes attractive for pupils.	Why is it necessary to know it? What is the purpose of this knowledge?	Knowledge of application and utilization of geography in everyday life.
Synthesizer	To interconnect subject matter and perspectives of different disciplines from within geography and beyond.	Interdisciplinary relationships, content integration, and more complex syntheses.	How and where is it connected to each other? Which other disciplines is it related to?	Knowledge of interdisciplinary relationships.

Table

Conception	Code	Item extracted from the questionnaire	Mean	Std. deviation	Variance
Globalist	glob1	Location of places	3.51	0.82	0.67
	glob2	World knowledge	2.98	0.85	0.71
	glob3	General overview about physical and human geography	3.77	0.80	0.63
	glob4	Distribution of natural resources, crops, industry, etc.	4.12	0.78	0.61
	glob5	Knowledge about the individual countries	3.36	0.99	0.98
Earthist	earth1	The reasons for geographical phenomena distribution on Earth (monsoons, deserts, etc.)	4.12	0.81	0.66
	earth2	The reasons for natural disasters	4.27	0.66	0.44
	earth3	The relationships and connections in the environment	4.06	0.74	0.55
	earth4	The reasons why particular things happen on the Earth	3.92	0.67	0.44
	earth5	Exploring plate tectonics, climate patterns, desertification	3.80	0.74	0.54
Interactionist	inter1	Using of natural resources by the people	4.10	0.81	0.65
	inter2	Interactions between people and environment	4.15	0.76	0.57
	inter3	Exploitation of natural resources by the people	3.80	0.78	0.60
	inter4	The impact of people on the nature and landscape	4.11	0.72	0.51
	inter5	Landscape transformation as the result of human activity	3.87	0.73	0.53
Placeist	place1	People’s lives in particular places	3.87	0.76	0.59
	place2	Current events in different places	3.90	0.89	0.79
	place3	Natural and social characteristics of particular places around the Earth	3.79	0.75	0.56
	place4	Travel information for particular places	4.03	0.77	0.60
	place5	Comparing particular places and the life of local people	3.68	0.74	0.55
Environmentalist	envi1	Active involvement in environment protection	3.99	0.86	0.73
	envi2	Responsibility for the Earth’s future development	4.07	0.78	0.61
	envi3	Possible solutions of the environmental crisis (climate change, ozone layer, lack of water supplies, etc.)	3.98	0.91	0.83
Conception	Code	Item extracted from the questionnaire	Mean	Std. deviation	Variance
	envi4	Possibilities in environmental protection and natural resource protection	4.20	0.77	0.60
	envi5	Sustainable use of natural resources	3.83	0.91	0.83
Localist	local1	Current events in the municipality of the pupils	3.80	0.93	0.87
	local2	Fieldwork around the school	4.15	0.78	0.60
	local3	Relationship between global issues and examples from pupils’ local area	3.92	0.81	0.66
	local4	Examples from local area that enable understanding of geographically distant situations	3.33	1.04	1.07
	local5	Relationship between pupils’ behavior at the local level and the global development on Earth	3.91	0.91	0.83
Map-lover	map1	Map skills	2.86	1.05	1.09
	map2	Assignments based on working with maps	4.62	0.60	0.36
	map3	Map analysis and interpretation	3.98	0.83	0.69
	map4	Working with maps and atlases	4.06	0.82	0.67
	map5	Maps created by the pupils	3.82	0.78	0.61
Synthesizer	synth1	Connecting knowledge of varied disciplines	4.07	0.79	0.63
	synth2	Connecting knowledge from natural and social sciences	4.05	0.71	0.51
	synth3	Relations between knowledge from varied disciplines	3.78	0.79	0.63
	synth4	Relations between varied school subjects	3.80	0.80	0.64
	synth5	Connecting geography to the content of varied school subjects	3.96	0.73	0.53
Facilitator	facil1	Pupils’ personal development (communication, tolerance, learning to learn)	4.05	0.82	0.67
	facil2	Managing everyday life situations (practical decision making).	4.02	0.86	0.74
	facil3	Pupils’ critical thinking	4.28	0.75	0.56
	facil4	Pupils’ values orientation	4.01	0.91	0.82
	facil5	Pupils’ co-operation and collaboration skills	4.18	0.77	0.59

Note: The respondents rated the items on a scale: important (5), somewhat important (4), neutral (3), somewhat irrelevant (2), irrelevant (1).

Data availability statement

A data set associated with the paper supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper is available on request by the authors.