‘None of Us Sets Out To Hurt People’: The Ethical Geographer and Geography Curricula in Higher Education1

¹ This title draws from an illuminating statement in Israel & Hay's recent book (2006, p. 1): “It is disturbing and not a little ironic that regulators and social scientists find themselves in this situation of division, mistrust and antagonism. After all we each start from the same point: that is, that ethics matter. Indeed, we share a view that ethics is about what is right, good and virtuous. None of us sets out to hurt people.”

Abstract

This paper examines ethics in learning and teaching geography in higher education. It proposes a pathway towards curriculum and pedagogy that better incorporates ethics in university geography education. By focusing on the central but problematic relationships between (i) teaching and learning on the one hand and research on the other, and (ii) ethics and geography curricula, the authors' reflections illustrate how ethics may be better recognized within those curricula. They discuss issues affecting teaching and learning about ethics in geography, and through identification of a range of examples identify ways to enhance the integration of ethical issues into university geography curricula.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• geography
• curriculum
• ethics
• ethical practice
• pedagogy

Acknowledgements

The authors were all either present at the International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (INLT) meeting in Brisbane (June 2006) or have communicated with the meeting group through the internet discussion. They acknowledge the many inputs provided by members of the INLT workshop and comments from others in the internet discussion. They especially wish to acknowledge the contributions and support of Eric Pawson and Iain Hay.

Notes

¹ This title draws from an illuminating statement in Israel & Hay's recent book (2006, p. 1): “It is disturbing and not a little ironic that regulators and social scientists find themselves in this situation of division, mistrust and antagonism. After all we each start from the same point: that is, that ethics matter. Indeed, we share a view that ethics is about what is right, good and virtuous. None of us sets out to hurt people.”

² The author group considered this matter during the INLT workshop in Brisbane and its lead-up discussion, and while we focused in part on issues affecting the relative lack of teaching and learning of ethics in university geography criteria, and thus appear to be dwelling on the impediments to such curricula, it should be noted that we also discussed positive examples of how such obstacles and impediments to successfully integrating ethics into teaching geography could be overcome. This paper attempts to capture this balance.

³ We acknowledge that the authorship has a distinct Anglo-American-Australian emphasis. This will influence our discussion of issues, both culturally and pedagogically.