Restrictions on international travel and what this means for geographical education

Two years ago, we wrote an Editorial that was a personal narrative of one of the editors (Gillian) traveling to Singapore to visit the other editor (Chew Hung). In the narrative we reflected on Gillian’s navigating around Singapore. Gillian described her minimal use, and dislike for internet mapping tools (IMTs), and her reliance upon and respect for the small paper-based systems map for using the public train system. Readers of the editorial that explored the merits of IMT versus traditional maps, and were introduced to Gillian’s internal cartographer: “My internal cartographer allows me to develop a spatial memory that helps me navigate my way. This cartographer is informed by the initial consultation of maps, and then I navigate my way based on experience” (Kidman & Chang, 2019, p. 86). We all have an internal cartographer, and that helps us to navigate a new location using local reference points based upon earlier visits or initial consultation of maps, books or e-materials. However, these maps, books and e-materials are two-dimensional representations, and thus somewhat limiting. Gillian much prefers to wander the streets or trails of a location and gasp in awe at the three-dimensional reality using her geographic skills. That is when her internal geographer is really happy.

Gillian’s internal geographer is probably very similar to your internal geographer. Internal geographers come alive when we pay close attention to a particular location, when we engage emotionally with the location, when we notice what often goes unnoticed, and when we build a story or geographical narrative – thus using our geographic knowledge base and drawing upon geographic values. When we share these narratives, we become animated, our passion and understandings of the location become highly evident, and our enthusiasm crosses to those we are sharing our narrative with. This emotional connection is critical to the internal geographer, but rarely will the internal geographer fully emerge if a location is not being experienced in a three-dimensional reality. We need the actual experience to thrive as geographers.

What this is telling us is that when out and about and experiencing our amazing planet, our internal cartographer and internal geographer come along too. This strengthens our geographical skills and geographical values as we use our geographical knowledge base. As we write this editorial, we are still experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries have closed their borders, cities and towns might be in lockdown, schools and universities are experiencing times of closure – but efforts to minimise disruptions to teaching and learning persist. Much of the globe has adopted online teaching in some format. Geography lessons are no different. IMTs are being used to develop geographical skills around mapping, and to take the classroom to places around the globe – even to places in the same neighbourhood as the physical class. Conferences have also become organised online or sessions are conducted in a hybrid form. This form of geographical teaching and learning raises the question: How can we develop geographical knowledge of the world if we cannot experience it in the first-person?

This is where life becomes frustrating for today’s geographers. We acknowledge the powers of digital technologies to take us places, but this travel is vicarious. The global pandemic has literally restricted international travel. In fact, it has restricted all normal travel for some of us. Gillian is in Melbourne Australia and experiencing her fourth lockdown. She can only leave home for a few essential purposes (i.e., to get food or to visit a doctor) and thankfully to get some exercise – but that is limited to walking, running or cycling within a 5 km radius from the household. It is odd to think that in past generations, going way back in time to perhaps Strabo of Amasia (present-day Turkey), people travelled further than we can do today – yet we have cars, planes and trains. Strabo’s extensive travels were for scholarly purposes and much of what he experienced he wrote in Geographica - a description of people and places he experienced in his travels, with the first and final editions published in 7 BCE and 18 CE (Dueck, 2000). Although Geographica is descriptive narrative, it does provide an understanding of the interactions between the political, economic, social, cultural characteristics of almost all of Europe and the Mediterranean at the time. Such understandings would only have been possible if Strabo had visited such places in person, and not only visited the places vicariously – like we can today. Strabo’s internal cartographer and internal geographer must have been thriving! In fact, people like Strabo probably had a lot more international mobility than someone in our pandemic-stricken world today.

So too did Alexander von Humboldt who envisaged himself as a scientific explorer, and developed his skills and understandings in commerce, foreign languages, geology, anatomy, astronomy and the use of scientific instruments. This versatility was well noted by his supporters, and without a doubt this enabled von Humboldt to undertake his many expeditions and tours over nearly half a century. von Humbolt kept extensive travel diaries which he later used as the basis for his publications. He wrote on particular topics of botany, zoology, astronomy, mineralogy – but not as a scientific writer, but through the narrative lens of a geographer. This gave him a wider readership than simply the science scholars at the time. von Humbolt’s Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the years 1799–1804, closely influenced the work of Charles Darwin who later lamented on the Personal Narrative as being an influential book that enthused in him "a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science" (Barlow, 1958). It is von Humbolt’s narrative that reminds us of our earlier notion of an internal geographer, whose emotional engagement to a location creates the compelling narrative that ignites the passion and understandings of the location in another person. This narrative comes from a first-hand experience, and something that all geographers cherish – but something we are now denied.

Without stating the obvious, the global disruptions as a result of COVID-19 need to find their way into our curriculum. Obvious links to the geography curriculum lies in mapping the spread of the virus, but this is only part of the narrative. The narrative also includes social dynamics, politics, economics, migration and mobility, the environment, human-animal interactions and location. The roles of the geographer, the geography educator and the geography teacher are to help the learner put the components together into a narrative that develops an understanding of the immediate and long-terms impacts and trajectories of COVID-19. It is the human desire to travel, our mobility and trade that has assisted in the spread of the virus to all continents – even to isolated Antarctica. Mobility is so very important, but how do we do our fieldwork when we lose mobility in global travel? How do we keep our internal geographers engaged so we can create the necessary narratives to excite, inspire and educate tomorrows leaders? How can we be proactive and anticipate the changes that will come, after the pandemic? Are there things that we can do now to get ready for what may come?

So many wonderings, and so many questions that need addressing in terms of geography education. IRGEE calls for research that explores such phenomena. We should not lose sight of work already reported in IRGEE that consider COVID-19. Al-Maamari (2020) points out how geography education and global citizenship are related from the viewpoint of the expert teachers - how teachers make sense of relationships, especially during the increasing challenges that are encountered worldwide. Al-Maamari considered the role of international organisations during the pandemic and the dissemination of information. González (2020) informs us that “the world is more complex and more interconnected than ever to be taught from a geographical perspective. Therefore, the global understanding approach is needed to implement a holistic learning of the Earth and the society processes and phenomena at the beginning of the 21st century” (p. 14). He continues on to say that “One of the most important lessons learnt from Covid-19 pandemic is that geographical space matters because its global way of transmission. … mutual suspicions between China and the United States … reciprocal accusations about the origin of the infection, race to get the vaccine, withdrawal of the WHO) are based on a lack of international understanding …” (p. 14).

To conclude, we invite you to get in touch with your internal geographer, and have hope, that one day soon, we will be able to go out and about to explore, to wander the streets or trails of faraway unfamiliar locations, to gasp in awe at the world’s beauty. We encourage authors to peruse answers to the questions posed in this editorial, and to provide new insights to how we can continue our wanderings to learn post-COVID-19.

Gillian Kidman Monash University, Australia [email protected]
Chew-Hung Chang National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore