Sources: The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies
(http://tiigs.org)[This is extracted and modified from an article published earlier in the Azim Premji Foundation's Learning Curve(http://www.azimpremjifoundation.org/pdf/LCXV.pdf)]
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Geography education in India’s schools is ailing severely. The State is too slow to respond, though there aresigns of some efforts to improve the situation. The slack needs to be taken up by civil society organizations thatshare common goals.
Here are some issues and broad perspectives for teachers and other professionals to consider I recently visited a 7th grade social studies class in a Kannada medium government school. The students told me they were studying the physical features of Europe. Impressive!
I drew a circle, the principal latitudes, got them to identify these, and asked for a volunteer to come to theboard and show me where Europe is located on that Earth. No one could. They didn’t know what Europewas. Same result when I asked for someone to show me where India is.
I asked them what use they saw for such study in their lives. No answer. Of course there is plenty of use, butlet us put such usefulness in context. I asked them if they use geography in daily life in any identifiableway. No answer. I asked them how they come to school daily and how they know the route to the school andback. “There you are using geographical knowledge.” Much sage nodding of heads.
Next, I asked them how many were from agricultural families. Almost all. We did a quick survey of thecrops grown on their family lands. Then I asked them to look at why those particular crops were grown andnot something else. Discussion quickly yielded the importance of soil, climate, water, market, dietarypreferences, and generations of practice. I told them that their parents are practical geographers and thatis where, every day, geography is being used. Right at home.
We need to question the utility of studying about distant lands without engaging with the geography rightunder our own feet! If it is relevant to the students’ lives, they will find any subject fascinating.
Subject, discipline, integration
Subjects are taught as if they are water-tight compartments. Most students are not taught how geography can bring together physics, chemistry, biology, geometry, economics, anthropology, sociology, language, and arts to make sense of our world. The power of geography is two-fold: (a) it gives a unique framework to make sense of our world – the geographic or spatial framework, and (b) it opens the mind up to integrating all subjects into this framework so that the inter connectedness of phenomena becomes clear. When we take this approach, we will be teaching geography as a discipline, not just a subject.
This is no mere intellectual exercise. An integrated (‘holistic’) understanding of our world makes usbetter equipped at analyzing and solving problems, planning, and working towards social justice.Geography is eminently empowering in this ‘horizontal integration’ (interlinking different subjects withinone standard). I use the topic of the southwest monsoons to help teachers and students understandhow geography helps integrate other subjects with it. You can’t appreciate the grandeur of thesouthwest monsoons without applying physics, chemistry, geography, culture, biology, mathematics, fineand performing arts, language, etc. I have even geography teachers coming up to me after this workshopand saying, “I had never thought of geography this way!” [This always disturbs me; how ELSE does one lookat geography, if not as a holistic, integrating discipline?] It is elegant, fun, and powerful. A collaborativeprocess of scheduling topics in their own classes and tying them back to the southwest monsoons is all that it takes; often, it is just the use of monsoon examples instead of some other example. Thisapproach helps students understand the power of geography and how it fosters interdisciplinary thinking.
As students progress from class to class, their geography learning must build into discernible anduseable frameworks and skills-sets (‘vertical integration’). The southwest monsoon example can apply here too.The initial treatment may be to observe simple patterns associated with the monsoons – torrential rain,playing in the rain, the fears that people have about playing in the rain, what kind of foods we like to takeduring the rainy season, etc. With each subsequent year, it can be built to look at the complexity of themonsoon system, how we try to understand it, the factors that determine its behavior, etc. Thus, a geography student going through successive years will build a variety of skills beginning with pattern-matching and moving on to analyses of causal factors and patterns, and to impacts and eventually toapplication.
Re-imagining geography education in the 21st century:
There is a dire need to enhance the theory and praxis of geography education in and for the 21st century toempower both teachers and students. We need to begin with the fundamental recognition that social scienceeducation is as vital to human development as the ‘natural’ sciences. This is not possible without educating theeducators!
We need to adopt a three-track approach, simultaneously.
1. Curricular development
Curriculum, syllabus, exams, and pass percentages are facts of life. However, an empowered teacher can makethe geography class fascinating with just a little extra effort to clarify conceptual understanding andapplication.
Use of current events requires some amount of research by the teacher. It also requires students to read newspapers. The otherwise under-utilized newspapers-in-education (NIE) programs of several newspapers can be useful in this.
In most cases, the teacher-pupil ratio is inimical to much activities- based learning. Telling a story,recalling a poem, a film song … all these can make the topics relevant and fun. Association with fun will enhance clarity of understanding and, if good communication skills are built, will lead to better exam performance also.
2. Co-curricular development
Co-curricular learning is collaborative and relates to the textbook topics but may not be directly aimed at enhancing exam results. Students understand a topic better, are able to apply it, and therefore better able to answer some questions in an exam (this last is only one of the benefits). The activities do not necessarily translate to marks/credit. Example: understanding the fluctuation of daily temperatures in a place using a newspaper, as part of the chapter on climate/weather. This may not be directly a question in the exam, but it helps students see how geography is working in the lived environment.
3. Extra-curricular development
This is the most important mode of geographical learning. It helps build more interest in geography in thelearners’ minds and helps improve curricular development. This is the ultimate value-added geographyeducation. This is where civil society structures have a precious role to play by empowering both teachers and students. This includes at least the following components:
Field-work – understanding geography through field work such as landscape analysis walk-abouts,interviews, surveying, etc.
An easy way of understanding how we construct human geography in the environment easily shows us,for example, how we privilege vehicular traffic over pedestrian traffic (a serious urban problem inIndia); how we address safety concerns of the very young and the very old people in our geographicspace; how we provide/deny geographic access to people with disabilities.
A very fun and instructive exercise would get kids to give directions and follow directions in different modes (spoken, verbal written, maps, etc.). This hones their mental geographical acumen and its communication very well, because they first become conscious of it and can, over time, become ‘naturals’at it.
Field-work techniques can also teach students many skills in communication. If they have to find out what public trees in their own neighborhoods mean to people, what are the questions the students should ask, howare these to be asked, how will they know that the questions get clear answers they seek, etc.
I once set my students to a small in-school survey. They immediately said, “Some people may not talk to us, Sir.” Through a lot of fun questioning and mocking each other, I got them to understand the importance of body language in communication to elicit geographic information from people. “You are kids.No one will be able to say no to you if you put on a ‘puppy-dog’ face and ask.” Only a few kids needed to use it, but they reported success!
1. Case-studies – taking up real-world case-studies, using real data, and understanding the untidiness of life and research to think of solutions to real problems such as social justice, environmental conservation,disaster management, safety, service delivery, commerce, etc. I have used data from NGO work on social issues (e.g.: case study of girl children in sex work in Bangalore) to teach about urban geography issues and found students responding very intelligently and sensitively to social justice issues.
2. IT-enabled geography education – learning to use modern electronic tools of geographic data processing such as GPS, GIS, the Internet, etc. provides vital analytical and problem- solving skills-sets that can help students compete in the market place of ideas and jobs in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, most curriculum do not engage with this seriously. This gap must be filled by civil society structures. TIIGS is endeavoring to make a contribution in this, particularly to reach under-privileged students.Partnerships are being built with other organizations to reach these students.
Students with basic understanding of computers combined with a strong understanding of basic geography concepts will be able to understand these tools and learn to use them reasonably quickly.
All students from 8th standard should be exposed to these technologies and techniques. Google Earth and such platforms are a reasonable beginning but do not provide the intense skills that geographic knowledge production and application require. However, the beginnings must be made.
In summary, geography education is vital for developing the spatial sensibilities of our learners. Geography should be recognized as the bridge between the social and natural sciences. For over 60 years, in India, we have been emphasizing the need for ‘the basics’ in education. Rightly so.
However, we should urgently and assiduously start emphasizing ‘value addition’ if we are to help bring more and more people to participate in the emergence of a braver new world.
Nothing less will do
Chandra Shekhar Balachandran
Founder/Director, The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies
