Product reviews for Powerful Geography

Mark Enser’s book is a thought-provoking and challenging call to arms for geography teachers.

It demands of them, in Part 1, that they identify the purpose behind their teaching of geography and, in Part 2, that they fulfill this purpose through the means by which they deliver the geography curriculum in practice.

Neither of these tasks is simple but, for geography teachers burdened by overly prescriptive and constantly changing national curricula, micro-managerialism, and pedagogical and political fads and fashions, this volume offers teachers both a partial explanation of the maelstroms in which they currently operate and some suggestions on how they might regain some agency and coherence in their own teaching practice.

Part 1 Purpose homes in on the geography curriculum through a consideration of what schools are for (Chapter 1), approaches to knowledge (Chapter 2), the historical development of school geography (Chapter 3)and “the shift in the ownership of curriculum creation from academic geographers through curriculum experts to politicians” (p.53), a process through which the subject of geography is all but lost sight of (Chapter 4), before articulating, in Chapter 5, a purpose for the geography curriculum. This purpose is based on the discipline’s big ideas (e.g., space, place, scale etc.) and the (geo)capabilities (e.g., a better understanding of the natural and social worlds, the ability to go beyond the limits of one’s personal experience etc.) that it can offer to those who study it.

Part 2 Practice begins by contending that the content (Chapter 6) of geographical curricula should impart powerful knowledge which provides new ways of thinking, helps pupils to explain and understand the world, gives them power over what they know, enables them to join in conversations and debates, and gives them knowledge of the world. This requires a purposive selection of the places chosen for study (Chapter 7), of the sequencing (Chapter 8) of the topics included in the curriculum, and of the activities (Chapter 9, Doing geography), such as fieldwork, that the students undertake. In Chapter 10 (Geography for the 21st century), Enser acknowledges that geography curricula are constantly changing in a changing world but, as he argues in his conclusion (Chapter 11), it is only though the purposeful imparting of powerful knowledge that the process of “putting the (geography) teacher back into education” (p.169) can occur.

Although this work is written from a British perspective, the issues and concepts raised therein are equally relevant in the Australian context and the work of Australian geographereducators such as Alaric Maude and David Wadley are extensively cited.

Powerful geography is a stimulating and provocative read which should give any Australian geography teacher considerable food for thought and, ideally, action.