Geography teaching is not so much about bays and capes and the preservation of the subject but the protection of a healthy planet, the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers heard at its annual conference last weekend.
Policy-makers are out of touch with classroom teaching and failed to realise that the subject was now much more about “contemporary analytic approaches”, Jack Bairner, the association’s president, said.
“Are they aware of our use of ICT in satellite and weather information? Data analysis techniques, especially at Advanced Higher? Our coverage of issues not covered elsewhere in the curriculum, such as population changes, desertification, deforestation and global warming?
“If we are to maintain our position in the curriculum it is vital that our relevance to society is robustly pointed up.”
With more curriculum power devolved to headteachers, there was a danger that young people entering S3 could be deprived of the chance to study a vital subject.
Mr Bairner, principal teacher at Bannockburn High, Stirling, said: “If we want the young people of the future to grow up with a high level of consciousness of, and a healthy respect for, the environment and for the people on the planet, we must fervently hope that we can make a strong case for geography and global and environmental citizenship.”
He argued that geographers work with real problems and try to find pragmatic solutions. “The knowledge, concepts and skills developed by geographical education are marginalised to the severe detriment of young people. We cannot allow this to happen,” he warned.
Mr Bairner criticised the recent education for citizenship national initiative for omitting the central role of geography in increasing understanding of key world issues. “It is quite depressing that the authors of this discussion document do not seem to accept that,” he said.
There was a blatant need for geography teaching to help young people learn about sustainability. Britain was near the bottom of the European recycling of waste league table. “As more manufacturing and service sector jobs move abroad, is there no place for an understanding of the diversity of economies at a global scale?” he asked.
Mr Bairner also labelled the 5-14 programme as “an unmitigated disaster” and questioned its workability. Eleven years after it was introduced inspectors were still highlighting lack of progress in implementing it “in nearly every single school inspection report”.
