Being and Becoming a Geographer: An Agenda for Geography Education

Abstract The field of academic geography is poised at a pivotal moment—a moment compounded of equal measures of crisis, challenge, and opportunity—as it redefines its relationship to the American educational system, pre-school through post-collegiate. The crisis is reflected in the murmur of threats to the survival of geography departments in American colleges and universities; the challenge is presented by the widespread public acceptance of the need for increased geographic understanding; and the opportunity comes from the development and implementation of voluntary National Geography Content Standards for K—12 geography education. If we, as professional geographers, are to respond convincingly to the federally mandated education goal that all American students demonstrate competency in geography by the year 2000, then we must understand the processes of being and becoming a geographer. Systematic (i.e., empirical and theoretical) understanding of those processes is in large measure lacking. Therefore, if professional geographers wish to meet the challenge and take advantage of the opportunity, we must develop and execute a program of research on developing competency in geography. Using Carl Sauer's classic article, The Education of Geographer, as a foil, I present a research agenda for geography education. The agenda uses two frameworks—life-span development and novice-expert mastery—to define competency as geographic expertise and to identify six research questions about the character, genesis, nature, ontogenesis, identification, and the training of geographic expertise. I draw upon ideas from developmental psychology, cognitive science, education, and geography to analyze the meaning, significance, and implications of each question for understanding what is entailed in being and becoming geographically competent. Shaping the next generation of geographically competent people requires that we, as professional geographers, commit ourselves now to a systematic program of research in geography education. Such a commitment is in our communal self interest for survival and growth as an academic field, and of personal interest for understanding how and why we became professional geographers.