Summer Series on questions of Geoethics and Human Rights highlighted by COVID-19 Conditions
Introduction By Coline Dony and Emily Fekete This series developed from discussions that took place at the AAG’s Virtual Annual Meeting, April 6-10, 2020, during publicly available panels of the breaking theme “Geographers Respond to COVID-19”. The panels were set up by AAG specialty groups and their chairs who wanted to initiate discussions about the…
The “Nation’s Report Card” on Geography Reveals a World of Opportunities
Periodically since 1994, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released its “report card” on geography education in America, providing a snapshot of student achievement. The most recent assessment was conducted in 2018 with a nationally representative sample of nearly 13,000 8th grade students. NAEP assesses geography achievement in three content domains: Space and…
Stop Teaching GIS
Teach how to learn GIS instead. That was a guiding principle as I recently redesigned the gateway course to the Penn State Online certificate and master's degree programs in GIS. I began developing Nature of Geographic Information in 1998, at the outset of the Penn State Online ;I designed the course to serve adult students…
‘Locating Geography Education’ — Sarah Bednarz’s Past President’s Address
AAG Past President Sarah Witham Bednarz will explore the evolving role, nature, and relevance of geography education as viewed by former presidents of the AAG from 1910 to the present. AAG presidential addresses have, at times, commented directly on education issues; at other times the topic has been avoided, if not ignored. What changes have occurred over…
Op-Ed: Make Civil Rights a Geography Awareness Week Theme
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial By Night - Washington DC (Glyn Lowe via Compfight) We have thought for some time now that it would be educationally productive to have a Geography Awareness Week theme devoted to civil rights. Tragically, events over the summer—especially the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South…
Progress Towards ESEA Reauthorization
The AAG has been working hard to encourage Senators to include dedicated funding for geography as part of any new education law and have had some success to this point. Geography is again included as a core academic subject within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bill and there is a new funding program that…
New findings released on master’s-level education
Learning from International Practice (LFIP) has just released the results of its recent research on the "Taught Postgraduate Student Experience." The project aims to explore the defining attributes of master's-level study across a range of disciplines and regional contexts. Final outputs of the project include a discussion paper entitled "What Is Masterness?"; 25 international case…
NSF Awards Grant to AAG for Learning Progressions Research
The National Science Foundation, through its Education and Human Resources Core Research program (Award DRL-1347859), has awarded a $292,491 grant to the Association of American Geographers (AAG) for a project designed to build capacity for conducting research on learning progressions in geography. Dr. Michael Solem (AAG) will direct the project with co-investigators Dr. Niem Tu…