Understanding Geographical and Environmental Education

This authoritative and comprehensive text is a landmark in geographical and environmental education. The focus is sharply on research traditions, paradigms and methods. In most of the chapters the approaches and methods are reviewed and illustrated by selected studies from geographical and environmental education.Experienced academics from various parts of the world have located their own completed and on-going investigations in distinctive research contexts. They provide expert guidance on how to conduct studies at various levels, from the local to the international. Their reviews of the literature are detailed and thorough.Attention has been given to the three broad traditions in educational research: positivist, qualitative and emancipatory. The methods, which are described and analysed, encompass conventional questionnaires and interview schedules as well as more recent action research and discourse analysis. Some chapters focus on researching contemporary issues, such as assessment policy and curriculum policy, while others cover broader topics such as feminism and post-modernism. Subjects for research include pupils, teachers, textbooks, maps, syllabuses and classrooms. Geographical and environmental knowledge, attitudes and skills are highlighted as focuses for investigation.The studies in this book will be of interest to students, teachers, researchers and policy makers.