This paper aims to discuss the implications of the Anthropocene challenges for geography education and the current school curriculum. Research on human interventions in the Earth system have increasingly found evidence that humans are profoundly changing the ecology of the planet earth, and have become a geological force. The relationship between “nature” and “culture” has been a central component in the constitution of geography as a science as well as a school subject. It can be argued that geographical knowledge has considerable educational potential to explore and make sense of relations and interconnections in the context of a complex world and a dynamic earth system. However, scientific specialization have made the links between disciplinary knowledge and the holistic idea of geography challenging. The intellectual history of the subject of geography illustrates how difficult it is to escape dualistic thinking. _x000D_
In a geographical context, the challenges of the Anthropocene lead to a revisiting and rethinking of ideas about the relationship between humans and nature, and on perspectives of sustainable development. This includes complex issues on ontology and epistemology, which also have a bearing on school geography. A key challenge for Geography education is to consider how to approach the relationship between people and the environment from different temporal and spatial scale perspectives including future thinking. Another is how to deal with ontological shifts when using different conceptions of space and place, e.g. space/place as a physical-material entity or as a space/place for human thought and action. Further, a geography curriculum for the Anthropocene will have many “wicked problems” to handle, which need a more grounded position on ethics as well as an expanded deliberative repertoire for teachers’ work in the classroom._x000D_

Gabriel Bladh
Karlstad University

 
ID Abstract: 811