Geography Education's Potential and the Capability Approach: GeoCapabilities and Schools

Description

This book explores the pivotal role that geography as a school subject plays in helping every young person achieve their educational potential. Expressed as ‘GeoCapabilities’, this concept draws on the the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum applied to curriculum thinking in schools. While traditional subjects have often been deemed irrelevant and outdated in an overcrowded secondary school curriculum, subjects like geography have often been lost or combined with others to fulfil a broad skills agenda. More recent talk of a ‘knowledge led’ curriculum can often lead to the recitation of facts at the expense of developing deeper understanding. This book argues the concept of powerful geographical knowledge, based on the work of Michael Young and David Lambert, invests the subject of geography with its educational potential: this forms the basis of GeoCapabilities. GeoCapabilities focuses on both what is being taught and why, and as such provides a framework of curriculum thinking which will be of interest and value to geography teachers, school leaders with curriculum development responsibilities and all those interested in the capability approach and the moral imperative of education. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxviii What Is the Purpose of Schools? (Richard Bustin)....Pages 1-32 Mapping a Curriculum ‘Crisis’ (Richard Bustin)....Pages 33-66 Bringing the ‘Geography’ Back in (Richard Bustin)....Pages 67-97 The ‘Capabilities Approach’ to Geography Education (Richard Bustin)....Pages 99-130 Developing GeoCapabilities: The Role of Research (Richard Bustin)....Pages 131-157 The Potential of a Future 3 ‘Capabilities’ Curriculum (Richard Bustin)....Pages 159-191 Back Matter ....Pages 193-197