The Geography Teaching Adventure: Reclaiming Exploration to Inspire Curriculum and Pedagogy

Children are born explorers, full of wonder and hungry for stories about the world. What role might geography teaching play? What geographical stories do we tell about the world? What stories do we tell about geography itself? The book revisits an older vision of geography that is much bigger than exams and memorising information: dreams of adventure and discovery. But where geography’s imperial past used these tools for domination and control, this book reclaims exploration to nurture wonder and tell better stories that work towards more just, equitable and sustainable futures.

Positioning geography teaching in relation to major global challenges, author Steve Puttick argues that the subject has a unique role to play through its ability to think across natural and social sciences in equipping young people with the skills and knowledge they need to respond. The book offers a critical and accessible analysis of geography’s entanglements with colonialism by exploring the striations of Empire in the subject. Each chapter draws on a wide range of research in geography, and finishes with practical activities and questions for reflection that can be used individually and collectively to support teachers’ ongoing professional development.

The book is essential reading for all geography teachers at any stage of their career, as well as geography teacher educators, subject leads and school leaders with responsibility for curriculum development.

Steve Puttick is Associate Professor of Teacher Education. He is a curriculum tutor for the Geography PGCE and MSc Learning and Teaching at the University of Oxford, UK.