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ERIC Number: EJ1172479
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8265
EISSN: N/A
A Capabilities Approach to Higher Education: Geocapabilities and Implications for Geography Curricula
Walkington, Helen; Dyer, Sarah; Solem, Michael; Haigh, Martin; Waddington, Shelagh
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, v42 n1 p7-24 2018
A geographical education offers more than skills, subject knowledge and generic attributes. It also develops a set of discipline-specific capabilities that contribute to a graduate's future learning and experience, granting them special ways of thinking for lifelong development and for contributing to the welfare of themselves, their community and their world. This paper considers the broader purposes and values of disciplinary teaching in contributing to individual human development. Set in the context of recent debates concerning the role of the university and the neo-liberalisation of higher education this paper explores approaches to developing the geography curriculum in ways that re-assert the educational value of geographical thinking for students. Using international examples of teaching and learning practice in geography, we recognise five geocapabilities: use of the geographical imagination; ethical subject-hood with respect to the impacts of geographical processes; integrative thinking about society-environment relationships; spatial thinking; and the structured exploration of places. A capabilities approach offers a productive and resilient response to the threats of pedagogic frailty and increasingly generic learning in higher education. Finally, a framework to stimulate dialogue about curriculum development and the role of geocapabilities in the higher education curriculum is suggested.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England); Canada; China; Ireland; Portugal; Singapore; Spain; United Kingdom (Wales); United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A