Reconceptualising ICT in geography teaching

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the ways in which ICT is conceptualised in geography education in England. Our argument is that the way ICT has been conceptualised in school geography is clearly linked to a particular view of geography as a subject, one based on ideas of positivist and empiricist science. Other views of geographical knowledge based on humanist and realist approaches to science have been neglected. In this paper we describe this dominant approach, and suggest how these features are present in the work of one geography teacher one of us has worked with as part of the ‘InterActive Education’ Project. The second part of the paper uses Ron Johnston's typology of applied geographical knowledge to look at other ways of conceptualising the role of ICT in school geography.