Abstract
More than a decade ago, Geography in America (Gaile and Willmontt, 1989) was released. Among the updates and discussions of geography's systematic subfields, was a chapter assessing the past, present, and future of geography education (Hill and LaPrairie, 1989). That work outlined the progression of geography's place of relative prominence in the early 1900s, to its virtual disappearance in American K-12 education. While the authors pointed to a plethora of challenges, they also noted that geography education was showing signs of new life. Indeed, geography has begun to show up in more and more school classrooms, and geographic literacy has improved. That renaissance in geography education is rooted in work done by countless geography educators, geography alliances, and organizations focused on re-establishing the importance of geography in the schools and in the minds of the American public at large. But although progress has been made, we enter the 21 ·' century faced with many persistent problems that still threaten the future of geography education. The following pages will address some ofthe indicators bywhich we might glean information about the current state of geography, as well as some of the ways geographers should proceed to ensure the survival and vitality of the discipline. Where are we now"? How should we negotiate the road ahead?
Recommended Citation
Donaldson, Daniel P.
(2002)
"Projections and Perceptions-Editorial Comment Geography Education: The Road Ahead,"
The Geographical Bulletin: Vol. 44:
Iss.
2, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol44/iss2/1