J-READING / N. 1 - 2017

Associate Editors: Cristiano Giorda (Italy), Cristiano Pesaresi (Italy), Joseph Stoltman (USA), Sirpa Tani (Finland)

Editorial Board: Riccardo Morri (Chief), Diego Gallinelli (Assistant Chief), Sandra Leonardi (Assistant Chief), Victoria Bailes, Daniela De Vecchis, Assunta Giglio, Daniele Ietri

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico - filologiche e geografiche

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

GEOGRAPHY

J - READING

Sponsoring Organizations:

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN GEOGRAPHY

Scientific Committee: Eyüp Artvinli (Turkey), Caterina Barilaro (Italy), Giuliano Bellezza (Italy), Tine Béneker (Netherlands), Gabriel Bladh (Sweden), Carlo Blasi (Italy), Clare Brooks (UK), He Canfei (China), Laura Cassi (Italy), Raffaele Cattedra (Italy), Claudio Cerreti (Italy), Chew-Hung Chang (Singapore), Sergio Conti (Italy), Egidio Dansero (Italy), Martin R. Degg (UK), Giuseppe Dematteis (Italy), Karl Donert (UK), Pierpaolo Faggi (Italy), Franco Farinelli (Italy), Maurizio Fea (Italy), Maria Fiori (Italy), Hartwig Haubrich (Germany), Vladimir Kolosov (Russian Federation), Jongwon Lee (South Korea), John Lidstone (Australia), Svetlana Malkhazova (Russian Federation), Jerry Mitchell (USA), Josè Enrique Novoa-Jerez (Chile), Wiktor Osuch (Poland), Daniela Pasquinelli d’Allegra (Italy), Petros Petsimeris (France), Bruno Ratti (Italy), Roberto Scandone (Italy), Giuseppe Scanu (Italy), Lidia Scarpelli (Italy), Rana P.B. Singh (India), Claudio Smiraglia (Italy), Michael Solem (USA), Hiroshi Tanabe (Japan), Angelo Turco (Italy), Joop van der Schee (Netherlands), Isa Varraso (Italy), Bruno Vecchio (Italy), Han Zeng Lin (China), Tanga Pierre Zoungrana (Burkina Faso).

Secretary of coordination: Marco Maggioli (Italy) and Massimiliano Tabusi (Italy)

J - READING

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione

With the support of:

2017

GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

Vol. 1, Year 6, June 2017

Editor in Chief: Gino De Vecchis (Italy)

9788868128579_102_LM_1

J - READING

1

ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS (ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA INSEGNANTI DI GEOGRAFIA)

ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), Vol. 1, Year 6, June, 2017

J-Reading is an open online magazine and therefore access is free. It is however possible to make a subscription to receive the paper format

Copyright © 2017 Edizioni Nuova Cultura - Roma ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310 ISBN 9788868128579 DOI 10.4458/8579

J-Reading has been awarded “Class A” by National Agency for the Evaluation of the University System and Academic Research, placing it at the top of the Italian ranking of Scientific Journals

Each Author shall be accountable for the entire content or parts thereof of the articles submitted to J-Reading

All rights reserved including translation into other languages.

This journal, or some part of it, cannot be reproduced in any form without permission.

Contents Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

What next for Geography Education? A perspective from the International Geographical Union – Commission for Geography Education Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

The Smart City I Would Like. Maps and Storytelling in Teaching Geography Kathrin Viehrig

Pre-service geography teachers’ voices on the choice of spatial examples.

Results from the first year of an educational design research study Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

The emotional perception of landscape between research and education Alessia De Nardi

Landscape and sense of belonging to place: the relationship with everyday places in the experience of some migrants living in Montebelluna (Northeastern Italy)

5

17

29

45 61

MAPPING SOCIETIES (Edited by Edoardo Boria) Federico Ferretti

On uses of utopian maps: The Map of New Geneva in Waterford (1783) between colonialism and republicanism

75

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS Graziella Ferrara

Tourism geography: a socio-cultural analysis Dino Gavinelli

EUGEO workshops (Zara, Croatia, 25-27 September 2016)

85 91

TEACHINGS FROM THE PAST (Edited by Dino Gavinelli and Davide Papotti) Lewis Mumford

The Culture of the Cities with comments by Eleonora Mastropietro

Re-reading The Culture of the Cities by L. Mumford

95

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 5-15 DOI: 10.4458/8579-01

What next for Geography Education? A perspective from the International Geographical Union – Commission for Geography Education Clare Brooksa, Gong Qianb, Victor Salinas-Silvaa a

UCL Institute of Education, London, UK UCL Institute of Education, London, UK and East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Email: c.brooks@ucl.ac.uk

b

Received: April 2017 – Accepted: May 2017

Abstract In the last two years the Commission of Geography Education of the International Geographical Union (IGU-CGE) has been involved in the declaration of two key documents: the 2016 International Charter, declared in Beijing, and the International Declaration on Geography Education, declared in Moscow in 2015. Both of these declarations emphasise the importance of international collaboration particularly around the sharing of research findings and understandings within geography education. One of the challenges facing the commission to meet these objectives is the huge variety in the status and scope of geography education in different countries. Based on the assumption that the status of geography education within National Curricula indicates the likely investment in research and research findings, the paper draws upon data on the prevalence of geography education around the world, to analyse the differing levels of importance prescribed to the subject. The results indicate that a coming together of international geography educators has never been timelier, as geography flourishes and waivers significantly in different places.

The paper highlights the important role of organisations like the IGU- CGE to offer political support for geography education both within National Curricula but also as a field of enquiry and scholarly research.

Keywords: International, Curriculum, IGU-CGE, Collaboration, Research

1. Introduction As with many other fields of enquiry, recent years have seen a satisfying growth of international collaboration in geography education. No doubt this has been facilitated by the prevalence of social networking and technologies, along with social and political changes that enable geography educators all

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

over the world to share and connect, and to some extent to debate, ideas. This is not to suggest though, that such collaboration is universal, and despite connectivity, the degree of involvement in collaboration still exhibits areas of “hot” and “cold” activity. But the growth of international collaboration, whilst something to be celebrated, is not to be embraced without due care and attention. We Italian Association of Geography Teachers

6

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

consider now to be a key moment to stop and consider what are the implications of such growth and what role can an organisation like the International Geographical Union – Commission for Geography Education (IGUCGE) play in supporting and enhancing our understanding of geography education worldwide.

In the last two years the Commission of Geography Education of the International Geographical Union (IGU-CGE) has been involved in the declaration of two key documents: the 2016 International Charter, (as declared in Beijing), and the International Declaration on Geography Education, declared in Moscow in 2015 (both can be viewed on the IGU-CGE website: http://www.igu-cge.org).

Both of these declarations emphasise the importance of international collaboration particularly around the sharing of research findings and understandings within geography education. In this paper, we explore the huge variety in the status and scope of geography education in different countries around the world, and consider the implications this may have for the global geography education community to succeed in working together successfully.

2. Collaboration: a key aspect of the Commission’s history A recently written history of the Commission for Geography Education (Graves and Stoltman, 2015) places the origins of the Commission in 1952, although there is note that there were a group of interested individuals prior to that time. The account outlines why international collaboration has always been at the heart of the Commission, and indeed the account links the establishment of the Commission and the interest in geography education with the newly established United Nations (1945), a key global event that precipitates international unity and collaboration: “There was an overarching belief among experts that geography education would develop a positive international worldview Copyright© Nuova Cultura

among learners. At the time, a positive worldview included knowledge about the physical environment, the diversity of cultural groups who inhabited those environments, Over the years, the details of research and writing about international understanding and an informed worldview became more defined, presented greater clarity, and reflected the dynamism of the discipline of geography.

Geographers weave ideas from human and physical aspects of the discipline to describe and explain how the world works”.

For geography education, such a perspective, is particularly important: the account outlines why that is, and also why such a perspective continues to be important: “Geography Education enables students to critically analyze the world about them.

International understanding is an essential product of the study of geography since understanding requires meaningful knowledge.

The meaningful knowledge is necessary to make important decisions about the immediate and long human and environmental conditions on Earth”.

The authors of this history site international understanding as a foundational principle for the Commission and they chart how this has been facilitated through ongoing international collaboration through the ages.

What their account also reveals is the diversity of involvement from around the world, and the importance of conferences and symposium as a vehicle for the sharing of the work of the Commission and of the geography educators who support it. The situation today is no different: conferences and symposium continue to be key sites of collaboration and networking: meeting points for both supporters of the Commission and the ideas that they generate through their research and scholarship.

However, there are also now a network of over 60 Regional Contacts who act as local conduits to support the work of the Commission, and opportunities for newsletters, a LinkedIn group, a twitter feed and a website to spread the word further.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

Engagement with the Commission from the Geography education community is strong: often the number of conference papers presented on geography education far outnumber those of other commissions; the membership and email distribution list are wide-ranging. However, levels of engagement do not necessarily correlate to quality or impact. Recent reports which review the state of geography education research take a critical view on the quality and quantity of research in geography education, and would seem to suggest that this vibrancy of community is not leading to significant “impact” (to use the vernacular) in the field (Bednarz et al., 2013).

One of the key features that determines whether research is undertaken, and indeed funded, is the relative status of geography as a school subject within national curricula.

Anecdotally, and through conference attendance, the Commission is often made aware of countries undergoing a review of the curriculum structure and questioning the place of geography as a national curriculum subject.

We also know that when geography is taken out of a national curriculum structure, the number of geography educators declines, research diminishes and a country’s capacity to ensure that young people are provided with a quality education complete with an understanding of geographical concepts is severely compromised. It has then long been a goal of the Commission to offer support for countries where geography is under threat as a curriculum subject and to disseminate and promote the results of quality geographical research where it exists. This paper is a modest step in this direction by reporting on the state of geography curriculum around the world and considering the implications of what this means for geography education globally as well as for the Commission for Geography Education.

3. Our personal stake and stance We (that is the authors of this paper) do not write without a vested interest. The lead author (Brooks) is currently Co-Chair of the IGUCopyright© Nuova Cultura

7

CGE, having served a four-year term on the Steering Group as Honorary Secretary. She is also the Chair of the UK Committee of the Commission. Both Gong and Salinas are studying at UCL Institute of Education (Gong for one year during her PhD studies at East China Normal University), but both decided to locate their doctoral studies in London, through their familiarity with the network of geography educators in the Commission. In their home countries, both are connected with active IGU CGE Steering Group members: Salinas is a colleague of Arenas in Chile, whilst Gong’s Chinese supervisor is Duan). In other words, our own connections are a result of the work of the Commission, and we have a considerable interest in its continued success and growth. This is not to say however, that we are not mindful of a few challenges that the Commission faces, and are motivated to improve the status of geography education around the world.

Much of the Commission’s work relies on activities undertaken through conferences, and the activities led by the Steering Group. The expense and support needed to attend such conferences and meetings can be prohibitive for some nations to be represented. The Commission does not have strong representation everywhere in the world and is still dominated by English speaking networks and opportunities. Much of the current Commission’s programme of work is designed to strategically support and develop the work of Early Career Researchers and to grow the impact and reach of the research findings of Commission members (see http://www.igucge.org). However, these activities are peripheral to the very real concerns that face geographical educators globally which is the continued struggle for geography education to have a place within the geography curriculum.

Therefore, a starting point for the current Commission is to review and respond to the state of geography education around the world: and to use the principles and declarations in the new Charter for Geography Education (2016) to support areas where geography education is under threat.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

8

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

4. The state of geography education today A definitive account of the state of geography education in the world today is very difficult to collate. During the last Commission (2012-2016), van der Schee undertook to start a wiki of national curriculum accounts of geography education (see http://www.igucge.org/). Even so the data available is limited, and complex. Different national systems reference different age and grade bands, have varying jurisdictional reach, and different levels of subject prescription. When reviewing national curricula, not only are there linguistic barriers but also regional variations as to the degree of detail publically available. Indeed, even the notion of a national curriculum is problematic in countries which allow for regional variation and local curriculum control.

These challenges notwithstanding, we have sought to undertake a limited survey of the global health of geography education. Our survey was limited to desk-research: an internet survey of the place of geography within national curricula in both the primary and secondary sectors. We limited our search to what is in the public domain, and that is easily accessible. The research was limited to seven key areas which would indicate the relative status of the subject, and replicate similar (historical) analysis undertaken in China (Wu, 2013): • Is Geography a named subject in the National Curriculum?

• How is it categorised? (Social Studies, stand alone subject, Humanities, Earth Sciences?)

• Is it core/compulsory? for which ages?

• Is it an elective/optional? for which ages?

• How many credit hours?

• Is it included in the final examination?

• What, if any, are the stated Aims?

The sample was limited to what was accessible on-line, and for questions of scale we focussed on a small selection of countries in each continent, focussing primarily on Copyright© Nuova Cultura

countries with wide influence on the neighbouring region. In this vein, data was collected from Argentina (Buenos Aires), Australia, Bolivia, Brazil (Sao Paulo), Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UK (England), USA, Uruguay, and Venezuela, .

The results were analysed from a number of perspectives including looking for regional approaches and similarities, and patterns across the style and approach of the provision.

From that analysis, a number of interesting and pertinent trends emerged which we elaborate on below.

5. General observations Across the data collated, it is possible to see some general trends in curriculum around the world. For example, at the primary level of education, it is unusual for Geography to be a named subject in the National Curriculum, even when it is listed as a compulsory subject.

This is because geography is often subsumed within a curriculum area described variously as social studies, social sciences, environmental education, religion and culture, civics, or humanities. Within these curriculum areas, the stated aims of geography tend to fall into two main types: one is a very general aim for students to be responsible citizens and the other one is a specific explanation related to geographical knowledge and geographical thinking.

At the secondary level of education, Geography is much more likely to appear as a named subject in the National Curriculum.

This would seem to suggest that secondary geography has a much higher status (than primary) and is more likely to be included in the final (ie, high stakes) examination.

However, there are still many places where geography is included in an umbrella subject, like social studies and humanities, where presumably it has a lower status.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

Exploring the number of credit hours given to Geography yielded some interesting but confusing insights. Take the comparison of China and Ethiopia as an example. In China, geography is a compulsory subject at the age of 12-14 and 15-16 and an optional subject at the age of 16-18 owning two credit hours per week. In Ethiopia geography is a compulsory subject at the age of 14-18 owning two credit hours/week at grade 9-10 and four credit hours/week at grade 11-12. This is further compounded by the complication that geography is a standalone subject in China but is a part of social sciences in Ethiopia. If curriculum status is reflected in both credit hours and having a named presence in the curriculum, this presents a confusing picture as to the relevant status of geography education with other curriculum subjects.

The examination of the aims of geography education also revealed two main categories; either aims were expressed as competence-led aims and knowledge-led aims, a division reflected in much of the current debate about the geography curriculum (see for example the selection of papers in Brooks, Butt and Fargher, 2017). Unsurprisingly, where geography is a named subject in the National Curriculum, the subject aims are more specific at secondary level than at primary level.

Beyond this general level, a more detailed analysis shows that it is not just how the curriculum is structured that can reveal the status of geography education. To illustrate this point we outlined a more details analysis of the situation across the range of countries in South America.

6. Geography across South America: Primary Geography Seven out of ten countries studied do not declare Geography as a named subject in the National Curriculum. Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are the only ones who explicitly acknowledge the discipline in this level of education. However, geography does have a presence within the stated content of the curriculum. In the case of Argentina (Buenos Aires) there is a presence of urban studies. In CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

9

Bolivia geography is stated for primary as both a social science and a natural science, and in secondary is considered in the field of natural sciences. In the case of Colombia, social sciences comprise different subjects but history and geography are the only ones consistently referred to in the curriculum, although history is more prominent than geography. This is similar to the situation in Chile, where geography is named explicitly but a content analysis reveals an approach that is more akin to a history of geographical issues. Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela are the only three countries who do not address geography as a discipline within their curriculum design.

However, both Ecuador and Peru state that pupils must exhibit competences that feature the understanding of space and environment in every level of primary and secondary education. Also, content analysis reveals that Venezuela addresses national geography and scale within its stated content.

Geography is a compulsory content for all countries in primary education. Nine out of ten countries considered geography as part of social studies. Brazil is the only country in the region considering geography as a single school subject at this level, whereas Bolivia states geography as a body of knowledge with presence in both social and natural sciences.

A key driver for the presence of geography in the primary curriculum would appear to be the need for young people to gain an understanding of their nation states, and so there are many links with the idea of territory.

However, in the case of Brazil and Bolivia there are different approaches to the term. The former incorporating an explicit and conceptual approach to the curriculum using geographical concepts. The latter mixing its common use with the social changes of the country considering it as a threshold concept to reflect indigenous knowledge about the world.

Uruguay is the only country which incorporates disciplines in early childhood education. Geography is taught to pupils from three to five years old. Content is related with orientation skills and the local community.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

10

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

7. Geography across South America: Secondary Geography The presence of school geography changes from primary to secondary curricula. There are more countries which have geography as a named subject in the national curriculum: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guyana, Paraguay and Uruguay. Argentina, Brazil and Guyana consider geography as a standalone subject. It is the same in Uruguay but in upper secondary (16-17 years) which includes citizenship as a core module with a series of optional courses which include geography.

Ecuador appears to have a less geographical approach. The Ecuadorian guidelines do not recognise geography but they consider space and environment as both topics and content. In the last three years the category “Human beings and space” is “integrated and enriched with the subject of philosophy, considering nature as a whole, as cosmos and harmony, which is aligned with the notions of Sumak Kaway and the Pachamama, and is radically questioning the utilitarian, modern capitalist cosmovision” (Ministerio de Educación, 2016a, p. 55). Although geography is present as content within the curriculum, the notions of space are reflected through the curriculum areas of citizenship and philosophy; principles that do not consider geographical knowledge.

On the opposite side of the spectrum Brazil has a stronger emphasis on geography as a school subject, where it is held as a standalone subject, with specific aims and content (Secretaria da Educação, 2010, p. 79) such as: “1. Develop domains of spatiality and to function with autonomy; 2. Recognise principles and laws of nature and time of the geographical space; 3. To differentiate and establish relationships of geographical events in different scales; 4. To create, read and interpret maps and charts; 5. To differentiate elements of landscape; 6. To establish interactions among the concepts of landscape, place and territory; 7.

To acknowledge themselves (by pupils) as transformative elements of space; 8. To use geographical knowledge to act considering ethics and solidarity, promoting environmental awareness and respect to equality and diversity to all cultures and individuals”.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The role of geography is acknowledged in the processes of consultation of many countries that have engaged in curriculum reform. Even in the context of Ecuador consultation with teachers suggested the importance of geography to understand the context (Ministerio de Educación, 2017): “...it was discuss the possibility to reduce the quantity of competences of history and put more interest in economic and political geography. It was stated that the dimensions of the curriculum of history [...] should be meet by the principle of being flexible, considering the educational needs of the institution (schools) and the locality. It was stated that a large amount of information should not be taught, focusing not in factual content, but in meaningful things, contextualised and, overall, to foster thinking and historical thinking”.

Countries with curriculums structured as social sciences appear to pay down the focus on subject (geographical) knowledge. As a consequence geographical content takes a more generic approach, as the overall curriculum area is dominated by one discipline (often history) and other subjects are subservient to it. For example, in the case of Colombia, social sciences are taught from a historical perspective. The Columbian Ministry of Education states that: “Geography is a discipline that in many occasions is juxtaposed to history. Other social sciences are non-existent in primary education.

Case in point is the approach that editorials have towards social sciences in the text books, which -in turn- are used as guidelines by teachers across the country. Editorials are the ones that have developed the curriculum in the country” (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2006, p. 17).

Venezuela exhibits a similar generic approach to geography but from a different angle. The notion of spatial scale is used in almost every level of secondary education but is not defined as part of a discipline. In a different level, the environmental perspective is present in most of the countries, however is not clear to what extent that perspective is geographical. In the case of Bolivia it is used

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

indistinctively as part of the natural sciences or social sciences.

Uruguay is the only country with an elective route for geography in upper secondary, as an optional course of “Human and Economic geography” for year Five of secondary (16-17 years old) with a period of four hours per week: because: “Geography allows pupils to enhance their critical thinking capacity in relationship with space, using its integrative dimension of reality, and reification of territoriality”.

Education for citizenship is receiving increasing attention in South American curricula, especially in upper secondary education where the content tends to appear in the final years of schooling if not in previous years. Citizenship is consistently stated as one of the aims of the subject, and together with the acknowledgement of environmental issues, is stated as one of the purposes of including the subject in the education provision.

Most of the countries examined use the notion of scale (local-regional-national, global) as a route to incorporate space in the curriculum. This might suggest an implicit learning progression across different levels, but this is not explicitly stated in the curriculum.

8. Geographical Concepts evident when the Curriculum is less visible There are several concepts across the region that are used repeatedly in different national curriculums: space, place, landscape, territory, scale and locality. The most explicit link across regions is with the use of the term territory that has similar applications in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay and even similar content with French curricula where the concept of region is considered as part of the territory.

Although there is no information in National Curricula stating a connection this might suggest that the countries share a similar focus within school geography. Such a focus would be situated within classical political geography (Ratzel, 2011) related to the function of the state in defining the territory. However, the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

11

most interesting aspect of the term is its function as a threshold concept, meaning its integrative role “bringing all viewpoints on concepts together” (Brooks, 2013, p. 85). In national curriculums of the region, territory is normally used interchangeably with the notion of space that encapsulates all other categories such as place or landscape. The notion that certain concepts may define the subject landscape is not foreign to geography education in the region (Araya Palacios, Manuel Souto and Herrera Nunez, 2015; Arenas Martija and Salinas Silva, 2013; Souza Cavalcanti, 2012), but it could be further developed by research to clarify the focus on geographical content and the support offered to students to develop their understanding of those concepts.

Although the local scale is emphasised in different curriculums the use of the concept of place seems to be neglected. Local studies tend to use different concepts related to the city and the locality as ways of understanding proximal places. This understanding builds in the notion of belonging and locational studies (Storey, 2012) but not in the scaled notion of place as an interconnected space (Massey, 2008).

Conversely, the case of Brazil is an exemption, where there is an explicit procedural treatment of the concept of place with methods and theoretical notions informing its understanding. According to Lana de Souza (2012) the use of scale is highlighted from a didactical or pedagogical perspective because it presents a way of analysis that fosters a scaled understanding of the world, rather than an object of study in and of itself.

Curriculum approaches using social studies tend to be presented as (1) an appropriate approach to understand current problems and (2) linked with current discussions in social sciences. However, in different national curricula the social sciences approach creates a mixture of contents that can make it difficult to grasp the origin of the ideas that are in discussion and neglects the knowledge basis informing the curriculum. We consider that this approach exhibits the same risks that Mitchell (2016) has identified for curricula that are hyper-socialised. In other words, the hybridity of ideas reflects the social Italian Association of Geography Teachers

12

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

construction of curriculum by teachers, without further consideration of the influences and political agendas that have informed particular curriculum resources or ideas, or the influences exerted on individual teachers by the schools they work in. In the same line of argument, a contradiction appeared when environmental issues are introduced into national curricula, as the danger arises where environmental issues are represented too simplistically, as a struggle between the social and the physical, without paying attention to geographical processes and influences. This reflects what Marsden described as taking the geography out of geography education (Marsden, 1997).

Learning progression for school geography is acknowledged in some countries of the region but it does not fully account for knowledge acquisition and the relationship with assessment (Muñiz Solari, Solem and Boehm, 2017).

However, in some curricula, learning progression does have an implicit presence, through the structure of curriculum as starting with the local through to the global. This is a common feature which could be indicative of how different countries understand geography as a discipline. In the case of Chile, there is a cycle from year one to year six where children’s understanding of the world progress from the neighbourhood, to the city, region, country and then the global. However, this spiral of understanding is abandoned when they reach secondary education. Lower secondary school geography (years 12 to 16) content is mostly historical supplemented by the use of maps as a skill to support historical understanding.

Undoubtedly this approach is problematic as it disrupts students’ learning and puts pressure on upper secondary school geography to bridge the gap between content studied in primary education and the last two years of schooling.

9. Concluding comments: implications for the Commission on Geography Education Our brief and partial analysis reveals some interesting trends about geography curricula around the world. The division between a Copyright© Nuova Cultura

competency-based or knowledge-based curriculum is indicative of the relative importance placed on a subject like geography, but our more detailed analysis of one region shows that this can belie important geographical concepts that are inherent in the overall curriculum structure. This raises important questions about how the deliberate naming of geographical concepts can relate to the status and importance of the subject, and the role of the academic community in helping policy makers to understand the important conceptual and developmental factors pertinent to the design of an effective curriculum which enables progression in geographical understanding. If one takes the view that geography is an important contribution to a child’s education regardless of whether it is named as such, then there is much solace to be had in these findings.

However, a more pragmatic approach might suggest that unless the subject is visible and explicitly named as Geography, then its future is less secure. From an academic perspective, one can question the ideological influences (see Rawling, 2001) that are affecting how policy makers decide how to define and determine what is contained within their curriculum.

Our findings also suggest that there is no agreement in how geography is learnt showing inconsistencies with how progression in geography is understood, how geography can be learnt alongside other subjects, and the extent to which the curriculum should respond to local contextual needs and environmental concerns. All of these concerns are central to research in geography education, and to the concerns of the IGU Commission. However, it is not the place of the Commission to suggest a universal curriculum or approach to the teaching and learning of geography, as regional variations, and the right for local determination are just as important as an informed approach to curriculum development.

What the Commission can do, however, is to offer support for how we can share our understandings about how geography is best taught and learnt. We contend that this is more than a pragmatic stance, but requires intellectual leadership, informed by a detailed and informed understanding of geography education around the world.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

The IGU’s Commission for Geography Education is predominantly an organisation made up of geography educators based in higher education institutions. When a curriculum subject such as geography loses its status and place within a national curriculum, one of the consequences is the closure of subject-specific initial teacher education programmes and hence the capacity for that community to undertaken and disseminate research and scholarly insights. Friedson (2001) goes a step further and makes a powerful argument for why universities are key to the status of professionals: “Professional schooling is an indispensable component of the ideal type [of profession], but this is not solely because it produces the credential. It does much more than that. As an institution it is responsible for formalizing the particular kind of knowledge and skill claimed by an occupation, and for providing an intellectual basis for its jurisdictional claims and its relation to other occupations. It is the factory that produces new knowledge and skill, and to some degree, tests and approves it. It is the authoritative source establishing the legitimacy of the practical work activities of the occupation’s members, and it is the primary source of the status of its members and their personal, public and official identities. It also contributes to the development of commitment to the occupation as a life career and to a shared identity, a feeling of community or solidarity among all those who have passed through it”.

In other words, Friedson argues that universities provide intellectual authority as well as the conditions for a profession’s occupational community. University educators do this through the legitimation and control of new knowledge, and often through the socialisation and accreditation of new recruits.

No doubt this is an argument that one would expect of someone embedded within the university sector, but we would argue that it serves as a timely reminder as to the role that universities and scholars need to play to service the communities they serve.

Geography education is a young and niche academic community; often smaller than its Copyright© Nuova Cultura

13

counterparts in mathematics or science education, who have significantly more journals and outlets for both academic and professional publications. Structurally within the academy, Geography education is sometimes split between academic geography communities and education communities, which can mean that the link with both the parent discipline and the occupational community can vary in strength. Research in geography education, whilst often good quality, can be characterised as small scale and limited in impact (Bednarz et al., 2013).

However, regardless of the size, active research communities provides the means to understand how resilient a school subject or discipline is. We do know that when geography is taken out of a national curriculum structure, the number of geography educators and the field in general declines, but there is no reason to believe that this is the only direction.

For example in one of the regions studied, Chile’s 2013 curriculum changes reduced the quantity and quality of school geography in secondary education. However, since that year the Commission of Geography Education of the Chilean Geographical Society (Sochigeo) have been working together with the Chilean Ministry of Education to reverse that situation.

In this process, the institutional support provided by the academic society mattered: as it facilitated access to decision makers and offered legitimacy to the process of consultation, opening it up to diverse actors and institutions of different regions in the country. The participation of national members in the IGU-CGE meetings and conferences helped to provide an international perspective to the challenges ahead right after the setback of 2013. Networks are helpful in different scales and the culture of collaboration can help to transcend individual or national efforts.

The IGU-CGE provides an institutional infrastructure for the dissemination and sharing of research which in turn can foster long term initiatives required to support ambitious goals for geography education. There are countries where geography’s place in the curriculum continues to be at risk. Even when geography is re-introduced to a national curriculum, there are significant issues around the capacity of Italian Association of Geography Teachers

14

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

geography educators to raise awareness and improve positive attitudes towards geography.

In this context research can not only generate knowledge for change, but can also create capacity by positioning researchers, validating their work, creating possibilities and fostering the influence of the discipline in local contexts.

International collaboration can provide a sense of perspective and support for these long term challenges providing valuable insights that can be adapted for different local regions.

So the challenges for the academic community are great, and the need is strong.

Within such a context, the IGU’s Commission for Geography Education has an important role to play. This role and in particular the advocacy of the Commission for Geography Education is clearly articulated in the 2016 Charter. Moreover the 2016-2020 Programme of work for the Commission focusses on the strategic objectives needed to offer academic leadership and support for the community: 1. Increasing the visibility of the Commission for Geography Education (particularly through social networks) 2. Developing the CGE network and supporting the work of early career researchers 3. Enhance the quality of geography education research

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

4. Diversify the possible outlets for geography education research for both academic and professional audiences.

8.

The aim of the Commission is to provide an authoritative and scholarly home for research in geography education, so that in the future, policy makers and curriculum developers have access to an informed and authoritative account of the most successful ways to articulate, outline and structure a geography curriculum to educate and inform young people of all ages.

9.

References 1. Araya Palacios F., Manuel Souto X. and Herrera Nunez Y., “The geographical space, a school construction. A case study: the pupils of the of the Limari Valley Copyright© Nuova Cultura

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

(Chile)”, Scripta Nova-Revista Electronica De Geografia Y Ciencias Sociales, 19, 503, 2015, pp. 1-34.

Arenas Martija A. And Salinas Silva V., “Giros en la Educación Geográfica: renovación de lo geográfico y lo educativo”, Revista de Geografía Norte Grande, 56, 2013, pp. 143-162.

Bednarz S.W., Heffron S. and Huynh N.T. (Eds.), A Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education: Geography Education Research, A Report from the Geography Education Research Committee of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Project, Washington, DC, Association of American Geographers, 2013.

Brooks C., “How do we understand conceptual development in school geography?”, in Debates on Geography Education, London, Routledge, 2013, pp.

75-88.

Brooks C., Butt G. and Fargher M. (Eds.), The Power of Geographical Thinking, Springer, 2017.

Caribbean Examinations Council, Geography Syllabus, Kingston, Caenwood Centre, 2015.

Consejo de Educación Primaria, Programa de Educación Inicial y Primaria, Montevideo, CEIP, 2013.

Consejo de Educación Secundaria, Reformulación 2006. Programas de Bachillerato, 2015.

Friedson E., Professionalism: The Third Logic, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Ganimian, “Operativos Nacionales de Evaluación”, Buenos Aires, 2013, http://www.educaciontuc.gov.ar/nsitio/?pa ge_id=5356 consulted 28/03/2016.

Governo Do Estado De Sáo Paulo, Currículo do Estado de Sáo Paulo, Sáo Paulo, Secretaria da Educação, 2010.

Graves N. and Stoltman J., “History of the Commission”, http://www.igu-cge.org/.

Marsden B., “On taking the geography out of geographical education: some historical pointers”, Geography, 82, 3, 1997, pp. 241-252.

Massey D., For space, London, Sage, 2008.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Clare Brooks, Gong Qian, Victor Salinas-Silva

15. Ministerio de Educación, Diseño curricular 2014-2020, Buenos Aires, Ministerio de Educación/Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, 2013.

16. Ministerio de Educación, Educación Primaria Comunitaria Vocacional, La Paz, Ministerio de Educación, 2014a.

17. Ministerio de Educación, Educación Secundaria Comunitaria Vocacional, La Paz, Ministerio de Educación, 2014b.

18. Ministerio de Educación, Bases curriculares.

1º a 6 º básico, Santiago, Ministerio de Educación, 2015a.

19. Ministerio de Educación, Bases curriculares.

7º básico a 2º medio, Santiago, Ministerio de Educación, 2015b.

20. Ministerio de Educación, Currículo de EGB y BGU. Ciencias Sociales, Quito, Ministerio de Educación, 2016a.

21. Ministerio de Educación, Currículo Nacional de la Educación Básica, Lima, Minedu, 2016b.

22. Ministerio de Educación, Propuesta curricular para 3° y 4° Medio, Documento de consulta pública, Santiago, Ministerio de Educación, 2017.

23. Ministerio de Educación Nacional, Estándares básicos de competencias, Bogotá, MEN, 2006.

24. Ministerio de Educación Nacional, Lineamientos curriculares, Bogotá, MEN, 2014.

25. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencias, Programas de Estudio de Educación Escolar Básica, Asunción, MEC, n.d.

26. Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Actualización currricular del Bachillerato Científico de la Educación Media. Plan común Ciencias Sociales y sus tecnologías, Asun-

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

15

ción, MEC, 2014.

Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación, Curriculo del subsistema de Educación Primaria Bolivariana, Caracas, Cenamec, 2007a.

Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación, Curriculo del subsistema de Educación Secundaria Bolivariana. Liceos Bolivarianos, Caracas, Cenamec, 2007b.

Mitchell D., “Geography teachers and curriculum making in ‘changing times’”, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 25, 2, 2016, pp. 121-133.

Muñiz Solari O., Solem M. and Boehm R. (Eds.), Learning Progressions in Geography Education, New York, Springer, 2017.

Ratzel F., “The laws of the spatial growth of states. A contribution to a scientific political geography”, Geopolítica, 2, 1, 2011, pp. 135-156.

Rawling E., Changing the Subject: the impact of national policy on school geography 1980-2000, Sheffield, Geographical Association, 2001.

Souza Cavalcanti L., “The school geography in Brazil and challenges for the teaching practice”, Geoenseñanza, 17, 1, 2012, pp. 23-38.

Storey D., Territories. The claiming of space (2nd edition), New York, Routledge, 2012.

Wu G., “The Curriculum Reform Running in Mazes”, Peking University Education Review, 11, 4, 2013, pp. 20-50 (in Chinese).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 17-28 DOI: 10.4458/8579-02

The Smart City I Would Like.

Maps and Storytelling in Teaching Geography Paola Zamperlina, Margherita Azzaria a

Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo (SAGAS), University of Florence, Florence, Italy Email: paola.zamperlin@unifi.it Received: May 2016 – Accepted: March 2017

Abstract In this paper we present the results of some educational workshops held at selected lower secondary schools within the Le chiavi della città (The Keys to the City) project, coordinated by the municipality of Florence. The main objective of these workshops was to motivate students towards an analytical reflection on their city, observed through the guiding principles of the Smart City concept. The students were prompted to discover the new geographies that are modeling contemporary cities and, in order to do this, they were provided with both theoretical and technological tools. The former are necessary for a critical reading of the phenomenon, and the latter to enable them to re-interpret and redesign their city in the light of new findings. The teachers primarily defined the problem domain and presented traditional concepts of scale, place and space identified according to the pillars of the Smart City: Environment, Mobility, Economy, People, Living. Then the students were asked to reshape the urban spaces of their own daily life by using the ArcGIS Online platform. This proved to be a valuable tool because it allowed them to synthesize and to show their newly acquired knowledge. Moreover through the mashup of maps and multimedia contents, they were able to express themselves in a closer way to their common language, and therefore these tools had an important role in the mediation and translation of their ideas into proposals for shared actions.

Keywords: ArcGIS Online, Geography Education, GIS, Secondary School, Smart City, Technology Education

1. Introduction The project and relevant reflections presented in this article originate from an experience that took place during the 2014-15 school year involving about a dozen schools in Florence, Italy. We started these workshops as part of the project supported by the city of

Florence called Le chiavi della città1 (The Keys to the City), an initiative that has been organizing and sponsoring educational projects for pre-school, primary and lower secondary classes for many years. The Laboratory of Applied Geography of the University of Florence, of which the authors of this article are part, was contacted to be included in these 1

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Project website: http://www.chiavidellacitta.it/.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

18

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

projects to bridge an obvious gap in the overall project scope which was the total absence of activities involving Geography. As a result of this request, several educational laboratory workshops were conceived. These were designed for lower secondary school level students (aged 11 to 14), and they included two meetings of two or three hours each, depending on the availability of each individual class. Although seemingly an easy task, one of the most troublesome obstacles which was encountered during the preliminary phase was the lack of computer labs with a sufficient number of efficient computers with good Internet connection, essential instrumental factors for the success of the educational workshops. The main laboratory planning phase focused on the identification of: 1) topics; 2) the appropriate instruments; 3) the final goals to be attained in terms of knowledge and skills. Consequently, it was decided to direct students towards an analytical reflection on their city, inviting each one of them to, first individually and then collectively, come up with the “Smart City that I would like”. The choice of this theme, which was greeted with enthusiasm and led to great student participation, exceeding the teachers’ own expectations, is due to the need to combine the classical themes of human geography, such as urban context analysis, with the possibility to directly observe its urban context and the changes it is experiencing and then to identify possible models of development in the light of the most recent studies in this field.

The students were invited to compare the new geographies of contemporary cities using different analysis scales. First of all, teachers circumscribed the problem and presented traditional scaling concepts such as place and space, identifying them according to the pillars of the Smart City: Environment, Mobility, Economy, People, Living (Giffinger et al., 2007). This first stage, in which the teachers had the leading role, introducing new knowledge to the students, and also recalling and stressing already known concepts, was followed by more direct student involvement.

They were asked to reshape the urban spaces of their own lives, working in small groups and Copyright© Nuova Cultura

at first using just blank paper on which to draw their projects and then subsequently transferring these onto a map using the ArcGIS online platform. In other words they were provided with both the theoretical tools necessary for the critical reading of the phenomenon, and the technological tools in order to reinterpret and re-engineer their city in the light of their new knowledge.

We’ll see how the ArcGIS online platform proved to be very congenial as it allowed students to represent their new knowledge intuitively, through the combination of maps and multimedia languages which are very close to their usual, daily ways of expression.

This was made clear by the high number of participants and by the seriousness with which the students faced the tasks of redesigning their own town or district. This involvement shows how the use of suitable tools close to the students’ interests can lead to significant educational results and can be replicated in other contexts.

Furthermore these work groups stimulated the ability to translate ideas, elaborated first individually and then collectively analysed, into proposals for shared actions.

2. Methodology. Different maps tell different stories The decision to create this laboratory experience having students develop their projects through a story map constructed with ArcGIS Online, was a pretext to stimulate them to reflect on the meaning of the map itself and the link that exists between maps and stories: a map is created to tell a particular story, and it is for this reason that different maps tell different stories. Therefore, each map is not a neutral object, but has in itself a whole set of information which is functionally part of the story that it aims to tell. Maps have always been made to inspire and stimulate people’s imagination through their communicative power (Kerski, 2013). After all, if we want to tell a story it is because we have one to tell, a narration that needs to be woven and communicated; a set of contents, made up of characters and events that are interlaced in Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

certain places, and because of this we can place them on one or more maps.

For further studies on the strong bond that exists between storytelling and maps one can refer to other studies and relative bibliographical notes (Marta and Osso, 2015).

For our purpose it will suffice to point out that within our educational project the focus was set on the need for a map to be drawn up with the aim of telling a story, and therefore had to be carefully designed following certain features and specific information, selected on the basis of the story to be communicated.

The students were asked to tell a story entitled The smart city that I would like, and to develop it through appropriate multimedia languages that starting from a map could communicate careful problem analysis, accurate information research, study sources and problem solving proposals. A study then, through which a set of knowledge could result in skills, while exploiting specific abilities in the use of appropriate technology.

3. Theoretical approach The smart city paradigm, although still not univocally defined in literature (Anthopoulos, 2015; Garau et al., 2015, p. 612), certainly encompasses concepts such as knowledge of a place, information availability, technology pervasiveness, mobility efficiency, economic development, energy saving strategies, sustainability, inclusiveness, competitiveness, and in general all the skills required for the achievement of better living conditions and well-being for the citizens who live there.

Taking into account the time available for conducting these workshops (two or three meetings of three hours each per class), the age of the students and their prior knowledge, we were compelled to make a choice and therefore chose to follow the teachings of the Viennese school of Giffinger. According to this theory, a smart city can be read through six dimensions, known as pillars (see below). Therefore, starting from this point, we did not elaborate with the students a critical review of the smart city concept, as can be debated in an academic context, reflecting on contradictions or Copyright© Nuova Cultura

19

different positions. The purpose of these workshops was rather to make students more aware of what might be urban development trajectories, according to the proposed model, to which they could themselves participate as active citizens, in a scenario where they are constantly surrounded by actions and objects labelled as “smart”.

In order to relate the proposed theme to the actual experience of the students, we attempted to analyse the concept of smart city in a more strictly Italian scenario, in which urban development in this direction is not homogeneous (Forum PA, 2016) and especially where the urban distribution is made up of small and medium-sized towns, with limited population and size compared to the major international examples on which the paradigm was modelled and therefore the project should be considered in light of this different context (IFEL, 2015). As a result, the questions that students were initially asked were: 1. In light of the reflections we have shared, what smartness conditions con you propose for your town?

2. What do you consider already smart in the urban space that you live in? (Neighborhood or extended city depending on the different situations).

3. What every day experiences of interaction with the spaces and people do you think could make your city smarter and provide a better life style?

On the base of Peter Haggett’s classification notes on the characteristics of geographical surveys, we chose an “ecological” approach of analysis, focusing on the importance of the interaction which develops between the environment and the people who live there and on how this moulds the environment in which they settle (Haggett, 1993, p. 11). It was important to have the students understand the general impact of community actions upon a territory, and upon their personal civic role in participating in the definition and the improvement of their own cities, in particular.

These reflections were contextualized within that dimension that some years ago entered the

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

20

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

common geospatial revolution2 language, the expression with which we refer to the increased availability of spatial satellite data and the increasingly powerful technologies that interpret, reshape and make this information accessible on various platforms, both on the web and on mobile devices.

It was important to have the students understand that everything happens in a determined place and that the analysis of the phenomena starting from its spatial dimension leads to deeper understanding.

Learning to think spatially, meaning also the ability to tell stories starting from a spatial dimension, must be considered a primary proficiency alongside reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy (Zwartjes, 2014), which are already valued on an international level3, since this is becoming more and more part of our everyday lives4.

In our specific case, the proposal to analyse 2

See the famous four episodes carried out by PennState University also published in the National Geographic magazine (http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/; http://education.nationalgeographic.org/media/geos patial-revolution/).

3 See the periodic survey report by the Programme for International Student Assessment – PISA made

by OECD (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/). Italian site: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012results-italy-ITA.pdf.

4 According to the standards formulated by the American National Research Council, spatially literate students have the following characteristics: “1. They have the habit of mind of thinking spatially—they know where, when, how, and why to think spatially. 2. They practice spatial thinking in an informed way—they have a broad and deep knowledge of spatial concepts and spatial representations, a command over spatial reasoning using a variety of spatial ways of thinking and acting, and well-developed spatial capabilities for using supporting tools and technologies. 3. They adopt a critical stance to spatial thinking—they can evaluate the quality of spatial data based on its source and its likely accuracy and reliability; can use spatial data to construct, articulate, and defend a line of reasoning or point of view in solving problems and answering questions; and can evaluate the validity of arguments based on spatial information” (Down et al., 2006, p. 4 ss.).

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the Smart city concept and to represent variations in specific contexts was the driving force behind honing spatial literacy in the students, as a set of abilities connected to thought and to spatial action. That is to say, the aim was to communicate in the form of a map, understand the symbolic components of a map, recognize and interpret patterns, comprehend basic concepts as scales and spatial resolution (Goodchild, 2006). We are convinced that the understanding and the proper use of geographic information is a skill which students can benefit from later in complex decision-making contexts which are not necessarily connected to geography.

On a European level, the digital-earth.eu network, which studies the use of geographic media in schools and in teacher training, connecting them to the innovative European centres in this field5, has recognized the importance of the introduction of geo-media, and in particular of GIS, in education for the development of three areas of competence: personal, social and professional (Zwartjes, 2014). We therefore tried to stimulate each student towards a geographical approach to problems, in order to address them critically and constructively and, at the same time, making it clear that only if well-equipped with knowledge and solid skills can each citizen play an active role and effectively participate in society. It goes without saying that the adoption of constructive, active learning practices, using problem solving and projectbased methods will prove helpful to students in future professional challenges. We therefore adopted this educational model in order to have the students and teachers involved in these laboratories understand that geographic knowledge is something that goes beyond the rote learning of place names.

5

“digital-earth.eu network project is a Comenius Multilateral Network (2010-2013). It complements the activities of two previous Comenius Multilateral Projects (GISAS and iGuess) that used specific GIS software and produced teaching materials for schools and training courses for teachers” (http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/ project/digital-eartheu).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

Drawing from the skill sets outlined by Zwartjes (Zwartjes, 2014, p. 54 ss.) we focused on some of these in the creation of our specific activities: − “Pedagogic and didactical skills for the use of digital earth tools in school” and “Ability to use digital earth tools (also technological skills)”: i.e. the ability to read a GIS interface recognizing its main tools and planning all possible actions so as to set up one’s own working environment, to be able to choose the basic map and to define suitable bounding boxes for the purposes of the implemented map (Goodchild, 2011); − “Understanding complex and changing interrelationships”: the students were presented with a forecasting scenario stating that by 2050 the world population would reach 7 billion inhabitants, of which at least 2/3 of them would be concentrated in the cities, in an inverted trend from what happened a century earlier (United Nations, 2014). In this scenario, they were asked to reflect on the consequent problems associated with the following variables: Environment (resource management and waste disposal), Mobility (transport networks and alternative mobility), Economy, People, Living and Governance (how to contain social problems connected to population density and how to contribute to people’s welfare). These variables were first individually analysed and then seen as part of a complex system of relationships; − “Ability to use spatial skills in real world problem-solving contexts”: the global scenario presented from a theoretical point of view was represented on an urban scale in known contexts in order to solve a specific problem: how to develop this smartness idea within our neighbourhood or even in the whole city where we live, starting with the identification of antithetical situations and focusing on where to intervene. − “Lifelong learning competencies: ability to find training opportunities, time management, planning competency, communication competencies” and “Social learning: being able to work with others – teamwork”: even though our time was limited, the students, who were Copyright© Nuova Cultura

−

−

−

−

−

21

divided into groups, worked as project teams, attributing roles and analysing together proposals and solutions; “Being able to identify and evaluate resources”: part of the data produced by the students was a result of processing contents found on the web, which they had to evaluate in advance, by themselves or with the help of their teachers.

“Access information efficiently and effecttively, evaluate information critically and competently (see maps as manipulated representations created by people/organizations with a certain purpose, e.g. classification methods, colour schemes, map contents)”; “Manipulate maps: Display information on maps; Create own maps; Communicate cartographic information”: the final result of the re-planning of their home city in a smart key reading, was entrusted to a map on which information was superimposed which was essential to the project communication; “Understand the construction of digital maps as a representation of the real world: The power of maps (reliability of data, classification and colour schemes)”: the resulting maps, although very simple, were functional in raising the students’ awareness of the communicative power of a map, not only as a means of description but also as a means of prediction; “Use digital earth tools for investigation/research: Interpret content; Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to sustainable solutions; Frame, analyse and synthesize information in order to solve problems and answer questions”: the achievement of this competence was without doubt one of the key points of this project. The students thoroughly discussed the sustainability of their proposals and, only after the adopted solution seemed appropriate to solving the problem, they worked to find its correct representation using the working environment in an exploratory manner and discovering, for example, that their city took on new meaning and values if viewed on a satellite image or on a topographic basemap.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

22

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

3.1 Participants In total, the project involved about a dozen classes with an average of 25 students each, belonging to seven middle schools, all in the area of Florence. The students’ ages ranged between eleven and fourteen.

According to Italian school laws, the teaching of geography in middle schools is entrusted to the Italian teacher and the combined use of technology is left to their free initiative. We must note that due to the lack of teaching time, computerized equipment in the classrooms, and teachers’ expertise, the use of technology while teaching geography and especially GIS is extremely limited. Regarding the latter we are not aware of any significant experiences in middle schools.

Each workshop involved the geography teachers and two experts from the University.

3.2 Tools When we examined which tools we needed to provide for a practical transformation of the theoretical aspects, the answer was sought in instruments that were able to integrate objects closest to the common understanding of a story or narration. Starting from this idea we chose multimedia texts, images and video, and an intuitive and easily understandable GIS with an interface that could be used by students with little or no prior knowledge of it.

Currently, geographic information systems technologies are used daily by a growing number of users at various levels of complexity ranging from simple service localization or route calculation, all the way up to integration into decision support tools and spatial analysis. However, there is very little, when any, use of GIS platforms in teaching contexts, even when functional to learning geography (Yap et al., 2008) despite the potential that these have and the growing need to integrate technology to learn not only how to use technology per se, but also the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge and skills through the use of technology. In fact, GIS are not a goal in itself but a means to using spatial thinking skills, as they constitute Copyright© Nuova Cultura

both a support for geography teaching and learning, and a tool to study geographical problems at a large number of levels as well as being an essential tool for knowledge workers in the twenty-first century (Bednarz, 2004; Zwartjes, 2014).

In particular, GIS provide technology that stimulate the development of synthetic-analytical and methodological-application capabilities through geographical research, enabling the production of communicative and effective cartographic processing, which can be interpreted by merging a wide range of expertise contained in geographical knowledge (Pesaresi 2011, p. 135). Moreover, as seen in these classrooms, the opportunity to engage students in active and collaborative learning, also based on the use of extremely up-to-date computergeographic instruments, was key to the project’s success. According to some authors (cfr. Liu and Zhu, 2008), this comes about when geographical research is connected with constructivism, especially where learning through problem solving and research-based studies prevails over a learning process based merely on content sequences. A GIS environment is, then, a computer-based training ground for constructivist-learning of geographical knowledge. Generally speaking, school education has gradually shifted to a constructivist model in which inquiry-based and problem solving learning is emphasized, and in this direction geography studies can also find an entirely appropriate theoretical collocation. In fact, following this model, we acted as guide teachers responsible for resource organization and problem location for students, who were entrusted with the responsibility of formulating research objectives, collecting and analysing data and information, and finally sharing their findings with the other students. In this way, the students themselves conducted the knowledge creation process through assimilation, by incorporating new experiences, and accommodation, by modifying and adapting existing cognitive structures in response to their own personal environment. In a social constructivism dimension (Gasper, 1999) students’ abilities unfold with the solution of real problems, as in our case where they had to identify non-smart situations in their cities and then re-design them, and consequently build new Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

23

knowledge through social interaction processes, represented here by small groups of students, who first interacted within the group and then shared their findings with the other groups.

Smart city concept, in particular on the aspects of mobility, energy conservation, quality of life and relationship spaces, issues that boosted their keen interest.

The online ArcGIS platform, which was chosen as the tool to develop and communicate solutions to the proposed problem, represented a completely suitable work environment for the constructivist model, where the students had the opportunity to negotiate and reflect on their ideas, develop research and communicate their results, thus giving efficacy to the whole learning process. Through this platform it was possible to activate a learning environment capable of providing multiple representations of the world, enabling collaborative knowledge construction, integrating different sources of information and different means of expression, adaptable to different needs and different student intelligences. In this regard, Goodchild (2009), referring to Gardner’s classification of multiple intelligences (1983), alongside verbal and logical-mathematical intelligences, adds the visual-spatial that involves manoeuvring skills in the physical world and, at the same time, the use of mental representations and models that allow us to interpret meanings in images and on maps. To stimulate a similar type of intelligence, tools and technologies facilitating this are becoming more and more important.

Another interesting aspect is that in the online ArcGIS platform they discovered an environment through which they could tell their new geography through a story, or better to rethink their daily lives through a mappable space. They managed to build and shape, even if only on a virtual scale, the space they inhabit, showing designing skills, inspired by a civic sense of duty, and then they shared it with their class. Figures 1 to 4 are just a few of the screenshots taken from the Webmapping applications they created. Generally, the first action was to identify critical areas in which to place urban recovery interventions. Then students searched the web for images, video or data on similar situations, so as to produce more or less complex mashups of text-audiovideo contents. These proved to be very effective and immediate communicative expressions being so close to their language.

4. Results

Interestingly, some groups emphasized that smart does not necessarily mean having more connectivity, but in general to having areas in which to meet and play freely, such as for ball games, or even just green areas perceived as places to assemble. By contrast, others focused their projects on an enhanced WiFi network, particularly along the route from home to school.

The first result which we would like to point out is the students’ positive reaction to the proposals and suggestions tangible in the seriousness with which they took on the taskassignment of identifying and solving a problem in their own urban context. We can also say, on the basis of the teachers’ statements, that even those students who were usually unwilling or reluctant to participate in class activities were actively involved in the program without much difficulty and actually demonstrated proactive attitudes.

All the students discussed in groups the functional and perceptive characteristics of the city in which they live, reasoning first on an urban scale, and then on a neighbourhood based one. They debated on the, new for them,

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The final product of their work consisted of Webmapping applications, very simple in some cases, in others more elaborated. In these, each group combined the maps made by themselves, containing their personal project records, web links, images and videos found in internet, consistent with the object and the aims of the project.

Some, starting from the observation of their own neighbourhoods, designed a network for rainwater collection to be reused in the maintenance of flower beds or roundabouts or traffic islands so that these would be more beautiful and the city less gloomy.

Others felt the need to have public school transport organized in such a way as to shorten the time travelling between home and school, and consequently they laid out routes, Italian Association of Geography Teachers

24

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

consisting of nodes and segments, and more suitable means of transportation.

They all focused on the need to be able to get to their daily life places (school, leisure centres, gyms, etc.) in a safe way, excluding the need for an accompanying adult. They perceived as an improved quality the possibility of living and experiencing individually a place, which would not be hostile or perceived as unsafe.

In general, their considerations started from an analysis of their everyday lives, and only in a subsequent step did they widen their projects to a larger scale, extending their actions to the entire neighborhood or the city.

Van Leeuwen and Scholten (2009) point out how when teaching it is also important to convey a “sense of fun”. Generally speaking people learn more easily when they are having fun in what they are doing. In our experience we noticed how while using GIS and integrating maps, data, and multimedia content in an easyto-use tool, students did not feel any burden of completing their assigned task. Indeed many perceived it as a game, with its share of fun.

Furthermore, this environment greatly benefits from being a non-linear medium, in which you can / you must enable links, as is typical in any Web environment, combining the linearity of traditional storytelling with the networking of a hypermedia hypertext. From a constructivist point of view it helps students to reflect on the knowledge creation process they are producing.

We observed students as they progressed in their geographic research, raising questions and formulating hypotheses, wondering where and if it were possible to find data to support the latter. The phase in which they showed the greatest enthusiasm was when presenting and communicating their projects, carefully choosing the cartographic bases and thinking about the symbols to be adopted and looking for publicly available information.

In general, the real relevance of the theme and its social and cultural impact stimulated reflection, but without doubt the technology chosen was crucial for the students’ active involvement, while also helping teachers to monitor the learning process through interaction with the students and stimulating critical thinking about Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the content and usage of online resources (Liu and Zhu, 2008).

5. Conclusions The Laboratory of Applied Geography designed and set up several educational workshops designed for lower secondary school classes, to experiment geography learning methodology using an inquiry-based constructivist approach which started from a general theoretical position on a global scale, proposed by the teachers, and then applied by the students on a local scale through a problem solving approach. The chosen theme connected to the smart city concept was presented by the students through web story maps built using ArcGIS Online, a platform that, for almost all the students, represented their first contact with a GIS environment. The results of the experiment were assuredly very positive, except for some difficulties due to the inefficiency of some school computers and internet connections.

Despite not having any previous GIS knowledge and technological competence, after a brief introduction to the technology, the students showed lively interest in discovering its potential. They immediately understood how to use it to achieve their set tasks, that is to say the analysis of some problems of their cities, concerned with sustainable mobility, energy conservation and waste recycling, as well as with relationship spaces for its inhabitants, Internet connectivity and the management of sensors and intelligent applications.

Students took their task of designing new urban areas in a smart way seriously and were interested in finding ways to tell their stories through maps conceived by themselves.

The geography lesson was thus an excuse to experiment new visual languages and become familiar with geographic technologies too often and for various reasons, left aside when teaching geography. The students were able to learn and, at the same time, to impart their knowledge through a GIS platform, which proved to be instrumental in the acquisition of new knowledge and new skills, and was a stimulus for an in-depth analysis of more complex environments.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

25

Figure 1. Some of the neighbourhood areas identified as critical.

Source: Original student elaboration.

Figure 2. Some of the neighbourhood areas identified as critical.

Source: Original student elaboration.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

26

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

Figure 3. Proposed neighbourhood redevelopment.

Source: Original student elaboration.

Figure 4. Intervention identification. Once again the choice fell on areas close to the school.

Source: Original student elaboration.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

Acknowledgements Although this paper was conceived together by the Authors, P. Zamperlin wrote paragraphs 1, 2 and 3, M. Azzari wrote paragraphs 4 and 5.

The Authors wish to thank the Municipality of Florence for the opportunity to be a part of the Le Chiavi della Città project and the teachers and the students who gave their contributions and suggestions to the workshops.

The contents of this paper were presented during the annual conference of ESRI Italia, held in Rome (Italy), April 20-21, 2016.

References 1. Ahvenniemi H., Huovila A., Pinto-Seppä I. and Airaksinen M., “What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities?” Cities, 60, 2017, pp. 234-245.

2. Anthopoulos L.G., “Understanding the Smart City Domain: A Literature Review”, in Rodriguez-Bolivar M.P. (Ed.) Transforming City Governments for Successful Smart Cities, Berlin, Springer, 2015.

3. Bednarz S.W., “Geographic information systems: A tool to support geography and environmental education?”, GeoJournal, 60, 2004, pp. 191-199.

4. Bodzin A. and Cirucci, L., “Integrating geospatial technologies to examine urban land use change: A design partnership”, Journal of Geography, 108, 4-5, 2009, pp.

186-197.

5. Corna Pellegrini G., “Le nuove culture della vita urbana”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 111, 2004, pp. 101-14.

6. De Miguel González R. and Donert K., Innovative learning geography in Europe: new challenges for the 21st century, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.

7. Downs R.M. (Ed.), Learning to think spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K12 Curriculum, National Research Council, Washington DC, National Academies Press, 2006.

8. ESRI, “Storytelling with Maps: Workflows and Best Practices”, 2012a, http://storymaps.esri.com/downloads/Build Copyright© Nuova Cultura

27

ing%20Story%20Maps.pdf.

9. ESRI, “Telling Stories with Maps – A White Paper”, 2012b, http://storymaps. esri.com/downloads/Telling%20Stories%2 0with%20Maps.pdf.

10. Forum PA, ICity Rate 2016. La classifica delle città intelligenti italiane, 2016, http://www.forumpa.it/smart-city/icity-rate-2016-la-classifica-delle-citta-intelligenti-italiane-quinta-edizione.

11. Garau C., Masala F. and Pinna F., “Benchmarking Smart Urban Mobility: A Study on Italian Cities” in Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2015, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference, (Banff, AB, Canada, 22.25 June 2015), Part II, pp. 612-623.

12. Gardner H., Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, New York, Basic Books, 1983.

13. Gasper P., “Social constructivism”, in R. Audi (Ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 855.

14. Giffinger R., Fertner C., Kramar H., Meijers E. and Pichler-Milanović N., Ranking of European medium-sized cities, Final Report, Centre of Regional Science, Vienna UT, 2007, http://www.smartcities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_repo rt.pdf.

15. Goodchild M.F., “The Fourth R? Rethinking GIS Education”, ArcNews Online, 2006, http://www.esri.com/news/ arcnews/fall06articles/the-fourth-r.html.

16. Goodchild M.F., “What Problem? Spatial Autocorrelation and Geographic Information Science”, Geographical Analysis, 41, 4, 2009, pp. 411-417.

17. Goodchild M.F., “Spatial thinking and the GIS User Interface”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 21, 2011, pp. 3-9.

18. Haggett P., L’arte del geografo, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1993.

19. Harder C. (Ed.), The ArcGIS Book: 10 Big Ideas about Applying Geography to Your World, ESRI Press, 2015.

20. IFEL – Istituto per la Finanza e l’Economia Locale, Atlante dei piccoli comuni 2015,

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

28

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari

http://www.fondazioneifel.it/documenti-epubblicazioni/item/4635-atlante-dei-piccoli-comuni-2015.

Koch T. and Denike K., “Aaron’s Solution, Instructor’s Problem: Teaching Surface Analysis Using GIS”, Journal of Geography, 106, 2, 2007, pp. 69-77.

Liu S. and Zhu X., “Designing a structured and Interactive learning environment based on GIS for secondary geography education”, Journal of Geography, 107, 2008, pp. 12-19.

Marta M. and Osso P., “Story Maps at school: teaching and learning stories with maps”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, 2015, pp. 61-68.

Miller J. and Keller P.C., “Suggested Geographic Information Literacy for K-12”, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 14, 4, 2005, pp.

243-260.

Mitchell L., “Why use GIS?”, Teaching Geography, 35, 1, 2010, pp. 18-20.

Muniz Solari O., Demirci A. and van der Schee J. (Eds.), Geospatial Technologies and Geography Education in a Changing World. Geospatial Practices and Lessons Learned, Berlin, Springer, 2015.

O’Connor P., “Progressive GIS”, Teaching Geography, 32, 3, 2007, pp. 147-50.

Pesaresi C., “Una nuova didattica e una nuova geografia con le geotecnologie”, in De Vecchis G. (Ed.), A scuola senza geografia?, Rome, Carocci, 2011.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

29. The ArcGIS Book. 10 big ideas about Applying Geography to Your World, Esri Press, 2015, http://learn.arcgis.com/en/ arcgis-book/.

30. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Urbanization Prospects. The 2014 Revision, 2014, http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Fi les/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf.

31. United States, Department of Labor, US Department of Labor announces release of Geospatial Technology Competency Model, 2010, http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/ press/eta/eta20100950.htm.

32. Van Leeuwen W.S. and Scholten H.J., “Spatial literacy: the ABC of the (X,Y,Z).

The five senses of GIS in education”, Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association, 186, 3, 2009, http://citeseerx.ist. psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.58 0.5627&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

33. Yap L.Y., Tan G.C.I., Zhu X. and Wettasinghe M.C., “An Assessment of the Use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Teaching Geography in Singapore Schools”, Journal of Geography, 107, 2, 2008, pp. 52-60.

34. Zwartjes L., “The need for a learning line on spatial thinking using GIS in education”, in de Miguel González R. and Donert K. (Eds.), Innovative learning geography in Europe: new challenges for the 21st century, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp. 39-63.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 29-44 DOI: 10.4458/8579-03

Pre-service geography teachers’ voices on the choice of spatial examples. Results from the first year of an educational design research study Kathrin Viehriga a

Institute of Secondary Education, School of Education FHNW, Windisch, Switzerland Email: kathrin.viehrig@fhnw.ch

Received: September 2016 – Accepted: March 2017

Abstract In contrast to many of the former curricula, the new Curriculum 21 in Switzerland offers teachers considerable freedom in choosing spatial examples. As part of an educational design research project, this study investigates the reasoning behind pre-service teachers’ choices of spatial examples for their own teaching and coursework as well as their interests and wishes for how spatial examples should be chosen for initial teacher training courses. Students in one institution in Switzerland completed an online questionnaire at the end of the autumn term 2015 as well as the spring term 2016. The results indicate that several factors such as e.g. the students’ and pupils’ interest or being the location of current events are judged as more important than the curriculum both for the students’ own choices and for what they wanted the course spatial examples to focus on, although there are some differences between the two areas. Besides helping to understand pre-service teachers’ reasoning, the project’s results will also add new evidence that can help build a design process for initial teacher training courses in geography.

Keywords: Spatial Examples, University Students, Geography Teacher Education, Interest, Didaktic Decision Making

1. Introduction No matter whether they teach primary school or university students, teachers have to make didaktic1 choices every day.

1

Throughout this paper, didaktic and didaktics is used in line with the meaning it has e.g. in the Germanophone area (see e.g. see e.g. discussion of GIS didactics in Viehrig, 2015 or the footnote in Molin et al., 2015 for the use in Sweden). Based on Clare Brooke’s presentation at the 2016 IGU-CGE conference in

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Part of geography education is to “[…] think about the question of how location matters” (van der Schee, 2012). Consequently, in geography education, one of the didaktic decisions is the choice of one or more spatial examples. For instance, when looking at the polar climate zone, is it dealt with on a general global level or do the students learn about one or more examples from e.g. Canada and/or Singapore, it is spelled with a “k” to mark the difference from the meaning didactics has in the Anglophone area.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

30

Kathrin Viehrig

Russia and/or the USA and/ or Antarctica?

What impact do these choices have on the students’ geographic learning?

In some jurisdictions, these choices are already largely pre-determined by the standards/ curricula. For instance, in Australia, the curriculum includes“[…] a study of the world in[…] the primary years, working out progressively from Australia to the neighbouring countries and then to each of the continents. In the secondary years there are case studies of themes in each unit that will enable students to learn more about particular regions or countries of the world. The locations of these case studies are prescribed to ensure coverage of the world and countries of particular significance to Australia, as well as to reduce repetition” (Maude, 2013, p. 261).

In Switzerland, the great diversity of curricula for general secondary schools has been sought to be harmonized, creating among other measures the so-called Curriculum 21 as foundation for the curricula of all Germanspeaking cantons (D-EDK, n.d.). While often, the old curricula provided fairly specific prescriptions in terms of mandatory spatial examples (see ch. 2), the Curriculum 21 allows teachers to choose nearly all spatial examples freely by themselves.

What factors do teachers take into consideration when using that freedom and deciding on a spatial example? What are the consequences for pre-service teacher education? There seem to be few studies dealing with these questions, especially in the Swiss context.

2. Background: spatial examples in selected Swiss curricula The School of Education of the University of Applied Arts and Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (PH-FHNW) serves as teacher education institution for four cantons: Baselcity, Basel-Landschaft, Solothurn and Aargau.

All German speaking cantons have accepted the curriculum framework (D-EDK 2017a). The cantons decide on implementation and possible adaptations. Aargau envisions the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

introduction for the school year 2020/21 (DEDK, 2017b). In Basel-city, the Curriculum 21 is already in force since the school year 2015/2016 (D-EDK, 2016b). In BaselLandschaft and Solothurn, the secondary school portion of the Curriculum 21 will be introduced in the school year 2018/2019 (DEDK, 2016a; D-EDK, 2016c).

The Curriculum 21 (Erziehungsdepartement des Kantons Basel-Stadt, 2016) is a competenceoriented curriculum. Similar to other such curricula elsewhere (see e.g. Fuchsgruber et al., accepted), descriptions are fairly open, giving the teacher a lot of freedom of choice. Most descriptions of spatial examples, for instance, stay very general, including for instance “different regions of the world”, various climate, vegetation and landscapes zones, current phenomena, European weather patterns or the Arctic/ Antarctic region. The only more specific examples are Switzerland, the Swiss Alps and the Mediterranean. In the history part of the curriculum, besides Switzerland there is also world history, which includes e.g.

“European expansion”, the explorer’s journeys, as well as a competency outlining that students should “[be] able to create a short historical description of a selected region from the beginning of the modern area to today (e.g. regarding the home country, a holiday destination, the USA, the Near East, China)” (translated). There is also a section on upheavals, which includes e.g. colonialism or the French revolution.

The curriculum for geography in BaselLandschaft (BKSD, 2006) also has some more general examples, such as for instance Europe and Europe’s cultural regions, the world’s cultural regions, countries of the South or climate zones. It is already more specific than the Curriculum 21, however, in that it not only features Switzerland, but also the EU, “three different of Switzerland’s neighbouring countries”, “one country each from North/ Middle/ South/ West and Eastern Europe”, “one large city each in Switzerland, in Europe, in Asia and in North America” as well as a number of specifics within Switzerland, such as the Gotthard or the “Jura, Central Plateau, Alps and South Switzerland” regions (translated).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Kathrin Viehrig

The curriculum in Aargau (Kanton Aargau, 2014) again features some general descriptions such as for instance different climate, vegetation and landscape zones, Europe or the Third World. It also contains Switzerland as well as sub-regions. Additionally, it contains some very specific spatial examples. Firstly, there is “Mediterranean cultures” with “Industrialized intensive cultures: Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, agriculture in Eastern Europe, agriculture in the EU” (p. 278/ p. 285, translated). Secondly, the large cities to be dealt with are explicitly enumerated, namely, “London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Berlin, Moscow” (p. 279/ p. 285, translated). Thirdly, “touristic development in the tropics” prescribes “Kenya, Caribbean, Maldives, Thailand” (p. 280/ p. 287, translated) as spatial examples. Lastly, in the area of cultural and economic regions, the curriculum states “most important economic powers outside of Europe: USA, Russia, Japan, China; other important regions: India, South East Asia, Arabic-Islamic Area, Central and South America, Australia; large cities” (p. 280/ p. 287, translated).

The curriculum in Solothurn (Kanton Solothurn, 2007) is in force since 1992. There are some general descriptions such as climate and vegetation zones, but it also includes topics that are listed specifically, including “The Jangtse-Plain”, “Land loss and land gain at the North Sea coast”, “River oasis at the Nile”, “Brasilia, a new city”, “Rotterdam, door

31

to the world” and “Salt caravans at the edge of the Sahara” (p. 98, translated). That it is an open enumeration is indicated by “etc.” at the end. Also explicitly named is the Mediterranean region for the area of land use.

3. Indications from previous research Generally, research indicates that teachers tend to use/ adapt the materials they were trained with. For instance, in a study on GIS professional development in the USA, Baker, Palmer and Kerski (2009) found that “[s]ixtytwo percent of respondents used the same materials in the classroom that they used during training […]” (p. 177), “[…] two-thirds of respondents indicated that they created their own GIS lessons” (ibid.) and ten percent used published materials. A study on a three year inservice teacher training program for the new Israeli science curriculum showed that “in most cases, new teaching methods or materials applied, were those presented during the training program” (Kapulnik, Orion and Ganiel, 2004). Consequently, when changing from the old curricula to the Curriculum 21, there is a fairly high likelihood that teachers will either use the same materials and spatial examples they used under the old curriculum or those that are presented during pre- and inservice teacher training.

Figure 1. Percentage of teachers claiming a factor has a “great” or “very great” influence on the methods used in classroom practice (translated; selection). Source: based on Marmann (2005, p. 173).

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

32

Kathrin Viehrig

In terms of how teachers implement curricula, a study in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) by Marmann (2005) focused mainly on the area of methods. The study found that 76.6% disagreed (totally or rather) that “The new publication of the curriculum has changed my classroom practice in terms of methods”. Moreover, 73.4% agreed (totally or rather) that “My personal conviction about a method is more important than the methodological directives of the curriculum” and 66.9% that “The curriculum has no innovative effect on my classroom practice in terms of methods, because already before the curriculum has been published I designed my classroom practice as described in the curriculum” (p. 170, translated). In terms of the subjective factors influencing the choice of methods used in classroom practice, nine factors were more influential than the curriculum (Figure 1). On the one hand, this is further evidence that there is a fairly high likelihood that teachers might use the same spatial examples used before the change to the Curriculum 21. On the other hand, given the high importance accorded to personal experiences/ opinions, teachers might now also have more freedom to integrate new countries as spatial examples, i.e. e.g. those that they regard as especially interesting or important.

That geography teachers’ geographic knowledge and their experiences (e.g. travel) are very likely to influence their decisions regarding spatial examples under the new curriculum is also supported by other research.

For instance, a study by Brooks (2006) with experienced teachers in the UK showed that their experiences (e.g. school, university courses, travels), i.e. “[…] the relationship that they developed with geography has left ‘residuals’ that still affect their practice”. (p.

366). In one of the interviews one teacher explicitly reflects on the choice of spatial examples, “[…] to fulfil examination criteria whilst also teaching appropriate content and enabling students to engage with the geography of experience that he personally enjoys:

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

…I was pleased to see [place] come back in the national curriculum, and we’ve gone big on place here… In our GCSE we do our GCSE through three places: Italy, Nigeria and Japan. If you want to do population, we do it of there, if we need to plot a climate graph, we do a climate graph of there.

Before that when we are working out the GCSE we used to have case studies from all around the world, now we have just three places where we take our case studies.

(Extract from interview, 2003).

Paul is also a geography textbook author, and he uses his own books in his teaching. He reflects how his travel experiences have influenced his book writing which have then in turn been the main resource for his teaching” (ibid., p. 360). Thereby, the different interviewed teachers “[…] have not interpreted these curricula, or indeed the geography contained within them in the same way. [They are i]nfluenced by their own ‘passions’ […]” (ibid., p. 366), such as certain geographical places or themes.

Another interview study in Sweden (Molin et al., 2015), while also showing the importance of personal experiences (such as childhood memories and travels) and teachers’ interests for the teachers’ teaching, also looked at the influence of pre-service teacher education. For some participants, pre-service teacher education broadened their understanding of the subject holistically, while for others “[…] the teaching had been hacked into pieces, and that a comprehensive perspective of the subject had been missing” or “the content discrepancy between the university course and the school syllabus was too large” (p. 15). This seems to indicate a need for pre-service teacher education to show students more explicitly how what they learn in university can be linked to what they have to teach, which also would mean that school classroom suitability might be a possible factor for choosing spatial examples in their university courses. The results may also give a hint that a more comprehensive perspective, rather than just fragmented details scattered through different courses, might be advantageous.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Kathrin Viehrig

Curriculum change can be an opportunity to reflect on and discuss teachers’ practice. For instance, in the course of the national curriculum in the UK, there has been a lot of discussion about the role of knowledge, especially with regard to place and location knowledge (Kinder, 2015). Thereby, “[t]he GA’s curriculum consultation exercises demonstrated very clearly that teachers were anxious about the prescription of place knowledge within a national curriculum, as for many this was an aspect of professional choice and freedom they valued highly (and used to de-ploy their own expert knowledge as well as connect with students’ experiences)” (Kinder, 2015, p. 81). However, it was argued “[…] that a coherent framework of locational knowledge is needed […]” and “contextual world knowledge of locations, places and geographical features” was included as one of three areas of assessment, albeit with lots of freedom for the local schools (Kinder, 2015, p.

82). The national curriculum has been shown to have for instance “[…] prompted some teachers to reflect on the range of places they teach” (Kinder, 2015, p. 83). This indicates a probability that also the change to the Curriculum 21 might prompt Swiss teachers to think about the spatial examples they use.

In general, interest and other affective variables are important factors in learning (see e.g. Duit and Treagust, 2003; Edelmann, 2000; Heinze, Reiss and Rudolph, 2005; Hemmer and Hemmer, 2002; Roberts II, 2003; Vogt, 2007). Consequently, for pre-service teacher education: (1) the pupils’ interests could provide important input for teacher education classes, since the teachers will later need to take these interests into account when planning their own teaching; (2) the pre-service teachers’ interests themselves are important, to support their own learning.

Regarding (1), there are several studies in the Germanophone area that have included

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

33

information on secondary school pupils’ interest in different regions (see e.g. overview in Hemmer and Hemmer 2010). For instance, Golay (1999), surveyed 702 students in Basel (Landschaft and city). The results for the interest in region question can be seen in Figure 2, although it has to be noted that the examples as well as that the list was only given as a text, not a map, might have influenced the pupils’ answers (e.g. USA vs. other North American countries). Moreover, having to choose two meant students being not interested in any region only had the “choice” of “missing value”, while students being equally interested in three of the options were forced to choose only two. Additionally, there was the problem of not exclusive answers (e.g. Artic as part of North America, rest of Europe and Asia).

Regarding (2), studies that could inform the choice of spatial examples seem to be rare, especially in the Germanophone area. From the studies included in Hemmer and Hemmer’s overview book, Lüdemann and Lößner (2010, Germany) only used thematic, not regional interest items as part of their questionnaire.

The text of the dissertation by Voigt (1977) was not available through several channels tried, but the title “Empirical studies of the pupil and teacher interest in geo-ecological topics in geography education on the secondary stage as foundation for creating an open curriculum” (translated) suggests that it, too, does not contain interests in spatial examples.

In general, there are few studies that deal with pre-service geography teacher education (Kerr et al., 2013). Specifically, there seem to be few, if any, studies dealing with how spatial examples are chosen in courses for pre-service teachers. However, as the previous research in other areas seems to indicate, as discussed above, which spatial examples the students’ deal with in pre-service teacher education could play an important role both in their own geographic learning and in their later teaching.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

34

Kathrin Viehrig

Figure 2. Results for “Which two of the regions of the earth listed here you are interested in particularly in geography? (Check two answers for this question)”, with the choices “Basel (city and Land)”, “Switzerland”, “neighbouring countries of Switzerland (D, F, I, A)”, “North America (e.g. USA, …)”, “Africa (e.g. South Africa, Black Africa, …)”, “Asia (e.g. Russia, India, Japan, Far East, …)”, “other. Which?” (translated, p. 143) [% of students checking yes, without missings] [own graphics based on Golay, 1999, p. 96 and data from Natural Earth].

4. Methods and objectives Educational design research (EDR) seems to be not yet used very frequently in geography education research, but has great potential as a framework for research to improve learning materials and courses on an on-going basis.

Examples for EDR studies in geography education include for instance Favier and van der Schee’s study regarding inquiry projects with GIS (2012), Orion and Cohen’s work on an Ocean module (2007) and the Space4Geography adaptive learning modules’ development (Wolf et al., 2015).

EDR “[…] addresses real needs in the hereand-now through the development of a solution to a problem, while also generating knowledge that can be used in the future”, and is consequently used for things like developing educational technologies or improving teaching (Educause, 2012, p. 2, in original bold) (see also e.g. Plomp and Nieveen, 2010).

EDR thereby is “[…] cyclical in character: analysis, design, evaluation and revision activities are iterated until a satisfying balance Copyright© Nuova Cultura

between ideals (‘the intended’) and realization has been achieved” (Plomp and Nieveen, 2010, p. 13).

Consequently, the present research wants to contribute to (1) improving the local courses (2) investigating how pre-service teachers choose spatial examples (3) investigating how pre-service teachers want spatial examples to be chosen for their courses and thus extend the empirical base for the theory of how to choose spatial examples in initial teacher training.

5. Methods and sample 5.1 Spatial examples in the courses The autumn semester 2015 sample contains students from four geography as a discipline courses and four geography education courses all taught by the author. All courses are targeted to pre-service teacher students

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

35

Kathrin Viehrig

preparing to teach general secondary school (grades 7-9).

This semester constitutes the baseline.

Spatial examples were not systematically chosen. Material was partly adapted from the author’s predecessor, partly from the author’s earlier work, and partly newly created. In some cases, students could also freely choose a country example themselves. Courses differed in their spatial examples, which included for instance Switzerland, Russia, India, Kenya, USA, Israel, Tuvalu or Afghanistan. They also differed in how extensively the individual spatial examples were used.

The spring semester 2016 sample contains students from two geography as a discipline courses and two geography education courses all taught by the author. All courses are targeted at lower general secondary school (grades 7-9) pre-service teacher students.

Apart from the occasional exception (e.g. to include a video that explained a phenomenon well, even if it was about another country), the courses focused on a specified number of spatial examples, largely based on the most wished for countries in the last semester’s study: (1) the USA, (2) Russia, (3) China, (4) Switzerland/ the Mediterranean, (5) India, (6) Japan and (7) the UK. The Mediterranean was included because it is also explicitly mentioned in the curriculum. The UK was included because it fulfilled criteria such as being part of some of the author’s research, data availability, suitability to use in class/ to illustrate concepts and being the location of current events/ important in the media (e.g.

Brexit) while at the same time being not particularly high on the students’ interest or wish list, thus providing a partial control.

5.2 Method At the end of the autumn semester, students from all eight courses were asked to fill out a two-part anonymous questionnaire: a paper one that was a course-specific evaluation, and an online one that was general and dealt with spatial examples. Only the latter will be reported here. The questionnaire was implemented in Unipark.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

In the spring semester, in addition to a Moodle questionnaire for course specific evaluation, there was again a questionnaire that was uniform across courses, which will be reported here. The questionnaire was implemented in Unipark.

At the beginning of both semesters’ questionnaires, students were asked if they consented to the responses being used scientifically or only for internal course planning after a short text with background information and aims. Students were also informed that consent was voluntary and not giving consent would not result in any disadvantages. Only the responses from students that gave consent will be reported here.

5.3 Sample There are 19 (55.9%) male and 15 (44.1%) female students in the autumn semester sample.

There is one student (2.9%) in the below 20 age group, 23 students in the 20-29 years old age group (67.6%), 5 in the 30-39 years old age group (14.7%) and 4 in the 40 or older age group (11.8%, 1 student or 2.9% missing, n=34).

11 students are in the first year of study (32.4%), 5 in the second (14.7%), 13 in the third (38.2%), 2 (5.9%) each in the forth and fifth and 1 (2.9%) in the sixth or higher (n=34).

In the spring semester, there are 9 (47.4%) male and 10 (52.6%) female students in the sample.

There are 14 students in the 20-29 years old age group (73.7%), 2 in the 30-39 years old age group (10.5%) and 3 in the 40 or older age group (15.8%, n=19).

9 students are in the first year of study (47.4%), 5 in the second (26.3%) and 5 in the third (26.3%) (n=19).

A new question compared to the autumn semester was to elicit the students’ migration background. Only one student (5.3%) was born outside Switzerland. In terms of parents, there were 3 students with a foreign-born mother (15.9%) and 6 students with a foreign-born father (31.7%). Overall, 7 of the students (36.8%) had a migration background.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

36

Kathrin Viehrig

6. Results 6.1 Factors influencing the students’ own choices of spatial examples The students were asked “How important are the following points to you if you choose spatial examples for yourself (e.g. for planning lessons or for presentations)?” (translated), with a 5 point response scale from 1 “not at all important to me” to 5 “very important to me”.

The results in terms of means can be seen in Figure 3, ordered by the mean value of the spring term. The results appear to be fairly consistent across terms. One item was added in the spring term, based on the results of the autumn term.

Six factors were judged to be more important than the curriculum in the autumn semester and eight in the spring semester.

The only three factors with mean values below the middle category in both semesters were all about broadening the perspective, i.e. places that are not frequently heard about in the media, that the pupils are not yet interested in or that the teacher students do not yet know a lot about. The students could also add their own factors as a text answer, which only four of them did in the autumn semester (translated): • “motivation and fun factor – importance for the future” • “vividness of the examples, the human factor so that the pupils can better identify themselves with it” • “as different spatial examples as possible (e.g. same climate, but totally different economy …)”

• “multi-perspectivity of the displayed spatial example, including the complex of problems that are connected to that” In the spring semester, only one answer was added, namely, “… that are not too complex to be portrayed and explained to the learners. … that can be unequivocally assigned to one or several topics” (translated).

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Figure 3. Mean values, responses to how important a factor is for the students’ choosing spatial examples for themselves (translated). Source: own study, autumn term 2015 (blue, n between 33 and 34) and spring term 2016 (red, n between 18 and 19).

6.2 Factors that should influence choice of spatial examples for university courses In the autumn semester, the students were asked as an open question “Based on what should lecturers choose spatial examples for courses?” (translated). The answers were then categorized (Figure 4). Similarly to their own choices, current events and interest (students’/ pupils’) were on the top. The “content” category includes for instance importance, exemplarity, vividness and links.

In the spring semester, there was a rating scale item, similar to the one used for the student’s own choice of spatial examples. The results are displayed in Figure 5.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

37

Kathrin Viehrig

list. However, there are also differences, such as that the curriculum places much higher in the list than for the students’ own work and material/ data availability lower. Additionally, while the students’ own interests play quite an important role in their choosing a topic, they don’t want their lecturers to do the same, as personal interests of the lecturers are rated low.

Figure 4. Number of classified responses regarding which factors should influence the choice of spatial examples for lectures (n=32). Source: own study, autumn semester 2015.

6.3 Evaluation of spatial examples used in the courses The students were asked “As how good do you assess the selection of spatial examples for the courses in the autumn semester 2015” (translated), using a five point scale from “not good at all” to “very good”, with an option for students not having attended a specific course.

Course means varied between 3 and 4.5. In general, the values for the geography (as a discipline) courses were higher than those of the geography education courses (Table 1).

raphy geog courses ID 1

M

Mdn

SD

n

4.14

4

0.774

22

ID 2

4.00

4

0.976

22

ID 3

3.80

4

0.919

10

4.5

0.535

8

SD

n

ID 4

4.50

geography education courses ID 1

M 3.18

3

1.074

17

ID 2

3.73

4

0.647

11

ID 3

3.00

3

0.632

6

ID 4

3.60

3

1.342

5

Table 1. Responses regarding the evaluation of spatial examples in the autumn term 2015 (1-5).

Source: own study, autumn semester 2015.

Figure 5. Mean values, responses to how important a factor should be for the lecturer’s choice of spatial examples for courses (translated). Source: own study, spring term 2016 (n between 18 and 19).

Several things are interesting to note. For instance, both the interest of university students/ pupils and the topic being current/ important in the medial discussion again are very high on the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

In the spring term, the students were asked to state as how good they evaluated the selection of countries/ regions in the past semester, from 1 (not good at all) to 5 (very good), this time split between evaluating the individual spatial examples on the one hand as in the autumn semester, and the fitting to a particular course on the other hand. The geography (as a discipline) courses received a Italian Association of Geography Teachers

38

Kathrin Viehrig

mean of 4.15 (Mdn=4, SD=0.801, n=13) and 4.14 (Mdn=4, SD=0.535, n=14) respectively.

The values for the geography education courses will not be reported here, because they were answered by more students than were in the author’s courses, indicating that some who attended the same course that was taught by someone else at another location of the university also answered there. The spatial examples received mostly mediocre ratings (Table 2), with some such as India, chosen based on students’ wishes, rated even slightly lower than the partial control country UK. examples Switzerland, Mediterranean USA

M

Mdn

SD

n

4.33

4.5

0.840

18

3.74

4

1.147

19

China

3.44

4

1.247

18

other examples

3.25

3

0.754

12

UK

3.17

3

0.857

18

Russia

3.16

3

1.015

19

nJapa

3.11

3

0.809

19

India

3.11

3

0.737

19

Table 2. Responses regarding the evaluation of spatial examples (1-5). Source: own study, spring semester 2016.

The number of spatial examples was also to be evaluated, from 1 (way too few) to 5 (way too many). The mean was 3.05 (SD=0.621, Mdn=3, n=19, range 2-4), showing that the number of spatial examples on the scale from intense focus to great diversity was well chosen.

the planning process, in addition to the country wish list and factors influencing the choice.

These were (translated): • • • •

“How many spatial examples should be chosen in the autumn semester 2016 per course?”

“How many semesters should the spatial examples be repeated (within 4 years)?”

“How much do you agree with the following statements?”

An open comment field

The results show that although seven as a number of spatial examples in the spring term 2016 had been perceived as fairly right, the students wanted fewer spatial examples in the next semester (M=4.59, Mdn=5, SD=2.623, n=17). The range was very large, however, using all 10 options given (1 to 10 or more).

In terms of repetition of spatial examples, 31.6% (6) favoured spatial examples not being repeated at all (i.e. every semester new ones should be chosen), 52.6% (10) opted for 2 semesters and 5.3% (1) for 3 semesters (n=17).

Several statements the students needed to voice their agreement or disagreement on were also included (Figure 6). Although students on the one hand largely agree that focusing on only a selection of spatial examples deepens understanding, they on the other hand they want to be able to choose the one they deal with in their coursework freely.

Additionally, students again had the opportunity to voice their opinion in an open comment field. Only one student chose to do so, commenting “Partly it was difficult to find examples in the spatial examples, because the media don’t report about everything” (translated).

6.4 Planning the next semester The spring semester had some questions added to the questionnaire that dealt with several aspects that need to be considered in

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Figure 6. Mean values regarding agreement/ disagreement to statements about spatial examples (translated). Source: own study, spring term 2016 (n between 16 and 17).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

39

Kathrin Viehrig

6.5 Spatial example wish-list In the autumn semester, students could enter the answer to “What are the top 5 countries that you would like to have as spatial examples for courses?” (translated) (Table 3) in text fields.

The results of all five countries are combined, irrespective of whether a country was entered in first or fifth position. Spelling variants etc. were also combined. Six students only specified a region or entered more than one country per text field (i.e. “Chile/ Argentina/ Uruguay” and “Scandinavia”; “United Arab Emirates/ Oman/ Kuwait/ (Arabic Peninsula)” and “India/ Sri Lanka”; “Iran/ Iraq”; “South America”; “Central America”; “Arabic world”). Moreover, some students did not use the blanks at all (n=5) or did not use all five blanks, including one student also entered China twice, which was counted only once (n=3). “America” was classified as USA. frequency

1

2 3 4 5 7 10 12 14

countries Afghanistan Burundi Cuba Eritrea France Honduras Iceland Indonesia Italy Ivory Coast Kenya Kirgistan - Korea unspecfied Kosovo Moldawia Pakistan aPanam Romania Singapur Somalia Sweden Thailand United Kingdom Burkina Faso Iran Israel Nigeria Canada New Zealand South Africa Syria Australia Chile Germany Brazil Japan India Switzerland China Russia USA

Table 3. Responses from the autumn term 2015 regarding the wishes for spatial examples in the next term (without region/ more than one per blank). Source: own study, autumn term 2015.

The results show on the one hand a high interest in countries such as the USA, China,

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Russia, India and Japan as well as the country of study (Switzerland). On the other hand, the results also show the diverse range of interest of the students, as evidenced by the high number of countries being only mentioned by one student.

In the spring term, there were no texts fields but drop down lists from which the students could choose, based on Wikipedia’s entry for the UN membership countries as well as one category for disputed status areas. With a sample of 19 students and five countries to choose, that means 95 possibly votes, of which 12 were not used (missing or still on “please choose”).

The results (Table 4) show again great diversity as well as strong votes for Switzerland and the USA. It is also interesting to note which countries do not show up, despite the students’ own criteria. Brazil fulfils the media/ being current criteria, due to the Olympics, as does the USA (e.g. election). Other countries, which are also frequently mentioned in the media, such as Iraq or Syria, do not even get one vote. countries

frequency 11

Switzerland

8

Brazil

6

Australia

4

Russia

3

Argentina

Germany

Chile

China

Egypt

France

Iceland

Iran

Mexico

New Zealand

Peru

Senegal

2

USA

South Africa

1

Afghanistan

Andorra

Bolivia

Burkina Faso

Ethiopia

Finland

Haiti

India

Israel

Italy

Norway

San Marino

Saudi Arabia

South Korea

Sweden

UK

Vietnam

disputed areas

Table 4. Responses regarding the wishes for spatial examples in the next term. Source: own study, spring term 2016.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

40

Kathrin Viehrig

6.6 Interest in regions In the autumn semester, the students were also asked “How much are you interested in the following spatial examples?” on a five point scale from “interests me not at all” to “interests me a lot”. They were provided with a map showing the 27 regions, in order to have results based on the same frame of reference, as individual countries may belong to different regions depending on the classification.

Overall, there are a multitude of different ways to demark world regions (e.g. continents, the one used by the UN (UN Statistics Division 2013), the map used to illustrates Hemmer and Hemmer’s interest study in Haubrich (2006), the CIA World Factbook (www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factb ook/), the various ones found on Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), or those used in different world regional geography materials such as e.g. https://monarchaphuman.wordpress.com/2013/0 8/; https://vimeo.com/82899998;http://people.uw ec.edu/ivogeler/w111/worldreg.gif). For the map used in the study the continents were the primary considerations (which meant Turkey and Russia as separate categories). Moreover, Switzerland and other German speaking countries were each put in a separate group from other European countries. Interest considerations were also taken into account.

The results can be seen in Figure 7. No region had a mean of 4 or higher. The results were markedly different from those published e.g. in the Hemmer and Hemmer studies in some ways, with Russia scoring among the 5 top regions, while in other areas, such as a low interest in Africa, they were similar. It is also interesting that while students considered “current events” an important factor in spatial example choice, Western Asia does not show a high interest (even below that of “rest of Oceania”). Part of the reason may be negative connotations associated with the region (e.g.

ISIS as major threat, see Strokes, Wike and Poushter 2016), but this cannot be ascertained by the present data. Additionally, there are differences between the countries wished for and the interest in regions, for instance, despite India being one of the individual country top

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

choices, South Asia was only of medium interest.

In the map for the spring semester (Figure 7), some categories were summarized into one to make it easier for the participants.

Moreover, due to the Mediterranean region being explicitly mentioned in the Curriculum 21, it was delineated as a separate region, even if that meant that the continent scheme was broken.

Some regions now had a mean of 4 or higher Overall, while some of the results are consistent (e.g. the interest in Central America), there are also marked differences.

On the one hand, these could simply be due to the different people in the samples, especially considering the small sample size. This would underscore the need to ask one’s specific class for their interest instead of relying on survey results (e.g. lower interest in North America than expected). On the other hand, the interest could be highly influenced by the preceding semester. For instance, as the students have already heard quite a bit about some parts of East Asia (China/Japan), they could now be more curious about other parts of the world.

This would indicate a need to include a question such as “How often have you already dealt with the following regions in your classes?” or “How much do you already know about the following regions?” in large scale interest studies. Maybe also partly due to the changing boundary of the region compared to the earlier study, the interest in West Asia is now the lowest of all regions.

7. Discussion and outlook In general, one of the frequently used words – at least in the Germanophone educational discussion – is Schülerorientierung (lit. pupil orientation, i.e. taking the pupils’ wishes, interests, circumstances, learning difficulties etc. into account when planning instruction). It is also part of the rubric used to assess the preservice teachers’ lesson videos and portfolio (Berufspraktische Studien PH FHNW, 2016).

Consequently, showing the pre-service teacher students that their interests and wishes matter is not just important for their learning within the courses, but also to encourage them to take Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Kathrin Viehrig

their future pupils’ interests and backgrounds into account in their teaching later on. The first year of this educational design research study is only the start of a process of designing courses with that in mind. During a future semester, it would be interesting to also collect achievement data to look at learning gains, and possibly compare courses or course parts with different spatial examples to measure how much of a difference the choice of spatial examples makes.

One of the key results of the first stage is the diverse range of interests both within one semester and across both semesters. The latter might be only a reflection of a partially different sample, it might also point, however, to a possible change in interest semester to semester based on a combination of dealing with certain spatial examples (e.g. “we had x already this semester, something else would be more interesting” or “I didn’t think this was going to be interesting, but it’s actually not that bad”) and certain world events (e.g. the Olympics). One way to control for the former would be to include a short interest questionnaire for the chosen spatial examples also at the beginning of the semester.

Another important result is that on the one hand having a limited number of spatial examples that are the same across courses (at least from one of the lecturers) connects these different courses and thus potentially enables deeper understanding, to which the students largely agree. On the other hand, the results also show that not every spatial example seems to work equally well in each course and that students would like to be able to choose examples for their coursework by themselves.

41

i.e. directed at general principles and the “regional geography” with a cognitive interest that is largely ideographic, i.e. directed at explaining individual circumstances (Blotevogel, 2001, translated). At the moment, thematic geography is usually favored (e.g.

Blotevogel, 2001; Maude, 2013). As came up again for instance in a recent discussion I had with another geography educator, this can, however, sometimes lead to a very fragmented understanding and misconceptions of an area.

If the particular spatial examples/ case studies chosen are different for each topic, students might come to associate for instance India only with disadvantaged girls and poverty, because that is the only thing where India had been used as an example. The combination of a thematic approach with a number of spatial “focus examples” that are used across several courses or topics might help to avoid that, but more research on the effectiveness of this approach is needed.

The study results also indicate that the students take different factors into account when choosing spatial examples, and that the ones they use themselves somewhat differ from those that they want the course instructor to use. In general, interest, data/ material availability and being the location of a current event are high on the list of influences on the students’ decision-making process. More research is needed on how students balance the different factors in their decision making as well as how they resolve possible contradictions between these factors.

In general, the results of these studies can also be discussed in light of the longstanding discussion about the role of “[…] the ‘thematic geography’ ” (also “general geography”) with a cognitive interest that is largely nomological,

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

42

Kathrin Viehrig

Figure 7. Results of the interest item, greenish rank (r) circles indicate a mean of 3.5 or higher, reddish of below.

Source: own study, autumn semester 2015 (top) and spring term 2016 (bottom), map with data from Natural Earth (the original items were in colour, here the map is adapted to grey-scale to enhance readability of the results).

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Kathrin Viehrig

Acknowledgements Thanks to all students who agreed to the scientific use of their responses.

15.

References 1. Baker T.R., Palmer A.M. and Kerski J.J., “A National Survey to Examine Teacher Professional Development and Implementation of Desktop GIS”, Journal of Geography, 108, 4-5, 2009, pp. 174-185.

2. Berufspraktische Studien PH FHNW, “Anhang: Beurteilung des Video-Portfolios durch die Expertinnen und Experten (Regelstudium)”, 2016, http://web.fhnw.ch/ph/ praxis/sekundarstufe-1.

3. BKSD, “Stufenlehrplan Sekundarstufe I: Geografie”, 2006, http://www.lehrplansek.bl.ch/sek/mensch_umwelt/geo.html.

4. Blotevogel H., “Geographie”, in Lexikon der Geographie, 2001, http://www.spektrum.de/ lexikon/geographie/geographie/2917.

5. Brooks C., “Geographical Knowledge and Teaching Geography”, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 15, 4, 2006, pp. 353-369.

6. D-EDK, “Kanton Basel-Landschaft”, 2016a, https://www.lehrplan.ch/kanton-basel-lands chaft.

7. D-EDK, “Kanton Basel-Stadt”, 2016b, https://www. lehrplan.ch/kanton-basel-stadt.

8. D-EDK, “Kanton Solothurn”, 2016c, https://www. lehrplan.ch/kanton-solothurn.

9. D-EDK, “Lehrplan 21”, 2017a, https://www. lehrplan.ch/.

10. D-EDK, “Lehrplan 21. Kanton Aargau”, 2017b, http://www.lehrplan.ch/kanton-aargau.

11. D-EDK, “Lehrplan 21Rechtliche Grundlagen”, n.d., https://www.lehrplan.ch/ rechtliche-grundlagen.

12. Duit R. and Treagust D.F., “Conceptual change: A powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning”, International Journal of Science Education, 25, 6, 2003, pp. 671-688.

13. Edelmann W., Lernpsychologie, Weinheim, Beltz, 2000.

14. Educause, “7 Things you should know about… Educational Design Research”, 2012, Copyright© Nuova Cultura

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

43

https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/lib rary/2012/8/eli7087-pdf.pdf.

Erziehungsdepartement des Kantons BaselStadt, “Lehrplan 21: Räume, Zeiten, Gesellschaften (mit Geografie, Geschichte)”, 2016, http://bs.lehrplan.ch/index.php?code= b|6|4&la=yes.

Favier T.T. and van der Schee J.A., “Exploring the characteristics of an optimal design for inquiry-based geography education with Geographic Information Systems”, Computers & Education, 58, 1, 2012, pp.

666-677.

Fuchsgruber V., Schütt F., Viehrig K., Wolf N. and Siegmund A., “Thematische und regionale Schwerpunkte in deutschen Bildungsplänen – eine bundesweite Vergleichsstudie für das Fach Geographie an Gymnasien”, Praxis Geographie, accepted.

Golay D., “Das Interesse der Schüler/innen am Schulfach Geographie auf der Sekundarstufe I in den Kantonen Basel-Stadt und BaselLandschaft”, Universität Basel, 1999.

Heinze A., Reiss K. and Rudolph F., “Mathematics achievement and interest in mathematics from a differential perspective”, ZDM, 37, 3, 2005, pp. 212-220.

Hemmer I. and Hemmer M., “Mit Interesse lernen. Schülerinteresse und Geographieunterricht”, Geographie heute, 202, 2002, pp. 2-7.

Kanton Aargau, Lehrplan Volksschule, Aarau, 2014.

Kanton Solothurn, Lehrplan für die Volksschule, Solothurn, 2007.

Kapulnik E., Orion N. and Ganiel U., “InService Training programs in science & technology (IT) diffusion: K-12 student and educator conceptualizations”, Paper presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Symposium, Vancouver, 2004.

Kerr S., Jo I., Collins L., Monroe-Ossi H., Ray W., Whitcraft A., Solem M. and Stoltman J.P., “Teacher Education and Geography: Research Perspectives”, Research in Geographic Education, 15, 2, 2013, pp. 44-58.

Kinder A., “English lessons: the changing nature of geography curriculum and asses-

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

44

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

Kathrin Viehrig

sment in England”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-Reading), 2, 4, 2015, pp. 79-84.

Lüdemann S. and Lößner M., Warum werde ich Geographielehrer? Eine empirische Untersuchung zu den Berufswahlmotiven von Lehramtsstudierenden der Geographie an der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Gießen, Gießener Geographische Manuskripte, 2010.

Marmann M., Erdkundelehrpläne im Elfenbeinturm? Untersuchungen zum TheoriePraxis-Verhältnis am Beispiel des Lehrplans Erdkunde für die gymnasiale Oberstufe des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dissertation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 2005.

Maude A., “The Vision of Geography Underlying the Australian Geography Curriculum”, RIGEO, 3, 3, 2013, pp. 253-265.

Molin L., Grubbström A., Bladh G., Westermark Å., Ojanne K., Gottfridsson H.-O. and Karlsson S., “Do personal experiences have an impact on teaching and didactic choices in geography?”, European Journal of Geography, 6, 4, 2015, pp. 6-20.

Orion N. and Cohen C., “A Design-based Research of an Oceanography Module as a part of the Israeli High School Earth Sciences Program”, Geographie und Ihre Didaktik, 4, 2007, pp. 246-259.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

31. Roberts II T.G., “The influence of student characteristics on achievement and attitudes when an illustrated web lecture is used in an online learning environment”, Dissertation, University of Florida, 2003.

32. Strokes B., Wike R. and Poushter J., “1.

Europeans see ISIS, climate change as most serious threats”, 2016, http://www.pewglobal. org/2016/06/13/europeans-see-isis-climatechange-as-most-serious-threats/.

33. UN Statistics Division, “Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings”, 2013, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49 regin.htm - ftna.

34. van der Schee J., “Geographical education in a changing world”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-Reading), 0, 1, 2012, pp. 11-15.

35. Viehrig K., “Exploring the effects of GIS use on students’ achievement in geography”, Dissertation, Heidelberg University of Education, 2015.

36. Vogt H., “Theorie des Interesses und des Nicht-Interesses”, in Krüger D. and Vogt H. (Eds.), Theorien in der biologiedidaktischen Forschung. Ein Handbuch für Lehramtsstudenten und Doktoranden, Berlin, Springer, 2007, pp. 9-20.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 45-59 DOI: 10.4458/8579-04

The emotional perception of landscape between research and education Antonina Plutinoa, Ilaria Politoa a

Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Filosofiche e della Formazione, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy Email: aplutino@unisa.it

Received: January 2016 – Accepted: March 2017

Abstract The paper presents the laboratory activity put at the heart of the action training based on the idea of Geography as a science, whose holistic dimension fosters individual knowledge of the outside world and, at the same time, facilitates the understanding of human interaction with it. The didactic activities were performed basing them on an e-Learning methodology via the Moodle platform, a technology adopted in the e-Learning Lab of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Salerno. The laboratory involved 234 students – enrolled in the third year of the Primary Educational Sciences Degree – randomly divided into 26 groups. The investigation conducted through the laboratory availed of images that, far from being a mere instrument, involved higher cognitive processes, essential for the completion of a significant training process.

The methodology adopted and the creation of a virtual learning environment are completely in line with the constructivist pedagogy that considers cooperation, collaboration, sharing and negotiation of purposes and meanings as key drivers for a really effective teaching. Through the lab experience, the learners were allowed to investigate a lived-acted space by identifying landscape elements symbolizing certain emotions.

Making use of a photo-elicitation technique, the research helped them to gain a greater awareness of the landscape as a result of the interactions between man and nature, and turned out to be an effective tool for knowledge construction and training.

Keywords: Constructivist Learning, E-Learning, Emotion, Landscape, Moodle Platform, Photo-Elicitation

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

46

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

1. Introduction Teaching geography is often laborious. The students may find it not very enjoyable when they come to learn a list of physical and human phenomena, or a synthesis of encyclopedic information with quantitative-qualitative data of places and inhabitants. Indeed, the pivot of geographical knowledge, to be included into didactics, consists in disclosing an explanationcomprehension of different places and the phenomena occurring in them, together with the mutual relationships between populations and places and, therefore, in trying to feature distribution, structure and underlying meanings of every scale of world regional diversity (Corna Pellegrini, 2008; Haggett, 1993).

The methodology applied to this didactic path is based on active geography, which is no longer adaptive to a particular environmental datum and/or an established socio-spatial order, but to a transforming geographical space, namely a “geography of becoming and being” (Trono, 2006, p. 171) and “to communicate the message about new geography education in a smart and modern way” (van der Schee, 2012, p. 12).

The idea underlying this research is that the teaching of geography must interlace with everyone’s experiential reality in order to play its true function, that of gaining knowledge on the environment, but also providing a path to enrichment, self-knowledge and knowledge of others (Sensini, 2012).

Therefore, a key focus of the research is the landscape-emotion relation. The European Landscape Convention states: “landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”. Here perception is meant as an intangible characteristic, but also a source of emotions that encourages the student to develop his/her ability to comprehend the emotional values related to the place of life (Castiglioni, 2012).

Although the term “landscape” is well known, the meaning attributed to it may differ from the scope of the reasoning and the point of view from which it is observed, as well as the sensitivity, education and specific interests of the observer, who may take into consideration the landscape itself. This may be an opportunity to innovate conceptual

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

frameworks and to stimulate useful reflections applicable to their living environment (Franceschini, 2007). Finally, legitimizing a methodological approach centered on the active observation of landscapes, the technique of photoelicitation is adopted to claim a connection between landscape and emotion, which is accomplished by visual factor (landscape picture) and emotional interaction, and also by cultural encoding deriving from the subjective experience of the viewer. In this learning path, the individual experience becomes collective (group) experience through the sharing and acceptance of the emotion generated by selected landscapes.

The hermeneutical function of landscape in a pedagogical context is also worth highlighting, regarded as “emotional education” (learning to “read” or to detect the emotional sign in landscape) and cognitive aspect leading to a deeper understanding of natural and anthropogenic aspects.

2. Landscape-emotion In the age of globalization – whether here or elsewhere – the sensory experiences (the internal reverberation) are landings that help perceive the space where we live. Covering a landscape, a space, means to take our past and our experience in the world, with all the visions (and emotions) that are part of our cultural background, almost as a map of our values. According to Nussbaum’s meaning, emotions: “shape the landscape of our mental and social lives. Like geological upheavals in a landscape” (Nussbaum, 2003, p.

1). They manifest “in relation to” an object, but also embrace the person’s own commitment to the object and make them see their object as invested with value or intrinsic worth (Nussbaum, 2003, pp. 30-33).

Our culture determines emotions as structures subject to the individual’s public and private relationships, which inspire actions and encourage emotional participation in the community we belong to (Oatley, 2007).

Among the extensive bibliography on landscape, a piece of work by Eugenio Turri (1998) has been considered, suggesting the metaphor of landscape as a “theater” in which people play the role both of the actor and of the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

audience towards landscape. The actor constructing landscapes and the audience observing, enjoying them, are inseparable and essential for the construction of a proper relationship with the places of life, recognizing a “priority to the homo figurants on the homo faber” (p. 11). He argues “that it is no coincidence that the best characters, aesthetically most celebrated, that best express harmonization between human work and natural forms are those in which man shall be assigned an important function as a spectator” (p. 17).

The core concept is represented precisely by the relationship between landscape and emotion.

The emotions in the geographical meaning pertain to “phenomena, objects, places and terrestrial individuality” since they promote emotionality and emotion for the human soul (Ruocco, 2010). Indeed, as the scene of our existence, the landscape is an inseparable part of the reconstruction of our living experience. Our experience of the world takes place in a ceaseless oscillation between external landscape (pertaining to geographic sciences) and internal landscape (whose external part is a reverberation): a complex interplay between perception and sign, as well as a continuous encounter between the former and the latter (Socco, 1996).

Merely reduced to its biological essence, the attraction exerted by landscapes on man (the aesthetic moment, related to the ability to perceive, feel, live an emotion) is a confirmation of his being in communication with the world. It is a kind of imperative and vital communication, which finds its daily motivations in nature’s silence as well as in urban street roars. However, a question arises: are natural landscapes – places which are outside the human world – far more fascinating to men than man-made landscapes, where they express their ability to build environments depending on given needs?

Looking at a landscape is never a naive contemplation. It is a rather highly selective process, where an observed reality is filtered through feelings and emotions – choosing the information received consciously or unconsciously – and is re-edited with all the observer’s visions and cultural background, using a personal map – shaped in and with the individual – and changing representations into Copyright© Nuova Cultura

47

symbols. The place is finally re-created as a heterogeneous set of elements through archetypical images with strong emotional and emotive meanings. As early as the moment of perception, the mirror of our territorial consciousness comes into play, the act of observing the landscape reflects our action, our living and acting in the territory (Dupont, Antrop and Van Eetvelde, 2015; Plutino, 2010).

All of us have an inner cartography given by perceptions of the physical world we live in.

There is an “another” space made of memories, emotions, unconscious, which is revealed to the individual while crossing or being in front of open spaces. The individual cannot inhabit the territorial reality “without thinking of the image of this reality” (Raffestin, 2005, p. 84).

This rediscovered occurrence is inscribed in the emotional geography: “a different type of approach (physical and mental) that the observer puts in viewing, attending, perceiving and enjoying the landscape, also assuming its great natural and / or anthropogenic variability” (Gregori, 2010, p. 66). It is also a new way of thinking about geography theorized by Anderson and Smith (2001, p. 2) in their editorial: “the human world is constructed and lived through the emotions. […] recognizing the emotions as ways of knowing, being and doing in the broadest sense; and using this to take geographical knowledges – and the relevance that goes with them – beyond their more usual visual, textual and linguistic domains” (2001, p.

3). They also highlight “an awareness of how emotional relations shape society and space” (2001, p. 5). Afterwards, other researchers have welcomed this “emotional breakthrough” (Bondi, Davidson and Smith, 2005), taking into account the “emotional space”, (Davison and Smith, 2008; Bondi, 2005; Bruno, 2006; for Italian geography see works by Gregori, 2006, 2007, 2009) where: “Emotions compose, decompose, and recompose the geographies of our lives” (Smith, Davidson, Cameron and Bondi, 2009, p. 10).

The geographical emotions activate the ability to see the landscape from an unconventional perspective, and also to gain intangible values that exalt a geo-emotion-knowledge dimension of the landscape.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

48

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

3. Methodology The pedagogical paradigm here adopted is based on the constructivist learning theory – which operates a subjective construction of meaning – developed on active learning and intense social interactions, namely, essential ingredients to qualitatively maximize any type of educational path. In particular, basing it on a methodology suggested by Jonassen (1994, 1998) greater effectiveness has been given to i) knowledge construction rather than reproduction; ii) contextualization rather than abstraction. Moreover, both reflection and reasoning have been encouraged to let the knowledge construction derive from context, content and cooperation.

The geography lab activities were carried out via e-learning (Holmes and Gardner, 2006; Calvani and Rotta, 1999; Carletti and Varani, 2007) supported by the Moodle platform, technology used in “modules” – designed to complement the learning objectives of many undergraduate courses in geography and related social and environmental sciences (http://www. aag.org/cs/cgge/modules) – in The Center for Global Geography Education (CGGE).

Technology made it possible to respect and emphasize learners’ individuality within an independent but at the same time engaging space-time dimension, in a learning community rich in stimuli. From this perspective, learning became a way of searching, selecting and organizing information, used to respond to cognitive questions, to solve problems and complete tasks.

The geography laboratory was intended as targeted research, a recognition of the territory, an autonomous investigation conducted according to shared rules. It provided multiple purposes: enriching the subject with knowledge complexity, fascinating minds for a given event or phenomenon, capturing and holding the individual’s curiosity, stimulating students’ interest in discovering, as well as getting them involved into action, and becoming the protagonists of cognitive and operative experiences which are crucial for

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

their human and professional education.

This is a “geographical perspective” that led the learners to seek and find a meaning to their lived and acted space, and that, at the same time, helped them to represent their “geographical being” in the world (Vallega, 2004, p. 438).

Through a landscape exploration – as a product of mutual influence between nature and human community – the individuals also build their inner “space”, triggering a virtuous circle where the landscape is a cultural construction contributing to the individual’s identity-making process.

In this experiment, the teacher has the role of “facilitator” of the learning process. The model adopted by the laboratory radically changes the role of the teacher (Donnelly and McSweeney, 2009) with respect to traditional university teaching, meant as a repository, a “bank capital” of knowledge and practices.

As far as contents are concerned, the laboratory was structured with disciplinary objectives of: 1) recognizing the capacity of a landscape to be the generator of emotions in oneself and in others; 2) identifying and describing all elements in a landscape; 3) detecting intangible aspects that characterize the landscape; 4) understanding the diverse values of a place.

The laboratory, which involved 234 students – enrolled in the third year of the Primary Educational Sciences Degree – randomly divided into 26 groups, was designed as an extended task consisting of closely interconnected individual and group activities, each of them allowing groups to complete the assigned task.

The research was conducted relying on the adoption of a method of knowledge elicitation based on images called Photo-Elicitation (i.e., one of the most widely known and frequently used techniques using images, photos but also videos, paintings or any other type of visual representation and asking the informants to comment on them), in order to collect more qualitatively complete data compared to those obtained by using other forms of enquiry.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

49

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Photo-elicitation represents one of the core components of our laboratory activity, and discussions and sharing among the focus groups revolve significantly around the images. It is assumed that through photo-elicitation the images observed, the meaning(s) we attribute to them, the emotions they arouse in the observer, and the knowledge they elicit generate insights that do not necessarily or exclusively correspond to those obtained in verbal enquiry. A pivotal aspect of such an approach is not so much studying the images, as analyzing how informants respond to them, attributing personal and social meanings and values (Ruby, 1995).

Also Barthes (1981) stresses the polysemic quality of images, i.e. the fact that they have many potential meanings and interpretations.

The laboratory activity provided two phases with different objectives.

In an initial stage of the individual work, the students were asked to comprehend the basic emotional geography theme through a video, linked on the platform, which showed them its essential lines. Subsequently, another key goal of the first stage, aimed at explaining the concept of landscape (and the difference between landscape and view). This step involved the students in a specific web research (using different photography social network sites such as Flickr, Universo fotografico, Allposters, Google Images) with the aim of choosing four landscape images to be associated with four emotions, three of them assigned by the teacher (anger, sadness, love-joy) and a fourth one chosen by the students (Figure 1).

The second phase revolved around a group activity and set further objectives. Through constructive on-line discussions, the students had to negotiate on the four landscapes representative for the group, and to highlight the single elements of a landscape that contribute to making it meaningful from an emotional point of view. Then creating an “emotional map” (synthetic image of landscapes purposed to representation-identification at an intimate level Copyright© Nuova Cultura

of a personal emotional landscape) making it possible to show the occurrence of natural symbols and human artefacts in an emotional grid, which motivated the choice of such a single landscape element (Figure 2).

In creating the map, the students were not provided with rigid and binding schemes but were rather asked to freely perform their creative and original choice within the group, with regard to the most fitting technological and organizational solution for describing the content.

4. Results of laboratory activity The analysis and interpretation of the final work produced by the students involved in the various phases of the laboratory highlight the significant and original features of our research, based on the meanings they attributed to either the images given to them or the ones they chose freely.

Their feedback to all the images allowed us to explore the intentions of the students / informants more intensively when they picked out their pictures, and the meanings they attributed to each one, in an effort to understand their relationship with the themes.

The above remarks lead us to emphasize, that the picture must be considered not a point of arrival but of departure in exploring students’ understanding and perceptions.

In the specific case, for example, the comments contained in the final laboratory work, show an interest that can be classified into two sets of values: - denotative aspects: what does the image depict? “built environments” (‘church’, ‘square’, ‘school’, ‘sport’, ‘home’, ‘outer’, ‘shop’, ‘other’) or “natural environments” (‘green’, ‘detail’, ‘garden’, ‘rural area’, ‘desert area’, ‘mountain area’, ‘sea-water’); - connotative aspects: why is the image chosen?): personal relationship, collective identity, social relationships, functional value, aesthetic value, ecological value.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

50

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Figure 1. Laboratory Home Page created by the teacher.

Elaboration on eLearning Lab data.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

51

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Figure 2. Emotional map summary: Inca stronghold: amazement; Water: sadness; Venice: love; Landslide: anger. Elaboration on eLearning Lab data.

Regarding the above categorization, and especially the denotative aspects, the selection of images privilege landscapes in which predominantly natural environments are combined with built up environments, to denote the close interaction between man and nature and the awareness of a growing, controversial and often irresponsible relationship between environment and artefact.

The choice of primary elements is significant such as water, land or even light, sunset, which depending on the context take on different and conflicting meanings.

This leads us to analyze the connotative elements and therefore the perception elicited by a given landscape, as well as possible reasons behind the selection of a picture and the value attributed to it.

In this respect, we notice a choice strictly linked to the immediacy of the image, understood both as aesthetic value, for example, the Venetian Lagoon, and as functional value and collective identity, e.g. pictures of building Copyright© Nuova Cultura

speculation, and the ecological and social value as in some photos depicting environmental disasters.

To this end, it is interesting to compare what the images show and the frequency with which certain elements in the images recur, together with relevant comments from the affectiveemotional standpoint, namely to specific emotions such as sadness, love, amazement and anger.

In Figure 3 there are tables reporting examples of the final work presented by the students involved in the laboratory through the eLearning platform.

In the experience of our laboratory, it is also worth mentioning how photo-elicitation played a major role in promoting a comfortable space for discussion, in breaking down relational barriers, in generating insights into students’ cognitive frameworks and their relationship to the group, and in producing answers or comments much more related to the “their immediate social and emotional sphere”.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

52

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

The laboratory experience proved doubly positive in terms of the implementation of the dictates of cooperative and collaborative learning and for exposing students to a geography that can add value to their living in a “space” also refining the geographical jargon from the conceptual point of view. The creation of a fully “networked” and highly inclusive learning environment, allowed everyone to develop his or her skills without causing emotional tension or activating the so-called emotional filter.

In fact, in this teaching method, the teacher is able to create a tailor-made “space” to meet the learners’ needs, where they can be freer, more responsible and more respectful of others’ work.

Analyzing the log files, 242 teachers’ interventions were recorded in the communication, aimed at supporting group activities, to guide and/or stimulate observations, while favoring heuristic processes, and privileging real investigatory situations for them to build problem-solving processes. The action of tutoring and scaffolding by the teacher, stimulated students’ collaborative reflection and oriented their outcomes both collectively and individually. The technological support was perceived as an integral part of the “cognitive environment” which aimed to modify learning and thinking processes (Varani, 2001). At every stage of the activity, collaborative work between students and teacher (No. 9,398 interventions from students and No. 2,450 from the teacher) was promoted, activating an accurate process of planning and/or design of all didactic segments.

The teacher, checking the group’s activity in a continuous and unobtrusive way, managed to calibrate the rhythm with which conceptual artefacts were being created.

The new teacher is not only regarded as a guarantor of the quality of teaching materials but especially as a moderator of debates and discussions, guidance counsellor for students to

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

reach deeper analysis levels, and cognitive and motivational support in all the proposed activities.

Indeed, this was a goal that the students attending the course achieved autonomously, although with the constant presence of the teacher coordinating and guiding them.

The sense of responsibility and autonomy they were entrusted with also produced some interesting and unexpected results: - peer-tutoring: group N, for instance, having defined a possible pattern or structure in a clear and detailed way, decided to make their work available to other online groups, welcoming a further task assigned by the teacher to draw up a document with an analytical and detailed explanation of the procedures for others to use; - creativity: the final works presented some diversified and original organizational structures, technological solutions and graphic techniques, which are emblematic manifestations of all forms of creativity; - active participation: the intensity of relations occurred in some groups culminated with the implementation of operating segments that went beyond their assigned duties, and the creation of videos, presentations and documents useful for an in-depth scientific examination; - positive interdependence: there were actions of reciprocal support, praise and encouragement within the groups able to maximize the success of all the members, in a community and noncompetitive perspective, thus enhancing the value of competences and distinguishing skills.

During the Geography lab, the Forum section assumed different functions: firstly, it was presented as a primary communication tool for task completion.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

53

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

54

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Figure 3. Tables reporting emotional comments expressed by group I1 on landscape images.

Elaboration on eLearning Lab data.

1

Group I was composed of the following students: Tiziana Brenca, Mara Bruno, Giuseppina Siano, Fortunata Gallucci, Maria Montefusco, Marianna Di Riso, Patrizia Zoppo, Elena Grimaldi, Marta Porfidia, Giuseppina Salvati.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Here is an example of directions given to the groups: Choices in the forum will give rise to the following: i. Negotiation of chosen images and associated emotions; ii. Identification of a landscape element that better represents your emotion.

At the end of all discussions, each group will have to submit two documents of landscape analysis and observation: iii. In the first document, introduce four images of the selected landscape and the emotions associated with it, motivating the emotional association; iv. In the second document, include an image for every single “natural element” specifically representing an emotion; repeat for all four emotions.

Secondly, the forum was conceived as an area including the following functions: from space for comparing different perspectives to the history of discussions, from the room for exchanging and sharing documents and resources to the work and collaboration environment.

The discussions in the forum supported a collaborative knowledge construction, involving the learner in a cognitive, social and emotional dimension, and resulting as being relevant for their learning. Indeed, the final stage of the work presentation showed evidence of learning progress.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

55

The laboratory actually aroused appreciation among the peers both in terms of learning and geographic content. Eventually, the learners addressed a variety of messages through the platform:  message n. 1 “I agree and recommend another geography lab for next term!”.  message n. 2 “Thank you for this challenging task, for the organization, and the helpfulness and steady support! Thank you so much especially for the emotions we shared!”.  message n. 3 “This lab has been a wonderful experience and has allowed me to get to know the people I worked with. I could investigate such an important topic like emotions, express my point of view and get to an agreement with others. I wish to thank everyone for your collaboration and engagement, which brought us to create these works, but most of all, our professor, who gave us this opportunity for the first time!”.

Finally, as far as the geographical aspect is concerned, the students achieved the predetermined goals, i.e. a) identification and description of elements in the landscape; b) identification of the intangible aspects that characterize it (emotions); c) understanding of different values of a place; as also reflected in the comments extracted from their works reported below (Figure 4).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

56

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

Figure 4. Geographical comments to pictures. Source: elaboration on eLearning Lab data.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

57

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

5. Conclusions The didactic activities performed by the students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Salerno – randomly divided into 26 groups – were part of a training activity on the study of Geography. The latter is seen as a holistic science fostering the comprehension of human interaction with the outside world and helping to represent such knowledge and awareness through a correspondence between images and values, landscapes and emotions.

The laboratory model envisaged the creation of a virtual learning environment, whose didactic activities were based on an e-Learning methodology via the Moodle platform, a technology adopted in the e-Learning Lab.

(Taylor and Larson, 1999; Chung and Moore McBride, 2015).

This experience can be also seen as an initial phase of a larger project on the landscape enabling one to predict, – as Turri says – the ability to “learn to act”, to attain a sense of protection and responsibility towards it.

Acknowledgements The paper is the result of a joint piece of work by the Authors. Antonina Plutino wrote paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 5; Ilaria Polito wrote paragraph 4.

References

The methodology applied to this learning path was based on active geography, an approach that takes into account the experiential and subjective dimension of the constructivist paradigm that encourages knowledge construction through observation of the context.

1. Anderson, K. and Smith S., “Editorial: Emotional Geographies”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26, 1, 2001, pp. 7-10.

The connection between landscape and emotions, was therefore investigated by referring to the emotional geography, using 4 landscape images (including one proposed by the learners), and adopting a technique of photo-elicitation.

3. Bondi L., “Making connections and thinking through emotions: Between geography and psychotherapy”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 30, 4, 2005, pp. 433-448.

All the objectives that this research set out to reach were attained through the two phases of the laboratory activity, which were conveyed into a process of knowledge construction and exploration of the relation landscape-emotion, in knowledge sharing via the virtual learning environment, and eventually, in the creation of an “emotional map”.

4. Bondi L., Davidson J. and Smith M., “Introduction: Geography’s ‘emotional turn’” in Bondi L., Davidson J. and Smith M., Emotional Geographies, Burlington VT and Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005, pp. 1-16.

The effectiveness of knowledge sharing and collaboration among the groups of students involved in the laboratory, has revealed interesting elements such as autonomy, active participation and creativity, while confirming the importance of the teacher in their other role of “facilitator” of the learning process.

It can therefore be said that the laboratory experience has led to positive results both in terms of the pursuit of educational objectives, and the development of the cognitive, social and emotional sphere of the learners, which we consider of great importance for learning Copyright© Nuova Cultura

2. Barthes R., Camera Lucida. New York, Hill and Wang, 1981.

5. Bruno G., Atlante delle emozioni. In viaggio tra arte, architettura e cinema, Milan, Mondadori, 2006.

6. Cacciamani S., Imparare cooperando. Dal cooperative learning alle comunità di ricerca, Rome, Carocci, 2008.

7. Calvani A. and Rotta M., Comunicazione e apprendimento in Internet. Didattica costruttivistica in rete, Trento, Erickson, 1999.

8. Carletti A. and Varani A., Ambienti di apprendimento e nuove tecnologie. Nuove applicazioni della didattica costruttivista nella scuola, Trento, Erickson, 2007.

9. Castiglioni B., “The landscape as an educational tool”, Educación y Futuro, 27, 2012, Italian Association of Geography Teachers

58

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

pp. 51-65.

10. Chung S. and Moore McBride A., “Social and emotional learning in middle school curricula: A service learning model based on positive youth development”, Children and Youth Services Review, 53, 2015, pp.

192-200.

11. Corna Pellegrini G., Riflessioni sulla didattica della geografia nella scuola primaria e secondaria, Dossier of Didattica della geografia, Orizzonti Scuola, 2008, http://www.emscuola.org/news/news.

12. Cosgrove D., Realtà sociali e paesaggio simbolico, Milan, Unicopli, 1984.

13. Davison J. and Smith J., “Emotion, Space and Society: Editorial introduction”, The Emotion, Space and Society, 1, 1, 2008, pp.1-3.

14. Donnelly R. and McSweeney F., Applied ELearning and E-Teaching in Higher Education, London, IGI Global, 2009.

15. Dupont L., Antrop M. and Van Eetvelde V., “Does landscape related expertise influence the visual perception of landscape photographs? Implications for participatory landscape planning and management”, Landscape and Urban Plannin, 141, 2015, pp. 68-77.

16. Dutton W. H., La società online, Milan, Dalai, 2001.

17. Franceschini A., “Il paesaggio: verso una lettura ‘emozionale’”, in Castiglioni B. and De Marchi M. (Eds.), Paesaggio, Sostenibilità Valutazione, Quaderni del Dipartimento, Department of Geography, University of Padova, Padova, 2007, pp. 103-114.

18. Gregori L., “La geografia emozionale come nuova risorsa geoturistica”, Proceedings of the Italian Association of Geology and Tourism National Conference, Bergamo, 2006.

19. Gregori L., “Paesaggio emozionale in Umbria”, Proceedings of the Third National Conference on Geology and Tourism, Bologna, 2007, pp. 321-327.

20. Gregori L., “Paesaggi emozionali della

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

letteratura e dell’arte: Dante, Giotto, il Perugino”, in Persi P. (Ed.), “Territori contesi. Campi del sapere, identità locali, istituzioni, progettualità paesaggistica”, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Territory and Cultural Heritage, Pollenza, 2009, pp. 11-13.

21. Gregori L., “Paesaggio emozionale: comunicazione della ‘suggestione geologica dei luoghi’” in Persi P. (Ed.), Territori emotivi.

Geografie emozionali. Genti e luoghi: sensi, sentimenti ed emozioni, Department of Psychology and Territory, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Fano, 2010, pp. 66-73.

22. Haggett P., L’arte del geografo, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1993.

23. Haggett P., L’ambiente globale e gli strumenti del geografo, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2004.

24. Holmes B. and Gardner J., E-learning.

Concepts and practice, London, Sage, 2006.

25. Jonassen D.H., “Thinking technology, towards a constructivist design model”, Educational technology, 34, 4, 1994, pp. 34-37.

26. Jonassen D.H., Peck K.L., Wilson B.G. and Pfeiffer W.S., Learning with Technology: a constructivist Perspective, Upper Saddle River (New Jersey), Prentice Hall, 1998.

27. Kagan S., Apprendimento cooperativo: approccio strutturale, Rome, Edizioni Lavoro, 2000.

28. Nussbaum M. C., Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

29. Oatley K., Breve storia delle emozioni, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007.

30. Plutino A., “Paesaggi emotivi nell’immaginario degli studenti universitari campani”, in AA.VV., University of Salerno, Department of Education sciences, Quaderni del Dipartimento, Lecce, Pensa Editore, 2010, pp. 253-269.

31. Raffestin C., Dalla nostalgia del territorio al desiderio di paesaggio. Elementi per una teoria del paesaggio, Florence, Alinea Editrice, 2005.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Antonina Plutino, Ilaria Polito

32. Ruby J., Secure the Shadow; Death and Photography in America, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1995.

33. Ruocco D., “Emozioni – Territori emotivi – geografia emozionale precisazioni concettuali”, in Peris P. (Ed.), Territori emotivi.

Geografie emozionali, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Territorial Cultural Heritage, Urbino, Department of Psychology and Territory, University of Urbino “Carlo Bò”, 2010, pp. 11-16.

34. Sensini P., “The empirical and rational teaching of geography”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 0, 1, 2012, pp. 65-66.

35. Smith M. et al., “Introduction: Geography and emotion emerging constellations”, in Smith M. et al., Emotion, Place and Culture, Farnham, Ashgate, 2009, pp. 1-18.

36. Socco C., “Lo spazio come paesaggio”, Versus, Quaderni di studi semiotici, 73-74, 1996, pp. 196-215.

37. Taylor, Howard E. and Susan Larson.

“Social and emotional learning in middle school”, The Clearing House, 72, 6, 1999, pp. 331-336.

38. Trono A., “Geografia attiva come scoperta e valorizzazione dei beni ambientali”, in Santoro Reale and Cirino R. (Eds.), Identi-

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

59

ficazione e valorizzazione delle aree marginali. Il contributo della Ricerca, della Didattica, della Società Civile, Proceedings of the 48th AIIG National Conference, Campobasso, 2006, pp. 171-173.

39. Turri E., Semiologia del paesaggio italiano, Milan, Longanesi, 1979.

40. Turri E., Il paesaggio come teatro. Dal territorio vissuto al territorio rappresentato, Venice, Marsilio, 1998.

41. Vallega A., Geografia umana. Teoria e prassi, Florence, Le Monnier, 2004.

42. van der Schee J., “Geographical education in a changing world”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 0, 1, 2012, pp. 11-15.

43. Varani A., “Nuove tecnologie e processi cognitive”, Informatica & Scuola, 1, 2001.

44. Varisco B.M., Costruttivismo socio-culturale, Rome, Carocci, 2002.

45. Wenger E., Comunità di pratica. Apprendimento, significato e identità, Milan, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2006.

46. Wiley D., “A proposed Measure of Discussion activity in Threaded discussion Spaces v0.9.”, 2004, http://www.opencontent.org/ docs/discussion09.pdf.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 61-72 DOI: 10.4458/8579-05

Landscape and sense of belonging to place: the relationship with everyday places in the experience of some migrants living in Montebelluna (Northeastern Italy) Alessia De Nardia a

Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e dell’Antichità, University of Padua, Padua, Italy Email: alessiadenardi@libero.it Received: December 2016 – Accepted: March 2017

Abstract The research here presented involved a group of Italian and migrant people living in the town of Montebelluna (Northeastern Italy), with the objective of exploring their relationship with everyday places and the meanings attributed to the surrounding landscape. This paper focuses in particular on the data concerning migrants, aiming at illustrating their experiences: through a qualitative and visual approach, we highlighted that their relationship with the place of living is based both on practical actions and emotional responses. The “emotional dimension” is considered the main source of sense of belonging to place: it is especially determined by the landscape’s symbolic meanings, mainly through important memories, social relationships and quality of life. The effects of difficult intercultural relations on migrants’ sense of belonging to place are also discussed. In conclusion, we underlined the potentialities of landscape as an “intercultural mediator”, which can effectively be used in creating educational and recreational activities aimed at fostering intercultural dialogue and interactions.

Keywords: Autophotography, Landscape, Migrants, Sense of Belonging to Place, Veneto Region

1. Introduction In the last two decades Italy has faced rising immigration flows, turning from an emigration country into an immigration one (Giordano, 2015): at the beginning of 2016, migrants constituted about 8% of the total Italian population. The celerity of the phenomenon, the spread of foreign population to diverse areas (both big cities and small ones, including rural areas) and the variety of migrants’ home countries-Romanians (22% of the total foreign population), Albanians (9%) and Moroccans Copyright© Nuova Cultura

(8%) are the nationalities most present, followed by the Chinese, Ukrainian and Filipino ones – make Italy an interesting context for the study of migrants’ integration process. Taking into account this framework, a group of geographers of the University of Padua has developed a research line aiming at exploring the relationship between people and everyday places, through the exploration of the inhabitants’ landscape perceptions. This research involved both native and migrant subjects, living in some localities of the Veneto region (Northeastern Italy) Italian Association of Geography Teachers

62

Alessia De Nardi

characterized by “everyday landscapes”, i.e. lacking particular natural/cultural features which can easily be recognized by people as “landmarks” (Castiglioni et al., 2015; De Nardi, 2013a).

The project here presented is the most recent one, was concluded in 2015 and carried out in the area of Montebelluna, a town in the Venetian province of Treviso. The sample included both Italian and migrant inhabitants: adopting qualitative and visual methodologies, we explored people’s relationship with their place of living and the meanings attributed to the surrounding landscape. This contribution does not set out to present the results of the entire project, but draws on the data concerning the group of migrants, aiming at exploring their experience in-depth.

In our approach, landscape is considered the concrete manifestation of the interactions between a population and its place of living: as such, it holds an intrinsic cultural value and can constitute a reference for people’s identity and sense of belonging to place (Zerbi, 2007; Turri, 1998). However, currently the relationship between a landscape and its population’s culture and identity cannot be taken for granted: at a social level, most of the populations of contemporary societies can hardly be considered a homogeneous whole from a cultural point of view, due to people’s growing mobility and international migrations (Aime and Papotti, 2012; Massey and Jess, 2001). At a territorial level, landscapes have undergone several fast changes too (Raffestin, 2005; Papotti, 2002), especially in those “everyday” areas which the European Landscape Convention “promoted” to “landscape”.

Moreover, we refer to landscape not only as an “object” to study, but also as a tool of “médiation paysagère” (Joliveau et al., 2008): as landscape is – at the same time, a material reality and an immaterial set of images (Egoz et al., 2011; Farinelli, 1991) – is particularly useful for studying the relationships between a local population and its surroundings, since it allows for an exploration of both physical places deemed important by people and their meanings and values. In this sense, landscape is conceived as a “third element, transitional space, which Copyright© Nuova Cultura

includes me and not-me, a continuous dialogue between rationality and affection, an encounter between individual and collective spheres” (Lettini, 1999, p. 80).

2. Landscape experience and sense of belonging to place in migrants’ paths The encounter between landscape studies and immigration studies has given rise to different branches of research: scholars have often concentrated on migrants’ access to and use of parks and other urban green spaces (Byrne and Wolch, 2009; Höglhammer et. al., 2015) and on how different ethnic groups prefer diverse landscape types and hold diverse “images of nature” (Kloek et al., 2013; Buijs et al., 2009).

However, the ways in which migrants develop feelings of place attachment through landscape have been less explored (Rishbeth and Finney, 2006). Concerning this topic, interesting observations have been developed by those scholars who have focused on an “experiential approach” to landscape, highlighting that migrants build their relationship with the place of living mainly on their daily habits and actions, as well as on significant experiences and memories. According to this research, it is the migrants’ concrete engagement with landscape and the possibility of making it “their own” through symbolic meanings that constitute the basis of their attachment to places (Raffaetà and Duff, 2013; Darling et al., 2012; Buffel and Phillipson, 2011; O’Neill and Hubbard, 2010; Tolia-Kelly, 2010; Sampson and Gifford, 2010; Cattel et al., 2008; Ehrkamp, 2005; Armstrong, 2004). Rishbeth and Powell (2013) reflected for example on the central role of memory in these dynamics, affirming that memory can arouse nostalgia, but also foster attachment to the new place; in this regard, the time of residence is surely a central factor, but responses to landscape and feelings of belonging are highly influenced also by personal meanings, as well as to actual daily experiences providing continuity.

The same Authors also highlighted that memory works as a sort of bridge connecting different countries and prompting memories and comparisons between places and phases of life.

Similarly, Tolia-Kelly (2010) underlined that the immigrant women that she met build their Italian Association of Geography Teachers

63

Alessia De Nardi

identities in a dynamic way, through a network of landscape elements referring to the different countries in which they have lived. Richter, studying the attachment to places of Spanish migrants in Switzerland, identified this to the kind of places in which migrants build their relation with the place they live in: place of “identification” – “symbolic and emblematic sites that link migrants to specific emotional moments” and that are deeply connected to their past – and places “of daily actions”, which are “imbued with a meaning derived from concrete practices performed daily” (2011, p. 225).

Also focusing on studies on place attachment – and on other similar concepts, e.g. sense of place and place identity – can help to identify other factors contributing to migrants-place relationship. In particular, both environmental psychologists and human geographers underlined the subjective, emotional, experiential and affective nature of the human ties to places and landscapes, also highlighting their links with social relationships and with one’s personal and social identity (Manzo, 2005; Hidalgo and Hernàndez, 2001; Twigger‐Ross and Uzzell, 1996; Altman and Low, 1992; Tuan, 1977, 1980, 1990; Relph, 1976). Recently Antonsich, drawing on interdisciplinary studies on this topic, proposed the notion of “place-belongingness”: it is intended as the condition of “feeling at home” in a place – where “home” represents “a symbolic space of familiarity, comfort, security, and emotional attachment” (2010, p. 646). According to this Author, such a feeling is determined by five factors: auto-biographical factors, which are connected to one’s personal history (e.g. memories and personal experiences); relational factors, which refer to “personal and social ties that enrich the life of an individual in a given place” (p. 647); cultural factors, as for example language; economic factors, e.g. experiencing job stability, but also the idea of having a future in that place; legal factors, such as citizenship and residence permission, which produce a sense of security1. Significantly – while auto1

The Author also talked about the social and collective dimension of belonging, i.e. practices of socio-spatial in/exclusion experienced by migrants in the host country. Even though being aware of such dimension, the present contribution is mainly focused on the individual and personal one, since the latter is Copyright© Nuova Cultura

biographical and relational factors confirm the emotional and social nature of sense of belonging and possibly concern any individualcultural, economic and legal factors add complexity to this feeling and appear to be truly relevant in the case of migrants. Indeed, migrants are by definition those who have to learn to live in new and often completely unknown places, facing cultural diversity, as well as economic and legal uncertainty. They lose their territorial references, but at the same time are also able to build new ones, possibly experiencing “multiple attachments” and feeling at home in more than one unique place (in the homeland, as well as in the transition and host countries). As Ahmed states, “the journeys of migration involve a splitting of home as place of origin and home as the sensory world of everyday experience” (1999, p. 341): in this view, exploring how migrants develop place attachment firstly allows to better understand the role of place in migrants’ search for a psychological and emotional equilibrium after immigration; secondly, it makes possible to overcome a rigid and fixed vision of both “home” and “belonging”, enriching these concepts with new and original meanings (Liu, 2014; Koefoed and Simonsen, 2012; Christou, 2011; Ralph and Staeheli, 2011; Waite and Cook, 2011; Blunt and Dowling, 2006; Ahmed et al., 2003; Giuliani et al., 2003; Dwyer, 2000).

3. Case study, sample, methods The research was carried out in the town of Montebelluna and in some of the surrounding municipalities. This area is an ideal context for the research, both because it presents everyday landscapes and for the significant presence of immigrants who reside here; foreigners make up for about 13% of the total 31,300 inhabitants of Montebelluna, of which the most numerous are Chinese (24% of the total foreign population), Moroccans (14%) and Romanians (14%), followed by Albanians, Kosovars, Macedonians and Ukrainians.

Given the exploratory character of the research, a relatively small number of people the feeling which most frequently and noticeably emerged during fieldwork.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

64

Alessia De Nardi

participated in it: the sample consisted of 49 people, aged between 17 and 44, including 18 natives and 31 migrants2.

As previously mentioned, this paper does not report the general results of the project, but concerns only the migrants involved in it, and illustrates their relationship with everyday places through some examples that are considered particularly meaningful.

With regard to methodology, we employed a qualitative and multi-method approach, combining the technique of auto-photography – according to which the subjects take pictures following the researchers’ instructions – with semi-structured interviews. Visual methods are considered particularly useful when exploring the meanings attributed by people to places (e.g.

Stedman et al., 2014; Lombard, 2013; Simkins and Thwaites, 2008; Dakin, 2003), also representing quite an innovative way to explore “the relevance of ‘place’ for migration processes” (Mendoza and Morén-Alegret, 2013, p. 764). Moreover, auto-photography makes it possible to reduce the distance between the researchers and the researched subjects (Dodman, 2003); this aspect is definitely relevant when working with migrants, since the intercultural context of the research poses significant cultural and ethical challenges (Fitzgerald, 2004).

During the fieldwork, a camera was given to each individual, asking him/her to “tell us about the place you live in through 8 pictures”. After the photos were collected and printed by the researcher, face-to-face interviews were carried out with each single participant, using photoelicitation, i.e. inviting the subject to comment and discuss their pictures, expressing their point 2

Different groups were involved: two classes attending a course to achieve a secondary school certification (10 people of immigrant origin); two classes of an Italian language course for foreign women (16 people of immigrant origin) and two classes of a secondary technical institute (23 people, including 18 Italians and 5 of immigrant origin).

Migrants came from a variety of different countries: 13 were from Morocco, 3 from China, 3 from Ghana, 2 from Romania, 2 from Brazil, 2 from Kosovo, 2 from Macedonia, 1 from the Dominican Republic, 1 from Nigeria, 1 from Cuba and 1 from Mauritius.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

of view and the meanings connected to every photographed landscape element3. The analysis of the pictures and the interview transcript reading then allowed us to identify the most relevant themes for our research objectives.

Even in territorial and social contexts considerably different from the one here presented, autophotography and interviews with photo-elicitation showed their effectiveness in helping people describe their perception of phenomena and the associated meanings (Bignante, 2010). However, it is for the very reason that these methods make it possible to deeply explore people’s points of view on reality that it is difficult to apply them on a wide number of subjects. Even being aware of this issue, we nevertheless intentionally decided to adopt this technique and consequently selected an adequate sample, which is not representative of the entire foreign population living in Montebelluna. This choice was coherent with our objectives: indeed, they were neither to provide statistically relevant data nor to produce observations that could be generalized; rather, we aimed at identifying some of the factors which play a role in the development of sense of belonging to place by people who experienced migration to “everyday landscapes”, and thus at highlighting some relevant issues on this topic that can be further studied.

4. Stories from the fieldwork The collected data allow us to confirm the importance of both habitual practices and emotional responses in building the relationship with the place of living.

The places which became the first references for our interviewees were the most frequented ones, when carrying out daily commitments or in their free time. For example, D. – who attended school in Montebelluna, but lived in the near village of Villorba – took a picture of a square where he spent most of his free time and “where are often organized festivals and other 3

The interviews were carried out in different languages – English, Italian and interviewees’ mother tongue – according to the subjects’ knowledge of Italian language, and also employing intercultural mediators.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Alessia De Nardi

initiatives” (Figure 1). T., instead a Moroccan woman photographed downtown Montebelluna, saying: “I go shopping here, and near here there is also the supermarket where I always go” (Figure 2). These examples show how territorial ties are developed through habits and daily movements, as well as through services and places deemed “useful” – e.g. shops, streets, banks, and public offices – which are similar to Richter’s “places of daily actions” (2011). In Montebelluna most of these places are concentrated in the centre of the town and this makes it “convenient”, particularly to those living in the surroundings, as they can reach shops and offices easily and autonomously, also on foot.

Figure 1. “Aldo Moro” square – Villorba.

(D., he was born in Marocco, 19 years old. He has lived in Italy for 7 years, in different municipalities of Veneto region; he has lived in Villorba for 2 years).

Figure 2. Downtown – Montebelluna.

(T., she was born in Mauritius, 40 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 4 years).

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

65

Also B., who has lived in Montebelluna for only three months, took a photo of a place where she often goes: “almost every day I come here for a walk with my sister in law (...). It is all beautiful.

You smell fresh air, the flowing water gives you a sense of peace, there is plenty of green” (Figure 3). She thus described a place she liked and a practice that seems quickly consolidated, but especially that made her feel good.

Figure 3. “Where we make our daily walk” – Montebelluna.

(B., she born in Kosovo, 24 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 3 months).

Sensations of wellbeing tend to increase over time, as emotional involvement does too, fostering a sense of belonging to place. Our data show that the latter is mainly determined by three factors: memory, social relationships and quality of life.

As highlighted by Rishbeth and Powell (2013) too, memory is an active agent in building the relationship with the current place of living, as well as in keeping alive the one with the country of origin and in creating associations between the two worlds; particular memories, experiences, events, situations and phases of life connected to places and landscape elements are relevant in this regard. For example, M., a 17 year-old Chinese girl living in the village of Caerano, photographed the primary school she had attended, saying: “this is my primary school, I went there immediately after my arrival to Italy and I knew my first friends and teachers there” (Figure 4).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

66

Alessia De Nardi

Figure 4. Primary school – Caerano.

(M., she was born in China, 17 years old. She has lived in Caerano for 9 years).

what she saw from a window of her house (Figure 6) and said that she liked this view, as well as the freedom she experienced in Montebelluna: “here it is peaceful, you do as you wish, go out when you want, come back when you want, not like in Morocco, eh! Here you dress as you want, because in Morocco, my country, no, you must not wear tight jeans…”.

However, she also said that she felt at home only when she was inside her house, or when a place reminded her of her country of origin: “inside my house I feel at home, and when I come here to the school and see Moroccans, I feel as if I were there, in Morocco. (...) When I go to the market I think of Morocco, I see the stalls selling fish, fruit, and I think it is like there in Morocco”.

Through most of her photos, M. instead built a link between her current everyday places and her homeland, Ghana. She took a picture of a square in a locality near to Montebelluna, where there is a black enchained statue, which really affected her: “I don’t like this picture because it reminds me of the slave trade. (…). It reminds me of ‘Cape Coast Castle’, in Ghana, from where slaves were taken away with their arms and legs bound in chains” (Figure 5).

Figure 6. Window view – Montebelluna.

(F., born in Morocco, 36 years old. She has lived in Italy for 6 years, in Montebelluna for 3 years; previously, she lived in nearby localities).

This woman felt good in Montebelluna, where she was building her life; however, her emotional reference was still her country of origin and she felt “at home” only when she was inside her house, and when someone/something made her think about Morocco.

Figure 5. “Internati” square – Santa Maria in Colle.

(M., born in Ghana, 44 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 10 years).

Indeed, in many cases, the emotional bond with the homeland can remain very strong, even after much time spent away. In this regard, also the case of F. is relevant: she took a picture of Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The importance of social relationships with compatriots, but especially with one’s own relatives is clear: Montebelluna became home because it is the place where migrants were able to reunite their family and live together. G. took a picture of the library and said: “I bring my child there and I borrow books for him”; and then significantly added: “I like living in Montebelluna because since my arrival from Morocco I have ever lived here and I got used

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Alessia De Nardi

to this place. (…) I feel at home here, because it is here that I live with my little family” (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Library – Montebelluna.

(G., she was born in Morocco, 26 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 7 years).

Also M., by taking a photo of the hospital where her second son was born, made the importance of social relationships very clear, and especially of the children born in Italy, as determinants of sense of belonging to the current place of living (Figure 8).

Commenting this picture, she also expressed the opinion that in Montebelluna her family and herself can enjoy better opportunities in life than in the place she comes from, in Macedonia: “My husband has a job here… and when you have a job you have everything, you can take the kids to school, pay the rent...”; on the other hand, she showed an emotional tie to her homeland, where she left her family of origin: “no place is as valuable as a parent, as a family”; “half of my heart is here, the other half is there, there for my family, here to live better”.

67

In this last example, the social nature of belonging meets another important factor for the development of territorial ties: quality of life, intended as the opportunities offered by the place in terms of safety, job and “hope for the future” (Raffaetà and Duff, 2013, p. 339). M. desired to stay in Montebelluna, since she felt as if she had a future there; at the same time, she missed her relatives in Macedonia, making this country still a fundamental identity reference.

Another Macedonian interviewee allows us to highlight a further relevant aspect for the establishment of sense of belonging to place and integration: relationships with autochthonous inhabitants. Commenting on a photo of the cathedral of Montebelluna, A. said: “I am a Muslim. I took a picture of the cathedral because some people go to the church, others go to the mosque; (…) it is not a problem, we can make friendship with each other…” (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Cathedral – Montebelluna.

(A., she was born in Macedonia, 33 years old; She has lived in Montebelluna for 4 years and 3 months).

Figure 8. Hospital – Montebelluna.

(M., born in Macedonia, 29 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 2 and half years).

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The main church of the town thus becomes the symbol of a wish that unfortunately remains often unfulfilled. Some of our interviewees talked, more or less explicitly, about their relationships with the autochthonous population, often reporting negative experiences. For Italian Association of Geography Teachers

68

Alessia De Nardi

example, F. took a picture of her children’s kindergarten, which was her unique “emotional” reference after nine years in the town, and said: “[If I left Montebelluna I would miss] the kindergarten, it is the school that my children have attended, all three of them” (Figure 10).

She also said that she would not live elsewhere, because “a foreign person suffers when arriving in a new place, so I don’t want to suffer again”, adding: “the negative thing in Montebelluna is the lack of welcome… they look at different people… especially the women wearing a headscarf are looked at in a different way…”. It is thus evident that the “social climate” of the town and the natives’ attitude toward migrants can generate suffering, also renewing the pain experienced when leaving the homeland.

Figure 10. Kindergarten – Montebelluna.

(F., she was born in Morocco, 30 years old. She has lived in Montebelluna for 9 years).

5. Conclusions Our data confirm the findings in literature and highlight the fact that migrants’ relationship with everyday places is characterized by two dimensions: a “practical” dimension and an “emotional” one. The former is based on routines and habitual movements; the latter implies an affective involvement toward the place, and is therefore considered the core of a sense of belonging. Such feeling is linked more to the symbolic meanings of landscape than to its “physical” characteristics, being mainly determined by three factors: memory, social relationships, and quality of life.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The establishment of sense of belonging to places requires time: length of residence is relevant in order to both become used to the new place and have experiences enabling people to create a bond with it. It is also true that in some cases territorial ties are developed quite quickly, while in others the sensation of “feeling at home” is confined within the domestic walls, even after years.

From most interviews, it emerges that in Montebelluna “you can live well”: it is a safe and clean town, where services and offices are efficient and, in spite of the current economic crisis, work opportunities are still available.

However, quality of life is not enough to generate a sense of belonging to Montebelluna.

Emotional and affective involvement is often hindered by the migrants’ relationship with their homeland: indeed, such place tends to remain their only identity reference, since they were born and had spent most of their life there, and many of their relatives and friends live still there. Also the natives’ lack of hospitality, or even hostility, seriously affect migrants’ experiences, especially in the case of Muslim people coming from Africa. Indeed, when our interviewees mentioned social relationships, they referred to almost exclusive interactions with their relatives, compatriots or other migrants, while the ones with natives are difficult and scarce (confirming what emerged in research on inter-ethnic relations in urban public parks, see for example Peters et al., 2010).

Taking into account these findings, we argue that improving quality of life, safety and also the aesthetic quality of everyday landscapes is an important action in order to improve the relationship with the place of living: walking around the town and spending time in places which are appreciated and make migrants feel good undoubtedly help them in creating territorial ties. Furthermore, and most importantly, migrants need the possibility to freely build their life and future, and cultivate relationships with relatives and friends, thus fostering their connections with both the current place of living and the homeland. According to our data, each of these aspects is relevant to the development of migrants’ sense of belonging and integration, and they all contribute to such processes, together and interdependently.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

69

Alessia De Nardi

However, the hostile social climate surrounding migrants – which is often “implicit”, as made up of gazes rather than actions or open conflicts – can endanger, or even delete, the positive influence of the abovementioned factors. In our opinion, there cannot be “integration” without the establishment of a culture of acceptance and inclusion; it is not enough to guarantee migrants “the right to a future”, in a pleasant place which “works efficiently”, but it is fundamental to enhance the coexistence between natives and migrants, helping both groups to overcome reciprocal fears and stereotypes, especially in areas – like Veneto region and northeastern Italy in general – where they are particularly strong. This situation can be changed also through landscape, properly exploiting its potential as “intercultural mediator”: as our previous research among second generation migrants showed (De Nardi, 2013b), landscape facilitates the emergence of sensations, emotions and memories, also providing people with the opportunity to share experiences, opinions and feelings, as well as to deconstruct stereotypes.

These findings were confirmed during the fieldwork for this project: migrants acquired a deeper awareness of the characteristics of their place of living, also relating it to their country of origin; had the opportunity to think about their experience, taking into account a multiplicity of factors; finally, they realized that their lives and experiences are interesting to somebody and that it is important to talk about them and share them with other people. However, the intercultural exchange remained almost limited to the relationship between the researcher (me, as a white Italian woman) and the researched migrants (coming from a variety of different countries and mostly women). This highlights the importance of increasing and fostering positive intercultural interactions, both through academic research projects and outside universities. In particular, public initiatives are needed to help autochthonous and migrant people meet, especially if they are adults who do not attend school. Those places where natives and migrants have access and share a space – e.g. parks, squares, streets, gardens of kindergartens and schools – seem to be favored settings for taking on this challenge. The organization of activities focusing on local Copyright© Nuova Cultura

landscape and involving both Italian and migrant populations – such as excursions, laboratories for children and parents, community gardens – is a relevant tool for fostering the integration process, educating people to the value of their common landscape, but especially supporting the construction of open and dynamic identities.

Acknowledgements The project was carried out by the Author during a two-year research fellowship at the Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World of the University of Padua. The Author would like to thank Benedetta Castiglioni of the University of Padua for her supervision and support. Gratitude is also goes to the Montebelluna “Museum of Natural History and Archaeology”, the main partner of the project, for the fundamental contribution given to the research.

References 1. Ahmed S., “Home and Away. Narratives of migration and estrangement”, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2, 3, 1999, pp.

329-347.

2. Ahmed S., Castaneda C., Fortier A.M. and Sheller M. (Eds.), Uprootings/Regroundings: Questions of Home and Migration, Oxford and New York, Berg, 2003.

3. Aime M. and Papotti D., L’altro e l’altrove: antropologia, geografia e turismo, Turin, Einaudi, 2012.

4. Altman I. and Low S.M., “Place Attachment: A conceptual inquiry”, in Altman I. and Low S.M. (Eds.), Place Attachment, New York and London, Plenum Press, 1992, pp. 1-12.

5. Antonsich M., “In search of belonging: an analytical framework”, Geographical Compass, 4, 6, 2010, pp. 644-659.

6. Armstrong H., “Making the Unfamiliar Familiar: Research Journeys towards Understanding Migration and Place”, Landscape Research, 29, 3, 2004, pp. 237-260.

7. Bignante E., “The use of photo-elicitation in field research. Exploring Maasai representtations and use of natural resources”, EchoGéo, 11, 2010, http://echogeo.revues. org/11622.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

70

Alessia De Nardi

8. Blunt A. and Dowling R., Home, London and New York, Routledge, 2006.

9. Buffel T. and Phillipson C., “Experiences of Place among Older Migrants Living in Inner-City Neighbourhoods in Belgium and England”, Diversité urbaine, 11, 1, 2011, pp. 13-37.

10. Buijs A.E., Elands B.H.M. and Langers, F., “No wilderness for immigrants: cultural differences in images of nature and landscape preferences”, Landscape and Urban Planning, 91, 3, 2009, pp. 113-123.

11. Byrne J. and Wolch J., “Nature, race, and parks: past research and future directions for geographic research”, Progress in Human Geography, 33, 6, 2009, pp. 743-765.

12. Castiglioni B., De Nardi A. and Dalla Zuanna G., “Landscape perception as a marker of immigrant children’s integration.

An explorative study in the Veneto region (Northeast Italy)”, in Bruns D., Kühne O., Schönwald A. and Simone T. (Eds.), Landscape Culture-Culturing Landscapes.

The differentiated construction of Landscapes, Wiesbaden, Springer, 2015, pp. 207-221.

13. Cattell V., Dines N., Gesler W. and Curtis S., “Mingling, observing, and lingering: everyday public spaces and their implications for wellbeing and social relations”, Health & Place, 14, 3, 2008, pp. 544-561.

14. Christou A., “Narrating lives in (e)motion: embodiment, belongingness and displacement in diasporic spaces of home and return”, Emotion, Space and Society, 4, 4, 2011, pp. 249-257.

15. Dakin S., “There’s more to landscape than meets the eye: towards inclusive landscape assessment in resource and environmental management”, The Canadian Geographer, 47, 2, 2003, pp. 185-200.

16. Darling J., Healey R.L. and Healey L., “Seeing the city anew: asylum seeker perspectives on ‘belonging’ in Greater Manchester”, North West Geography, 12, 1, 2012, pp. 20-28.

17. De Nardi A., “Il paesaggio come strumento di mediazione: il luogo di vita nell’esperienza degli adolescenti italiani e stranieri”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 120, 4, 2013a, pp. 308-326.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

18. De Nardi A., Il paesaggio come strumento per l’educazione interculturale, Montebelluna, Museo di Storia Naturale ed Archeologia, 2013b.

19. Dodman D., “Shooting in the city: an autophotographic exploration of the urban environment in Kingston, Jamaica”, Area, 35, 3, 2003, pp. 293-304.

20. Dwyer C., “Negotiating diasporic identities: young British South Asian Muslim women”, Women’s Studies International Forum, 23, 4, 2000, pp. 475-486.

21. Egoz S., Makhzoumi J. and Pungetti G., “The right to landscape: an introduction”, in Egoz S., Makhzoumi J. and Pungetti G. (Eds.), The Right to Landscape. Contesting Landscape and Human Rights, Farnham, Ashgate, 2011, pp. 1-20.

22. Ehrkamp P., “Placing identities. Transnational practices and local attachments of Turkish migrants in Germany”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31, 2, 2005, pp. 345-364.

23. Farinelli F., “L’arguzia del paesaggio”, Casabella, 575-576, 1991, pp. 10-12.

24. Fitzgerald T., “Powerful Voices and Powerful Stories: reflections on the challenges and dynamics of intercultural research”, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 25, 3, 2004, pp. 233-245.

25. Giordano, A., Movimenti di popolazione.

Una piccola introduzione, Rome, Luiss University Press, 2015.

26. Giuliani M.V., Ferrara F. and Barabotti S., “One attachment or more?” in Moser G., Pol E., Bernard Y., Bonnes M., Corraliza J. and Giuliani M.V. (Eds.), People, Places, and Sustainability, Göttingen, Hogrefe & Huber, 2003, pp. 111-122.

27. Hidalgo M.C. and Hernàndez B., “Place attachment: conceptual and empirical questions”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 3, 2001, pp. 273-281.

28. Höglhammer A., Muhar A. and Schauppenlehner T., “Outdoor recreation of Turkish immigrants in the Wienerwald Biosphere Park, Austria: A stakeholder process to identify research questions”, in Bruns D., Kühne O., Schönwald and Simone T. (Eds.), Landscape Culture-Culturing Landscapes.

The differentiated construction of Landscapes, Wiesbaden, Springer, 2015, pp. 129-139.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Alessia De Nardi

29. Joliveau T., Michelin Y. and Ballester, P., “Eléments et méthodes pour une médiation paysagère”, in Wieber T. and Brossard J.C. (Eds.), Paysage et information géographique, Paris, Hermes, Lavoisier, 2008, pp. 257-286.

30. Kloek M.E., Buijs A.E., Boersema J.J. and Schouten M.G.C., “Crossing Borders: Review of Concepts and Approaches in Research on Greenspace, Immigration and Society in Northwest European Countries”, Landscape Research, 38, 1, 2013, pp. 117-140.

31. Koefoed L. and Simonsen K., “(Re)scaling identities: Embodied others and alternative spaces of identification”, Ethnicities, 12, 5, 2012, pp. 623-642.

32. Lettini L., “La narrazione”, in Gallo Barbisio C. (Ed.), Self-identity Place-identity. Studi sul paesaggio, Turin, Tirrenia Stampatori, 1999, pp. 69-93.

33. Liu L. S., “A search for a place to call home: Negotiation of home, identity and senses of belonging among new migrants from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to New Zealand”, Emotion, Space and Society, 10, 4, 2014, pp. 18-26.

34. Lombard M., “Using auto-photography to understand place: reflections from research in urban informal settlements in Mexico”, Area, 45, 1, 2013, pp. 23-32.

35. Manzo L.C., “For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 1, 2005, pp. 67-86.

36. Massey D. and Jess P. (Eds.), “Luoghi, culture e globalizzazione”, Turin, UTET, 2001 (Original Edition: A place in the World? Places, Cultures and Globalization, Oxford University Press, 1995).

37. Mendoza C. and Morén-Alegret R., “Exploring methods and techniques for the analysis of senses of place and migration”, Progress in Human Geography, 37, 6, 2013, pp. 762-785.

38. O’Neill M. and Hubbard P., “Walking, sensing, belonging: ethno-mimesis as performative praxis”, Visual Studies, 25, 1, 2010, pp.

46-58.

39. Papotti D., “Interstizialità e invisibilità dei paesaggi etnici: prime riflessioni geografiche sull’immigrazione nel Piemonte orientale”, in Brusa C. (Ed.), Processi di globalizzazione dell’economia e mobilità geografica, Memorie

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

71

della Società Geografica Italiana, LXVII, Rome, 2002, pp. 303-324.

Peters K., Elands B. and Buijs A., “Social interactions in urban parks: Stimulating social cohesion?”, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 9, 2, 2010, pp. 93-100.

Raffaetà R. and Duff C., “Putting Belonging into Place: Place Experience and Sense of Belonging among Ecuadorian Migrants in an Italian Alpine Region”, City & Society, 25, 3, 2013, pp. 328-347.

Raffestin C., Dalla nostalgia del territorio al desiderio di paesaggio: elementi per una teoria del paesaggio, Florence, Alinea, 2005.

Ralph D. and Staeheli, L.A., “Home and Migration: Mobilities, Belongings and Identities”, Geographical Compass, 5, 7. 2011, pp. 517530.

Relph E., Place and placeness, London, Pilon, 1976.

Richter M., “‘A country full of snow’: Spanish migrants in Switzerland and their engagement with places, memories, and personal migratory history”, Emotion Space and Society, 4, 4, 2011, pp. 221-228.

Rishbeth C. and Finney N., “Novelty and nostalgia in urban greenspace: refugee perspectives”, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 97, 3, 2006, pp. 281-295.

Rishbeth C. and Powell M., “Place Attachment and Memory: Landscapes of Belonging as Experienced Post-migration”, Landscape Research, 38, 2, 2013, pp. 160-178.

Sampson R. and Gifford S. M., “Placemaking, settlement and well-being: The therapeutic landscapes of recently arrived youth with refugee backgrounds”, Health & Place, 16, 1, 2010, pp. 116-131.

Simkins I. and Thwaites, K., “Revealing the hidden spatial dimension of place experience in primary school-age children”, Landscape Research, 33, 5, 2008, pp. 531-546.

Stedman R.C., Amsden B.L., Beckley T.M. and Tidball K.G., “Photo-based methods for understanding place meanings as foundations of attachment”, in Manzo L.C. and DevineWright P. (Eds.), Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods, and Applications, London, Routledge, 2014, pp. 112-124.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

72

Alessia De Nardi

51. Tolia-Kelly D.P., Landscape, Race and Memory. Material Ecologies of Citizenship, Farnham, Asghate, 2010.

52. Tuan Y.F., Space and place: the perspective of experience, Minneapolis-London, University of Minnesota press, 1977.

53. Tuan Y.F., “Rootedness versus sense of place”, Landscape, 24, 1, 1980, pp. 3-8.

54. Tuan Y.F., Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values, New York, Columbia University Press, 1990.

55. Turri E., Il paesaggio come teatro: dal territorio vissuto al territorio rappresentato, Venice, Marsilio, 1998.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

56. Twigger-Ross C.L. and Uzzell D.L., “Place and identity processes”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 3, 1996, pp. 205-220.

57. Waite L. J. and Cook J., “Belonging among diasporic African communities in the UK: Plurilocal homes and simultaneity of place attachments”, Emotion, Space and Society, 4, 4, 2011, pp. 238-248.

58. Zerbi M. C., “Affettività e violenza nei confronti del paesaggio”, in Zerbi M.C. (Ed.), Il paesaggio rurale: un approccio patrimoniale, Turin, Giappichelli, 2007, pp.

359-365.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

MAPPING SOCIETIES Edited by Edoardo Boria

Journal off Research andd Didactics in Geography (JJ-READING),, 1, 6, June, 20017, pp. 75-81 DOI: 10.44458/8579-06

On n uses of utopian u m maps: The Map of N New Geneva in Watterford (11783) betweeen colonialism and d republiccanism Federicco Ferrettia a

School oof Geography,, University College Dublinn, Belfield – Duublin 4, Irelannd Email: fedderico.ferretti@ @ucd.ie Accepted: April 2017 2 Received: April 2017 – A

Abstractt This papeer analyses a handwrittenn 1783 map suurviving in thhe Départem ment de Cartess et Plans at the Geneva Public Liibrary, whosee first versionn in colours has remainedd unpublishedd until now. The map reppresents the project of New Genevva, a utopiann settlement oof Genevan w watchmakers exiled after ttheir participation in the 1782 Genneva Revolutiion, in the soouthern Irish ccounty of Waaterford. I firsst analyse thee contexts of tthis map by crossing IIrish and Swiiss sources. Then, I addresss the iconograaphic documeent drawing oon recent literrature on the imperial map and unoorthodox mapppings. I concclude that, thoough contribuuting to studiees on the geoographies of revolutionn and the unoorthodox uses of cartograpphy, this docuument reprodduces some feeatures of moore classical maps of empire, e as it was part of a project whicch was functiional to Britissh imperialism m in Ireland. Finally, the project w was not realiseed owing to thhe lack of agrreement betweeen all the acttors of this coomplex story.

Keyword ds: Utopia, Im mperial Map, Colonialism, Republicanissm, Geographhies of Revoluution

1.

In ntroduction n

This ppaper addresses a cartogrraphic docum ment kept in thhe Map Colllection of thee Geneva Pubblic Library, representingg a project to establishh a o Swiss watcchmakers in the Irish couunty colony of of Waterrford.

Thesee workers weere exiled aftter the defeatt of the 17822 popular uprrising in Genneva, consideered as the firrst of the “Geenevan Revoolutions” (177821798) whhich paralleleed the historrical movemeents leading tto the 1789 F French Revolution (Fornaara, 1989).

Copyright© © Nuova Culturra

The Genevva Départem ment de Carttes et Plans hhas been alreeady the suubject of woorks on the ccartographic collection off anarchist geeographers, E Elisée Recluss and Charless Perron (Ferretti, 2014 aand 2015). Though cconserved with w their m materials, thee Waterford map did nott belong to thhe collectionn put togetherr by Reclus aand Perron, aas it lacks itts typical innventory num mbers. It is aapparently thhe result of a successivee donation, aassociated wiith the Henri--Albert Gosse Papers.

Italian Associaation of Geograaphy Teachers

Federico Ferretti

76

It is ironic that a “revolutionary” map of the eighteenth century randomly joined a collection made by political revolutionaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This coincidence appears less striking if we consider the Swiss traditions of political unorthodoxy and the specificity of Geneva as traditional refuge for political exiles as Reclus was. The map of Waterford also addresses an experience of exile, which concerned in this case a group of Geneva citizens, and provides an example of the varied political uses of cartographical documents.

While Brian Harley had stated that maps are the language of power, never that of contestation, because their “ideological arrows have tended to fly largely in one direction, from the powerful to the weaker in society” (Harley, 2001, p. 79), recent studies have shown a range of “unorthodox” uses of maps (Boria, 2015; Ferretti, 2015).

While Irish local history reconstructed the documentary history of New Geneva (Butler, 1913, 1914 and 1915), this short paper is the first attempt to discuss this cartographic document and its contexts by crossing Irish and Swiss sources from a geographer’s perspective. My main argument is that this map can contribute to the study of Geographies of Revolution and the spatialities of the Enlightenment (Livingstone and Withers, 2005; Withers, 2007), addressing the Geneva 1782 Revolution. I argue in particular that, changing its place, the Geneva revolution also changed its political direction, because the project to establish a republican colony of exiled workers who had challenged power in their city, ended up being included in an imperial project, that of British colonialism in Ireland.

2.

Genevan Revolutions

In June 1782, a few years before the French revolution, the bourgeoisie of Geneva rose up and got rid of the aristocratic power, taking the control of the city. Though formally an independent republic, Geneva was ruled by a system still inspired by the theocratic dictatorship instituted in the sixteenth century by Jean Calvin, whose intolerance and totalitarianism were implicitly

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

compared to Hitler’s by historian Stefan Zweig (Lestringant, 2006).

In the following weeks, the armies of the Kings of France and Savoy, supported by Swiss troops from Bern (Geneva was not yet a part of Switzerland) had converged onto the city restoring the formal government and compelling the leaders of the rebellion to seek refuge in the nearby town of Neuchâtel. The social basis of the uprising was formed by skilled workers in the watchmaking industry. Thus, a few days after the revolution’s defeat, one of its most enthusiastic leaders, the young Francis d’Ivernois (1757-1842), wrote to Lord Montstuart, “who knew Geneva well and was then British envoy at Turin, requesting facilities for transporting the watchmakers and their families to England and announcing his intention to travel to London as soon as possible to consult with Lord Shelburne, the prime minister” (Jupp, 1970, p. 29).

D’Ivernois’s first steps were successful because King George III and the British government were interested in the bargain that could result from the immigration of skilled and disciplined workers, proven Protestants and opposed to the French regime. Nevertheless, the settlement of the colony in England was problematic because of the possible opposition of English watchmakers fearing competition.

Therefore, Shelburne offered the Geneva commissioners to settle in Ireland, “putting D’Ivernois in touch with Lord Temple, the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant” (Jupp, 1970, p. 30). In Dublin, Earl Temple and several other local politicians welcomed this proposal enthusiastically. This occurred in a moment of turmoil in Irish politics, because in the same year the so-called “1782 Constitution” had increased the power of the Irish parliament and hence the autonomy of the island (Butler, 1913). A rhetoric of freedom was then released by the local press, in the Dublin Journal for instance, writing that it was “quite natural that the victims of oppression should be soliciting an asylum in this rising land of liberty” (Jupp, 1970, p. 31).

Nevertheless, it would be anachronistic to confuse these claims for “Irish liberty” with the republican and nationalist claims for Irish

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Federico Ferretti

independence of the two following centuries.

The Anglo-Irish ruling classes which welcomed the Genevan leaders were mainly composed of protestant aristocrats and functionaries acting on behalf of the British Crown with varying degrees of autonomy. A very telling anecdote concerns the Count of Ely, who offered D’Ivernois his lands in Wexford to settle there “the first protestant colony upon the Earth” (Karmin, 1920, p. 125). Several places were then considered, and when Temple received the Genevan delegates in Dublin Castle on 14 February 1783, he offered them the lands of the Passage village, county Waterford, to build a new town there with a governmental contribution of £50,000. The location was decided on the grounds of geopolitical (imperial) considerations: these watchmakers were protestants, but also republicans, then Temple “wished to remove them from the Northern republicans and to place them where they might make an essential reform in the religion, industry and manners of the South, who want[ed] it more” (Jupp, 1970, p. 31). Waterford was one of the regions affected by the peasants’ revolts promoted by movements such as the Whiteboys, who struggled against landlordism and social inequality (Featherstone, 2007).

Thus, the Genevan migrants were implicitly assigned the task of performing soft social control and educational work among local populations, deemed “backward” consistently with the mainstream stereotypes despising and later racialising the Irish peasant as intrinsically “inferior” (Finnegan, 2014). A project for transferring the Genevan Academy in Waterford in addition to the workers’ settlement was clearly consistent with these colonial purposes (Powell McNutt and Whatmore, 2013). The Frenchspeaking commentators released a classical imperial rhetoric on an Irish (allegedly) empty “Far West” to settle and civilise. “It is a new country, refuge of liberty … rich in resources” (Brissot, 1783, p. 148).

3.

The document

In Geneva, the map of Waterford survives in two handwritten versions. The first one, drawn with watercolours and never reproduced until

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

77

now to the best of my knowledge (Figure 1), and a black-and-white one, ready for engraving and printing, which presents the situation of Waterford bay and the position of the planned town more schematically (Figure 2). This second version was accordingly used to circulate the information among the Genevan watchmakers who remained in Switzerland between 1782 and 1784 to convince them to emigrate. This hypothesis seems confirmed by the fact that Figure 2 does not only survive in the Gosse paper, but is also published in his biography (Plan, 1909, p. 140). Henri-Albert Gosse (17531816) never travelled to Ireland, but was one of the supporters of the project while he was exiled in Neuchâtel.

Although there is no indication of date or author inside these maps, it is possible to make a number of hypotheses. First, Gosse’s biography and an archivist’s note pencilled on Figure 2 suggest 1782 as the document’s date, but the map is more likely to have been produced in the following year, as Waterford was proposed to the Geneva commissioners only in early 1783, and the first survey of Genevan people took place in Waterford in March 1783 (Karmin, 1920). Second, its author was almost certainly a member of the Genevan group which discussed with Earl Temple and then visited Waterford.

According to Otto Karmin, “in mid-March [1783] Clavière, Gasc, Mellyand Ringler went to Waterford, accompanied by Mr. Cuffe, while D’Ivernois, Duroveray and Grenius remained in Dublin to perfection the agreement” (Karmin, 1920, p. 36). It is likely that the map’s authors were members of this expedition; Gosse, who later became a naturalist, might have been involved in its engraving and circulation in Switzerland.

A striking characteristic of this map is its bilingualism: in the first version (Figure 1) a Genevan hand added an explanation in French to the basic map, probably started by a local mapmaker. This explanation concerns the scale, the names of the local counties (Comté de Waterford, Comté de Wexford…) and the territory around the planned settlement, including terrestrial communications, such as the main road called “Route de Waterford à Passage”.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

78

F Federico Ferreetti

Figure 1. Map of Neew Geneva in Waterfordd, Bibliothèquue de Genèvve, Départem ment de Cartees et Plans, Papiers H.A. H Gosse (1).

Figure 2. Map of Neew Geneva in Waterfordd, Bibliothèquue de Genèvve, Départem ment de Cartees et Plans, Papiers H.A. H Gosse (22).

Copyright© © Nuova Culturra

Italian Associaation of Geograaphy Teachers

Federico Ferretti

In the “printable” version (Figure 2), the information in French added by the Geneva commissioners is further highlighted and integrated. There is a clear representation of the extension of the territory the local government had allotted to the Geneva community. Communications are outlined, including the path of the terrestrial road and the line representing the ferry connection from New Geneva to Duncannon, the place of the fort which had to guarantee the military defence of the bay in case of a French attack. Bilingualism is not a common sight in maps and, in this case, it clearly shows the propagandist nature of this document. According to Harley, maps are always instruments of propaganda and persuasion, also when they claim neutrality (Harley, 2001, p. 55). In this case, the task of convincing the reader is performed through the transcultural nature of this map: translation had to be provided to convince Genevan watchmakers that this place was suitable to transfer their industry there, as it provided a safe harbour, good terrestrial and maritime connections, available land and a favourable government.

Nevertheless, this map also represents a shifting from a geography of revolution to a geography of empire. On the one hand, it represents a utopian settlement for exiled people, anticipating some features of the phalansteries and Icarian communities of nineteenth century socialism, though these utopian settlements were criticised by anarchists such as Reclus (Reclus, 1900). On the other, the territory which had to be annexed to New Geneva contained local villages and farms, including mills, churches and a castle.

The local sources published by Matthew Butler (1914-15) show the disappointment of local tenants with this project which would have entailed their eviction, and the map states this superposition without using one of the most common expedients used by imperial mapping, i.e. the blank spaces, said by Harley to foster “the notion of socially empty space”(Harley, 2001, p. 60).

Yet, this map was part of an imperial project.

While the performative power of maps, which invent and anticipate the territory, is widely acknowledged by current literature, the map of

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

79

New Geneva stands beyond a practical representation of physical features such as the depths of the Waterford Bay, and what not yet exists, i.e. the town of New Geneva. Finally, the map failed to accomplish its performative role, because the project for a settlement was abandoned for the reasons I explain below.

4.

Between map and reality

In 1784, the project failed owing to contingent causes including the transfer to Britain of the strongest supporter of New Geneva, Earl Temple, and to more clearly political reasons. First, Genevan and French diplomacies exercised pressure upon the British Crown to not grant protection to revolutionaries, which would have hindered the “measures taken by the [European] powers to stabilize the situation in Geneva” (Karmin, 1920, p. 144).

Subsequently, the Irish administration became increasingly slow and inefficient in granting the watchmakers the loans they had requested to start their activities. Second, the new political leaders in Geneva targeted a reconciliation with former revolutionaries, and most of the watchmakers who were about to emigrate (from 1,000 to 2,000 according to the different sources) became increasingly less seduced by such a radical and risky plan.

The Genevan government also made violent intimidations against the inspirers of migration towards Ireland, as shown in an exceptional document, the self-defence of Ami Melly. Melly, a trader involved in the Waterford project and naturalised Irish there, was put under trial and sentenced to a jail term in Geneva. Against this, Melly exposed classical Enlightenment arguments to confute the ancien régime legislation which considered the individual not as a citizen, but as a property of the state, not allowed to emigrate without explicit permission (Melly, 1784). Finally, the real Genevan presence in Passage hardly exceeded one hundred people, and the first stone of New Geneva was posed in July 1784, two months after “the Genevan decided to quit Ireland” (Butler, 1913, p. 22) in May 1784.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Federico Ferretti

80

5.

Conclusion

The end of New Geneva was paradoxical, because the houses built with the first funding allocated became barracks, now in ruin, which served as a prison for the prisoners in the 1798 uprising led by the United Irishmen. This was highly ironic if we consider that this important step in the story of the struggle for Irish independence was inspired by the continental revolutions of these years (Kearns, 2013; Featherstone, 2013).

It is possible to conclude that, even though “unorthodox”, this map was likewise inserted in the context of colonial modernity. Irish people weres apparently not involved in its project, and utopia is an ambiguous concept, as it served both political progress and European colonial imaginations. Yet, the revolutions of 1789-1848, anticipated by the 1782 Geneva uprising, had a global impact for social emancipation which went well beyond their premises and likewise influenced the movements for de-colonisation, including that of Ireland (Ferretti, 2017).

References 1. Boria E., “Representing the politics of borders: unorthodox maps in Reclus, Mackinder and Others”, Geopolitics, 20, 1, 2015, pp. 142-170.

2. Brissot de Warville J.P., Le Philadelphien à Genève ou Lettres d’un Américain sur la dernière révolution de Genève, Dublin [i.e.

Carouge], 1783.

3. Butler H., “New Geneva in Waterford”, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 77, 2, 1947, pp. 150-155.

4. Butler M., “New Geneva: some correspondence relating to its foundation”, Journal of The Waterford & Southeast of Ireland Archaeological Society, XVI, 1913, pp. 1-17, 86-92; XVII, 1914, pp. 164-169; XVIII, 1915, pp. 2126, 108-112.

5. Featherstone D., “Skills for heterogeneous associations: the White boys, collective experimentation, and subaltern political ecologies”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25, 2007, pp. 284-306.

6. Featherstone D., “‘We will have equality and liberty in Ireland’: the contested geographies

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

of Irish democratic political cultures in the 1790s”, Historical Geography, 41, 2013, pp.

120-136.

7. Ferretti F., “Pioneers in the History of Cartography: the Geneva map collection of Élisée Reclus and Charles Perron”, Journal of Historical Geography, 43, 2014, pp. 85-95.

8. Ferretti F., “A new map of the FrancoBrazilian border dispute (1900)”, Imago Mundi, 67, 2, 2015, pp. 229-242.

9. Ferretti F., “Political geographies, unfaithful translations and anti-colonialism: Ireland in Élisée Reclus’s geography and biography”, Political Geography, 59, 2017, pp. 11-23.

10. Finnegan D., “Race, space, and politics in mid-Victorian Ireland: the ethnologies of Abraham Hume and John McElheran”, Historical Geography, 42, 2014, pp. 152-170.

11. Fornara L. (Ed.), Révolutions genevoises: 1782-1798, Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire, 1989.

12. Harley B., The new nature of maps, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

13. Jupp P., “Genevese exiles in County Waterford”, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 75, 1970, pp. 29-35.

14. Karmin O., “Sir Francis d’Ivernois: 17571842: sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps”, Revue historique de la Révolution française et de l’Empire, 1920.

15. Kearns G., “Introduction to special issue: historical geographies of Ireland, colonial contexts and postcolonial legacies”, Historical Geography, 41, 2013, pp. 22-34.

16. Lestringant F., “Stefan Zweig contre Calvin (1936)”, Revue de l’histoire des religions, 223, 2006, pp. 3-30.

17. Livingstone D.N. and Withers C.W.J (Eds.), Geography and revolution, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005.

18. Melly A., Dissertation apologétique et justificative, en faveur de M. Ami Melly, London, A la nouvelle Genève, 1784.

19. Plan D., Henri-Albert Gosse (1753-1816): un Genevois d’autrefois, Geneva, Kundig, 1909.

20. Powell McNutt J. and Whatmore R., “The attempts to transfer the Genevan Academy to Ireland and to America, 1782–1795”, The Historical Journal, 56, 2, 2013, pp. 345-368.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Federico Ferretti

81

21. Reclus É., “Les colonies anarchistes”, Les Temps Nouveaux, 7-13, 1900, pp. 1-2.

22. Withers C.W.J., Placing the Enlightenment: thinking geographically about the age of reason, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 85-89 DOI: 10.4458/8579-07

Tourism geography: a socio-cultural analysis Graziella Ferraraa a

Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples, Italy Email: graziella.ferrarara@libero.it

Received: November 2015 – Accepted: March 2017

Abstract The management of mega-events can affect the development of cities in many ways. The aim of this article is to investigate the effects of hosting mega-events on cities. We investigated the positive and negative managerial aspects of the America’s Cup for residents of Naples. Significant differences were highlighted between the perceptions of the first and second race concerning economic, socio-cultural and political benefits.

Keywords: Cities, Economy, Geography, Tourism

1. Introduction Sports-events such as FIFA, World Cup, Olympic Games, Formula One and America’s Cup have the potential to attract tourists, media, sponsorship, athletes and other people interested in participating. In attracting such stakeholders, they can become catalysts for enhancing the host city’s image and charging its economical, sociocultural and political development. Thus, mega sports-events are becoming an integral part of sustainable strategies for improving tourism and local residents’ quality of life. For this reason cities compete for the opportunity to host them despite their huge costs.

Consequently, the increasing effort to understand the different ways in which local residents perceive these events has to be considered in economic geography studies (Morri and Pesaresi, 2007). This research presents a Copyright© Nuova Cultura

wider understanding of the management and social impacts of the America’s Cup on Naples. It aims to highlight how local residents perceive the sportsevent and to assess the current management practices and impacts towards the development of a sports-tourism event. We chose the America’s Cup because it is the greatest sailing competition in the world and the oldest active trophy in international sports.

It is a sports competition in which ten or more vessels compete over a period of several months prior to the final race. The winner of each Cup gains the right to decide nearly everything in the following competition. Previous races were hosted

by Valencia (Spain, 2007, 2010), Auckland (New Zealand, 2000, 2003), San Diego (California, 1988, 1992, 1995) and Fremantle (Australia, 1983, 1987). From 7 to 15 of April 2012 and from 11 to 19 May 2013 Naples hosted two races of the 34th America’s cup.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

86

Graziella Ferrara

2. Theoretical background Sports-events are exceptional events hosted in a city with the aim of attracting tourists. The activities and investments required before, during, and after these events have several economic, socio-cultural and political effects on the host city (Figure 1). These effects can be positive on one dimension and negative on another (Fredline and Falkner, 2002).

Economic Positive

Political Positive Negative

Negative Sociocultural

Negative Positive

Figure 1. The effects of mega sports-events on the host city.

Several studies have highlighted the economic benefits of hosting a mega sportsevent. Providing a showcase for all the natural beauties and interesting activities a city has to offer, it can help a tourist destination to create or improve its image (Alexander et al., 2015). The improved image of the city as a tourist destination can increase commercial activity, attract new businesses and improve trade (Kim, et al., 2006; Werner et al., 2015). Consequently it can increase sales, personal income, employment and quality of services. For example, the 1992 Olympics and 2006 FIFA World Cup affected the economic growth of Barcelona and several other cities of Germany.

However, beside the immediate economic effect, a sports event can also have long-term impacts on the host city (Werner et al., 2015). Hosting this event pushes a city to accelerate infrastructure development that would normally have taken much longer to develop. In just a few years, these events drive cities to complete a number of public structures that would otherwise

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

have taken several years to implement. Moreover, these infrastructure investments have a positive impact on the whole community attracting new companies and enabling people and businesses to operate more efficiently (Murphy and Carmichael, 1991; Ap, 1990). Some infrastructures take the lead in starting a process of city re-development, changing its long-term appeal for business and tourism, affecting the image of cities and creating new business opportunities for companies. For example, the Olympics provided the impetus to build a subway system in Munich, to finish Terminal 3 at the Beijing International Airport in China, to build infrastructures able to turn deprived areas into more attractive parts of the city in Barcelona and London. On a negative side, these investments can lead to the dispersion of public funds with negative consequences on tax and social life (Deccio and Baloglu, 2002; Gursoy and Kendall, 2006). Moreover, hosting megaevents may damage or destroy the city’s image because of inadequate facilities or improper practices (Fourie and Santana-Gallego, 2011). It can cause economic costs, price inflation of goods and services and tax increases driven by the construction of facilities and the provision of services required to host the event (Kurtzman and Zauhar, 2003).

A mega-event is also likely to improve sociocultural opportunities for residents. It highlights the beauty of the area, reinforces regional values and focusses on local traditions (Collins et al., 2009). It can bring global attention to natural beauty, physical landscapes, local heritage and cultural traditions of the city. It can provide an incentive for the conservation of natural resources and for the restoration of historical buildings. It can improve people’s perception of their tradition and community way of life, reinforce regional values and restructure parts of the city (Mitchell and Greatorex, 1993; Witt, 1988). It can lead residents to be more open to other cultures and more interested in sport (Crompton, 2004). It can be an incentive for cities and countries to address problems of urban decay. Major events can also provide a perfect opportunity to spread new values and new behavior (Gammon and Robinson, 2003). In several major events organizations have focused their attention on making people aware of the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Graziella Ferrara

environment and green questions, sustainable development and environmental education such as biodiversity, waste, climate change, pollution control, water conservation and healthy living (Waitt, 2003; Penot, 2003). For example, environmental protection policy and sustainnability were chosen in the 1994 Winter Olympic Games of Lillehammer (Norway), in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games of Sydney (USA), in 2008, at the Olympic Games in Beijing (China), in the 2010 Winter Olympics of Vancouver, the 2012 Olympic Games of London and in the 1992 Olympics of Barcelona. On the negative side, a mega sports-event can lead to socio-cultural problems related to diversity, which may be expressed through vandalism and criminal activities. The event is also likely to generate societal disorders such as traffic congestion, law enforcement strain and increased crime or lead to the destruction of the physical and natural environment. Moreover, it can lead to conflicts between the host community and visitors due to different standards of living, economic welfare and purchasing power gaps (Burker et al., 2002).

This kind of event not only influences the economy and culture of the host city but also has some effects on its political aspects (Hiller, 2006). A major event provides an opportunity for collaboration between policy-makers at both national and regional level, private actors and community (Jeong, 1998). It breaks down barriers between various levels of government and improves politicians’ efficiency. The rigid requirements and deadlines associated with major events force governments to take decisive action in addressing the city’s problems (Konstantaki and Wickens, 2010). Moreover, the improvement of structural facilities that can be used by residents even after the event creates a favorable political image. Thus, the politicians’ choices affect the quality of residents’ lives and the international image of the host community.

Major events create a platform for unification and cooperation across political and government boundaries, and provide an opportunity for collaboration between the public and private sectors. These collaborations are pushed by the need to take decisive action and operate more efficiently to achieve the rigid requirements and deadlines associated with the event. Politicians Copyright© Nuova Cultura

87

are also pushed to harmonize their individual actions in order to achieve a unified result. In this way, a major sports event not only affects the economy and social development of the host city but also the image of the leaders who organize the event. Good cases of collaboration between the organizing committee, public, businesses, and government agencies at the national, regional, and local level were seen in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 2007 Brazil Pan American Games and in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. On the negative side, mega-events can highlight political inefficiencies in management disorders and traffic problems as well as spending money on long-term problems. If there is mismanagement of public funds, this is likely to intensify the negative perceptions of hosting the mega-event (Deccio and Baloglu, 2002).

Finally the political decision to allocate large amounts of government assistance and local finance to this event can damage existing enterprises.

Despite the fact that most studies highlight the mega-event’s positive impact on the host city, other analyses emphasize that the negative effects may offset these benefits. Moreover, some studies show that the balance of positive and negative economic, socio-cultural and political effects can only be evaluated in the long term. However, many authors point out that the immediate success of a mega sports event can also be evident through its perception by local residents.

Specifically, to analyze the perceptions of residents, some authors compare the residents’ expectation of an event based on their past experience of it and residents’ perception after the event (Long et al., 1990). However, in repeated events the residents’ perception of a first event creates an expectation for a second one based on their knowledge and value system.

The first perception can also influence marketing activities of local actors (i.e. media, government agencies and policy makers) that change the second event and thus its perception by residents (Soutar and McLeod, 1993; Ritchie, et al., 2009).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

88

Graziella Ferrara

Consequently, the first experience serves as a reference point for both the improvement and evaluation of a second event. Marketing activities and political management of tourist destinations can affect the disparity between first and second event perceptions, modifying residents’ perceptions of repeated mega-events.

If outcomes fall below the reference points of residents, then the mega-event will generate negative perceptions, while outcomes above the reference points of residents generate positive perceptions. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate residents’ positive and negative perception of the 34th America’s Cup in Naples.

3. Empirical analysis Naples opened the World Series of the America’s Cup in 2012 and closed it in 2013 with two races from 7 to 15 of April 2012 and from 11 to 19 May 2013. This last event led to identifying the winning team for the last race of San Francisco for the Louis Vuitton Cup. People were interviewed during the two races of America’s Cup. A pool of positive and negative impact items evidenced their perceptions of economical, socio-cultural and political impacts on Naples of the 34th America’s Cup. The demographic profile of the respondents showed that most of them were male (71% and 69%), aged 19–29 (35% and 39%) and students (35% and 40%) (Table 1).

Our analysis suggests that among the positive items, people perceived the increased activity of restaurants, the diffusion of local food and political investment in tourist events as being more interesting.

Among the negative items, people perceived as less interesting the increase of prices, the traffic and the interest of some political figures in enhancing their personal image.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Socio-demographic variables Gender Male Female Age 19-29 30-39 40-49 50 and above Occupation Student Company employee Professional Others Educational level Primary Secondary University Graduate/postgraduate

1st race

2nd race

71.0 29.0

69.0 31.0

35.0 35.0 22.0 18.0

39.0 30.0 23.0 8.0

35.0 16.0 29.0 20.0

40.0 10.0 34.0 16.0

1.0 3.0 31.0 65.0

1.0 2.0 34.0 63.0

Table 1. Description of survey respondents.

4. Conclusions This article has several implications. Policymakers can use the results of this study in planning and implementing future mega-events.

Lessons and behaviors learned along the way can help the government to improve how it operates in the future. On the basis of this information, planners or managers of future international events can establish strategies to effectively minimize the negative and maximize the positive factors. Moreover, this study suggests investigating the residents’ perceptions at two different times because these results provide a better picture of the dynamics of residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism development. More specifically, the investigation of the residents’ perceptions in two times can help event organizers and authorities identify concerns and expectations so that the problems can be promptly and properly addressed.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Graziella Ferrara

References 1. Alexander A., Kim S.B. and Kim D.Y., “Segmenting volunteers by motivation in the 2012 London Olympic Games”, Tourism Management, 47, 1, 2015, pp. 1-10.

2. Ap J., “Residents’ perceptions research on the social impacts of tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research, 17, 4, 1990, pp. 610-616.

3. Burker M., Page S.J. and Meyer D., “Evaluating the impact of the 2000 America’s Cup on Auckland, New Zealand”, Event Management, 7, 2002, pp. 79-72.

4. Collins A., Jones C. and Munday M.., “Assessing the environmental impacts of mega sporting events: two options?”, Tourism Management, 30, 6, 2009, pp. 828-837.

5. Crompton J., “Beyond economic impact: an alternative rationale for the public subsidy of major league sports facilities”, Journal of Sport Management, 18, 1, 2004, pp. 40-58.

6. Deccio C. and Baloglu S., “Non-host community resident reactions to the 2002 Winter Olympics: The spillover impacts”, Journal of Travel Research, 41, 1, 2002, pp. 46-56.

7. Fourie J. and Santana-Gallego M., “The impact of mega-sport events on tourist arrivals”, Tourism Management, 32, 6, 2011, pp. 13641370.

8. Fredline E. and Faulkner B., “Residents’ reactions to the staging of major motorsport events within their communities: a cluster analysis”, Event Management, 7, 2, 2002, pp. 103-114.

9. Gammon S. and Robinson T., “Sport and tourism: a conceptual framework”, Journal of Sport Tourism, 8, 1, 2003, pp. 21-26.

10. Gursoy D. and Kendall K., “Hosting mega events: Modeling locals’ support”, Annals of Tourism Research, 33, 3, 2006, pp. 603-623.

11. Hiller H.H., “Post-event outcomes and the Post-Modern turn: the Olympics and urban transformation”, European Sports Management Quarterly, 6, 4, 2006, pp. 317-332.

12. Jeong G.H., “Residents’ perceptions toward the tourism impacts of the ‘93 EXPO development on the city of Taejon”, Journal of Tourism Studies, 18, 1998, pp. l53-173.

13. Kim H., Gursoy D. and Lee S., “The impact

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

89

of the 2002 World Cup on South Korea: comparisons of pre-and-post-games”, Tourism Management, 27, 2006, pp. 86-96.

Konstantaki M. and Wickens E., “Residents’ perception of environmental and security issues at the 2012 London Olympic Games”, Journal of Sport and Tourism, 15, 4, 2010, pp. 337-357.

Kurtzman J. and Zauhar J., “A wave in time: the sport tourism phenomenon”, Journal of Sport Tourism, 8, 1, 2003, pp. 35-47.

Long P.T., Perdue R.R. and Allen L., “Rural resident tourism perceptions and attitudes by community level of tourism”, Journal of Travel Research, 28, 3, 1990, pp. 3-9.

Mitchell V.W. and Greatorex M., “Risk perception and reduction in the purchase of consumer services”, The Service Industries Journal, 13, 1993, pp. 179-200.

Morri R. and Pesaresi C. (Eds.), “Geografia del calcio”, Semestrale di Studi e Ricerche di Geografia, 2, 2007.

Murphy P.E. and Carmichael B.A., “Assessing the tourism benefits of an open access sports tournament: the 1989 B.C. Winter Games”, Journal of Travel Research, 29, 3, 1991, pp. 32-35.

Penot J., “Sport tourism and tourism generated by sporting events”, Journal of Sport Tourism, 8, 2, 2003, pp. 100-101.

Ritchie B.W., Shipway R. and Cleeve B., “Resident perceptions of megasporting events: a non-host city perspective of the 2012 London Olympic Games”, Journal of Sport and Tourism, 14, 2009, pp. 143-167.

Soutar G. and McLeod P.B., “Residents’ perceptions on impact of the America’s Cup”, Annals of Tourism Research, 20, 1993, pp.

571-582.

Waitt G., “Social impacts of the Sydney Olympics”, Annals of Tourism Research, 30, 1, 2003, pp. 194-215.

Werner K., Dickson G. and Hyde K.F., “Learning and knowledge transfer processes in a mega-events context: The case of the 2011 Rugby World Cup”, Tourism Management, 48, 2015, pp. 174-187.

Witt S.F., “Mega-events and mega-attractions”, Tourism Management, 9, 1, 1988, pp. 76-77.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 91-92 DOI: 10.4458/8579-08

EUGEO workshops (Zara, Croatia, 25-27 September 2016) Dino Gavinellia a

Dipartimento di Scienze della Mediazione Linguistica e di Studi Interculturali, University of Milan, Milan, Italy Email: dino.gavinelli@unimi.it

Received: April 2017 – Accepted: May 2017

Abstract th

th

From September 25 to 27 , 2016, EUGEO (the Association of Geographical Societies in Europe) sponsored a number of meetings and workshops in Zara (Croatia). It was the occasion to organise the next EUGEO conference, keep a study seminar hosting representatives of several European geographical societies and associations, and hold EUGEO’s general assembly, while some Croatian geographers organised a scientific excursion along the Dalmatian coast.

Keywords: EUGEO, Geography in Europe, Geographic Education, Regional Studies

From September 25th to 27th, 2016, the Association of Geographical Societies in Europe (EUGEO) sponsored a number of meetings and workshops in the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. It was the occasion to organise the next EUGEO conference, keep a study seminar hosting representatives of several European geographical societies and associations, and hold EUGEO’s general assembly, while the geographers of the University of Zara organised a scientific excursion along the Dalmatian coast. In particular, on September 25th the Croatian Geographical Society, which has recently joined the group of geographical societies and associations adhering to EUGEO, hosted the preliminary meeting for the forthcoming EUGEO conference to be held at the Palais des Académies in Brussels from September 4th to 6th, 2017. The EUGEO conference occurs every two years and Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the one in Brussels will be the sixth in the history of the Association. The preliminary meeting for EUGEO 2017 was reserved to members of the Scientific Committee, headed by Prof. Christian Vandermotten of the “Société Royale Belge de Géographie”. The Brussels conference next fall will focus on Geography for Europe: the theme will be approached in a number of work sessions, each dealing with specific geographical themes and issues as highlighted in the call for paper circulated by EUGEO’s organising committee in the past few months (see https://eugeo2017. sciencesconf.org/ for more informations).

As can be seen, these issues cover several aspects of Europe’s geography, the contribution of geography to the building of Europe, and the problems the “old continent” has to face. The Zara meeting also praised the success of the last

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

92

Dino Gavinelli

EUGEO, held in Budapest in 2015, confirming the good practice of organizing the conference on a biennial basis and alternating it with a seminar and an assembly in the years in which the conference is not held. In this way, the sessions will be organized around topics like the urban and rural geography, the cultural geography, population mobility and migrations, the socio-political and territorial problems and disparities, the old and new nationalism, transport and accessibility, etc.

During the meeting we discussed about main topics in view of the next seminar and general assembly of EUGEO. On September 26th, after the greetings of EUGEO’s president, prof. Henk Ottens of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society, and prof. Ana Pejdo of the Croatian Geographical Society (SGC), the seminar’s work sessions began with a plenary lecture on Croatia’s physical and anthropic geography.

Prof. Damir Magaš, first SGC president and specialist on the Geography of Croatia, presented an interesting reading of Croatian space, environment and territory, highlighting its main and more noteworthy aspects, teaching potentials which university lecturers can draw on to implement new approaches and a few innovative research tracks. Four interactive workshops followed, seeing the participation of the several geographical societies in Europe. EUGEO workshops are small-scale events with the aim to communicate and discuss issues of key importance to Geographical Societies and Associations in Europe. Coordinated by professors Henk Ottens and Massimiliano Tabusi (Eugeo Secretary General), the first workshop concerned the International Charter on Geography Education. It has been emphasized that this document is specifically addressed to policy makers, education leaders, curriculum planners and geography educators to counteract geographical illiteracy; the second workshop, held by Ana Pejdo, dealt with the management and possible developments of national and regional school curricula of geography; the third workshop, coordinated by prof. Oana Ramona Ilovan of the Romanian Geographical Society, dealt with the sensitive issue of territorial identity in Europe; the fourth one, coordinated by Henk Ottens, discussed a few practices and a variety of experiences carried out Copyright© Nuova Cultura

by a few European geographical societies. Frances Fahy and Kathy Reilly have related about Experiences with the Geographical Awareness Week in Ireland; Antoine Leblanc has shown New geographical initiatives in France to support binational forms of cooperation; Ana Pejdo has outlined Challenges of a Young Geographical Society in Croatia; Henk Ottens and Eelko Postma have presented the new website for a broad audience in The Nederlands. The hard task to sum up the seminar’s work sessions and outline a few disciplinary issues for future analysis was given to prof. Tabusi. EUGEO’s general assembly closed the intense day of work. During the meeting it has been rapidly reminded what was stated in the latest Budapest EUGEO Conference, and an outline of the revised Statute has been handed out so as to submit it to the general approbation. The revisions of the Statute have been approved unanimously.

The 2015 Annual Report has been presented and handed out, and the Activities and Policies scheduled for 2016-2019 have been also reminded.

The analysis of the financial prospect has been very articulated: both 2015 Income and Expenses and 2014-2015 Balance Sheet have been presented; the 2016-2019 budget has also been discussed. As to the composition of the Executive Committee it has been mentioned that Professors Zoltan Kovács (member), Massimiliano Tabusi (Secretary) and Christian Vandermotten (member) have completed the first year of their second term and that the election of the new EUGEO president (now Professor Henk Ottens) will take place during the next Conference in Brussels (September 2017). EUGEO is looking for one or two new Executive Committee members and EUGEO is kindly requested by the current board to locate people interested in presenting themselves as candidates.

The scientific excursion took place on September 27th, along a stretch of the Dalmatian coast north of Zara. It was led by several geographers from the University of Zara who highlighted the natural and anthropic elements of that part of Dalmatia.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

TEACHINGS FROM THE PAST Edited by Dino Gavinelli and Davide Papotti

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 6, June, 2017, pp. 95-100

Re-reading The Culture of the Cities

by L. Mumford Eleonora Mastropietroa a

Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

The excerpt proposed in the following is extracted from The Culture of Cities by Lewis Mumford.

The book, published in 1938, is one of the major books from the longstanding activity by Mumford (1895-1990) and is a turning point in his research. The interest in the manuscript is still alive today 80 years after its first publication, thanks to the articulation of Mumford’s thought, overcoming the strict boundaries of disciplines. In his research and writings Mumford used the disciplinary approaches of sociology, urban planning, urban history – and geography. His methodology is nevertheless very close to geography. The “regional surveys” (started when Mumford was very young and inspired to the work of his mentor Patrick Geddes) used to be extended walks around the New York metropolitan area during which he would sketch and take notes.

The research upon which The Culture of Cities is based, starts from the surveys performed by Mumford in his early years and from the considerations that followed. The Culture of cities is nowadays a classic reading in urban studies.

The book offers a discussion of contemporary culture and of the crisis of the civilization caused by technological progress. The book is, according to Mumford’s introduction, complementary to his

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Technics and Civilization, published in 1938.

In The Culture of Cities, the argumentation is developed through the analysis of the evolution of the Western cities from the Middle Ages to the contemporary city. While the contents are of sure interest, the book is also an articulated and engaging reading. The opinions by the author on the contemporary city (that will then evolve after WWII adopting a more pessimistic approach) are innovative for the years of its publications but still surprise today’s reader for the capacity of Mumford to understand (and maybe anticipate) processes that had to become evident only in the following years. This is the case for his considerations on the evolution of metropolitan urban systems towards the form of the “Megalopolis”, considered to be the fourth stage in a model (inspired by Geddes’ works) that would then include a fifth stage (“Tyrannopolis”) and a final sixth stage (“Nekropolis”).

Mumford’s point of view represents a first attempt to criticize the metropolitan urban model and proposes a vision of planning intended as a crucial moment for urban renewal. He conceptualizes regionalism and community as key elements for the resolution of social diseases. The region, for Mumford, is a complex concept that includes economic, social, historic elements and is the basis upon which he sees the opportunity for regenerating the local communities towards what we would define nowadays a sustainable development. In his own words “so far from being archaic and reactionary, regionalism belongs to the future”.

The focus on the concept of community in Mumford’s thought will make the book popular after WWII. His thought was disseminated Italian Association of Geography Teachers

96

internationally thanks to many editions and translations. In Italy, the book was translated thanks to the interest by Adriano Olivetti and his Edizioni di Comunità: the book was published for the first time in the country in 1953. It is not for a chance that the manuscript was known in Italy thanks to Olivetti: the approach by his Movimento di Comunità emphasized the decentralization of human activities and the role of local community (“Manifesto programmatico di Comunità”, 1953). The concepts explained the Manifesto were coherent with those of regionalism and local community by Mumford.

The text proposed below is extracted from Chapter VI, “The politics of regional development”. The fifth paragraph “Survey and Plan as Communal Education” clearly presents the role that Mumford assigned to the knowledge of the territory as a key determinant for the development of democracy and the convergence between the aims of the individual and those of the community. The extract in his original version discusses the role of the knowledge of the territory as a protection against totalitarian powers such as fascism. The first three paragraphs were not included in the Italian translation published in 1953, partially mitigating the sense of the original text. Despite these discrepancies between the Italian and the original version, the knowledge of the region (“small enough to be grasped from a tower, a hilltop, or an airplane”) is, according to Mumford, a milestone in the education of the citizens. The geographic knowledge is thus valuable for creating an active citizen, provided that it overcomes the mere study of notions and theories. The experience on the terrain and the direct knowledge are essential for the understanding of the processes of regulation in the society and thus for the education of individuals capable to be actively involved in changing the territory. Thus, the survey should not be reserved to scholars and professionals, but needs to become part of every stage of the education of the individual.

sustain a concept of education of the active citizenship that overcomes the expanding role of technicalities that characterize today’s participatory processes. According to Mumford, a citizen who is informed on her/his regional context will naturally be an active citizen.

Mumford argues that “the regional survey will not merely be a mode of assimilating scientific knowledge: it will be a dynamic preparation for further activity”. This will, in turn, also limit the power of the government and of the technocracies. The text provides also insights on the concepts of region, regional identity and political power. When citizens have a deep knowledge of their territory they are able to understand the ongoing processes, even the complex ones, and is an effective defense from political bias. For Mumford, understanding the local enables the comprehension of the global.

This is still interesting today as we see the expansion of populist discourses, based on a localism very far from the concept of region proposed by Mumford.

---------------------------------------------------------

The words by Mumford, written before the Second World War during the years of the consolidation of totalitarian regimes, could be reconsidered today according to different perspectives. Seen from the point of view of territorial planning, the thoughts by Mumford Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

97

The Culture of the Cities1 Lewis Mumford Chapter V - The Politics of Regional Development 5: Survey and Plan as Communal Education

The party politics of the nineteenth century was as remote from the thick tissue of actual life as were its pecuniary canons of success. A voter might loyally cast his vote every election without touching on a single issue that concerned his immediate life, without an intimate knowledge of a single phase of political administration, from taxes to the school system, and without affecting for the better a single aspect of his working life or his daily environment. The system “worked” in an atmosphere of windy ignorance.

The new totalitarian states profess to regard the liberal politics of the nineteenth century with scorn; but in fact they carry on the same traditions in an even more costly way, with the further disadvantage that their political wind must be kept at high pressure in order to divert attention from the human sterility of the power state’s achievements. The fascists go through the forms of voting without having the privilege of even casting a negative vote; they go through the forms of sounding out public opinion without daring to hear more than one side: even more than the most imperialist states of the nineteenth century they endeavor to wipe out local differences, local preferences, local pressures.

The totalitarian state has but two important functions: to prepare for war and to keep power in the hands of the governing party. This is not in the least a new form of politics: it is merely the old form, shamelessly reduced to its naked reality.

The fascist state may be defined as the war dictatorship of the power state frozen into a permanent form: opinion governed by war censorship, action governed by military 1

The excerpt is extracted from the 1970 A. Harvest/ HBJ Book Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, edition.

Copyright© Nuova Cultura

coercion, all law converted, openly or implicitly, into martial law. In a sense, any fool can govern such a community; but only a fool would mistake such a process for government.

None of the attributes of an advanced civilization can be maintained in a permanently cowed and servile population: the delicate initiatives, the fine co-operations, the deeper loyalties toward truth and rational judgment upon which our civilization depends cannot be preserved in governments that know no law, even in the spiritual life, except the whim of the dictator or the command of the party. If the totalitarian state still shows the surface characteristics, here and there, of our common civilization it is only because it still lives on the going energies of the more civilized generation that preceded it; so far as fascism succeeds, these energies will wane, and barbarism will progressively rise to the surface, whether hastened by war or not. Such peoples will sink to the level of ancient Sparta - at whose very “bravery” the ancient world sometimes smiled.

Toynbee’s interpretation of this possibility in the third volume of A Study of History is extremely suggestive.

The real alternative to the empty political patterns of the nineteenth century lies, not in totalitarianism, but in just the opposite of this: the restoration of the human scale in government, the multiplication of the units of autonomous service, the widening of the co-operative processes of government, the general reduction of the area of arbitrary compulsion, the restoration of the processes of persuasion and rational agreement. Political life, instead of being the monopoly of remote specialists, must become as constant a process in daily living as the housewife’s visit to the grocer or the butcher, and more frequent than the man’s visit to the barber. If the leisure that man has been promised by the machine counts for anything, it must count for the extension of the privilege of being an active political animal. For every phase of group activity, industrial, professional, educational, has its political aspect: each activity raises special problems of power, organization, control, and discipline-problems that cry for intelligent and orderly solutions.

The opposite of tyrannical compulsion is not Italian Association of Geography Teachers

98

unconditional “freedom� but the systematic practice of rational discipline through education and co-operative service: through education the curve of the individual career may be ultimately harmonized with that of the community, not by a mere restriction of response to that desired by a governing despot, hut by a widening of personal scope and opportunity, in those spheres of rational understanding and administrative action which are properly the concern of the citizen and the polity. That human conduct is full of irrational residues does not lessen this need: for what is true of human beings in the mass is equally true of self-elected rulers and leaders: in any case, the problem is to increase the area of rational judgments and rational political activity, and to divert or sublimate those forces which are inimical to co-operation. To the extent that political power becomes rationally conditioned and successfully di used by education, the individual citizen will he reluctant to sacrifice his own initiatives and his own judgments to the terroristic monopoly of dictatorship. The impotence of the many is the power of the few and vice-versa.

Where shall this return to political realities begin? Where better than in the region? All rational politics must begin with the concrete facts of regional life, not as they appear to the specialist, hut as they appear first of all to those who live within the region. Our educational systems are only beginning to make use of the local community and the region as a locus of exploratory activities: hut before the resources and activities of a region are treated as abstract subjects they should be understood and felt and lived through as concrete experiences.

Beginning with the crawling of an infant in his home, the systematic contact with the environment should broaden out until it includes the furthest horizon of mountain top and sea: in a bout of sailing, fishing, hunting, quarrying or mining every child should have a firsthand acquaintance with the primitive substratum of economic life: the geography and geology of the textbook should be annotations to these experiences, not substitutes. So, too, with work in the garden, the vegetable patch, the hayfield and the grain field: here is the very substance of regional life, and no system of education, no urban environment, can be considered even CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

remotely satisfactory that does not include these experiences as a vital element. Child labor, as Karl Marx pointed out, will be an essential part in all education once the element of exploitation is removed from it.

The next step toward a rational political life note how different this process is from the military automatisms of the fascist - is the hitching of these concrete experiences to local surveys, more systematically undertaken. The soil survey, the climatic survey, the geological survey, the industrial survey, the historic survey, on the basis of the immediate local environment, are the next important instruments of education: this is a process of grasping in detail and as a whole what has hitherto been taken in through passive observation in city and countryside. All these local surveys, taken together, become the focus for a more general regional survey.

Already such surveys have come to play an important part in English education: indeed the land utilization survey, completed recently in England, was carried out through the cooperation of the school children in every locality.

Such surveys, if made by specialist investigators alone, would be politically inert: made through the active participation of school children, at an appropriate point in adolescent development, they become a central core in a functional education for political life. It is in the local community and the immediate region, small enough to be grasped from a tower, a hilltop, or an airplane, to be explored in every part before youth has arrived at the period of political responsibility, that a beginning can be made toward the detailed resorption of government - an alternative to that half-world of vague wishes, idle dreams, empty slogans, pretentious mythologies in which the power politics of the past has flourished. The scientific approach, the method of intellectual cooperation, embodied in the regional survey, are moralizing forces, and it is only when science becomes an integral part of daily experience, not a mere coating of superficial habit over a deep layer of uncriticized authority, that the foundations for a common collective discipline can be laid.

Most of our educational routine, as built up Italian Association of Geography Teachers

99

during the past century, has reflected the dominant political and economic institutions: it has substituted mere paper counters for reality.

The elimination of concrete views and concrete experiences has reduced rather than widened the sphere of e effective education: finally, we arrived at the age of extreme specialization, the present age, when the amount of specialized knowledge, often accurate, often extremely refined, has far outstripped our capacity to make use of it as part of a consistent whole. The remedy for this is not to be found in any mechanical combination of specialisms: we might digest the contents of an encyclopedia without achieving anything more in the nature of unity than a headache. The cure lies rather in starting from the common whole - a region, its activities, its people, its configuration, its total life - and relating each further achievement in specialized knowledge to this cluster of images and experiences.

Here and there this organic approach to knowledge, as one with life, and to life as a constant function of knowledge, has been made in education: beginning at the lowest stage in the new nursery school. But the fact is that education, instead of rising above this unifying attitude, must keep it at every later stage, along with the element of deliberate play and art.

What is needed for political life is not mere factual knowledge: for this by itself is inert: what is needed are those esthetic and mythic impulses which open up new activities and carve out new forms for construction and contemplation. When the landscape as a whole comes to mean to the community and the individual citizen what the single garden does to the individual lover of flowers, the regional survey will not merely be a mode of assimilating scientific knowledge: it will be a dynamic preparation for further activity. The Boston Metropolitan Park System of Boston, one of the most varied and comprehensive in the world, owes its existence to just such regional surveys as practiced by Charles Eliot in his schoolboy rambles about the region. The Appalachian trail, again, owes not a little to the extra-curricular activities of Benton MacKaye, making as a mere youngster a systematic exploration of the environment of Shirley Center.

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

Once this more realistic type of education becomes universal, instead of being pieced into the more conventional system, we will create a whole generation that will look upon every aspect of the region, the community, and their personal lives as subject to the same processes: exploration, scientific observation, imaginative reconstruction, and finally, transformation by art, by technical improvement, and by personal discipline. Instead of an external doctrinal unity, imposed by propaganda or authoritarian prescription, such a community will have a unity of background and a unity of approach that will not need external threats in order to preserve the necessary state of inner cohesion. Science has given us the building stones of an orderly world.

We need the further utilization of science, through the regional survey, regional exploration, and regional reconstruction if we are to increase the area of political rationality and human control. Visual synthesis provides a foundation for unified creative activity.

Once the human scale is overpassed, once the concrete fact disappears from view, knowledge becomes remote, abstract, and overwhelming: a lifetime's e ort will not provide sufficient grasp of the environment. The more people who are thrust together in a limited area, without organic relationships, without a means of achieving an autonomous education or preserving autonomous political activities in their working and living relations, the more must they become subject to external routine and manipulation.

The resorption of scientific knowledge and the resorption of government must go hand in hand.

We must create in every region people who will be accustomed, from school onward, to humanist attitudes, co-operative methods, rational controls. These people will know in detail where they live and how they live: they will be united by a common feeling for their landscape, their literature and language, their local ways, and out of their own self-respect they will have a sympathetic understanding with other regions and different local peculiarities.

They will be actively interested in the form and culture of their locality, which means their community and their own personalities. Such people will contribute to our land-planning, our industry planning, and our community planning the authority of their own understanding, and the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

100

pressure of their own desires. Without them, planning is a barren externalism.

At present, we have inferior forms of life because our metropolitanized populations throughout the world are both witless and wantless: true cannon-fodder, potential serfs for a new totalitarian feudalism, people whose imaginative lives are satiated by shadows, people whose voices are dimmed by loudspeakers, people whose will is capable of response only under mass stimuli and mass pressures, people whose personalities, instead of being represented by an integer, can be represented as hut a fraction - one one-millionth of a voting crowd, a war-crowd, a drill-crowd.

The task of regional survey, then, is to educate citizens: to give them the tools of action, to make ready a background for action, and to suggest socially significant tasks to serve as goals for action. Ultimately, this becomes the essential duty of every vital school, every responsible university. In this concrete sense and not in any vague hope - education is the alternative to irrational and arbitrary

CopyrightŠ Nuova Cultura

compulsion. The opposite of this is the reduction of education to drill and cram, and the reduction of the body politic to a corpse that is galvanically brought to some semblance of life by the application of external stimuli from the center. Such a state may create “heroes�: it can never create a wide society of true personalities, men and women who have learned the arts of personal and communal living, who neither renounce the will-to-order nor seek to create it on a single monotonous pattern. Without such a broader cultural foundation, regional planning can have but a minor political significance. Once the cultural base is achieved, however, regional planning becomes one of the essential attributes of a progressive civilization; and every effective economy it introduces tends to further the capacity for association and to widen the field of significant action.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Finished printing in June 2017 Printed in Italy with “print on demand” technology

by Centro Stampa “Nuova Cultura” p.le Aldo Moro, 5 - 00185 Rome www.nuovacultura.it for subscription: ordini@nuovacultura.it [Int_9788868128579_205x285col_LM03]

Associate Editors: Cristiano Giorda (Italy), Cristiano Pesaresi (Italy), Joseph Stoltman (USA), Sirpa Tani (Finland)

Editorial Board: Riccardo Morri (Chief), Diego Gallinelli (Assistant Chief), Sandra Leonardi (Assistant Chief), Victoria Bailes, Daniela De Vecchis, Assunta Giglio, Daniele Ietri

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico - filologiche e geografiche

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

GEOGRAPHY

J - READING

Sponsoring Organizations:

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN GEOGRAPHY

Scientific Committee: Eyüp Artvinli (Turkey), Caterina Barilaro (Italy), Giuliano Bellezza (Italy), Tine Béneker (Netherlands), Gabriel Bladh (Sweden), Carlo Blasi (Italy), Clare Brooks (UK), He Canfei (China), Laura Cassi (Italy), Raffaele Cattedra (Italy), Claudio Cerreti (Italy), Chew-Hung Chang (Singapore), Sergio Conti (Italy), Egidio Dansero (Italy), Martin R. Degg (UK), Giuseppe Dematteis (Italy), Karl Donert (UK), Pierpaolo Faggi (Italy), Franco Farinelli (Italy), Maurizio Fea (Italy), Maria Fiori (Italy), Hartwig Haubrich (Germany), Vladimir Kolosov (Russian Federation), Jongwon Lee (South Korea), John Lidstone (Australia), Svetlana Malkhazova (Russian Federation), Jerry Mitchell (USA), Josè Enrique Novoa-Jerez (Chile), Wiktor Osuch (Poland), Daniela Pasquinelli d’Allegra (Italy), Petros Petsimeris (France), Bruno Ratti (Italy), Roberto Scandone (Italy), Giuseppe Scanu (Italy), Lidia Scarpelli (Italy), Rana P.B. Singh (India), Claudio Smiraglia (Italy), Michael Solem (USA), Hiroshi Tanabe (Japan), Angelo Turco (Italy), Joop van der Schee (Netherlands), Isa Varraso (Italy), Bruno Vecchio (Italy), Han Zeng Lin (China), Tanga Pierre Zoungrana (Burkina Faso).

Secretary of coordination: Marco Maggioli (Italy) and Massimiliano Tabusi (Italy)

J - READING

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione

With the support of:

2017

GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

Vol. 1, Year 6, June 2017

Editor in Chief: Gino De Vecchis (Italy)

9788868128579_102_LM_1

J - READING

1

ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS (ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA INSEGNANTI DI GEOGRAFIA)

ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310