Renaissance of Geographic Education in the United States since 1980: Its Dynamic Process and Implications to Geographic Education in Korea

1980년대 이후 美國 地理敎育 復興運動의 展開過程과 그 示唆點: 地理學, 地理敎育, 그리고 敎育政策의 關係

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the unprecedented reform movement of geographic education in the United States since 1980 and extract some implications from this movement for geographic education in Korea. For the purpose, the history to this movement was reviewed through following three stages. In the first stage(1980~1984: form :HSGP" to :"Guideline"), the voluntary improvement movement appeared at California and the orgni-zational movement began in 1982 such as the Committee on Geography and International Knowledge. The national educational refrom imperatives, presented at "A Nation at Risk", and "Back to Basics" movement provided good opportunities to resurrect geography as a basic subject. For next real resurrection movement, the very important document "Guidelines for Geographic Education" was published at 1984. In the second stage(1985~1989: from "Guide-lines" to "Public"), the "Guideline" gave power-full motives and foci for reconstructiong the contents of geography, especially by the five fundamental themes(Location, Place, Relation-ships within Places, Movement, and Region). Also GENIP as the symbol of unity of all four major geography organization(AAG, NCGE, NGS, AGS) contributed to expanding and stren-gthening geography education. Also Geography Educagtion Program of NGS was a smart and well organized program to improve geographic education through it's a five strategies: Grass-roots organization(Alliances), Teacher education, Pu-blic awareness, Educational materials develo-pment, Targeted outreach to education decision-makers. In the late 1980s, the last focus of movement was the Public awareness and Edua-ction decision-making. In the third stage(1990-present: from "Public" to "Core Subject"), the initiative pendulum swung from geography organization to nation curricu-lum. In this National Curriculum, Geography was approved as a "Core Subject" and The 1994 National Geography Assessment Framework was constructed to assess the outcome of student's education in geography in grades, 4,8, and 12. Some Implications extracted from the process and contents of renaissance movement of geogr-aphic education in the Uinted States since 1980 are as follows. First, It shows the importance of the unity and target assignment among the geography organization. Second, interactive relationship between the academic geography and school geography develops each other. Third, teacher education, including pre-service education, including pre-service education and in-service education, is a key element to improve the quality of geography. And teacher organization is a good clearing house to exchange information for good geography. Forth, the positive and active response to changes in socketies such as globalism and inter-nationalizing, national education policy, and the trend of pedagogy is needed to rejuvenate geo-graphic education. Above all, we need to establish a well organized and powerfull program, sophisticated activities strategies, and long-term implementa-tion plan if we want more and better school geography.

HSGP 이후 Social Studies 속에서 거의 사라져 가던 美國의 學校地理가 1990년대에 "中核敎科"로 다시 부상하는 動的 過程은, 地理敎育의 位相이 흔들리고 있는 우리의 실정에 여러 측면에서 他山之石이 될 수 있다. 본교는 1980년대 이후 美國의 地理敎育 復興運動을 主要爭點, 主導的 役割遂行者, 主要 成果에 달라 제 1 기(1980년-1984년), 제 2 기(1985년-1989년), 제 3 기(1990년-현재)의 세시기로 나누어 살펴 보았으며, 이를 통해 地理敎育의 개선을 위한 示唆點들을 추출하였다.