Rediscovering Geography New Relevance for Science and Society (1997) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 7-15
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From page 7... ...
Similarly, a 1987 survey of 5,000 high school seniors in seven cities found that one-quarter of Dallas students could not name the country bordering the United States on the south (Gallup Organization, Inc., 1988~. Since the mid-1980s, calls for attention to geographic illiteracy have been frequent, not only from academia and the federal government but from business and state government as well.
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From page 8... ...
Behind these calls for increased attention to geographic illiteracy in a very broad sense is a growing public recognition that our national well-being is related to global markets and international political developments, the continued prominence of environmental issues in social discourse, and the emergence of computer and telecommunications technologies that emphasize graphic images such as maps and other spatial diagrams. One result of this increased attention is a rediscovery of the importance of geography education in the United States.
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From page 9... ...
This increased emphasis on the perspectives, knowledge, and tools associated with a relatively small academic discipline raises several questions for the scientific community. Most directly, what is geography, and how does it connect with the broad concerns of society and science?
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From page 10... ...
Changes in Society During the past decade, American society has been profoundly affected by global geopolitical, political-economic, and environmental changes. In this dramatic period, political and economic reforms in the former Soviet Union and Central Europe ended the Cold War, which dominated international relations for nearly half a century.
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From page 11... ...
Although these changes have focused welcome attention on geography as a subject, geography as an academic discipline is limited by size and other constraints from contributing its knowledge, perspectives, and techniques to improving the nation's ability to cope with and prosper under these changing conditions. Changes in Relationships Between Society and Science American society has grown increasingly skeptical about the wisdom and value of science, as traditionally defined.
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From page 12... ...
have moved toward closer associations, and all of geography's national associations (AAG, NGS, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the American Geographical Society) have come together to promote initiatives in geographic education through the Geography Education National Implementation Project.s Many of these changes within geography are themselves responses to changes in society, and some of them have affected the ways professional geographers view the search for knowledge.
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From page 13... ...
As one example of such a broader agenda, the National Science Foundation recently identified eight strategic fields of research, education, and information transfer, associated with U.S. national objectives identified by the President's National Science and Technology Council (NSF, 1994~.
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From page 14... ...
Chapters 5 and 6 then turn in somewhat more detail to geography's potential to contribute first to scientific understanding related to critical issues and then to decision making related to such issues. Chapter 7 confronts certain needs for research and learning initiatives in order to strengthen the discipline's foundations if it is to respond effectively to the changes that confront it, including the unprecedented demands to support educational reform in the United States.
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From page 15... ...
It is not a description of the history of the discipline in the United States or of how its history has been different in other countries. It is not the statement of a disciplinary consensus on the issues that are addressed.
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