Gaining a better sense of how pupils conceive school geography is crucial if we are to understand the ways in which their ideas and values mediate learning processes. Geography in Secondary Schools explores how pupils experience geography lessons, what they think geography as a school subject is about, and what it means to them. School geography aims to help young people think about the world and their place in it in a distinctive – geographical – way. However very little is known about the kinds of thinking and values they associate with the subject.
Researchers are increasingly taking young people”s ideas seriously as important and worthy of investigation in their own right. In this book, Nick Hopwood takes such an approach to explore the relationships between pupils and geography as a school subject. He follows six pupils through their geography lessons for a period of three months, discussing their learning experiences in depth with them. Their participation in class, written work, and comments made in interviews form the basis for a detailed investigation of their ideas.