European Journal of Geography

Scientific Data Awareness among Future Geography Educators

Elena Robakiewicz — 2026-04-24

In an era of increasing dis- and misinformation, particularly in relation to social and natural crises like climate change, it is vital that geography students can decipher legitimate, high-quality scientific data from falsehoods to solve relevant problems. In students’ education, geography teachers have a central role. We conducted an empirical study on German university geography education Bachelor students to better understand their scientific data awareness – their general understanding of what scientific data are, where they come from, and how to discern data quality – to determine how best we can support them in gaining (and ultimately teaching) skills to critically evaluate data. In their responses to an online survey, participants recognized their data usage within scientific and academic settings, but their perception of scientific geographic data in their daily lives was limited. Many respondents also displayed an inability to clearly articulate exactly how they would evaluate and verify data presented to them. Some individuals also indicated a strong inherent trust in scientific data – associating scientific data with “truth” and “fact”. We provide recommendations on how to teach geography students to use scientific data and enhance scientific data awareness, but ultimately demonstrate a need for further studies. This work can benefit the creation of new educational modules that can teach students 1) that scientific geographical data are everywhere in our daily lives and 2) how they can critically determine data quality and analyze data found online and through generative artificial intelligence.

Highlights:

Scientific data awareness is the ability to recognize what data are and where they come from.
Pre-service geography teachers may be missing important scientific data awareness skills.
Pre-service geography teachers are not critical when selecting scientific data.
Pre-service geography teachers struggle to compare and evaluate scientific data.

Experience and Education in the Anthropocene: Conversations with the Non-Human

Tommy Wils — 2026-04-24

In the Anthropocene we are inescapably embedded in the planetary, such that we cannot experience the scales of our impact nor keep analytical or critical distance to it. This new position requires a new pedagogy for geography education in the Anthropocene, able to relate to the fragmentary experiences on a wounded planet. In this short communication we argue for developing a compassionate distance through ecological dialogue with the non-human. We explore four story-based examples that dialogically cross the boundaries between us and this other world, and present concrete hands-on activities that may support teachers to explore relation, positionality and meaning with students in the Anthropocene classroom.

Highlights:

Geography education in the Anthropocene requires thinking about changing human positionality before action-oriented deliberation.
Storytelling is a way to transcend dualistic representations, allowing more openness to the wounded planet we are embedded in.

Contribution to the Special Issue Topics:

This paper contributes to the understanding and development of new pedagogies for complexity. It explores the role of dialogue, narrative, inquiry and imagination to navigate epistemic complexity and uncertainty. In doing so, it broadens the scope in teaching controversial and polarising issues and helps decolonise geography education by interrogating the dominant dualistic man-nature narrative. The paper offers new perspectives on teacher agency in times of uncertainty.

Between Pedagogy and Privacy: Developing Geography Students’ Qualitative Research Skills in the Context of Generative AI

Natascha Klocker — 2026-04-22

This short paper reflects on teaching qualitative methods to undergraduate students at a time when Generative AI is transforming higher education. We report on our experiences of teaching a skills-focused geography subject which implements an applied research project that undergoes full ethics assessment. Our recent experiences highlight the need for geography educators to make deliberate pedagogical choices that uphold research ethics and integrity when student work involves real participant data. We argue that experiential learning opportunities must be preserved in geography classrooms, however, educators must proactively manage ethical obligations and safeguard research participants’ data from insecure Generative AI platforms.

Highlights:

Hands-on research methods training is critical to geography students’ skills development.
Generative AI must be navigated proactively in research subjects involving human participants.
Geography educators who use qualitative data with students must protect participants’ privacy.
Use of Generative AI for data analysis requires greater discussion in geography journals.

Contribution to the Special Issue Topics: This paper contributes to the Special Issue themes by exploring: ‘The transformative potential and limitations of digital tools and AI in geography teaching’ and ‘Teacher agency and curriculum decision-making in times of uncertainty’.

Storying as Repair: Indigenous-led Geography Education on Wiradjuri Country

Laura Hammersley — 2026-04-21

Geography education seeks to encourage an appreciation of the diverse ways people relate to, value and understand place. Indigenous-led geography education offers multiple ways of relating to and learning about place that centres care and repair. Storytelling, in its diverse narrative and creative forms, is a core element of Indigenous ways of knowing and a powerful mode of learning. This commentary introduces, and offers reflections on, an ongoing project aiming to develop Country-led pedagogy in a highly valued water place within settler colonial Australia. Country-led pedagogy is a form of Indigenous-led geography education which invites people, in this case high school classes and a youth group, to learn from being on Country. While curriculum objectives are accommodated in the process, learning from Country is the priority, via storying and approaching repair in water places. As a collaboration between Country, local Aboriginal people, young people, natural resource managers, educators and researchers, we document how Indigenous-led geography education can contribute to transitions to more sustainable futures.

Highlights:

Country is an active teacher that shapes how students think, feel and learn.
Repairing relationships with Country occurs through relational and care-oriented, storying.
Students engage with a culturally significant water place under threat via reflective storying
Students cultivate more hopeful, caring and reparative relationships with Country.
On-Country Learning is grounded in respectful partnerships with Aboriginal communities.

Contribution to the Special Issue Topics: This work contributes to the Special Issue themes of decolonising geography education and pedagogies of complexity. By centring Indigenous ways of knowing and Country-led pedagogies, we bring relational epistemologies into place-based learning. Our approach to storying and repairing a highly valued but contested water place demonstrates how Indigenous-led education can support more caring and sustainable futures in settler colonial contexts.

The Importance of Connecting Young People, School Geography and Future Careers in Secondary Education

Emma Rawlings Smith — 2026-04-09

Schools and further education colleges worldwide are increasingly integrating career education into school subjects to raise career awareness, help young people develop the essential knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the workplace and support decision-making about their future education and work choices. Drawing on a mixed-methods study in a multi-academy trust in England, this article considers how geography teachers can meaningfully embed careers education into the school geography curriculum with the support of professional geographers and their real-world knowledge and skills. Findings from a survey (n=439) and interviews with geography teachers and students who visited a major infrastructure project as part of a school-industry partnership (n=22), indicate that immersive learning opportunities in the real-world can develop a deep understanding of contemporary geographical case studies and help young people to make connections between the geography curriculum and geography-oriented careers. The article concludes that school–industry partnerships can empower teachers to deliver high-quality geographical education by combining powerful (disciplinary) knowledge with contemporary real-world insights. These collaborations help young people develop the ability to think geographically, enabling them to better understand our changing world, make informed decisions about their future careers and have the opportunity to engage meaningfully with geography’s transformative potential.

Highlights:

The geography curriculum is static, yet the world it seeks to explain is rapidly changing.
This disconnect can limit students' ability to engage with contemporary geographies.
School-industry partnerships help connect powerful knowledge with real-world insights.

Misconceptions in Planetary Geography: A Formative Expert Evaluation of a Serious Game Integrating Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence

Anastasia Georgiou — 2026-04-05

Geography education increasingly requires planetary-scale reasoning but teachers often lack tools to make abstract concepts—such as the greenhouse effect—accessible to young learners. This study evaluates AcademIa of ARistarchus, an artificial intelligence/augmented reality (AR) hybrid serious game developed through design-based research (DBR) that positions planetary geography as a pedagogical lens. By extending core geographical concepts into planetary contexts, the tool helps students understand Earth as a complex system. A purposive panel of six experts evaluated the prototype through a structured walkthrough informed by adapted game user experience satisfaction scale and handheld augmented reality usability scale, semi-structured interviews, and a targeted review of documented misconceptions. Initial quantitative feedback using a 5-point Likert instrument showed consistent agreement (above 4.0) across engagement, usability, and perceived learning value. Qualitative findings indicated that comparative planetology—contrasting Earth, Venus, and Mars—makes the greenhouse effect more tangible, while AR visualisations address key challenges related to scale. The rule-based feedback agent, Aristarchus, further supports conceptual change by diagnosing misconceptions. Expert feedback led to concrete refinements, including improved instructional videos. Overall, the study proposes a transferable model for scaffolding macroscale spatial reasoning and operationalising comparative analysis as a mode of geographical inquiry. Rather than claiming definitive effectiveness, this formative evaluation demonstrates how DBR-driven expert review can systematically inform design prior to classroom implementation, offering a replicable protocol for technology-enhanced geography interventions.

Highlights:

Conceptualises planetary geography as a lens for comparative atmospheric studies.
Implements a hybrid DBR model integrating AR visuals and a tutoring agent.
Provides a validated protocol for scaffolding macroscale spatial reasoning.

Challenging Euro-Centric and Colonial Geography via Decolonial and Indigenised Curriculum: An Australia Case Study

Alanna Kamp — 2026-04-04

People, Place, and Social Difference (PPSD) is a first-year subject at Western Sydney University enrolling up to 1,200 students annually from across the social sciences. Most students are first in their family to attend university, and many are of refugee or migrant background. The subject introduces geographical learning through an examination of the interrelations between society, economy, culture, and place with an emphasis on diversity and social justice. Since 2020, the subject has undergone a curriculum transformation grounded in postcolonial critique and an acknowledgement of geography’s entanglements with colonial knowledge production and practice. Through a decolonising and Indigenising approach, the curriculum embeds Indigenous perspectives, intersectional analysis and structured self-reflexivity. Using PPSD as a case study, this paper critically interrogates how teaching, fieldwork, and curriculum design can reproduce or disrupt colonial logics. It demonstrates how critical and decolonial pedagogies can equip multidisciplinary cohorts to engage with contemporary societal complexity and uncertainty. It outlines practical strategies for embedding Indigenous and postcolonial approaches in curriculum and fieldwork and highlights the transformative potential of such learning. In doing so, the paper offers practice-based insights into how geography education can respond meaningfully to global challenges and foster ethically engaged, future-oriented university graduates.

Highlights:

Geography is a discipline embedded in colonialism and geographers often perpetuate the discipline’s colonial roots.
Indigenising geography curriculum is paramount and urgent in the decolonial project.
Decolonised and Indigenised curriculum has transformative potential for multidisciplinary undergraduate students.

From Theory to Practice: Design Principles for Teaching with Earth Observation Data Using the Key Concept “Spatial Patterns”

Johannes Keller — 2026-03-28

Earth Observation (EO) data provide significant opportunities for geography education, enabling students to better understand our changing world. To make this powerful knowledge accessible, the German key geographic concept of “spatial patterns” provides a promising foundation for helping students understand spatial relationships. However, little is known about how to apply this key geographic concept in task design and how students engage with EO data. In addition, the integration of EO data into geography education is often constrained by insufficient teacher expertise. Against this background, the present study employed a Design-Based Research approach to develop empirically grounded design principles that support teachers. To achieve this, the study developed and refined tasks that enabled lower secondary students to engage with EO data. Over three research cycles, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to examine students’ strategies, challenges, and outcomes. The findings highlight the importance of an analytical framework based on the key concept “spatial patterns” to help students engage with EO data. In addition, targeted prior knowledge and further scaffolding are necessary. Although students were able to analyze EO data and use spatial thinking skills, they continued to face challenges with open-ended tasks and recognizing the limitations of EO data. The study concludes with practical design principles and implementation guidelines to assist teachers in developing learning materials.

Highlights:

Even lower secondary students were able to use complex EO data to answer geographic questions.
The German key geographic concept “spatial patterns” enables students to analyse EO data in order to understand geographical phenomena and processes.
We present empirically grounded design principles for integrating EO data into geography education, which support teachers.

Geography Teaching, Racial Literacy and Truthfulness

David Lambert — 2026-03-19

In this paper we address the question of truthfulness in education. How can a concern for truthfulness be preserved (or restored) in an age of post-truth discourse which enables the politics of denial? While acknowledging that such issues raise matters far beyond the scope of geography educators alone to ‘fix’ in any meaningful way, we argue that teachers can and must respond to the fundamental challenge these matters provide for what even counts as educational today. The paper analyses the challenge conceptually before reporting on a collaborative research initiative developed with teachers in a mid-western state of the U.S. This project focused on racial literacy as an element of truth telling in geography and social studies teaching. It explored with serving teachers the practical enactment of “future 3” (F3) curriculum scenarios. The work, which took place over the period of eighteen months, is presented as a case study of teachers’ knowledge work which engages directly with the proposition that developing racial literacy is an essential component of F3 curriculum making.

Highlights:

Collaborative and reciprocal research methodology with school-teachers
Conceptually explorative, examining an educational response to “post-truth” discourse
Illustrates racial literacy as a generative component of teachers’ “knowledge work”

Generative AI in Geography Education: Content Creation and Conversational AI-Supported Learning to Promote Environmental Awareness

María Bueno-Picazo — 2026-03-06

Fostering critical awareness of contemporary global challenges—such as those addressed by Sustainable Development Goals—has become a key educational priority. In this context, the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) opens new opportunities to support this aim in schools, while also underscoring the need to promote critical thinking regarding the information encountered. This study explores the integration of generative AI in primary education, comparing conversational AI-supported learning with traditional web searches as a means to foster geographical thinking and environmental awareness concerning a recent real-world environmental phenomenon and its societal impact. A quasi-experimental and quantitative study was conducted in Spain with 45 5th-grade students enrolled in primary education, divided into two groups: the experimental group engaged in conversational AI-supported learning using ChatGPT, while the control group relied on traditional web searches (Google) to analyze the same AI-generated content. The results show significant improvements in geographical knowledge and the application of geographical thinking, particularly among students in the conversational AI-supported learning condition. Nevertheless, students’ overall perceptions of conversational AI-supported learning remained generally neutral. These findings suggest that generative AI, when used with a clear educational purpose, can enrich geography instruction by connecting curricular content to real-world issues, fostering deeper reflection, and highlighting the need for further AI-mediated interventions in the classroom.

Highlights:

AI boosts geographical thinking in 5th graders through guided inquiry.
Conversational AI-supported learning outperformed Google in geography knowledge tasks.
Students reported largely neutral perceptions of conversational AI-supported learning.

Evaluating Climate Change Fake News in German Primary Education: The Role of Students’ Conceptions

Sabine Lämmer — 2026-03-06

The ability to critically evaluate information related to climate change and to recognise fake news is highly relevant even at primary school age, as children increasingly encounter digital media and climate-related discourses. The aim of this study is to explore primary school students’ conceptions of climate change as well as of fake news and their abilities to evaluate climate change related information, with a focus on the role of the conceptions of climate change in evaluating fake news. A qualitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 28 Year 3 and Year 4 students in Germany using problem-centred interviews and evaluation tasks in June 2025. Almost half of the students were able to describe characteristics of fake news such as manipulative intent or their lack of evidence. However, students’ conceptions of climate change varied considerably in depth and accuracy. Different types of evaluators can be identified, which vary in terms of how differentiated students’ conceptions of climate change are, how they approach the evaluation process, how many decision criteria they apply, whether or not they draw on their conceptions, and the amount of correctly identified news. The study highlights the need for targeted educational strategies to foster climate-related conceptions and evaluation skills at an early age.

Highlights:

Most students viewed fake news as false or misleading online content.
Five evaluator types with differing evaluation approaches emerged.
Climate conceptions influenced how students evaluated climate fake news.
Students applied diverse criteria when evaluating fake news.
Findings support fostering evaluation skills in primary education.

Reorienting Aotearoa New Zealand Secondary School Geography Towards Decolonisation and Indigenisation

Karen Finn — 2026-01-24

Secondary school geography in Aotearoa New Zealand has a Western-centric curriculum due to the British colonial influence. Despite being the knowledge system of the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) has been sidelined from geography curricula. A recent system-wide review and overhaul of the national curriculum and assessment system aimed for equal status for mātauranga Māori, respecting it and addressing its exclusion and denigration, and added aspects of decolonising geography, such as critiquing power, to the secondary school geography curriculum. This study investigated how Aotearoa New Zealand secondary school geography teachers understand decolonising and indigenising geography. Qualitative data were gathered through an online survey of 47 geography teachers and analysed using content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. The study findings are presented as three orientations that teachers take when decolonising geography: decolonising and indigenising geography in the classroom, engaging with Indigenous people to decolonise geography and reflexivity for decolonising geography. In doing so, the research outlines practical implications for geography teachers, initial teacher education and policy.

Highlights:

Qualitative research involving 47 secondary school geography teachers.
New model of teachers’ three orientations to decolonising geography.
Classroom decolonisation, engagement with Indigenous peoples and reflexivity are required.

Contribution to the Special Issue Topics:

This empirical research article focuses on the special issue topic of decolonising geography education. It presents ways that geography teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are decolonising and indigenising geography in the classroom, engaging with Indigenous people, reflecting and learning. This article aims to support geography teachers, teacher educators and policy makers to create more inclusive geography curricula that empower students to navigate uncertain futures in a changing world.