Chilean teachers' conceptions of geographical consciousness

Abstract

Geographic consciousness is the ultimate expression of geographic thinking from a critical and projective perspective, in other words, it not only stays in criticism but it is able to generate alternatives for the solution of geographical and environmental problems. In the words of Laurín (2001, p. 199) it means having an "awareness of the geography of the present, of the relativity of places and of interpretations of inhabited places". This research arises as a result of the relevance of forming the geographical consciousness in the Social Sciences classes, and, in turn, of the scarce literature that is handled from didactics. The aim of the article is to analyze the conceptions of Chilean teachers on geographical consciousness. We will focus on the results obtained in three questionnaire questions to find out what teachers understand by geographical conscience and how it should be treated methodologially in the classroom. We complement the analysis with the answers obtained in the interviews. The research is carried out in the field of Social Sciences didactics. It is approached from the perspective of critical theory because it seeks to analyze reality to transform it (Pagès i Santisteban, 2011) and a mixed methodology with predominance of the qualitative focus is applied from a case study (Stake, 1999). Preliminary results indicate that geographic consciouness is a new concept for teachers which have not been part of their academic, disciplinary or didactic trajectories; and therefore, they do not have an adequate training to internalize it and develop it together with their students. Most teachers value the prominence of social actors and their relationship with local space as a key element for the education of geographical consciousness, although a significant group of teachers remains anchored to a more spatial vision , that is, focused on the exclusive development of spatial skills.