Geography Teaching in Northern Ireland Primary Schools: A Survey of Content and Cross-curricularity

Abstract

Debate over the use of cross-curricular or subject-based approaches in planning and teaching in primary schools has taken place for many decades. Geography is frequently seen as a subject which lends itself easily to being taught in a cross-curricular fashion, but is often first to suffer if planning is nebulous rather than precise. A questionnaire survey of primary school teachers in Northern Ireland was carried out to gain information on the geography content they taught and the levels of cross-curricularity they used; 311 teachers from 75 schools responded. In the 53 different geography or geography-based topics that were listed, the most frequently used level of cross-curricularity was a medium level; only 7.2% of the 1328 topics listed were taught in a subject-based, stand-alone way. More than 36% of the topics were taught at either quite high or very high levels of cross-curricularity. A significant difference in the levels of cross-curricularity used was found between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 teachers. Teacher comments were predominantly positive (over 91%) towards the use of cross-curricular approaches. These results are discussed in relation to curricular changes taking place in Northern Ireland at present, and also in relation to recent encouragement from the UK Government towards more flexible teaching approaches in the primary school.

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