Discourses of Race and Gender and the Comparative Method in Geography School Texts 1830–1918

Abstract

School texts on geography are an important but neglected repository of geographical knowledge and representations within the historiography of geography. During the period 1830–1918 geography school texts were influenced by European exploration, church sponsors of education, the mediation of religious and scientific explanation of the natural world, popular images of empire, and state education codes, grants, and inspections. These factors combined in differing degrees over the period studied to reflect hegemonic views of gender, race, and class. The comparative method, popularised as a means of transmitting geographical knowledge in this period, frequently resulted in methodological Eurocentrism, or specifically Anglo-centrism, and memory exercises instilled necessarily simplistic messages about geographical and political relations. Pupil-centred approaches, such as the use of adventure stories and family life as ciphers for geographical understanding, often served to masculinise the content of texts. State legislation for grant-related examinations served to homogenise the content of texts.

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