Developing Geographical Wisdom: Postformal Thinking About, and Relating To, the World

Abstract

Geographical Education has been charged with a major responsibility for ‘delivering’ Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship (GC) in the UK (DfEE & QCA, 1999; Grimwade et al., 2000) and, as this journal demonstrates, geography has an important role internationally (Haubrich, 2000; Houtsonen, 2002; Lidstone & Stoltman, 2002; Stoltman & Lidstone, 2001; van der Schee, 2003). These two interrelated approaches to education are here interpreted as demanding the dual development of environmental and social/intercultural concern which are both, in turn, predicated on non-reductive conceptions of justice, moral relevance and compassionate identification. Neo-Piagetian formulations of developmental and transpersonal psychology suggest that the development of ever-widening horizons of concern may occur across the lifespan as a person passes through increasingly sophisticated or ‘higher order’ cognitive phases and as such a person achieves an ever-deepening experience of ‘being-in-the-world’. The term ‘wisdom’ is presented as a useful metaheuristic to describe the ideal end point or ‘stage’ of such a process. Furthermore, the term ‘Geographical Wisdom’ is presented to describe wisdom as it applies to sustainable development and global citizenship, both inherently geographical concepts.

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