Just maps: the geography curriculum in English schools

Abstract

The wider context of this article is the assumption in the social sciences regarding the existence of a dichotomy between truth and objectivity on one hand and constructivism, subjectivism and relativism on the other. The school subject of geography serves as an appropriate focus for examining this assumption. There are three issues facing the school geography curriculum in England for students aged 11–14 (Key Stage 3): the domination of the subject by objectivism and scientism, the threat of impending relativism, and the gap between geography in schools and geography in universities. I draw on Derrida's ideas about the instability of signs, the significance of totalising discourses and the imperative of ethical and political responsibility to question approaches to maps adopted in the Geography National Curriculum policy text and in two different school textbooks. The analysis serves as a springboard for ways in which students can be taught about maps that question cartographic conventions and release chains of traces to reveal their political and ethical substance. I argue that deconstruction and invention challenges the dichotomy and re‐energises school geography. I then consider the wider applicability of the case before ending with a mention of accuracy.

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