Geographical Knowledge Construction and Production

Book excerpt: Geographical Knowledge Construction and Production: Teacher and Student Perspectives is a readable and illuminating account of three high school classrooms in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. It challenges the narrow focus of the Advanced Placement (AP) programme as a tool for admission into colleges and universities in the United States. The research provides insight into the College Board's AP programme and argues for teaching and learning that is transformative and geared toward equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to confront the challenges of the 21st century. In particular, it advocates for geographic education that is anchored in the structure of the subject, teasing wherever possible, the contradictions and tensions embedded in the complexities of facts relating to people and places. This book is essential reading for professors and students of education, teachers and students of AP courses, parents, administrators, and state and federal agencies vested in the AP programme.