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This article was downloaded by:On: 1 April 2011Access details: Access Details: Free AccessPublisher RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

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Teaching Advanced Placement Human GeographyAlexander B. Murphya

a Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

To cite this Article Murphy, Alexander B.(2000) 'Teaching Advanced Placement Human Geography', Journal ofGeography, 99: 3, 93 — 97To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00221340008978904URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221340008978904

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Teaching Advanced Placement Human Geography

Organized by Alexander B. Murphy

The College Board’s decision to add human geography to its Advanced Placement (AP) program is an exciting development for teachers at all levels who are concerned about the state of geographical understanding in North America today. Yet as discussed in an earlier edition of this journal (Murphy 1998), the successful implementation of AP human geography is contingent upon meeting formidable pedagog- ic challenges. These challenges are the product of the discipline’s rela- tively low profile in many high schools (particularly in the United States), the lack of extensive geographical training on the part of most high school teachers, and the scarcity of good geographical reference materials in many classrooms and libraries.

lenges. A number of teacher-training institutes have been organized in the United States and Canada over the past three years and more are planned for the coming years. In keeping with standard College Board practice, a teacher’s guide for AP human geography has recently been published (Clemons and McKnight 1999). In a more innovative vein, the College Board is sponsoring the development of an AP human geogra- phy Web sitel. Developed under the guidance of David Lanegran (Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota), the site provides an array of information that can help teachers gain access to geographical materials they can use in teaching and self-instruction.

Committee came to the conclusion that it would be helpful if some ideas on teaching the various segments of an AP human geography course could be made accessible to interested individuals. The articles that follow are a response to that conclusion. Beginning with the AP human geography course outline that is set forth in Appendix A, indi- vidual members of the committee developed essays that spoke to the six substantive topic areas in the outline (Parts II-VII). Two members of the committee who teach in high schools then collaborated on an essay set- ting forth some possible classroom strategies for those developing AP human geography courses. Variations on a number of these essays were presented at the meeting of the National Council for Geographic Educa- tion in Boston in November 1999 and at an interdisciplinary ”World 2000” conference on the teaching of world history and world geography in Austin, Texas, in February 2000. Final versions of the presentations were then put together for this issue of the Journal of Geography.

Given the time and space constraints involved in this project, the articles on the major subsections of the outline make no attempt to pro-

A variety of initiatives is currently underway to address these chal-

Beyond these initiatives, the AP Human Geography Development

Introduction Alexander B. Murphy

Population in Advanced Placement Human Geography Martha B. Sharma

Cultural Patterns and Processes in Advanced Placement Human Geography Mona Domosh

Political Organization of Space in Advanced Placement Human Geography Alexander B. Murphy

Modern Agriculture in Advanced Placement Human Geography David A. Lanegran

Industrialization and Economic Development in Advanced Placement Human Geography Adrian J. Bailey

Cities and Urban Land Use in Advanced Placement Human Geography Larry R. Ford

Challenges of Teaching Advanced Placement Human Geography John Trikes and Debbie Lange

Journal of Geography 99:93-97 02000 National Council for Geographic Education

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vide comprehensive summaries of the material that needs to be covered in an introductory AP human geography course. Instead, they set forth critical issues and perspectives that individual committee members regard as important in teaching particular sections of the course. The articles devote some attention to the major subheadings in the substan- tive sections of the outline, but they do not neces- sarily examine each of the components of those subsections. Hence, they should be viewed as aids in developing teaching strategies, not discursive checklists of the things that need to be taught. The final article steps out of this mold, offering food for thought as teachers seek to develop lesson plans for AP human geography courses.

at teachers of AP human geography, AP courses are designed to be the functional equivalents of col- lege/university introductory courses. Hence, the ideas and perspectives presented have relevance for professors and instructors at that level as well. There is no single recipe for a good introductory human geography course, but with the prospect of a growing number of high school students coming to college prepared to undertake more advanced work, there is a clear need to carefully examine what we are doing at the introductory college level. This edition of the Journal of Geography could help facilitate such an examination.

Although this special issue is primarily aimed

THE ROLE OF PART 1 OF THE AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY COURSE OUTLINE

The Advanced Placement Geography Develop- ment Committee did not seek to develop an extend- ed essay on Part I of the outline because that part is primarily concerned with material that finds con- crete expression in the topical sections that follow. Hence, most of the ideas in Part I are woven into the discussions of those topical sections. The points raised in Part I of the outline are anything but peripheral to the course, however. They are at the very heart of AP human geography, for the material that appears later in the course outline acquires a geographical flavor only if it is seen through the geographical lenses set forth in subsections C and D of Part I. To put it another way, it is possible to address many of the topics covered in the outline without invoking geography’s core concern with space, place, or scale, but the very essence of a human geography course is to put such concepts at the center of the analysis.

an AP human geography course should be to In light of the foregoing, a core component of

encourage geographical thinking-together with the analytical/practical skills that go along with such thinking. The skills outlined in subsection D of Part I are of critical importance in this regard, for it is through the development of such skills that stu- dents can begin to understand what it means to look at the world from a spatial perspective, to ana- lyze the role of place and landscape in the evolution of human affairs, and to grasp the complex interde- pendencies across scales that shape the Earth’s social and material environments. Most of the skills set forth in subsection D come alive in the context of presenting the substantive material that make up an AP human geography course, and the articles that follow provide examples of how this can hap- pen. Yet this subsection also raises background mat- ters that are not specifically addressed in the subse- quent articles. In learning to use and think about maps, for example, students need to be familiar with different map types and projections. Similarly, if students are not already familiar with basic tech- niques for representing data graphically, they will need to understand the principles behind the graphic representations that are used to depict phe- nomena such as demographic transition or popula- tion growth rates.

that are not focused on particular concepts and skills-subsections A, B, and E-are included with the goal of ensuring that AP human geography pro- vides at least a general introduction to the evolu- tion of geography as a field of inquiry in the West- ern intellectual tradition, to the contributions of a few key geographic thinkers, and to basic sources of geographic data. In addressing the first of these matters, emphasis could most profitably be placed on the discipline’s formal roots (and even name) in Ancient Greece, its comparative vitality in the Arab world during the European Middle Ages, its reemergence in Europe with the dawn of the Age of Discovery, and its solidification as a modern disci- pline in the nineteenth and early twentieth cen- turies. In making the latter point, attention could profitably be drawn to the relationship of geogra- phy to other disciplines-especially geography’s integrative character centered on concepts such as space, place, and landscape. This can be contrasted with the topical concerns that gave birth to most other disciplines, with the notable exception of his- tory. Courses might also consider the twentieth-cen- tury trajectory of the discipline of geography, its problematic early environmental determinist bent, its comparative marginalization in the United States during the middle part of the century, and its resur-

The subsections of Part I of the course outline

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Teaching Advanced Placement Human Geograpny 95

gence in the late twentieth century as concerns over matters such as environmental degradation, the variable impacts of globalization, and the rise of regionalisms fostered new interest in an arena of inquiry focused on the changing spatial organiza- tion and material character of the earth‘s surface.

An AP human geography course is not an appropriate place to stress the names of a large number of individual contributors to the geograph- ic literature. Rather, much of what is important to subsection B of Part I are the concepts and models that are addressed in the articles that follow. Nonetheless, a few notable geographers, or geo- graphical thinkers, have made such widely recog- nized contributions to the historical development of the discipline of geography that they are discussed in almost all basic texts (e.g., von Humboldt, Ritter, Kant, Ratzel, Sauer, von Thunen, Losch, Burgess, Hoyt, Harvey). Some familiarity with the contribu- tions of these individuals is useful for AP human geography students, although the names of those closely associated with a particular model or con- cept need not be emphasized as long as the model or concept itself is understood.

Understanding the sources of geographic data is an important part of becoming educated in the discipline. This is because geography derives its special character, at least in part, from its investiga- tive emphasis on such matters as field work and landscape interpretation. This helps explain why a recent National Research Council (1997) report on geography devoted significant attention to the role of observation in geography, and it is why concern with the sources of geographic ideas is a potentially important component of an AP human geography course. Indeed, instructors of such courses could profitably consider incorporating field trips, slides, and the products of geographic information sys- tems into their classes. When presenting data they could also encourage students to gain an under- standing of the nature and character of the data sources under investigation (e.g., census figures, economic data, information on migration flows).

INSIGHT AND ADVENTURE

Beyond the specifics of Part I of the outline- and indeed of the material covered in other seg- ments of the course-lies the greatest challenge for all teachers of AP human geography: conveying a sense of the insight and adventure that can come from the study of geography. Earlier in the twenti- eth century, geography lost its place in American education partially because it became associated

with the recitation of dry encyclopedic ”Earth facts.” The growing stature of geography in recent years is inextricably tied to the sense that the disci- pline offers significant insights and provides an engaging foundation for the never-ending human quest to understand its place in the world. If geog- raphy instructors are to capitalize on this situation, their courses must convey the excitement and ana- lytical potential of a geographic perspective.

There is no one right way to teach AP human geography, but no amount of substantive geograph- ic information can ever make up for a course that does not seem conceptually challenging and empir- ically revealing. The concepts of insight and adven- ture are essential in this regard, for they suggest the critical importance of a twin emphasis on explo- ration and explanation. Pairing these emphases with some of the ideas set forth in this special issue of the Journal of Geography can lead to a rewarding pedagogic experience thaf not only prepares stu- dents for an AP examinafion, but provides them with tools of observation and analysis that can enrich their individual worlds while expanding their educational horizons.

Alexander B. Muvphy ii Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 USA.

Author’s Note: Alexandf B. Murphy chain the College Board’s Advanced Placement Gegraphy Development Committee. Other cur- rently serving committei members-all of whom contributed to this special issue of the Jounal of Geography-are Adrian Bailey, Uni- versity of Leeds; MonnDomosk, Dartmoufh College; David Lanegran, Macalester College; Lrry Ford, Sun Diego State University; Debra Lange, A&M Consoldated High School, College Station, Texas; Martha Sharma, Nnional Cathedral School, Washington, D.C.; and John Trites, HortonHigh School, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. In the past, Daniel Arreola, Aizona State University; Douglas Johnson, Clark University; and lobel Stevenson, Johnston High School, Austin, Texas, also serve/ on the committee.

NOTES 1 The A’ human geography Web site can be found at

<hitp//www.collegeboard.org/ap/geography/>.

REFEREKES

ClemonsJ., and T. L. McKnight. 1999. Teacher’s Guide-AP Huvin Geography. New York and Princeton, New Jersey: Col:ge Entrance Examination Board and Educational Test- @Service.

Murply, A. B. 1998. Advanced Placement geography: Opportu- nries and challenges for geographers. Journal of Geography

Natinal Research Council. 1997. Rediscovering Geography: New ?:132-136.

<elevance for Science and Society. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

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Appendix A. AP human geography: outline of topics

I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives A. Geography as a field of inquiry B. Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated with notable geographers C. Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: space, place, and scale D. Key geographical skills

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data, etc.

How to use and think about maps and spatial data sets How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places How to recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes How to defme regions and evaluate the regionalization process How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places

E.

A. Geographical analysis of population 11. Population

1. 2. Scale and process 3. Population and environment

1. Factors affecting distribution 2. Consequences of particular distributions 3. Patterns of age, sex, race and ethnicity 4. Responses to n;tural hazards: past, present, and future Population growth aqd decline over time and space 1. Historical trends and projections for the future 2. Regional variations of demographic transitions 3. Patterns of fertility, mortality and health 4. Effects of pro- andanti-natalist policies

1. Major voluntary and involuntary migrations at different scales 2. Short-term, local mcvements and activity space

Boundaries, areal units and densities

B. Population distribution and composition

C.

D. Population movement

111. Cultural Patterns and Processes A. Concepts of culture

1. Traits and complexes 2. Diffusion 3. Acculturation 4. Cultural regions and redms

B. Cultural differences 1. Language 2. Religion 3. Ethnicity 4. Gender 5. Popular and folk culture ,

C. Environmental impact of culturaiattitudes and practices D. Cultural landscapes and cultural llentity

1. Values and preferences 2.

IV. Political Organization of Space Symbolic landscapes and senseof place

A. Territorial dimensions of politics 1. The concept of territoriality 2. The nature and meaning of bounIaries 3. Influences of boundaries on identy, interaction and exchange Evolution of the contemporary politica pattern 1. Territorial assumptions underlyingthe nation-state ideal 2. Colonialism and imperialism 3. Internal political boundaries and arangements Challenges to inherited political-territoria arrangements 1. Changing nature of sovereignty 2. Fragmentation, unification, alliance 3.

€3.

C.

Spatial relationships between political )atterns and patterns of ethnicity, economy, and environment

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Teaching Advanced Placement Human Geograpny 97

V. Agricultural and Rural Land Use A. Development and diffusion of agriculture

1. Neolithic Agricultural Revolution 2. 3.

1. 2. Rural land use and change 1. 2. 3.

D. Impacts of modern agricultural change 1. Green Revolution 2. Consumption, nutrition, and hunger 3. Industrial/commercial agriculture 4.

Evolution of energy sources and technology Regions of plant and animal domestication

Agricultural systems associated with major bio-climatic zones Production and food supply: linkages and flows

Land use and location models Settlement patterns and urban-rural connections Environmental and social impacts of intensification

B. Major agricultural production regions

C.

Environmental change: desertification, deforestation, etc. VI. Industrialization and Economic Development

A. Character of industrialization 1. 2. 3. Transport and communications 4. Models of industrial location Spatial aspects of the rise of industrial economies 1. Changing energy sources and technology 2. Economic cores and peripheries 3. Models of economic development and their geographic critiques Contemporary global patterns of industrialization 1. Linkages and interdependencies 2. Changing patterns of economic activity 3. Deindustrialization 4. Economic development initiatives: Government policies

D. Impacts of industrialization 1. Time-space compression 2. Social stratification 3. Health and quality of life 4. Environmental change and issues of sustainability

Economic sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary Specialization in places and the concept of comparative advantage

B.

C.

VII. Cities and Urban Land Use A. Definitions of urbanism B. Origin and evolution of cities

1. Historical patterns of urbanization 2. 3. 4. Rise of megacities 5. Models of urban systems 6. Functional character of contemporary cities 1. Changing employment mix 2.

D. Built environment and social space 1. Transportation and infrastructure 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. Urban planning and design 2. Community action and initiatives

Cultural context and urban form Urban growth and rural-urban migration

Comparative models of internal city structure C.

Changing demographic and social structures

Political organization of urban areas Locational decisions, conflicts, and hazards Uneven development, ghettoization, and gentrification Patterns of race, ethnicity, gender and class Impacts of suburbanization and edge cities

E. Responses to urban growth

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