The worlds of girls and boys
24 The worlds of girls and boys
Geographic experience and informal learning opportunities Pamela Wridt
Children and youth learn about society and the environment through formal schooling and informal learning experiences in their everyday lives. The influence of formal schooling on shaping children’s understanding of geography is generally the focus of academic research. However,informal learning experiences play a substantial role in understanding geography.
This article examines an alternative method for learning about the world advo- cated by Lucy Sprague Mitchell,a New York City geography teacher. Mitchell (1991 [1934]: 14) recognized that children learn geography through their own experiences in their everyday environments:
Every environment is geographic. The kind of geography which we have found most natural to city children is human geography. The natural earth conditions are too overlaid with human modifications to make physical geography an easy field of exploration in the city. In the country,even in the suburbs,children discover relationships which concern soil,erosion,elevation and the growth of plants and animals at an earlier age than do city children.
Mitchell’s analysis was largely anecdotal,driven by her experiences as a geography teacher in New York City. Unfortunately,scholars have generally not followed Mitchell’s lead and have devoted little attention to understanding the everyday worlds of young people as a potential source of informal learning about peoples and places. There is,however,some concern among environmental psychologists that socio- cultural processes create variation in children’s environmental experience which may facilitate or hinder their cognitive development. According to Hart (1997: 27), ‘Children living in different cultures,environments,and social classes are exposed to different materials,experiences,and informal teaching by their families and neigh- bours,and this results in the appearance of different competencies at different times’.
Moore and Young (1978) suggest that children’s everyday environmental interac- tions are shaped by three interdependent realms of experience: physical space or the landscape; social or cultural space; and inner,psychological space. These three realms of experience influence how children encounter geographic environments, and in turn mould children’s images and conceptions of peoples and places. This suggests that variations in children’s exposure to,and images of,environments are shaped by many variables including social relationships,a person’s gender,his or her cultural background, personality traits, and the qualities of the physical landscape.
ASPECTS OF TEACHING SECONDARY GEOGRAPHY
As geography educators,we should become more aware of how a child’s exposure to environments relates to the formation of mental images and conceptions of places. In particular,geographic educators should become attuned to the variety of social, cultural and geographic backgrounds that shape a child’s everyday perspectives. These backgrounds vary considerably from one child to another,and may vary between girls and boys. In an effort to stimulate such research,this chapter examines the degree to which environmental experiences vary among adolescent boys and girls. Highlighting these differences exposes the physical and social opportunities and constraints influencing an adolescent’s use of geographic space proposed by Moore and Young (1978). In turn,educators can use their knowledge of adolescent geographies to link formal geography instruction with a student’s everyday world. Given such,the purpose of this article is to present preliminary results from a case study which highlight differences in the everyday geographic experiences of adoles- cent males and females.
A case study was conducted in Eugene,Oregon,with 13-year-old adolescents. It was drawn from a larger action research project conducted with ‘Finding A Way’ teachers and one Texas Alliance for Geographic Education teacher in the autumn of
1997. 1 Preliminary results suggest that gender and social relationships influence the way in which adolescents interact with places in their communities. Specifically,the results highlight differences in how male and female adolescents get around in Eugene,the degree to which they travel from their immediate neighbourhoods,with whom they travel,the types of places to which they travel,and why they travel. The results suggest that educators should be attentive to the different kinds of informal learning opportunities boys and girls encounter in their daily environments that may complement the teaching of Geography in the formal classroom.