Citizenship through Geography in Early Childhood Education

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Geography is a structured way of exploring, analyzing and understanding the characteristics of the places that make up our world, using the concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and, change. It addresses scales, from the personal to the global and time periods from a few years to a few thousand years. (ACARA, 2013.) 

In preschool and early primary classrooms, geography is often viewed traditionally, focusing on activities that build geographic skills, such as mapmaking. Brillante & Mankiw, (2015) However, in recent years, the Australian Curriculum has incorporated a personal approach to the foundation year geography sub-strand, as children learn through key concepts such as place and environment. This personal approach to learning geography allows students to begin developing views of their personal world as they investigate and discover what makes a place special, and how they can care for a place. Learning key concepts such as place contributes to students' sense of identity and belonging, beginning the idea of active citizenship. (ACARA, 2014) 

To introduce the concept of "place" into my foundation year classroom, I will carefully select a place that most young children are familiar with and care about: the school playground. 


 I will ask students "How can we, as a class care for our school's playground?"

As children are discussing ways in which they may care for the playground, I would list their contributions on the whiteboard, ensuring students their ideas and opinions are being heard. Next, I will ask students why caring for a place like a school playground is important. Is it special? If so, to whom? Once students have voiced their opinions again, I would summarize the information students have provided me with. For example, we can care for the school playground by picking up rubbish from off the ground." "It is an important place because we play there." To finalize this introduction to place, I will ask my students to help create an agreed upon list of general guidelines we can implement as a class to better care for our school playground. Parents and community members, such as stakeholders will are also welcomed to recommend guidelines and be involved in this process. 
Presenting students with learning experiences as described above allows students the opportunity to develop their understanding of place and space as they investigate: 
 The places people live in and belong to, their familiar features and why they are important to people. (ACHASSK015) 
The reasons why some places are special to people, and how they can be looked after (ACHASSK017)
Elaborations: 
Discussing different ways they could contribute to caring for special places including those that are unique. 

Additionally, this learning experience also provides links to the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability as children develop a sense of responsibility and care for an outdoor setting, contributing to a sustainable future. 

References:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA, 2013) Australian Curriculum: Geography. retrieved from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/geography/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, (ACARA, 2013) Humanities and Social Sciences. Retrieved from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

P, Brillante. & S, Mankiw., (2015) A Sense of Place: Human Geography in the Early Childhood Classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/system/files/YC0715_Brillante.pdf
images:

https://www.thoughtco.com/four-traditions-of-geography-1435583

https://www.123rf.com/photo_9707979_playground-cartoon-illustration-of-kids-playing-together-at-the-park-.html

https://www.123rf.com/photo_9707979_playground-cartoon-illustration-of-kids-playing-together-at-the-park-.html

Comments

  1. Jamie TuckettApril 15, 2019 at 4:06 AM

    Hi Lorraine,
    I really enjoyed reading your post. You have put a lot of thought into creating a learning experience that is age appropriate but also is appealing to children. You have demonstrated strong links to the cross-curriculum priorities, in particular, sustainability. I am wondering if following on from picking up rubbish; you could look at recycling. Possibly creating a smaller footprint starting with what children bring to school to eat Assuming that the trash around the playground is wrappers from lunch boxes. Maybe they could bring 'naked' foods and those foods like banana peels could create the start of a compost :)

    I did notice a minor typo in your heading, you have missed 'o' in Education. Once again thank you for allowing me the time to read your post.

    Jamie.

    ReplyDelete

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