Master of Arts

The geographical imagination (GI) represents a person’s way of thinking about the world, the relative importance of places and the relationships between “our” places and “other” places (Gilley, 2010). Gregory (2009) explained that the GI is pivotal in “shaping much of the world’s social and spatial thought” as people develop a sense of boundaries that separate their spaces and places from those of others, and is thus “central to the social and spatial constructions of identity”. As the GI possesses considerable power to shape people’s perceptions and influence their thoughts and behaviours, it plays a significant role in influencing present-day geopolitical and social beliefs and communal actions. In today’s digital age where the world is experiencing ever-increasing interconnectedness, research on GI developments and their implications is more apposite than ever.

This study aims to provide an understanding of the influence of school geography on Singapore students’ GIs about people’s lived environments in urban areas. Through the use of a constructivist perspective on perceptual development, knowledge and power, this study examines some of the common perceptions that Singapore students have about urban living and how school geography influences and shapes their GIs about people’s lived environments in different cities. This will be done through semi-structured photo elicitation interviews with six Secondary 2 students who had finished studying the topic of Housing under the 2014 Lower Secondary Geography (LSG) syllabuses at the time of the research. Utilizing photographs featuring different types of urban housing and their concomitant qualities of living for residents and a modified 5W1H questioning technique for the interviews, this study will analyze the extent that formal and informal sources of geographical knowledge impact the accuracy of Singapore students’ GIs about diverse urban living spaces and environments.

By highlighting potential inaccuracies in students’ GIs about people’s lived environments in urban areas, the study’s findings may identify gaps in student learning and will be useful to curriculum planners and education researchers as they review the topic of Housing in the 2021 LSG syllabus and teaching resources. Geography teachers can also leverage the study’s findings to review and augment their delivery of lessons on the topic of Housing to avoid creating misconceptions or reinforcing certain stereotypes that will distort the accuracy of their students’ GIs. Lastly, this study is designed to be student-centric in order to capture authentic student voices to serve as valuable inputs in important processes such as syllabus reviews and curriculum design.

The research also calls on educators and policymakers to acknowledge that dominant discourses that are central in supporting school geography, such as the prescribed textbook, may inadvertently develop biased and simplistic GIs among Singapore students due to the overrepresentation of existing narratives and underrepresentation of counter- and omitted narratives. It suggests that there is a greater need to expose students to variegated narratives about urban housing through intentional design to facilitate their development of informed and holistic GIs.