Geography and environmental literacy: An appraisal with reference to high school geography in Singapore and abroad

Abstract

Place, and by logical inference, the total environment comprising both the natural and cultural at different scales, from the local to the global, forms the core of geographic understanding. Invariably in geography curriculum from the primary to the high school and beyond, the study of total environment, often artificially dissected, for convenience of treatment, into human and physical, has been assumed to bring about awareness and appreciation of the environment and environmental problems. Whether this awareness is synonymous with environmental literacy is quite another matter. This paper examines the issue of environmental literacy in relation to geography education, and assesses to what extent this literacy has been achieved through the teaching and learning of geography at the high school level. Reference is made to some junior colleges in Singapore and high schools in England and elsewhere.