From theorists on how to teach cities, to what students learn: the route of school urban Geography in Spain and Colombia

Abstract

The way in which cities are taught in school is the subject of this research, the product of a doctoral thesis entitled: The traditions of school urban Geography in Spain and Colombia, analysis from the polis, civitas and urbs, written by the author. The thesis seeks to identify what happens to what academics and theorists write about how cities should be taught, and what students actually learn. To do this, the research begins by reviewing academic articles on the teaching of cities, then goes on to compare national syllabus guidelines in Spain and Colombia, the development of school texts, their implementation in the classroom, the experiences of innovative teachers and finally the evidence of what students learn, with results from six schools, three in Valencia (Spain) and three in Bogotá (Colombia).