Unveiling Diversity and Challenging Stereotypes - A Critical Examination of Geography Education
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Date
2025-10-21
Publisher
Philipps-Universität Marburg
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Abstract
Based on the goal of the UMRdivers project to prepare student teachers for diverse classrooms (Center for Teacher Education Marburg, 2022), my work aimed to explore a potential tension within the field of geography. This tension arises between the need and requirements to consider diversity (Hessian curricula, 2021, 2023) and the risk of perpetuating stereotypes rooted in the subject's origins in colonialism (Radcliffe, 2022). A comprehensive textbook analysis of all licensed Hessian geography textbooks (Paper 1 & 2) revealed both a homogenization of the African continent and a general bias in the representation of the world. Interviewing a representative sample of German geography teachers (Paper 3) confirmed that stereotypes are common in geography class. Accordingly, stereotypes are present in geography education, particularly in the context of Africa. The key findings of the three studies will be summarized now and their interrelations highlighted.
The results of the first study on the general depiction of diversity in geographical content are striking: while all dimensions are present, they differ significantly in their frequency. External dimensions are generally much more represented than internal dimensions, especially the economic status, social status, and educational background. The textbook analysis also reveals a interdependence between the grade of the textbook and the thematic focus with regard to the representation of diversity dimensions. The highest number of diversity dimensions can be identified in textbooks for middle school grades (7th and 8th). In contrast, geography textbooks for lower school grades (5th and 6th) represent the fewest dimensions. Textbooks for upper school grades show representation levels that fall between those of the lower and middle school grades. The representation of diversity dimensions also varies significantly depending on the thematic focus. By far, the highest number of diversity dimensions is found in the content area of “Population Geography,” which accounts for 39% of all identified dimensions. This is followed by “Globalization” with 15% and “Countries and Continents” with 14%.
But does the representation of dimensions differ regarding countries and continents? This questions was answered by calculating the absolute occurrences in the context of a) continents and b) countries. An anamorphosis of the world scaled by the number of mentiones of diversity dimensions in the context of continents (a) visualized striking results: Europe and Africa appear disproportionately large, while Asia and Oceania are barely visible. On the country level (b), however, the picture changes: North America and Asia dominate the map with Europe (remains unchanged), and Africa appears notably small.
Since this is still a summation of all dimensions, the question was raised whether there are differences in the connections between the dimensions when categorized by continent. The network analysis, which statistically calculated this, shows me following anomalies in the representation of continents:
• Europe & Asia: Highest centrality are the economic and social status, and the national origin. Of middle centrality are the educational background, ethnicity and age. All others are in a third row and of low centrality.
• North & South America: Economic and Social Status, national origin and ethnicity are of equal high centrality in their networks. All other dimensions are in second row of low centrality. In the North American network also race is of high centrality, which constitutes the exception.
• Africa: The African networks differs highly from the other continents, as only the economic status is of high centrality, and all other dimensions are more or less connected with the economic status. Additionally, the dimension of disability holds a higher centrality in the African network than in any of the other networks.
In the third study all teachers confirmed, that stereotypes were present in geography class. However, there was a particular finding: The exemples of stereotyping provided on teachers showed little overlap, except in one main category – continents. Over half of the teachers noted that stereotypes often appear in relation to Africa in geography lessons. This was the only point of consensus among the teachers, and they explained it as follows: the complex topics in geography often require didactic simplification. A few teachers explicitly elaborated on the challenges of balancing black-and-white thinking (thus stereotyping) and with the necessary reduction of complexity is very difficult. However, focusing this subject-specific challenge was the exception. Most teachers refered to structural challenges, with time constraints being at the forefront, to explain stereotypical reduction. This lack of time prevents deeper engagement with content-related challenges and thus may contributes to reinforcing stereotypes. So how do teachers handle situations when stereotypes are reproduced in class? Primarily, they rely on highly individualized strategies. One recurring theme among these strategies falls under "dialogue and reflection” – a category characterized by vague responses like "addressing," "questioning," or "breaking down" stereotypes, these strategies remain imprecise, and it’s unclear what they entail.
In summary, a fundamental challenge in geography education appears to be the reduction of complexity. Structural issues, such as time constraints, inadequate materials, and insufficient training in teacher education, might lead to stereotyping. This issue becomes particularly challenging when no clear strategies are available to address these issues. Combining the results of all three studies cohesively, I come to the following primary findings:
1. Overall, geography education presents a highly distorted view of the world, which is inadequate and does not reflect the diversity and reality of the (diverse) students themselves. Instead, by presenting identities in a homogenized and biased way in teaching materials, this approach can lead to stereotyping and discrimination of students, as highlighted by other researchers (Devine et al., 2012; Eagly & Koenig, 2021).
2. The interviewed teachers unanimously reported stereotyping in geography lessons. While the examples provided were mostly individual, there was broad consensus regarding the stereotype of "Africa." The stereotypes suggested in the textbooks appear to resonate, at least within this group, which was highly diverse in terms of age, federal state, second subject, school type, and teaching experience.
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Dates
Created: 2024Issued: 2025-10-21Updated: 2025-10-21
Faculty
Fachbereich Geographie
Language
eng
Data types
DoctoralThesis
DFG-subjects
Textbook analysisteacher interviewsStereotypesDiversityqualitativ researchGeography Education
DDC-Numbers
370
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Dörfel, Leoni (0009-0002-4881-5543): Unveiling Diversity and Challenging Stereotypes - A Critical Examination of Geography Education. : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2025-10-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2025.0085.