Moving from global to international understanding: a century of teaching geography across borders

Abstract

The International Geographical Union's Commission on Geographical Education has, over its history, issued a number of charters that serve as guides for how geography is taught and studied in schools. In order to encourage worldwide cooperation on geog-raphy education, the foundational papers to the first Charter were based on the idea of international understanding. During the 33rd International Geographical Union Congress in 2016, the most recent Charter was accepted. That same year was named the International Year of Global Understanding. The development of educational theory and its relationship to social and political circumstances are both reflected in these writings, the central themes of which center on geography education and its role in the school curriculum. Because geography and its values are fundamental to comprehending and making sense of the world from a social and spatial vantage point, every Charter rests on an underlying expression of international educational goals.