Pedagogical Lessons from Finnish Geography Students' Knowledge

Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen

IRGEE 167

Where on Earth is New York? Pedagogical Lessons from Finnish Geography Students’ Knowledge of the United States Pauliina Raento University of Minnesota, Department of Geography, 414 Social Sciences Building, 267 – 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis MN 55455, USA Petri Hottola Finnish University Network for Tourism Studies, Centre for Tourism Studies, University of Joensuu, Box 78, 57101 Savonlinna, Finland Behind this study are our (1) classroom observations suggesting a decline in the cartographic and general knowledge of Finnish geography students; (2) interest in developing the content and method of geographical education; and (3) belief that intellectual challenge is not incompatible with entertainment. A total of 257 university and high school geography students responded to a survey about US society and geography. The survey explored (1) the students’ interests and level of general geographic and cartographic knowledge; and (2) how the findings could contribute to the teaching of geography. What and how much the respondents knew varied substantially according to educational background, age, and gender. Women were weaker in their knowledge than men, and a strong link was found between television watching preferences and cartographic knowledge. Women’s poor performance suggests a problem with geography education in Finnish schools, as many future teachers of geography are female. The implications are that (1) geo-educators should seek fresh ways to engage themes that connect with their students’ preferred everyday activities and (2) cartographic knowledge needs special attention in female-dominated geography teacher education. We suggest that (1) there are several rather simple ways to begin this work and (2) the idea of ‘graphicacy’ should be revisited to support them.

Keywords: geography education, cartographic knowledge, popular culture, Finland, United States of America

Introduction Finnish youngsters do well in international comparisons of geographic skills (e.g. Saarinen, 1973; Saarinen & MacCabe, 1989; Terra, 2004). This draws from geography’s strong status in the national schooling system as one of the ‘national sciences’ in Finland (Rikkinen, H., 1982a, 1982b; Rikkinen, K., 1988). Finland’s geopolitical positioning between the East and the West has added to the significance of geography. In the late 19th century, well before independence in 1917, the Finns used cartography to promote their dreams of national sovereignty (Atlas öfver Finland, 1899; Kosonen, 1999), and a strong emphasis was placed on learning about Finland and the rest of the world (Tiitta, 1996; see Raivo, 2002). Geography is a mandatory subject in today’s high schools, and university-level students of

1038-2046/05/01 0005-23 $20.00/0 © 2005 P. Raento & P. Hottola International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education Vol. 14, No. 1, 2005

5

E:\Stephen Cracknell\Mes documents\irgee\14-1\irgee14-1.vp 17 September 2005 08:25:17

Where on Earth is New York? IRGEE 167


6

IRGEE 167

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

geography receive basic training in both human and physical geography. The popularity of academic geography increased in the 1990s, judging by attendance in the qualification examinations through which Finnish geography departments select their students. Being accepted into an undergraduate programme requires a command of cartography as well as general geographic knowledge. We have observed as academic geography teachers that (1) students’ general geographic and cartographic knowledge (that is, their ability to locate places on a map) is deteriorating despite the prominence of geography in Finnish schools. Finnish school teachers also have for some time worried about the content of cartographic education and pupils’ ability to comprehend the world cartographically (e.g. Kaivola, 1988). One reason behind these declining skills could be that topical approaches and study of processes have become emphasised over regional study in geography education in Finnish schools. Another reason may lie in students’ increased study load and pressure to achieve, which takes time away from independent adventuring in the world of information. The third explanation may be the growth in the amount of information, especially entertainment. A contributing background factor is a general change of soci(et)al value structures. In the context of Western consumer society, a journey may be one commodity among others, an experiential product to be consumed and enjoyed without in-depth exploration (Campbell, 1987; Raento & Flusty, 2005; Ritzer & Liska, 1997). On the other hand, well-educated youth – including the participants of our study – prefer independent exploration such as backpacking and learn about their destinations in detail (Hottola, 1999: 66–74; Loker, 1995; Richards & Wilson, 2004). While teaching geographies of leisure, tourism, and popular culture, we have observed also that (2) case studies that are contemporary, entertaining, and even somewhat unusual stimulate students’ interest, lead to challenging conversation and comparisons, and help them understand complex concepts. Intellectual challenge and entertainment can share the same space and support one another (Raento, 2000, 2002; see also Morgan, 2001; Tani, 1997). Yet another observation is that (3) the creative use of visual materials in the classroom results in positive learning experiences. PowerPoint shows, slides, videos, current newspaper images and articles, and (whenever possible) small-scale field trips offer variety, make things concrete, and create associative links which support the understanding of complex entities (Biddulph & Adey, 2004; Fuller et al., 2003; Houtsonen, 1997: 164). This approach is particularly important in geographical education, because the surrounding world cannot be comprehended only through theory. Geographers have recently reached beyond maps and landscapes in their exploration of visual methodologies (Gilbert, 1998; Goin, 2001; Raento et al., 2004; Rose, 1996, 2001; Schwartz & Ryan, 2003; Sidaway, 2002; Unwin & Hewitt, 2001; see also Lutz & Collins, 1993). Our three observations seem to be related to broader changes in geography and in the world we inhabit. Today’s children are more visually oriented than their parents. In postmodern societies the significance of visuality has increased as digitalisation has eased the production and consumption of imageries (Featherstone, 1995; Jenks, 1995; Ritzer, 1996; see also Postman, 1985). Geography has simultaneously shifted towards postmodern emphases on complexity, turning away from modernist cartographic simplifications of reality



IRGEE 167

Where on Earth is New York?

7

(Bowen, 1985; Featherstone, 1995; Gregory, 1994; Raento & Flusty, 2005; Soja, 1996). Photographic and other images as deliverers of geographic information have surpassed the map in importance, which is already apparent in geography textbooks and debates over the content, methods, and goals of geographical education (Biddulph & Adey, 2004; Cloke et al., 1999; Rose, 2001; Sidaway, 2002). This does not mean that maps are not important, but we believe that new ways to deliver cartographic knowledge and skills need to be assessed (see May, 1999). Encouraged – and concerned – by our observations, we proceeded to examine how students’ geographic and cartographic knowledge and critical observation skills could be improved by using sources they are familiar with and find interesting. As professional geographers, we take the value of these skills and knowledge for granted. We see them not only as essential to our profession, but also as valuable resources in daily life and as important contributors to the process of producing responsible citizens (see Carter, 2000; Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000: 50; Lambert & Machon, 2001; van Dijk et al., 1994). The argument may have universal value, but is particularly important in a country such as Finland, where geography, cartography, and environmental education play a central role in school curricula and in social and educational values (Eerola & Öhrberg, 1995; HilliTammilehto & Tani, 1999; Houtsonen, 1996; Rikkinen, H., 1982a, 1982b, 1998; Tiitta, 1996; Tani, 2004a, 2004b; cf. Edwards, 2002; Ferreira, 2003). The professional capacity of the graduates of geography departments is directly linked to the skills of ordinary citizens, as many of these graduates will teach geography at schools. Complex geographical processes all take place somewhere and are difficult to comprehend without knowing where this somewhere is and what it is like. We surveyed the general knowledge and cartographic skills of Finnish geography students (university majors and minors and high schoolers) in two university towns, Helsinki (the national capital) and Joensuu (a provincial centre). We chose the United States of America as our case study, because this country exercises considerable economic, political, and cultural power in the world, makes the headlines frequently, and is perceived as the mecca of entertainment and popular culture. The influence of the USA is global and it is prominent in Finnish society, media, and youth culture. The USA is a country of which the Finns have strong perceptions and opinions. In this paper we report the execution and results of our survey in the light of the described observations.

What Did We Do and How? The survey sought to find out how familiar Finnish high school geography students and university-level geography freshmen are with the USA, what the results tell us about the contemporary level of ‘country knowledge’, and how this could be utilised in the classroom. Two high schools and one geography department in both Helsinki and Joensuu (that is, six institutions in all) participated in the study from September 2001 to September 2002. All four high schools attract competitive, competent students from a broad area and do well in national comparisons. The university freshmen (who began their studies in geography in 2001) are among the 10–15% of applicants who pass the departmental entrance exam and are thus accepted into an undergraduate course as geography majors. For example, in Helsinki the top 50–55 individuals are selected each year from a



8

IRGEE 167


Table 1 The 24 questions in the survey’s Part One and the share of correct answers (%) among geography majors, geography minors, and high school students in Helsinki and Joensuu Questions and Correct Answers

G Majors G Minors H

1 The centre of the US American movie industry is Hollywood 2 Graceland was the residence of Elvis

J

H

J

3 The biggest and best-known gambling 100 town in the USA is Las Vegas

All

H

J

H

J

97

97

98

97

64

64

47

67

53

92 100 100

92

92

95

93

100 100 100 100 72

High S

83

67

4 Middle-East peace negotiations have taken place in Camp David, the vacation home of the American presidents

17

42

17

27

22

14

20

15

5 The largest waterfall in the USA is the Niagara Falls

56

83

72

55

72

57

67

59

6 The largest shopping mall in the USA is called Mall of America

8

0

0

0

1

2

3

2

7 Alien bodies have been allegedly found in a town called Roswell

31

75

22

64

60

77

48

76

8 The 1996 Summer Olympic Games were held in Atlanta

78

83

78

82

49

51

60

57

9 Mardi Gras festival is held in New Orleans, known for jazz music

39

50

39

45

38

11

38

19

10 Teemu Selänne plays for the San Jose Sharks in the NHL

14

50

11

27

29

37

23

37

11 The famous Wall Street stock market is located in New York

81 100

72

73

79

77

79

79

12 The anti-WTO riots criticising globalisation began in the USA in a city called Seattle

25

17

33

9

6

4

14

6

13 Wyatt Earp was the sheriff of a small town called Tombstone

11

25

33

9

9

14

11

14

14 Japan attacked the naval base of Pearl Harbor in 1941

78

92

78

82

83

83

81

84

15 The forthcoming Winter Olympic Games are held in the Mormon city Salt Lake City

86

83

72

55

69

63

74

66

16 Site of the first atomic bomb explosion test was Los Alamos

6

8

0

0

0

0

1

1

17 The city of San Francisco is known for the 1960s’ and the 1970s’ hippie movement and the Alcatraz Prison

59

58

61

45

45

37

50

41



IRGEE 167


9

Table 1 (cont.) The 24 questions in the survey’s Part One and the share of correct answers (%) among geography majors, geography minors, and high school students in Helsinki and Joensuu Questions and Correct Answers

G Majors G Minors

High S

All

H

J

H

J

H

J

H

J

18 The oldest and best-known national park in the USA Yellowstone

53

75

78

64

30

14

42

24

19 Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal office building in Oklahoma City

17

25

17

18

15

2

14

6

20 The leading marshland preservation area in the USA is the Everglades

11

25

22

0

2

1

7

3

21 The US President shot in Dallas in 1963 was John F. Kennedy

97 100

94

91

91

91

93

92

22 A religious fundamentalist group known for its dark 19th-century clothing and horse-powered agriculture is called the Amish

25

25

33

18

28

17

28

18

23 The popular television series featuring 100 100 beach landscapes, Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff is called Baywatch

89

91

90

94

92

94

33

45

62

59

46

59

24 Ponderosa and the Cartwrights are known for the western series called Bonanza

14

67

group of roughly 500 applicants. Those who minor in geography are typically biology (or sometimes history) majors who wish to become school teachers. In both Helsinki and Joensuu, they are admitted to the Department of Geography through a separate qualifying examination. Each of the two parts of our survey consisted of 24 questions. The assignment in Part One was to fill out missing words. For example, ‘Hollywood’ (or ‘Los Angeles’, where Hollywood is located) had to be added to the phrase, ‘The centre of the US American movie industry is . . . ’ (Table 1). Once respondents completed Part One, they were given the answers to Part One, some additional information about each destination, and were then asked to locate the places on a map – ‘Where is Hollywood?’ (Table 2). The A4-size map, illustrated in Figure 1, included state boundaries, parts of Canada and Mexico, and the largest lakes. Background information was gathered about each respondent’s age, gender, travel experience in the USA, and favourite television programmes. The respondents were asked where in the USA they had travelled and when. They then placed the provided six television programme types (Table 3) in the order of their personal preference. About 30 minutes were needed to complete the survey. The 24 destinations, grouped under eight themes (Figure 1), share international name recognition through news, entertainment, popular culture, and



10

IRGEE 167


Table 2 Destinations to be located on the map in the survey’s Part Two and the accuracy with which the respondent groups managed to do so (% of the maximum score) Where is

?

G Majors

G Minors

H

J

H

J

H

J

H

J

Hollywood

64

75

70

61

38

35

49

41

Memphis TN

23

28

22

21

13

14

17

16

Las Vegas

30

31

28

39

24

16

27

20

Camp David MD

19

22

11

18

9

11

12

13

Niagara Falls

38

33

43

27

23

25

29

26

Minneapolis

21

28

9

21

11

16

13

18

Roswell

19

28

13

18

25

26

22

26

Atlanta

23

31

15

36

13

15

16

19

New Orleans

24

39

32

36

19

15

22

19

San Jose

17

22

17

12

11

14

13

15

New York

44

56

39

42

37

32

39

35

Seattle

44

50

50

18

19

14

30

18

Tombstone

12

14

20

9

11

12

12

12

Pearl Harbor

32

61

35

36

35

36

34

41

Salt Lake City

35

58

46

30

19

14

27

20

Los Alamos

17

22

28

6

8

13

13

14

San Francisco

56

81

65

48

44

32

49

39

Yellowstone

18

25

24

36

12

15

15

18

Oklahoma City

26

17

22

24

15

14

18

15

Everglades

38

44

54

33

17

17

27

21

Dallas TX

52

58

50

42

45

31

48

35

9

8

13

6

8

6

9

6

Santa Monica Beach

53

58

39

39

17

22

29

22

Ponderosa Lake Tahoe

10

8

22

6

11

12

12

11

Lancaster County PA

High S

All

textbooks. Several destinations were featured in the Finnish media just before or during our survey. Camp David (MD), New York (Wall Street) and Seattle (WA) of the ‘World Politics’ category appear frequently in the news, in television series, and in cinema. ‘World History’ consisted of historical ‘news bombs’ – the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the first atomic explosion in Los Alamos (NM), and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas (TX) are all important events in global, US-related history. ‘Lifestyle and Values’



IRGEE 167


11

Table 3 Television viewing preferences of the survey respondents Geography Majors Helsinki

Programme theme

Top 3

Geography Minors

Joensuu

Helsinki

High School Students

Joensuu

Helsinki

Joensuu

Nr 1 Top 3 Nr 1 Top 3 Nr 1 Top 3 Nr 1 Top 3 Nr 1 Top 3 Nr 1

Entertainment

78

56

100

67

67

39

91

55

92

80

97

84

News, current affairs

61

25

58

0

50

11

100

27

62

6

45

0

Nature

31

3

50

17

50

17

45

18

29

6

42

5

Travel

53

8

42

0

39

0

9

0

36

1

37

0

Culture, history, society

42

3

33

8

39

11

27

0

26

0

40

3

Sports

31

6

33

8

22

11

27

0

33

6

35

8

‘Top 3’ indicates what percentage of the respondents placed the theme among their favourite three programme types. ‘Nr 1’ refers to the share of those who marked the category as their first choice

consisted of consumer culture (Mall of America, the country’s largest shopping mall near Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN); political extremism (Timothy McVeigh/ the Oklahoma City bombing); and religion (the Amish of Lancaster County, PA). Three ‘institutions’ of the entertainment industry – Hollywood, Elvis (and Graceland in Memphis, TN), and Wyatt Earp (Tombstone, AZ) formed the ‘Popular Culture’ category. In ‘Tourism and Recreation’, Las Vegas (NV), New Orleans (LA), and San Francisco (CA) represented America’s best-known and most popular travel destinations. These cities are routinely advertised to Finnish travellers and depicted in cinema and television. Other well-known travel destinations with cinematic appeal are Niagara Falls (NY), Yellowstone (WY), and the Everglades (FL) in the ‘Nature’ category. In ‘Sports’, the connection to Finland

Figure 1 The destinations and categories in the survey, and the accuracy with which the destinations were located on a map in Part Two of the survey



12

IRGEE 167


was constructed through Finnish athletes. Their participation in the Olympic Games in Atlanta (GA) and Salt Lake City (UT) was followed in live broadcasts across the Atlantic. San Jose (CA) was known as the home of the National Hockey League (NHL) star Teemu Selänne’s San Jose Sharks.1 ‘Television Entertainment’ was based on three popular American television series and their locations: Baywatch (beach life in Santa Monica, CA), Bonanza (Ponderosa/historic West on the shores of Lake Tahoe, NV), and Roswell (aliens and teenagers in Roswell, NM). Each correct answer yielded one point in Part One, so that the maximum score for this part was 24 points. In Part Two, the respondents placed the locations onto the above-described map (Figure 1). We graded the answers in the following way: (1) three points for the exact placement of the destination on the map; (2) two points for placing the destination in the correct state; (3) one point for placing the destination in the correct (loosely defined) vernacular region (for definitions, see Zelinsky, 1980); and (4) zero points for destinations located incorrectly (that is, none of the above). The maximum score for Part Two was thus 72 points. We considered finding the correct states (48 points) an excellent achievement, because the assignment was designed to be fairly demanding. Placing individual destinations on a map which contains only principal politico-administrative boundaries and selected waterways needs some practice. We used basic mathematics to compare the answers and processed the data manually, because the sample was small and our goals were not statistically ambitious. Priority was given to assessing broad trends in the light of our classroom experiences. We calculated the averages of the entire sample, then of each group (geography majors, geography minors, and high school students in both cities), and compared the averages between men and women in both parts. In Part Two, we determined cartographic accuracy by comparing the score of each destination with the 72-point maximum (Table 2 exemplifies). This accuracy was calculated for the entire sample, for each group of respondents, for each city, and for men and women. We also looked for differences between groups with different educational background and their relationship with gender. The results of those who had travelled in the USA were compared with the general average. We also reviewed potential correlations between respondents’ televisionwatching preferences and level of knowledge. Because of the small sample, our trend-emphasising goals, and our desire to avoid ‘pseudo-scientific’ statistical precision, the results and our subsequent conclusions should be treated as humble contributions to the discussion concerning the content and method of geographical education.

The Respondents Fifty-five percent of our 257 respondents were in Helsinki, the rest in Joensuu (Table 4). They formed three groups: (1) university freshmen majoring in geography; (2) university students who took first-year geography classes as a minor subject; and (3) first- and second-year high school students for whom geography is a compulsory subject. The average age of the university students was just under 22 years. The majority of these respondents were women (80% of all majors, 64% of the minors in Joensuu and 78% in Helsinki), corresponding to the general gender structure of Finnish universities since the 1990s. Furthermore,



IRGEE 167


13

Table 4 Characteristics of the survey’s participants N Geography majors

Age

48

Women

in USA

39

11

Helsinki

36

21.7

29

11

Joensuu

12

20.3

10

0

21

5

Geography minors

29

Helsinki

18

21.7

14

4

Joensuu

11

23.1

7

1

101

19

High school students

180

Helsinki

87

16.3

56

16

Joensuu

93

16.7

45

3

161/63%

35/14%

Total

257

teacher education is popular among women, and those who minor in geography will typically work as high school teachers of geography and biology (these subjects usually go together in Finnish secondary schools and high schools). Gender division among high school students was more balanced, as expected: 63% of the students in Helsinki and 48% in Joensuu were female. The average age of the group was slightly over 17 years.2 The participating schools did not differ from one another in the level of their students’ knowledge. The favourite type of television programmes were entertainment programmes among all respondent groups (over 90% of the high schoolers preferred entertainment) (Table 3). Entertainment was followed by news reports and television news magazines. In each of the three respondent groups, the Helsinki respondents had travelled in the USA more extensively than those from Joensuu. For example, almost one-third of the geography majors in Helsinki had visited the USA, but nobody in Joensuu had done so (Table 4).

What Did They Know? Part One: General knowledge Each respondent group answered correctly about one half of the 24 questions in Part One. The geography majors in Helsinki attained an average of 11.8 points; the minors, 12.1 points; and the high school students, 11.3 points. In Joensuu, the results were 14.5, 11.6, and 10.4 points, respectively. The highest scores among majors were 22 (Helsinki) and 19 (Joensuu); among minors, 21 (H) and 16 (J); and among high schoolers, 18 (H) and 19 (J). Hollywood was known universally as the capital of the American film industry (98% of all respondents) (Table 1). Nine out of 10 respondents knew that Baywatch is a television series about beach life, that America’s gambling capital is Las Vegas, and that Kennedy was the president shot dead in Dallas in 1963. Roughly 80% knew that Pearl Harbor was the target of a Japanese attack in 1941



14

IRGEE 167


and that the Wall Street Stock Exchange is located in New York (we accepted ‘Manhattan’ as well). In Joensuu, almost as many respondents knew New Mexico’s Roswell and its alien sightings, in Helsinki Salt Lake City as the host city of the Winter Olympic Games was well recognised. In contrast, very few had heard about the Mall of America or Los Alamos as the location of the first atomic explosion. The majority believed the latter to have happened in Hiroshima, Japan (even though they knew the survey was about the USA). At most, one-fifth of the respondents in both Helsinki and Joensuu recognised Camp David as the vacation resort of American presidents and as the site of globally influential political negotiations; Seattle as the home of the World Trade Organization (WTO) riots; Oklahoma City as Timothy McVeigh’s target; Tombstone as Wyatt Earp’s town; and the Everglades as America’s most important marshland preservation area.

Educational background and age Differences in average scores between high school and university students were minuscule, but the respondent groups differed in what they knew. In Helsinki, the clearest dividers between university and high school students were Roswell (+19%-units in favour of high school students when compared to the average of the entire sample) and Bonanza (+15), but this did not apply to Joensuu. We were left to wonder whether it is the relatively broader selection of extra-curricular activities and more active nightlife available in Helsinki, the study load, or something else that distracts these freshmen away from television series. Differences in the timing and content of teaching may explain the differences in how well the two national parks were recognised. Yellowstone and the Everglades were generally more alien to high schoolers than to university students, who learn about the world’s major physical-geographic regions during their freshman year. Their reading assignments are typically English-language textbooks, with North American examples, for they are primarily written for North American audiences.3 The difference may also be due to more years of exposure to media information and to the selection of geographically oriented students in departmental qualification exams. The two destinations are commonly depicted in television’s nature documentaries, which many of the future teachers of geography and biology keenly follow. Indeed, the geography minors with science background were relatively familiar with the two parks. Age has an impact on how well the respondents remember specific events. Although the high schoolers recognised Salt Lake City as the host city of the 2002 Winter Olympics (the media coverage of which was abundant already in September 2001, when we surveyed the first group), they were less familiar (than the average) with the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta – at that time, these youngsters were 10 years old, while our university respondents were as old as the high schoolers now. The same is likely to apply to the WTO riots in Seattle, which were relatively poorly known in the four high schools – in the life of a 16-year-old, 2–3 years is a long time from the perspective of social and political awareness. It is also likely that university education attracts (and selects) youth who have a higher than average interest in society – the departmental qualification exams typically test the applicants (and reward them for) knowledge that reaches



IRGEE 167


15

beyond the required textbooks. The surveyed high school students are perhaps more typical representatives of the politically passive majority of Finnish youth.

Gender differences Gender-related differences among the respondents were clearest in Joensuu, where university-level men knew an average of 67% and women 45% of the answers in Part One. The difference was similarly clear among the high school students (51%–35%). In Helsinki, the difference was considerable among geography minors (64%–45%). Among the geography majors of Joensuu and the minors in Helsinki, the small number of men complicated the comparison. Men knew more about sports, politics, and contemporary history, women about popular culture and entertainment. In retrospect, the desired gender equality in the survey failed: the ‘Sports’ category seemed to favour men, even if ice hockey is increasingly popular among Finnish women and the athletes named in the survey represented both sexes (about international football broadcasting’s positive impact on geographic knowledge, see Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Pinheiro, 1996). The particularly notable difference between men and women in this category in Joensuu may reflect differences in local sports and youth cultures. Our results shed no light on whether the size of the city or its contact with rural areas has an impact on gender-related values and topics of interest. The clearest difference between men and women was found in ‘World Politics’, both in high schools and universities. Especially Seattle’s WTO riots were recognised notably poorly among women. Our results suggest that young Finnish men follow political and social affairs much more closely than women, who have largely turned their back on the world. Knowing that Finnish women have for the past two decades voted more actively than men, it seems that young Finnish women have limited interest in politics outside their own life sphere and that they favour conventional, relatively passive channels of political participation. Other factors The differences between the respondent groups were smaller in regard to travel experience and television watching preferences. In Helsinki, travel experience in the USA had a positive impact on the score among geography majors and high schoolers (the number of those who had visited the USA in Joensuu was not sufficient for analysis). Those high schoolers and geography minors who favour news programmes scored slightly higher than the average in both Helsinki and Joensuu. Part Two: Cartography The cartographic assignment in Part Two turned out to be considerably more difficult than Part One. The respondents scored an average of one-quarter of the maximum 72 points. The difference between university and high school students was clear. The highest average score, 26.8 points (37% of the maximum), was that of the geography majors in Joensuu (Figure 2). The lowest average, 13.8 points (19%), was among the city’s high school students. The trend was very similar in Helsinki. Gender differences were again notable. The highest score in the entire sample was 57 (79% of the maximum), by a 22-year-old male geography major from the University of Helsinki. He knew the



16

IRGEE 167


Figure 2 The average scores of the respondent groups in cartographic Part Two of the survey

exact location of over one half of the destinations (3 points each) and received zero points only for Ponderosa (Lake Tahoe). In Joensuu, the highest score, 53, was achieved by a 17-year-old male high school student, who scored zero points only for Tombstone and Ponderosa. Only one of the groups’ top scorers had visited the USA. The easiest places to locate were California’s major cities San Francisco and Los Angeles (where Hollywood is located), Dallas, and New York, all at an accuracy level of 35%–50% (Table 2; Figure 3). This is not surprising, for big destinations are generally better recognised than small ones (Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Saarinen, 1973). The location of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was known almost as well. The most difficult destination to map was the core cultural area of the Amish (below 10%). Ponderosa (Lake Tahoe), San Jose, Los Alamos, Tombstone, and Camp David were also relatively unknown, none exceeding 15% (Table 2; Figure 1). Somewhat surprising to us was that Minneapolis, a major metropolis in the historical hearth of Finnish immigration to the USA, was mapped almost as poorly. The interior of the USA was in general less accurately known than the coastal areas. This result again conforms to the pioneering findings of Thomas Saarinen (1973) – the shape of the coastline helps people memorise and find the location (see Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Pinheiro, 1998). Quite a few respondents did not know where the USA ends and where Canada and Mexico begin. One-third of the high school students placed at least one US destination in Canada and almost as many in Mexico. Here, too, men were better:



IRGEE 167


17

Figure 3 An example of the best cartographic accuracy in Part Two of the survey Only the results of the geography majors at the University of Helsinki are included in this map

almost one-third of female high schoolers in Helsinki and one half in Joensuu crossed the US boundary, whereas for both cities less than one-fifth of their male colleagues made the same mistake. The university respondents clearly did better, although the results of the geography majors are not particularly flattering either: roughly one-sixth of all respondents in this group placed at least one destination in Mexico. Every 10th academic student in Helsinki and every sixth in Joensuu crossed the border into Canada. Particularly difficult in this regard (and especially for women) was the location of Niagara Falls at the international border. Those who study geography as a minor subject were generally more accurate, although their mistakes were greater – one male who believed that the USA continues beyond the Rio Grande also believed that Cuba is part of the USA. Those who had visited the USA were not free from such errors either.

Differences between general and cartographic knowledge The relative differences between the results in Part One and Part Two were considerable. Seven destinations were placed more accurately on the map than they were recognised in Part One (Figure 1). The Everglades was not familiar by name, but a reference to marshland conservation and alligators in Part Two helped university students connect the destination to the South, probably following their knowledge of the world’s basic physical geography. Seattle, Los Alamos, Minneapolis, and San Francisco were also easier to map than to link to the WTO riots, the A-bomb, shopping, and hippies. The connection between Wyatt Earp and Tombstone was not recognised in Part One, but the reference to the West in Part Two guided some respondents to the right region. It seemed,



18

IRGEE 167


however, that the ‘Wild West’ is generally not associated with America’s settlement history, but with the whole of the USA – which is located west of Europe (see Saarinen, 1988, 1999). It is also possible that because of American popular culture (especially westerns), ‘West’ as a direction is secondary to the mythical, strongly symbolic concept representing the nation’s shared identity and values (Butler, 1994; Hausladen, 2003). Oklahoma City was another destination that was relatively easier to map. Its location was either known exactly or not at all. Mapping some destinations that were well recognised in Part One turned out to be relatively difficult. The most notable differences (over 60%-units) concerned Las Vegas and Santa Monica, although these two destinations were still among those that were the easiest to locate. Many believed Las Vegas to be in California, Santa Monica was placed in Florida or Baja California in Mexico, and many had seemingly hesitated marking it in the same spot with Hollywood. Nor was the location of Hollywood as clear as its role in the film industry – the difference between Part One and Part Two in this regard was over 48 percentage units. The same applied to Graceland. The reference to ‘Memphis, Tennessee’ led the respondents to the South, but selecting the state was a challenge. This was true in the case of Atlanta as well. Niagara Falls and New York were well recognised in Part One. However, few respondents knew the exact location of the Falls between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, although the majority received points by placing them somewhere in the Great Lakes area (some deep into Canada). The same applied to New York: the famous metropolis found its way to the East Coast, but the shape of Long Island was not recognised with the same confidence. Even some geography majors placed New York at the latitude of the Carolinas and northern Florida (Figure 3). Dallas, Pearl Harbor, and Salt Lake City were also rather difficult relatively speaking, although in absolute terms they all were among the most accurately mapped destinations (difference at least 40%-units). The assassination of President Kennedy had left a clear imprint from history books and the visual media, but the location of Dallas was not as clear. There were a few who believed that Japan attacked the coterminous USA – across the Atlantic Ocean (Figure 3). The relative difficulty of locating Salt Lake City was somewhat surprising, because the Great Salt Lake was among the few waterways portrayed on the map.

Educational background and age The high school students scored lower points than the university students, with two exceptions. In both Joensuu and Helsinki, high school students placed Roswell on the map roughly at an accuracy of 25%, while the average score of the entire sample was lower (one-fifth). This result is important when compared to the generally poorer cartographic skills of the high school students. The case of Ponderosa in Joensuu was even clearer: the high school students mapped it at an accuracy of 12%, the university students at 7%. The importance of the result is further underscored by the miniature size of these destinations, especially when it is known that large centres are generally better known than small ones (Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Pinheiro, 1998; Saarinen, 1973). Roswell and Ponderosa suggest that television series have helped their viewers memorise cartographic information. The beginning of Bonanza features a burning map of the ranch, the



IRGEE 167


19

location of Roswell has been indicated in both Roswell and the X Files, another television series popular among this age group. The West Coast was relatively unknown for high school students in both Helsinki and Joensuu – the accuracy of locating Hollywood, Seattle, Santa Monica, and San Francisco was clearly below the overall average. Finnish media tend to portray the East Coast as synonymous with the USA,4 and at least in the case of Seattle, the previously mentioned elements of life experience and political awareness are likely to play a role – the university students enjoy an average benefit of five years. Finnish teacher education seeks to promote the usage of current news material in the classroom, but our results suggest that the message in its current form does not reach the majority of the students. The university respondents in Helsinki located 20 destinations on the map more accurately than was the average score of the entire sample in Helsinki. In Joensuu, the university students scored higher than average in the case of 22 destinations. Roswell (3%-units below the sample average both in Helsinki and Joensuu) and Ponderosa (H –2%J –4%) were the only consistent exceptions. In both cities the academic respondents appeared to be Baywatch fans – the world’s most widely distributed and best-known television series ranked high in their general knowledge, and they mapped Santa Monica at an accuracy of almost 50% in both Joensuu and Helsinki, exceeding the sample’s overall average by at least 21 percentage units. The best-known destinations in Part Two were Hollywood and San Francisco. The accuracy among the university respondents reached an average of 66%, which exceeds the general average by 25 percentage units. A difference of at least 20 percentage units between the university students and the general average occurred also in the case of Salt Lake City (+28%-units). Considerable differences in cartographic skills between the university and high school respondents point to the selection of cartographically oriented students to the geography departments. The differences also suggest that the introductory courses in geography succeed in developing these skills further. Several examples among the university-level geography students’ answers suggested a strong ability to contextualise the given references. For example, the placement of the Everglades somewhere in the southernmost, coastal South (although not necessarily in Florida) indicates an ability to combine textual messages, cartographic images, and the basics of world physical geography learned in the introductory geography classes. Similar themes are touched upon in high school geography, but our results from the four high schools did not show similar sophistication. That the university students mapped Minneapolis, Seattle, and Oklahoma City more accurately suggests (not surprisingly) that academic study of geography enhances cartographic understanding of the world and helps to place the sites of major news events on a map.

Gender differences The differences between men and women were again considerable (Figure 2). Men did better than women in each examined group and accounted for most of the exact (three-point) answers. Male geography majors appeared as particularly competent, scoring an average of 37.0 points for Part Two in Joensuu and 32.7 points in Helsinki. The performance of female geography majors was alarmingly poor in comparison (J 24.7/H 19.0). In Helsinki, the youngest of these women



20

IRGEE 167


attained an average of 17.7 points (in Joensuu, only one respondent in this group was 22 years old). The difference between men and women shrinks by almost one-third, if the ‘Sports’ results are excluded. Gender differences were highlighted especially in Joensuu in a manner that calls for further research. Among geography minors, the men’s average was 10.2 points higher than that of women (again, the small number of men in this group prevents conclusions). The difference among the high school respondents was as clear as among the university-level ones, and the ‘Sports’ category accounted for less than 13% of the difference. Of the weakest 13 high school respondents (0–5 points, without deliberately handing in a blank form), 70% were women. At this level of knowledge, the world is likely to appear as a confusing place. Major cities were generally the easiest to recognise in Part One, irrespective of gender, but women’s ability to place them on the map was much poorer. In Helsinki, men mapped San Francisco, Hollywood (Los Angeles), New York, and Pearl Harbor at the minimum accuracy of 50% and Dallas at 75%. Among women, the most accurate was San Francisco, at 47%. In Joensuu, only Hollywood reached an accuracy level of 50%, but otherwise men’s better cartographic knowledge was demonstrated with the same destinations, at an accuracy level of 43%–48%. Women also found these same destinations the easiest to locate, but with an accuracy of 27% (Dallas) to 37% (Pearl Harbor, San Francisco). In Joensuu, men had the hardest time placing Lancaster County (10%) and Tombstone (12%) on the map; in Helsinki, it was Minneapolis (11%). Women in both Joensuu and Helsinki had three destinations under 10% (San Jose, Lancaster County, and Ponderosa/Lake Tahoe). The largest differences between men and women applied to those destinations that were the easiest to map. In the case of Dallas, for example, the difference was 36 percentage units in favour of men in Helsinki and 20 units in Joensuu. The same pattern applied to other cities as well. Women were more accurate in Helsinki only in the case of Minneapolis (+2%-units), and in Joensuu, in the case of Memphis (+1), but generally these destinations were difficult to map. Chance may therefore play a role in the result, although based on our findings, Elvis and shopping seem to be female specialties. Men were more capable of combining written hints and cartographic images. The differences were the largest in those cases where the mapping could be supported by this kind of deduction. Men knew the location of Salt Lake City (H +29/J +14 %-units) and the Everglades (H +36/J +30) considerably better than women and also placed major cities on the map more accurately. In the case of New York, for example, men’s accuracy exceeded that of women by 34 percentage units in Helsinki and by 39 units in Joensuu. Even if the sports questions were excluded, the results point to gaps in the skills of women who study geography at the university level. An interesting, but perhaps chance-induced detail is that in both cities university women did better in the case of one destination – Ponderosa (although mapping this destination was generally very difficult).

‘Back to the Maps, Chaps!’ The results from the survey’s Part Two suggest that the admission of students into Finnish geography departments favours cartographically skilled



IRGEE 167


21

individuals. The universities’ introductory classes in geography further enhance these skills. Also, age and life experience are likely to favour university students in this kind of survey. Furthermore, contact with American entertainment can promote cartographic knowledge about the country – Roswell serves as the clearest example of this connection. Travel and interest in news programmes had a similar (but weaker) impact (see Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Saarinen & MacCabe, 1989: 93). In their travels, the respondents of this study are likely to benefit from the general linguistic competence of Finnish youth, the significance of which has been confirmed in an earlier study (Saarinen & MacCabe, 1989: 93; cf. Pinheiro, 1998). In order to graduate from high school and university, Finnish students need a demonstrated command of three languages (two domestic and one foreign). Men had broader general and cartographic knowledge about the USA than women and made better use of textual and cartographic hints. The trend matches previous findings regarding gender differences in spatial comprehension (e.g. Gardner, 1985, 1991), which cultural factors related to the socialisation of boys may enhance further. Thus, the male propensity to explore the world beyond the immediate sphere of home is likely to promote the expansion of general knowledge, including such geographically broad topics as world politics. This would suggest that cartography is more of a challenge to women than to men, but similar differences do not exist in relation to abstract geographical themes. Especially among university students, the gender gap appears alarmingly wide. The scores of the geography students in this survey were primarily a male achievement. Our results suggest that women who study geography at the university level have a weak understanding of global cartography, to the extent that the world’s most important cities do not find their way onto the map – not even at the level of a region. It thus seems that despite high standards, Finnish universities host geography students who are lost in the world, without knowing where on their mental map to locate places mentioned in the evening news. The challenge is to make these students use available atlases and Internet map sources. The results suggest that the level of knowledge among the youngest fresh(wo)men is weaker than the average of university students, which is likely to be connected to the generally weaker results of high schoolers. This observation is important in the context of the public debate which began in Finland in 2003 about strengthening the link between the final national exams in high schools and the entrance examinations of universities in favour of those students who wish to enter university immediately after graduating from high school. The goal would be to lower the graduation age of Finnish university students and move the educated youth from schools into the workforce as soon as possible (partially following the American model). Based on our results, this kind of change in the admission procedures would damage such fields as geography, which expects from its students a holistic understanding of the world and its constituents and, preferably, independent travel experience. There is a risk that this substantial gender gap will keep repeating itself. This is evident as the proportion of female geography school teachers grows steadily, reflecting the generally rising share of female students in Finnish universities and the popularity of the teacher education option among women. But how well



22

IRGEE 167


is geography being taught, if the teacher cannot place such world cities as New York on the map, or if she or he cannot recognise the boundary between two such important western powers as the USA and Canada? The active discussion within Finnish teacher education about the importance of holistic cartographic and environmental education is not enough nor very credible, if it fails to arouse willingness to seek information from maps and other sources among high school students and, especially, among teachers in training. Some of the information requested in our survey can be considered basic information that ordinary citizens need in their everyday lives. The roots of the problem may already lie in the early school years of today’s academic freshmen – it was shown in the 1980s that attention to world cartography is declining in Finnish schools (Kaivola, 1988; see also Gannon, 1994). International comparisons that use mental maps rarely reveal these problems because the method emphasises the respondents’ choices. Suggestions about teaching Our findings direct attention towards the content and method of geography education. University-level geography teachers (including us) tend to take for granted the importance of reading maps and following daily news, but it is not self-evident that students understand why obtaining general and cartographic knowledge of the world beyond the required reading assignments is necessary. The challenge is obvious, yet simple: to find ways to deliver the message in clear, thought-provoking, and engaging ways to which the children of the era of global consumer culture and entertainment can relate and which they find meaningful (see Biddulph & Adey, 2004). Based on our survey, we offer the following recommendations. First, map assignments should receive more attention in a variety of courses and in programmes directed at geography teachers, who are encouraged to learn by doing (Houtsonen, 1997). The results can be integrated in discussion sessions, self-evaluation procedures, and method classes. In this way, the students can reflect on their own level of knowledge. The instructor can have an updated sense of what the students know and do not know, which helps in steering the content and method of instruction. Second, entertainment and popular culture should be made to serve education (see Morgan, 2001; Raento, 2000; Tani, 1997). Our understanding and perception of the world is now more strongly influenced by television and other sources of visual entertainment than by education given in institutions (see Jenks, 1995; Postman, 1985; Urry, 1990) and we know that sports affiliations can add to geographic knowledge (Ibrahim & Saarinen, 2000; Pinheiro, 1996). Our results confirm that entertainment is greatly enjoyed and age, gender, and education guide taste and interest. The knowledge related to Roswell and Ponderosa/Lake Tahoe (Bonanza) points to a strong link between general knowledge, cartographic knowledge, and favourite television programmes. The topic is so important that the location of these places has been memorised, but neither of the two places is among the conventional ‘must-know’ destinations on the American map. Critical analysis of popular culture imageries is one way to understand other people’s cultures and countries as well as one’s own (e.g. Bordo, 1997; Featherstone, 1995; Hottola, 2002; see also Ang, 1993; Lutz & Collins, 1993). The



IRGEE 167


23

‘foe’ of international media entertainment could therefore be considered a friend that supports the general goals of education. This does not mean wilful ‘dummification’ of the content matter or pleasing those who want an easy way out. Examples used in the classroom can, and should, be actively sought from the students’ own world in order to provoke curiosity, interest, and critical thinking. ‘Dry facts’ can be linked to popular examples to encourage creative associations and to stimulate memory. The quality of education is generally strengthened if the instructors know what their students are interested in and why (see Skelton & Valentine, 1998). Students who learn that their participation is appreciated are likely to contribute to the development of their own education. Third, news offers plenty of up-to-date teaching material and novel ways to use it creatively should be sought. Current, place-specific content matter enhances the name recognition of a place and provokes interest in it (Saarinen, 1973). News material often includes visual imagery, which places the events on a map and often guides the reader’s eye and interpretation. This is known and acknowledged in teacher education and applied in the classroom, but based on our findings, we suggest a change of focus – that these materials should be given a more central role in instruction (at least at the university level), instead of using them as supporting material through brief references and as additional sources for those who already are interested. Again, this requires instructors to be constantly developing their own skills. Fourth, travel, nature, and related themes should be utilised in education more extensively than is being done today. Conventional field trips can be creatively supported through fresh approaches to visual materials. By way of example, the representations, style, and selection of topics in travel and nature documentaries provide a solid base for critical discussion and expansion of basic general and cartographic knowledge in the process (see Lutz & Collins, 1993; Schwartz & Ryan, 2003). Another useful link between television (and other media) and the classroom is the use of nature in advertisements (for the semiotic interpretation of advertisement in geography, see Burgess & Wood, 1988). Academic geography students, who tend to be frequent travellers, should be encouraged to integrate their personal experiences in these debates. The results of our survey highlight the value of ‘graphicacy’ and its equal development along with the skills of reading, writing, and counting (Balchin, 1972; see also Boardman, 1989). Balchin’s famous suggestion, which opened the discussion segment of this paper, should be revisited and understood even more broadly in a world where the significance of visual information is growing rapidly. It is likely to be even more important in the globalised world of labour where broad general knowledge and understanding of local, regional, national, and global geographies opens doors in the labour market (Featherstone, 1995; Ritzer, 1996). Special attention should be directed to the skills of women and to making sure that new school teachers have a solid professional foundation when they move on to teach future generations. Education should anticipate change instead of reacting to it. Acknowledgements Our heartfelt thanks to the geography teachers and students at Joensuun Lyseo and Niinivaara High Schools in Joensuu, at Helsingin Normaalilyseo and



24

IRGEE 167


Helsingin II Normaalikoulu High Schools in Helsinki, and at the Geography Departments of the University of Joensuu and the University of Helsinki. Without their help this project would not have been possible. Daniel Karvonen of the University of Minnesota and Steven Flusty of York University helped with the English language, Kirsti Lehto of the University of Helsinki with the cartographic design, and Taina Kaivola of the University of Helsinki with some of the references. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Pauliina Raento, University of Helsinki, Dept of Geography, Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, Finland (pauliina.raento@ helsinki.fi). Notes 1. Ice hockey is the most popular team sport in Finland. The national league attracts more than 1.5 million spectators each year in a country of 5.2 million people. Finnish media follow closely the careers of those Finns who play in the NHL. 2. Finnish students typically enter high school at the age of 16, after completing nine years of comprehensive school (six years of elementary and three years of secondary school). Most students complete high school in three academic years, although they can choose a faster or slower route and complete the required classwork in, say, two or four years. 3. The textbooks used in high schools are produced domestically in the students’ mother tongue (in this case, Finnish). 4. The coverage of 9/11 is an illustrative example. While the main television news channel of Finland’s National Broadcasting Company (YLE TV1) informed its audience that ‘all phone connections to the United States’ are down, Dr Raento was on her cell phone in Helsinki talking to California. Only connections to the largest East Coast cities had been severed.

References Ang, I. (1993) Dallas and the ideology of mass culture. In S. During (ed.) The Cultural Studies Reader (pp. 403–20). London: Routledge. Atlas öfver Finland (1899) Helsinki: Geographical Society of Finland. Balchin, W. (1972) Graphicacy. Geography 57, 185–95. Biddulph, M. and Adey, K. (2004) Pupil perceptions of effective teaching and subject relevance in history and geography at Key Stage 3. Research in Education 71, 1–7. Boardman, D. (1989) The development of graphicacy: Children’s understanding of maps. Geography 74, 321–31. Bordo, S. (1997) Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bowen, M. (1985) The ecology of knowledge: Linking the natural and social sciences. Geoforum 16, 213–25. Burgess, J. and Wood, P. (1988) Decoding Docklands: Place advertising and the decision-making strategies of the small firm. In J. Eyles and D. M. Smith (eds) Qualitative Methods in Human Geography (pp. 94–117). Cambridge: Polity. Butler, A.M. (1994) Selling the popular myth. In C.A. Milner II, C.A. O’Connor and M.A. Sandweiss (eds) The Oxford History of the American West (pp. 771–801). New York: Oxford University Press. Campbell, C. (1987) The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell. Carter, R. (2000) Aspects of global citizenship. In C. Fisher and T. Binns (eds) Issues in Geography Teaching (pp. 175–89). London: Routledge.



IRGEE 167


25

Cloke, P., Crang, P. and Goodwin, M. (eds) (1999) Introducing Human Geographies. London: Arnold. Edwards, G. (2002) Geography, culture, values and education. In R. Gerber and M. Williams (eds) Geography, Culture and Education (pp. 31–40). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Eerola, T.T. and Öhrberg, J. (1995) Some methods used in public geoscience education in Finland. Geological Survey of Finland, Special Paper 20, 59–65. Featherstone, M. (1995) Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity. London: Sage. Ferreira, M.M. (2003) Old cultures, new cultures in geographical education. In R. Gerber (ed.) International Handbook on Geographical Education (pp. 65–73). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Fuller, I., Gaskin, S. and Scott, I. (2003) Student perceptions of geography and environmental science fieldwork in the light of restricted access to the field, caused by foot and mouth disease in the UK in 2001. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 27, 79–102. Gannon, M.J. (1994) Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 17 Countries. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Gardner, H. (1985) Frames of Mind. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic. Gardner, H. (1991) The Unschooled Mind. How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. New York: Basic. Gilbert, E. (1998) ‘Ornamenting the façade of hell’: Iconographies of 19th-century Canadian paper money. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 16, 57–80. Goin, P. (2001) Visual literacy. Geographical Review 91 (Special Issue: Doing fieldwork, eds D. DeLyser and P.F. Starrs), 363–9. Gregory, D. (1994) Geographical Imaginations. Cambridge: Blackwell. Hausladen, G. (ed.) (2003) Western Places, American Myths. How We Think about the West. Reno: University of Nevada Press. Hilli-Tammilehto, H. and Tani, S. (1999) Kotiseutuopetuksesta ympäristö- ja luonnontietoon: lähiympäristön huomioon ottaminen suomalaisessa kouluopetuksessa [Abstract: From home region studies to environmental and natural studies: the role of the local environment in Finnish school education]. Terra 111, 69–76. Hottola, P. (1999) The intercultural body: Western woman, culture confusion and control of space in the South Asian travel scene. University of Joensuu, Publications of the Department of Geography 7. Hottola, P. (2002) Touristic encounters with the exotic West: Blondes on the screens and streets of India. Tourism Recreation Research 27, 83–90. Houtsonen, L. (1996) Maantieteen näkökulma ympäristökasvatukseen (Abstract: Viewpoint of geography on environmental education). Terra 108, 66–79. Houtsonen, L. (1997) Education for environmental sensitivity: The experienced urban environment in Finnish teacher education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 6, 161–9. Ibrahim, M.B. and Saarinen, T.F. (2000) The role of geographic education in shaping the Muslim image of the world. Research in Geographic Education 2, 25–52. Jenks, C. (ed.) (1995) Visual Culture. London: Routledge. Kaivola, T. (1988) Lasten maantieteellinen maailmankuva mentaalikarttojen ja aluepreferenssien valossa. Unpublished MA thesis, Department of Geography, University of Helsinki. Kosonen, K. (1999) Maps, newspapers and nationalism: The Finnish historical experience. GeoJournal 48, 91–100. Lambert, D. and Machon, P. (eds) (2001) Citizenship Through Secondary Geography. London: Routledge. Loker, L. (1995) The Backpacker Phenomenon II: More Answers to Further Questions. Townsville: James Cook University of North Queensland. Lutz, C.A. and Collins, J.L. (1993) Reading National Geographic. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. May, J. (1999) Developing fieldwork in social and cultural geography: Illustrations from a residential field class in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 23, 207–25.



26

IRGEE 167


Morgan, J. (2001) Popular culture and geography education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 10, 284–97. Pinheiro, J.Q. (1996) Determinants of cognitive maps of the world as expressed in sketch maps. PhD Disserations, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona. Pinheiro, J.Q. (1998) Determinants of cognitive maps of the world as expressed in sketch maps. Journal of Environmental Psychology 18, 321–39. Postman, N. (1985) Amusing Ourselves to Death. Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Viking. Raento, P. (2000) Uhkapelaamisen hyöty maantieteen opetuksessa. Natura 37, 41–8. Raento, P. (2002) Matkailun villi länsi Arizonan Tombstonessa [Abstract: Touristic Wild West in Tombstone, Arizona]. Terra 114 (Special issue: Tourism, ed. J. Saarinen), 157–70. Raento, P. and Flusty, S. (2005) Three trips to Italy. Deconstructing the new Las Vegas. In C. Minca and T. Oakes (eds) Travels in Paradox (in press). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Raento, P., Hämäläinen, A., Ikonen, H. and Mikkonen, N. (2004) Striking stories: A political geography of euro coinage. Political Geography 23, 929–56. Raivo, P.J. (2002) The Finnish landscape and its meanings. In P. Raento and J. Westerholm (eds) Finland – nature, society, and regions. Fennia 180 (Special issue), 89–98. Richards, G. and Wilson, J. (eds) (2004) The Global Nomad: Backpacker Travel in Theory and Practice. Clevedon: Channel View Publications. Rikkinen, H. (1982a) Developments in the status and content of geography teaching in the secondary schools of Finland, 1770–1888. Fennia 160, 43–93. Rikkinen, H. (1982b) Developments in the status and content of geography teaching in the secondary schools of Finland, 1888–1977. Fennia 160, 313–83. Rikkinen, H. (1998) Maantiede peruskoulun ala-asteella (2nd edn). Studia Paedagogica 15. Rikkinen, K. (1988) Ragnar Hult and the emergence of geography in Finland, 1880–1900. Fennia 166, 3–192. Ritzer, G. (1996) The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life (2nd edn). Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge. Ritzer, G. and Liska, A. (1997) ‘McDisneyzation’ and ‘post-tourism’: Complementary perspectives on contemporary tourism. In C. Rojek and J. Urry (eds) Touring Cultures. Transformations of Travel and Theory (pp. 96–109). London: Routledge. Rose, G. (1996) Teaching visualized geographies: Towards a methodology for the interpretation of visual materials. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 20, 281–94. Rose, G. (2001) Visual Methodologies. London: Sage. Saarinen, T.F. (1973) Student views of the world. In R. Downs and D. Stea (eds) Image and Environment (pp. 148–61). Chicago: Aldine. Saarinen, T.F. (1988) Centering of mental maps of the world. National Geographic Research 4, 112–27. Saarinen, T.F. (1999) The Eurocentric nature of mental maps of the world. Research in Geographic Education 1, 136–78. Saarinen, T.F. and MacCabe, C.L. (1989) The Finnish image of the world and the world image of Finland. Terra 101, 81–93. Schwartz, J.M. and Ryan, J.R. (eds) (2003) Picturing Place. Photography and the Geographical Imagination. London: Tauris. Sidaway, J.D. (2002) Photography as geographical fieldwork. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 26, 95–103. Skelton, T. and Valentine, G. (eds) (1998) Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge. Soja, E.W. (1996) Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Cambridge: Blackwell. Tani, S. (1997) Mapping mindscapes: Senses, memories and popular culture in geographical education. In M. Naish (ed.) Values in Geography Education. Proceedings of the Special Conference of the IGU Commission on Geographical Education, 5–7 April 1997 (pp. 61–5). London: University of London Institute of Education. Tani, S. (2004a) Curriculum reform and primary geography in Finland: A gap between theory and practice? International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 13 (1), 6–20.



IRGEE 167


27

Tani, S. (2004b) Ympäristön, paikan, tilan ja kulttuurin tulkintaa: maantiede ympäristö- ja luonnontiedon oppikirjoissa [Abstract: Interpretation of environment, place, space and culture: Geography in the textbooks of Environment and Nature Studies]. Terra 116, p. 200, 131–43. Terra (2004) Suomalaiset mitaleille maantieteen olympialaisissa. Tiitta, A. (1996) Suomenkielisen maantiedon kouluopetuksen alkuvaiheet [Abstract: The early days of school geography teaching in Finnish]. Terra 108, 112–19. Unwin, T. and Hewitt, V. (2001) Banknotes and national identity in central and eastern Europe. Political Geography 20, 1005–28. Urry, J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze. Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage. van Dijk, H., van der Schee, J., Trimp, H. and Zijpp, T. van der (1994) Map skills and geographical knowledge. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 3, 68–80. Zelinsky, W. (1980) North America’s vernacular regions. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 70, 1–16.
