This policy brief investigates factors affecting New England's supply of recent college graduates and how those factors have changed over time, and suggests steps that states might take to expand this source of skilled labor. (Contains 3 figures.) [This brief summarizes analysis in NEPPC research report 08-1: "The Future of the Skilled Labor…

This essay reports on a university-school oral history project at an elementary school in Brooklyn, New York. It theorizes the dialectic of place and history as expressed in the voices of the school community and goes on to suggest some tenets for a public sphere pedagogy rooted in material rhetoric and economic geography. (Contains 14 notes.)

This article first attempts to supply a definition of peoples' identity as scientific as possible and takes a close look at the conditions that make creativity possible. The study of science history clearly indicates that the periods of great creativity were those when communication was sufficient to make remote partners stimulate one another but…

This paper reports on empirical research in four countries on the growing interest in the perceived "gap" between school and university human geography. Focusing on urban geography, we investigated the views of teachers and academic geographers about key elements of the field and those that were important for geography education. These…

Many teacher educators recommend that preservice teachers examine their own backgrounds and experiences to identify assumptions, beliefs, and values, as well as cultural contexts in which they grew up, which impact on how they understand schooling and students. Commonly, Social Foundations courses initiate self-examination through processes such…

While qualitative fieldwork in cross-cultural settings is central to human geography, there has been limited focus in the literature on the expectations and skills required to succeed as a field researcher in this area. Some practical advice is available for researchers who are new to cross-cultural fieldwork (e.g. graduate students, junior…

The contribution of the discipline of geography to the field of education is complex since they have both been dependent upon the contributions of other social science disciplines, particularly those in the mainstream of social sciences (economics, sociology and political science). Indeed, the number of researchers who would consider themselves as…

Greenways are prominent features of many urban landscapes and synthesize several geographic topics: human-environment interactions, urban ecosystems, and the promotion of sustainability within riverine corridors. Greenways are easily accessible and provide an opportunity for students at various grade levels to study interactions across physical…

Place reminds us to tailor our professional work to the shifting concerns, and indeed the shifting criteria, of our shifting constituencies, rather than to a placeless professional vision of what librarianship, society, and literacy should be. Every place maker must make do, make sense, and make place in an environment that is technologically…

"The Geography Teacher" provides hands-on reference and educative material for K-12 Geography teachers. The journal also pioneers innovative ideas for contemporary teaching methods, including lesson plans. This issue contains the following: (1) Ask Dr. de Blij (Harm de Blij); (2) Geography: Is it a Boy's Subject? (Lisa Smitreski); (3) A…

The literature on service learning in geography courses has established and substantiated the importance and usefulness of such projects for student learning. In this paper the assumption is questioned that similar sets of benefits accrue to "community" participants, those involved who are located outside the university context. The…

University instructors are increasingly drawing on active learning exercises to engender critical thinking skills among students. In this article, we introduce the design and implementation of an active learning exercise about mobility and transportation that we assigned in an introductory human geography class at the University of Georgia. The…

This report examines how California's massive and ongoing investment in school construction could better advance the shared goals of school improvement, sustainable urban growth, and equal opportunity. This brief is organized in five parts. First, the authors sketch a "framework" for how smart growth principles could help guide school…

This article compares and contrasts the theories of three major writers on societal change: Chirot discusses the economic power struggles within and among core, peripheral, and semiperipheral societies, Toffler exposes a future in which major power shifts could have cataclysmic results, and Bruner emphasizes the importance of education to temper…

PlacesOnLine.org is a Web portal that provides easy access to high quality Web sites that focus on places from around the world. It is intended for use by a wide range of people, including professional geographers, teachers and students at all levels, and the general public. This article explores the potential uses of PlacesOnLine as an…