The Geographical Association’s curriculum framework: a critical lens for school geography?

In this article we focus on the Geographical Association’s curriculum framework (GA, 2022) and the extent to which it enables schools and teachers to critically examine their own school’s geography curricula. Our data comes from student teachers’ PGCE coursework and the outcomes of a focus group interview. The student teachers were asked to reflect on the potential of the GA’s framework to support the development/improvement of geography in secondary schools. The outcomes reveal that while these student teachers saw great potential in the framework for clarifying what ‘geography’ in the school geography curriculum should comprise, they felt that there were many obstacles to its successful application in school geography, resulting from the performativity pressure rife in many schools. While the GA framework does provide a useful critical lens for teachers, curriculum reform at national and examination level are necessary precursors to school curriculum reform.