Do you want to sign this open letter?
Professor Iris Möller's Open Letter to the Minister for Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
Why The New Leaving Cert Subject? Geographers have been providing education for Climate Action and Sustainable Development for Centuries.
We, the undersigned representatives of Geography in Ireland, are deeply concerned about the way in which the government is introducing ‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’ into the post-16 Leaving Certificate Qualification curriculum.
We see a worrying disconnect between the content of Geography in all our degree programmes at universities in Ireland and the apparent perception of what Geography is by the NCCA (the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment).
After removing Geography as a core subject in the Junior Certification curriculum in 2019, we are now witnessing the NCCA introducing a ‘new subject’ at Leaving Certification level. The content of that new subject (‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’), however, is what Geography (certainly in the tertiary sector) has been teaching for decades if not centuries: knowledge on how the atmosphere, oceans, global ecosystems, and the water cycle function alongside knowledge on how people relate to their environment, how people act within certain political power spheres, and how they do so differently within specific places and regions.
We also understand that this ‘new subject’ is to cover a skill set that includes critical thinking, active listening, independent researching, and team-working and we would strongly argue that those skills are needed by all secondary school pupils taught in all schools, regardless of their chosen subjects.
Not surprisingly, we are wondering where the government thinks this introduction of the new subject will leave Geography and geographical knowledge.
Alongside delivering core skills for the climate action and sustainable development challenges of the 21st Century (such as remote sensing and geographical information systems), Geography at university currently builds a deep understanding of the human-nature relationship, human existence, and its impact on planet Earth, at its core. More than 160 years ago, Alexander von Humboldt was particularly important in shaping the transition of Geography from the mere exploration of the Earth’s surface to a more analytical approach. Travelling through the Andes of South America he recognised even then (around the turn of the 18th into the 19th Century!), the link between human deforestation of the Amazon and its regional climate. He set the foundation for a geographical science that has grown from strength to strength.
Today, Geography seeks to understand not only why human society is so continuously driven to destroy our own habitat but also what makes it so easy for our society to ignore the warning signs and the scientific evidence for the human impact on our planet. Anyone wishing to understand the answer to those questions, act on them and find sustainable development solutions, will not find them in the purely natural sciences to which we have traditionally turned for solutions nor will they find answers in the pursuit of better technology. We cannot ‘engineer ourselves out’ of the dilemma we have gotten ourselves into.
Geographers have now been teaching content for many decades at university that is built on the recognition that sustainable solutions, climate action, and sustainable development, require both: knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms that are at work in nature; and an understanding of human behaviour: the social, economic, and political forces that push us in a certain direction when we make decisions.
Geographers also teach content that ensures students are aware that solutions are unlikely to be universally valid but must be developed for every different location, culture, society, in all its diversity.
In short, the current science of Geography, in the way it is taught at university level at least, consists precisely of the content that the government is suggesting should form the new Leaving Certificate subject of ‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’.
Geographers within Irish universities are currently teaching and researching exactly what is needed to achieve impactful climate action and sustainable development. They are doing so by studying our economic and social systems, as well as the physical, biological, and chemical workings involved in soil erosion, river flooding, coastal change, ice-formation and ice-melting, sea-level rise etc. It is simply a necessity for at least some of us to have this overview over the human and physical interactions on our planet, to lead the teams who need to be assembled to find solutions to our self-destructive predicament.
And this knowledge is what Geography has given so many of our students who have graduated in Geography and who now sit in leadership positions in big international and national organisations, funding agencies, and think-tanks, campaigning tirelessly for change and a better way forward. Geographers never lose sight of the interconnectedness of everything – across space and through time. There is simply no better discipline for this.
Instead of recognising Geography for what it is, does, and delivers, why, in our National School Curriculum, are we now introducing the content of Geography into a new subject, risking, at best, duplication of material and, at worst, the loss of a rich and long history of solution-finding which began over 200 years ago and from which we can learn so much?
Furthermore, and even if the ‘new’ subject is supposed to be less about building knowledge and more about building skill, why are we restricting important skills such as critical thinking, active listening, independent researching, and team-working (skills that all pupils should learn) to a single ‘new subject’?
Instead of introducing Geography’s content under a new name, we call for the reintroduction of Geography as a core subject in the Junior Cycle and for an urgent revision of the Leaving Certificate Geography curriculum (last updated in 1994) to reflect better the actual 21st Century academic content of the subject as taught in the higher education sector internationally.
Yours sincerely,
Prof Iris Möller, Professor of Geography (1966) and Head of Discipline, Trinity College Dublin
Prof Anna Davies, Professor of Geography, Environment & Society, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Pete D. Akers, Assistant Professor in Physical Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Susan Pike, Assistant Professor in Geography Education, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Susan Murphy, Associate Professor in Development Practice, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Rory Rowan, Assistant Professor in Environment & Society, Trinity College Dublin
Dr John Connolly, Kinsella Assistant Professor in GIS & Remote Sensing, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Cian O’Callaghan, Associate Professor in Urban Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Julian Bloomer, Assistant Lecturer in Geography, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Dr Jeremy Auerbach, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Geoffrey Boyce, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Shane Mc Guinness, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Professor Gerry Kearns, Professor of Geography, Maynooth University
Prof Karen Till, Professor of Geography, Maynooth University
Dr Oliver Dunnett, Director of Undergraduate Programmes in Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Tristan Sturm, Senior Lecturer of Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Diarmid Finnegan, Reader in Human Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Christine Bonnin, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Ainhoa González, Associate Professor in Geography, Environment and Geographic Information Systems, University College Dublin
Dr Martin Sokol, Associate Professor of Economic Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Ruth McManus, Associate Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Jimmy O’Keeffe, Assistant Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Kathleen Stokes, Assistant Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Prof Niamh Moore-Cherry, Chair, International Geographical Congress 2024 and Full Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Jonathan Cherry, Assistant Professor in Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Eugene Farrell, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof Ulf Strohmayer, Established Chair of Geography, University of Galway
Dr Patrick Collins, Associate Professor in Geography, University of Galway
Dr Terry R. Morley, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof Chaosheng Zhang, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Dr Valerie Ledwith, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Dr Audrey Morley, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof. John Morrissey, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Lisa Clarke, Assistant Professor, Dublin CIty University
Dr Carla Kayanan, Assistant Lecturer, Maynooth University
Dr Arlene Crampsie, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Shelagh Waddington, Lecturer Emerita in Geography, Maynooth University
Tom Popple, CEO, BE IMPACTFUL
Dr Ronan Foley, Associate Professor, Maynooth University
Dr Gerald Mills, Associate Professor and Climatologist, UCD.
Dr Catherine Porter, Associate Professor, University of Limerick.
Dr Brendan O’Keeffe, Independent Researcher
Dr Mary Bourke, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Trinity College, Dublin
Dr Gerry O’Reilly. Associate Professor. School of History & Geography. Dublin City University.
Chris Stewart, PhD Researcher in Palaeoclimatology, University of Galway
Dr Dean Phelan, Research Social Scientist, School of Geography, University College Dublin
Prof Des Gillmor, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College Dublin
Prof Robert Devoy (Prof. Emeritus of Geography), University College Cork
Prof David Nally, University of Cambridge
Kate de Smeth, PhD Researcher in Hydrology, University College Dublin
Dominic Robinson, Treasurer, Geographical Society of Ireland and Geospatial Researcher, University College Dublin
Dr Dylan Connor, Associate Professor, Arizona State University & Chair, Population Specialty Group, American Association of Geographers
Dr Joseph Gallagher, Heritage Officer, Donegal County Council
Emily Rick, PhD Researcher in Hydromorphology, University College Dublin
Amy Duley, PhD Researcher in Human Geography, University College Dublin
Ruodi Yang, PhD Researcher in Human Geography, University College Dublin
Prof. Frances Fahy, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Louise Sarsfield Collins, Assistant Lecturer, Maynooth University
Dr Michelle McKeown, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Jesse D. Peterson, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Ray O’Connor, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Therese Kenna, University College Cork
Dr Piaras Mac Éinrí University College Cork
Dr Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn, Lecturer, University College Cork
We see a worrying disconnect between the content of Geography in all our degree programmes at universities in Ireland and the apparent perception of what Geography is by the NCCA (the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment).
After removing Geography as a core subject in the Junior Certification curriculum in 2019, we are now witnessing the NCCA introducing a ‘new subject’ at Leaving Certification level. The content of that new subject (‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’), however, is what Geography (certainly in the tertiary sector) has been teaching for decades if not centuries: knowledge on how the atmosphere, oceans, global ecosystems, and the water cycle function alongside knowledge on how people relate to their environment, how people act within certain political power spheres, and how they do so differently within specific places and regions.
We also understand that this ‘new subject’ is to cover a skill set that includes critical thinking, active listening, independent researching, and team-working and we would strongly argue that those skills are needed by all secondary school pupils taught in all schools, regardless of their chosen subjects.
Not surprisingly, we are wondering where the government thinks this introduction of the new subject will leave Geography and geographical knowledge.
Alongside delivering core skills for the climate action and sustainable development challenges of the 21st Century (such as remote sensing and geographical information systems), Geography at university currently builds a deep understanding of the human-nature relationship, human existence, and its impact on planet Earth, at its core. More than 160 years ago, Alexander von Humboldt was particularly important in shaping the transition of Geography from the mere exploration of the Earth’s surface to a more analytical approach. Travelling through the Andes of South America he recognised even then (around the turn of the 18th into the 19th Century!), the link between human deforestation of the Amazon and its regional climate. He set the foundation for a geographical science that has grown from strength to strength.
Today, Geography seeks to understand not only why human society is so continuously driven to destroy our own habitat but also what makes it so easy for our society to ignore the warning signs and the scientific evidence for the human impact on our planet. Anyone wishing to understand the answer to those questions, act on them and find sustainable development solutions, will not find them in the purely natural sciences to which we have traditionally turned for solutions nor will they find answers in the pursuit of better technology. We cannot ‘engineer ourselves out’ of the dilemma we have gotten ourselves into.
Geographers have now been teaching content for many decades at university that is built on the recognition that sustainable solutions, climate action, and sustainable development, require both: knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms that are at work in nature; and an understanding of human behaviour: the social, economic, and political forces that push us in a certain direction when we make decisions.
Geographers also teach content that ensures students are aware that solutions are unlikely to be universally valid but must be developed for every different location, culture, society, in all its diversity.
In short, the current science of Geography, in the way it is taught at university level at least, consists precisely of the content that the government is suggesting should form the new Leaving Certificate subject of ‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’.
Geographers within Irish universities are currently teaching and researching exactly what is needed to achieve impactful climate action and sustainable development. They are doing so by studying our economic and social systems, as well as the physical, biological, and chemical workings involved in soil erosion, river flooding, coastal change, ice-formation and ice-melting, sea-level rise etc. It is simply a necessity for at least some of us to have this overview over the human and physical interactions on our planet, to lead the teams who need to be assembled to find solutions to our self-destructive predicament.
And this knowledge is what Geography has given so many of our students who have graduated in Geography and who now sit in leadership positions in big international and national organisations, funding agencies, and think-tanks, campaigning tirelessly for change and a better way forward. Geographers never lose sight of the interconnectedness of everything – across space and through time. There is simply no better discipline for this.
Instead of recognising Geography for what it is, does, and delivers, why, in our National School Curriculum, are we now introducing the content of Geography into a new subject, risking, at best, duplication of material and, at worst, the loss of a rich and long history of solution-finding which began over 200 years ago and from which we can learn so much?
Furthermore, and even if the ‘new’ subject is supposed to be less about building knowledge and more about building skill, why are we restricting important skills such as critical thinking, active listening, independent researching, and team-working (skills that all pupils should learn) to a single ‘new subject’?
Instead of introducing Geography’s content under a new name, we call for the reintroduction of Geography as a core subject in the Junior Cycle and for an urgent revision of the Leaving Certificate Geography curriculum (last updated in 1994) to reflect better the actual 21st Century academic content of the subject as taught in the higher education sector internationally.
Yours sincerely,
Prof Iris Möller, Professor of Geography (1966) and Head of Discipline, Trinity College Dublin
Prof Anna Davies, Professor of Geography, Environment & Society, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Pete D. Akers, Assistant Professor in Physical Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Susan Pike, Assistant Professor in Geography Education, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Susan Murphy, Associate Professor in Development Practice, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Rory Rowan, Assistant Professor in Environment & Society, Trinity College Dublin
Dr John Connolly, Kinsella Assistant Professor in GIS & Remote Sensing, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Cian O’Callaghan, Associate Professor in Urban Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Julian Bloomer, Assistant Lecturer in Geography, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Dr Jeremy Auerbach, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Geoffrey Boyce, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Shane Mc Guinness, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Professor Gerry Kearns, Professor of Geography, Maynooth University
Prof Karen Till, Professor of Geography, Maynooth University
Dr Oliver Dunnett, Director of Undergraduate Programmes in Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Tristan Sturm, Senior Lecturer of Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Diarmid Finnegan, Reader in Human Geography, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Christine Bonnin, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Ainhoa González, Associate Professor in Geography, Environment and Geographic Information Systems, University College Dublin
Dr Martin Sokol, Associate Professor of Economic Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Ruth McManus, Associate Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Jimmy O’Keeffe, Assistant Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Kathleen Stokes, Assistant Professor of Geography, Dublin City University
Prof Niamh Moore-Cherry, Chair, International Geographical Congress 2024 and Full Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Jonathan Cherry, Assistant Professor in Geography, Dublin City University
Dr Eugene Farrell, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof Ulf Strohmayer, Established Chair of Geography, University of Galway
Dr Patrick Collins, Associate Professor in Geography, University of Galway
Dr Terry R. Morley, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof Chaosheng Zhang, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Dr Valerie Ledwith, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Dr Audrey Morley, Assistant Professor, University of Galway
Prof. John Morrissey, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Lisa Clarke, Assistant Professor, Dublin CIty University
Dr Carla Kayanan, Assistant Lecturer, Maynooth University
Dr Arlene Crampsie, Assistant Professor in Geography, University College Dublin
Dr Shelagh Waddington, Lecturer Emerita in Geography, Maynooth University
Tom Popple, CEO, BE IMPACTFUL
Dr Ronan Foley, Associate Professor, Maynooth University
Dr Gerald Mills, Associate Professor and Climatologist, UCD.
Dr Catherine Porter, Associate Professor, University of Limerick.
Dr Brendan O’Keeffe, Independent Researcher
Dr Mary Bourke, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Trinity College, Dublin
Dr Gerry O’Reilly. Associate Professor. School of History & Geography. Dublin City University.
Chris Stewart, PhD Researcher in Palaeoclimatology, University of Galway
Dr Dean Phelan, Research Social Scientist, School of Geography, University College Dublin
Prof Des Gillmor, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College Dublin
Prof Robert Devoy (Prof. Emeritus of Geography), University College Cork
Prof David Nally, University of Cambridge
Kate de Smeth, PhD Researcher in Hydrology, University College Dublin
Dominic Robinson, Treasurer, Geographical Society of Ireland and Geospatial Researcher, University College Dublin
Dr Dylan Connor, Associate Professor, Arizona State University & Chair, Population Specialty Group, American Association of Geographers
Dr Joseph Gallagher, Heritage Officer, Donegal County Council
Emily Rick, PhD Researcher in Hydromorphology, University College Dublin
Amy Duley, PhD Researcher in Human Geography, University College Dublin
Ruodi Yang, PhD Researcher in Human Geography, University College Dublin
Prof. Frances Fahy, Professor of Geography, University of Galway
Louise Sarsfield Collins, Assistant Lecturer, Maynooth University
Dr Michelle McKeown, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Jesse D. Peterson, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Ray O’Connor, Lecturer, University College Cork
Dr Therese Kenna, University College Cork
Dr Piaras Mac Éinrí University College Cork
Dr Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn, Lecturer, University College Cork