Vignettes

of geography - Unequal living conditions

David rbring
Doctoral student in Educational Sciences - Geography Education
Mail: david.orbring@uvet.lu.se
Mobile: 0736510394

Lund University, Campus Helsingborg
Department of Educational Sciences
Box 882,
25108 Helsingborg

Description
Geography can be about the living environments that are created in the interaction
between people and their surroundings. People have different living conditions,
depending on where they are born and live. According to the United Nations (UN)
Agreements on Human Rights all people have the right to freedom, justice and peace.
However, many people today do not have those rights.

This example is about teaching in geography about unequal living conditions such as
varying access to education, healthcare and natural resources. Also, in focus are the
underlying causes of inequality and what to do to improve the situation. The aim is that
the pupil will learn about causes and consequences of unequal living conditions, and
also to reason about how living conditions can be improved.

The thematic maps that follow show how many girls who are not in primary school,
deaths in Malaria and how water resources are distributed around the world. One can
ask several questions to these maps: Why it is like this in different places? What are the
consequences? What can we do to improve the situation?

Girls not in primary school

Source: Worldmapper 2002
http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map201_ver5.pdf

Deaths in Malaria

Source: Worldmapper 2003
More info: http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map230_ver5.pdf

Water resources

Worldmapper 2003 or recent
More info: http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map102_ver5.pdf

Discussion

I think this example gives the pupils the opportunity to focus on the interaction between
people, society and nature in a global/local sense. The unequal living conditions force
both the teacher and the pupils to look outside their direct experience. The example is
part of a system of thoughts thoughts about causes and consequences - and the
information used is always changing.

The concept of sustainable development is important and so is teaching to learn the
pupils about different causes and consequences of unequal living conditions. The pupils
could learn about different living conditions in different parts of the world in relation to
sustainable development that they otherwise wouldnt learn, which make it powerful
knowledge.