The public image of geography. An investigation about the visions of teachers and parents of secondary students.

The renovation of the agenda of school Geography depends, among other factors, of the public image and the social valuation of the discipline. Here, we intend to explore the social demands and expectations that operate on the definition of the agenda of school Geography. First, we analyze the public image of the discipline according to the perceptions of the teachers. In the second place, we inquired into the perceptions expressed by parents of secondary school students about the issues and contents attributed to the discipline and their expected aims and objectives.

The analysis invites to review a key problem of the Didactics of Social Sciences: how the contents of a school subject are constructed. It allows us to observe the deep-rooted theoretical and ideological traditions about the social aim of geographic knowledge, and the weight of those images as criterion of selection of issues and contents for teaching Geography.