THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL AND SPATIAL AWARENESS

Abstract

The article affirms the role of Geography in today's school, since elementary level education, in the formation of social and spatial awareness, in view of the close interactions between humans and the Earth. A knowledge of the world, and therefore, of the geographic space, involves a systemic-complex perspective which encompasses multiple relations within spacial dynamics, as social, historical and cultural constructions. Authors who are critical of geography in schools, such as Callai, Cavalcanti, Kaercher, Pontuschka, Straforini and Vesentini, form the basis of new positions on the part of educators and students, faced with knowledge and the processes of teaching and learning Geography in the 21st. century. Following the basic proposal of Paulo Freire, it involves the development of a critical awareness for social change, through the temporalization of geographic spaces, and the creative making of history.