Geography Education as Citizenship Education: Focusing on Agency, Co-agency and Co-creation

Who creates geography education as citizenship education? This question has so far been discussed from the teaching perspective. However, recent empirical research findings indicate that children do not always learn as their teachers intend. Geography education as citizenship education is not something that only teachers should aim for, but something that they should aim for together with students. This study examined two cases of geography learning that sought to change the locus of power regarding aims and assessment, with “Agency”, “Co-agency,” and “Co-creation” as key words. The results are summarized as follows: (1) In geography learning, learning activities in which students set their own learning aims and create their own assessment tasks are considered effective for learning in which students exercise agency. (2) The role of the teacher as an expert is essential to geography education as citizenship education. (3) To co-create geography education as citizenship education, teachers and students need to share a common understanding of the changing locus of power in teaching and learning. However, teachers remained in control of many of the decisions regarding the content of geography learning. Further discussion for geography education as citizenship education is needed.