As a teacher of the New South Wales Higher School Certificate
Geography Syllabus in the 1970s, I became aware of problems of
interpretation and implementation of syllabus documents dealing
with models and theories of human aggregate behaviour. A positivistic
underpinning allowed explanation in human geography to employ
deductive - nomological methodology. This field study investigates
a defined literature of academic geography including journals,
and both secondary and tertiary documents to identify the extent
and quality of nomothetic and idiographic traditions from the
late 19th century to the mid 1970s.
The literature prior to the late 1950s revealed a dominant
regional tradition and idiographic methodology with an emphasis
on description of uniqueness of areal phenomena. But underlying
currents of a nomothetic nature, running parallel to this regionalidiographic
tradition,exerted a noticeable challenge to gain acceptance
in geographic circles. This kind of nomothetism was in the
form of environmental determinism which held that physical laws
operating in nature were also at work to shape and direct human
societies. Environmental determinism contained generalised assertions,
enjoyed some appeal, but lacked rigorous justification. Even
within regional frameworks, authors used environmentally induced
determinants to explain the unique character of regions. Not until
the 1930s did environmental determinism lose its appeal, after which
time the regional - idiographic tradition strengthened as an
explanatory mode of human behaviour.
Nomothetism emerged in the late 1950s in Australia in the
application of models and theories explaining human behaviour.
Normative theory was supported by an increased use of quantification
and by the growing preference for systematic studies in
geography. Neither mode of explanation exists at the total exclusion
of the other; so that while nomothetism enjoyed widespread
appeal in academic geography from the late 1950s, significant
challenges were mounted against it because of its inadequacies
as a mode of explaining human aggregate behaviour.
Nomothetic explanation in human geography can be seen at the
research level and in education circles. Many normative models
and theories found their way into senior geography courses to the
extent they promoted a systems approach. Teachers would have been
aware of normative theory in geography from their university
studies and teacher training courses during the late 1950s and
throughout the 1960s.
The tension between associated explanatory modes in systematic
and regional geography becomes apparent in the analysis of the
N.S.W. H.S.C. Geography Syllabus in which confusing statements
raise problems for teachers interpreting and implementing this
prescriptive document.
Given these tensions and problems of explanation in human
geography, the adoption of a critical rationalist viewpoint as
propounded by Karl Popper is suggested as a possible solution
for geography teachers when interpreting a syllabus such as that
of the N.S.W. H.S.C. Falsification rather than verification
should be the node of inquiry towards explanation of human aggregate
behaviour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219369 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Sullivan, Ian W., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Ian W. Sullivan |
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