THE CONSTRUCTION OF GEOGRAPHIC KNOWLEDGE IN SCHOOL: A BRIEF REFLECTION ON THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

For some years there have been theoretical debates concerning the role of school Geography. In Brazil, these questions came to prominence during the decade of the 80's in the last century. In Europe, whilst the discussions had started previously, given that the development of Geography as a science starte in Germany in the 19th. century, questioning on the role of Geography in schools, its methods and specificities etc. in certain ways served to amplify our references and to question which Geography we want and which we are promoting. We consider that it is essential to encourage reflection as to what the purposes of an education in Geography are and the role of the teacher in this process so as to think not only about the direction we are giving to this process, but to verify if we are contributing to students being able to construct General and specific scientific reasoning in this area. The purpose of this article is to present that which, in terms of sciences in general, has been proposed, so that students can construct specific science concepts and to which geographic education can contribute, so that students and teachers can have a significant understanding of the concepts involved in this science.