Towards an Integrated School Geography Curriculum: The Role of Place-based Education

In this article, we review literature on curriculum changes to school Geography in post-apartheid South Africa. We note the gains and losses with each iteration of the national curriculum for school Geography over the past two decades or so. We argue that although the latest version, the CAPS has been strengthened in terms of continuity and progression it still has shortcomings: integration in the curriculum is weak, Indigenous Knowledge is not valued and its reliance on textbooks is likely to foster behaviourist pedagogical practices. We propose place-based education as a conceptual framework and approach to address current weaknesses in school Geography in South Africa so as to imagine the practice differently