From international to global understanding: toward a century of international geography education

Abstract The Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union has stated along their history different documents that serve as a reference on how to carry out the teaching and learning of geography at schools, called the International Charters on Geographical Education. The preliminary documents to the first Charter were founded on the concept of international understanding to promote international collaboration on geography education. The latest Charter has been approved in 2016, which was proclaimed as the International Year of Global Understanding, in the 33rd International Geographical Union Congress. In each of these documents, a main subject is underlined that places special emphasis on teaching and learning geography as a school discipline, reflecting not only the evolution of educational thought but also the social and political contexts in which it falls. Besides, each Charter underlies a manifestation, more or less implicitly, of international educational aims due to the significance of geography and its values in understanding and acting in the world from a social and spatial perspective.