Geographical and Environmental Education Commission
The Russian Geographical Society's Geographical and Environmental Education Commission was recreated in 2013 and is of a continuous nature in relation to the specialized commissions that existed under the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and within the Geographical Society of the USSR.
Currently, the priority areas of the Commission's activities are the popularization of geographical and environmental knowledge, participation in the development and examination of educational programs and teaching materials, and stimulation of the development of research and environmental activities of young people.
Kirill Valentinovich Chistyakov
Chairman of the Commission
Vice-President of the RGS, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Branch of the RGS, Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences of St. Petersburg State University
The Russian Geographical Society's Geographical and Environmental Education Commission was recreated in 2013 and is of a continuous nature in relation to the specialized commissions that existed under the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and within the Geographical Society of the USSR.
Currently, the priority areas of the Commission's activities are the popularization of geographical and environmental knowledge, participation in the development and examination of educational programs and teaching materials, and stimulation of the development of research and environmental activities of young people.
Members of the Commission:
⦁ contribute to the professional development of teaching staff, support professional and personal growth of young geography teachers, are involved in publication of modern teaching aids;
⦁ help with the projects of the Russian Geographical Society, act as experts in evaluation of grant applications;
⦁ organize expeditions and field workshops, conduct competitions in the field of geography and ecology, public meetings, conferences, lectures, and roundtables with the participation of young people and experienced professionals.
The Commission consists of leading experts in the field of geography, pedagogy, and methods of teaching – representatives of the largest universities in the country, leading research and educational institutions, educational centers as well as regional branches of the Russian Geographical Society.
An urgent need to establish a commission of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society on the issues of learning geography arose because of the introduction of the new university charter in 1884. According to the charter Departments of Geography were created in universities. The Audit Comission of the Society wanted the Society to develop proposals on methods of teaching geography in higher and specialized secondary educational institutions. Created for this purpose in 1887, the Commission was headed by the future Vice-Chairman of the Society P.P. Semenov.
In 1907 Y.M. Shokalsky became the Chairman of the Geographical and Educational Commission. Members of the Commission were preparing a report on the need of the physical geography course in secondary schools, discussing complex and contentious issues of geographic pedagogy, were engaged in critical analysis of geography textbooks.
At the initiative of the Society in 1918, the world's first special geographical institution of higher education was founded in St. Petersburg. It was called Geographical Institute, and in 1919 – the Central Geographical Museum.
In 1933, the first All-Union Congress of Geographers was convened. It had a school subsection. Drawing the attention of a wide range of geographers to the issues of geographical education contributed to the resumption of the work of the Society in this field.
In 1936, the School Committee under the leadership of V.A. Gavrilov officially started working. Teachers of geography who had been invited to hold lectures, consultations, participate in geographical expeditions and other projects to improve the level of geographical knowledge in the USSR took active part in the activities of the School Committee.
In 1940, the School Committee was transformed into the School-Methodological Division under the Commission for Promotion of Geographical Knowledge, which was working on the issues of teaching methodology. The Division organized lectures such as "The Geographical Society’s Travels to Central Asia", "How to Read a Geographical Map", «Geographical Map of the USSR on a Scale of 1: 1 000 000", and many others.
In 1951, the School-Methodological Division was transformed into the Department of Educational Geography, which at that time was engaged in recruiting teachers into the Society, discussing projects of teaching curricula and programs, examining textbooks, journals, anthologies, collections, working on the issue of the restoration of the Geographical Museum, organizing long-distant excursions for geography teachers, and providing guidance to teachers.
Since 1947, special school geography divisions and committees had been organized in regional divisions and branches of the Society. Geography textbooks of separate areas for grades 7-8 and educational maps of many of the Union Republics and regions of the RSFSR had been compiled and published with the participation of the branches and departments. Regional divisions were engaged in conducting school conferences, creating special lectures for students, as well as organization of excursions. The active work of the Department of Educational Geography and school committees under the regional branches of the Society continued until the 1990s.
In the autumn of 2011, for the first time in the modern history of the Russian Geographical Society, after almost a century break, the All-Russian Congress of Geography Teachers was organized, which became the second in the history of Russia.
The recreated Geographical and Environmental Education Commission of the Society has been working since 2013. It consists of leading experts in the field of pedagogy, methodology, and geographical education.
In 2014, the Society became a co-organizer of the geographical Olympiad for schoolchildren "Lomonosov".
In 2016, with the assistance of the Commission, the second All-Russian Congress of Geography Teachers in the new history of the RGS was held, which was attended by more than 550 teachers from all over the country
In 2017, two lines of school atlases and contour maps on geography from the publishing house “Binom. Laboratoriya Znaniy” (holding company “Prosvescheniye”) and “Drofa” for grades 5-11 were examined and textbooks on geography by the publishing house "Drofa" for grades 5-9 were reviewed.
In 2018, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation approved the Concept of the Development of Geographical Education in the Russian Federation, the main purpose of which is to ensure that the geographical education system meets the modern needs of the family, the state, and society, as well as to bring it to a leading position in the world.
In 2019, with the assistance of the Commission, proposals were drafted to expand the list of university degrees and fields of study, for which the Unified State Exam in geography would be required. Based on the results of the work, a new list of entrance tests for admission to universities was approved, according to which the presence of geography as a mandatory exam has increased for 19 degrees and fields of study and as an additional test for 60 fields of study;
In 2020, the All-Russian competition "The Best Geography Teacher" was organized for the first time.
As part of the international campaign "Night of Geography" in 2021, large-scale educational events were held in 53 Russian regions and 28 foreign countries.
In 2022, preparations began for the publication of an educational geographical collection and a board game "100 Questions on the Geography of Russia, the Answers to which Everyone Should Know."
Today, the Geographical and Environmental Education Commission, with the support of the RGS, together with the community of geography teachers of Russia is developing and implementing a number of measures of the Russian Federation's program "Development of Education" (2018-2025) dated 12.26.2017, the purpose of which is to preserve the leading positions of the Russian Federation in the international study of the quality of science education (TIMS) and increase Russia's position in the international program for the assessment of educational achievements of students (PISA).
To date, significant results have been achieved in the field of education thanks to the comprehensive work of the Geographical and Environmental Education Commission of the Russian Geographical Society:
⦁ About 1,000 copies of educational atlases and contour maps with the logo of the RGS have been released, a series of educational and local history atlases of the regions of Russia have been created which are used in geography lessons;
⦁ Geography departments have been opened, and recruitment for geographical programs is underway in several universities of the country;
⦁ The largest scientific and educational projects began to be carried out on a regular basis, among them are "floating universities", summer schools, Olympiads, school expeditions;
⦁ A direct part was taken in the preparation of the Russian school team to participate in international Olympiads;
⦁ Thanks to the financial support of the Society , many schools receive additional opportunities to conduct extracurricular field workshops and local history expeditions;
⦁ The geography of educational projects today covers almost all regions of Russia.
