Didáctica Geográfica nº 19, 2018, pp.

77-101
ISSN: 0210-492-X
D.L: M-3736-2014

FIELDWORK IN GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION: AN EXPERIENCE

IN INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM
Maria Helena Esteves1; Maria João Hortas2; Luís Mendes3

Recibido: 17/07/2017
Aceptado: 25/09/2017

Abstract:
Fieldwork in geography education is an important activity in terms of promoting the
development of geographical knowledge and skills that go beyond school learning. The
way this contact with the real world is done has evolved from the traditional school visit
(fieldtrip) to models where students’ involvement is deeper representing the contribution
of several educational theories in geography educational practices. This paper presents
a rational about fieldwork implementation as a methodology of data collection  used
in research undertaken at a local scale, included in a program of geography initial teacher
training. As the experience took place in an urban area, the paper includes a conceptual
framework about the potential of the city as a research area in terms of fostering critical
thinking and the formation of geographically competent citizens.

1
Professor at the Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território and Researcher in the Cen-
tro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território da Universida-
de de Lisboa. E-mail: [email protected].
2
Professor and Vice-President of the Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa and Researcher
in the Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território da
Universidade de Lisboa. E-mail: [email protected].
3
Guest Lecturer at Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa and Researcher in the Centro de
Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território da Universidade de
Lisboa. E-mail: [email protected].

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 Maria Helena Esteves, Maria João Hortas and Luís Mendes

Keywords:
Fieldwork, geography education, initial teacher training, critical spatial thinking.

Résumé:
Dans le cadre de l’éducation géographique, le travail sur le terrain permet le
développement d’un ensemble de connaissances et de compétences qui vont au-
delà des murs de l’école. La façon dont ce contact avec le réel se produit a évolué à
partir de la traditionnelle visite d’étude (la visite sur le terrain) vers des modèles où
la participation des étudiants à la réalité s’est approfondie et reflète aussi l’influence
du développement de divers mouvements éducatifs sur les pratiques de l’éducation
géographique. Afin de mieux comprendre cette réalité, nous avons choisi, comme objet
d’analyse, une expérience d’apprentissage, réalisée dans le cadre de la formation initiale
des enseignants, basée sur l’utilisation de la pratique de terrain comme méthode de
collecte d’information pour l’étude de l’environnement local. Comme l’expérience a eu
lieu dans des zones urbaines, l’ensemble conceptuel intègre une réflexion centrée sur la
ville comme ressource potentialisatrice de la pensée spatiale critique et de la formation
d’un citoyen géographiquement compétent.

Mots-clés:
Travail de terrain, éducation géographique, formation initiale des enseignants, pensée
spatiale critique.

Resumen:
Como parte de la educación geográfica, el trabajo de campo permite el desarrollo
de un conjunto de conocimientos y habilidades que van más allá de las paredes de la
escuela. La forma de poner en práctica este contacto con la realidad ha evolucionado
a partir de la tradicional visita de estudio (la excursión al campo) para los modelos en
los que la participación de los estudiantes con la realidad se ha profundizado y también
representa una evolución en la forma como los distintos paradigmas de formación tienen
influido en las prácticas de la educación geográfica. Movilizamos, así como un objeto
de reflexión, una experiencia de aprendizaje sostenida en el uso del trabajo de campo
como metodología de recopilación de información para el estudio del medio ambiente
local, llevado a cabo en la formación inicial de los educadores/maestros. Debido a que la
experiencia se llevó a cabo en medio urbano, el cuadro conceptual integra una reflexión
centrada en la ciudad como recurso potenciador del pensamiento espacial crítico y de la
formación de un ciudadano geográficamente competente.

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Palabras clave:
Trabajo de campo, educación geográfica, formación inicial de educadores/maestros,
pensamiento espacial crítico.

Resumo:
Como parte integrante da educação geográfica, o trabalho de campo possibilita o
desenvolvimento de um conjunto de saberes e competências que extravasam os muros da
escola. A forma como este contacto com o real se efetiva tem evoluído desde a tradicional
visita de estudo (a excursão ao campo) para modelos onde o envolvimento dos estudantes
com a realidade se tem aprofundado e representa igualmente um desenvolvimento na
forma como as várias correntes educativas têm influenciado as práticas da educação
geográfica.  Mobilizamos, assim, como objeto de reflexão, uma experiência de
aprendizagem sustentada no recurso ao trabalho de campo como metodologia de
recolha de informação para o estudo do meio local, levada a cabo na formação inicial
de professores. Porque a experiência decorreu em meio urbano, o conjunto concetual
integra uma reflexão centrada na cidade como recurso potencializador do pensamento
espacial crítico e da formação de um cidadão geograficamente competente.

Palavras-chave:
Trabalho de campo, educação geográfica, formação inicial de professores, pensamento
espacial crítico.

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper intends to be a reflection on the importance of fieldwork in geographic
education. As an integral part of Geography learning, fieldwork enables the development
of skills and knowledge impossible to learn within school walls. This contact with reality
has evolved from the traditional study tour (the field trip) to models where students’
involvement is deeply involved with the real world and it is a consequence of how the
different schools of geography have influenced practices in geographic education.
In this context, our object of analysis is a learning experience using fieldwork as a
methodology for collecting data in the study of the local environment. This experience
took place in Bairro Alto, a central area in Lisbon, and was part of the formative
evaluation of the curricular unit of Geography of Portugal, a course of the Degree in
Basic Education of the Superior School of Education of Lisbon in the academic year
of 2011 / 2012. Using techniques of location, data collection and direct observation of
local economic activities, and working in groups of up to five elements, students were
requested to students mobilize and broaden skills in the field of observation, reading and

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analysis of geographic phenomena intrinsic in urban areas organization (urban economy,

urban dynamics and patterns of location / distribution). The methodological line of the
fieldwork and other educational resources provided by the teachers and those created by
the students, will be described and analyzed.
The analysis of this experience will be framed by a theoretical reference around
the different approaches of fieldwork, in the different perspectives of the geographical
science. Moreover, as the experience took place in an urban setting, the conceptual
framework integrates a reflection about the city as a resource that fosters critical spatial
thinking and the formation of geographically competent citizens.
The way fieldwork integrates geographic education is framed by different
perspectives and objectives associated with it. Whether viewed as a traditional
field visit or in a perspective more related to research methodology, fieldwork’s
importance in geographical education is unquestionable, representing a moment of
testing of the most theoretical approaches, developing the perception about the real
and thus articulating theory and practice. Our paper will address some of the most
relevant aspects of fieldwork in geographical education to present some examples of
how recent perspectives have been developed and sustain practices dealing directly
with real problems, namely in urban environments. The activities presented were
developed in fieldwork as part of the initial formation of educators / teachers and they
will illustrate the pertinence of a geographical education that considers fieldwork as
an important methodology of knowledge development for future professionals in the
educational area.

2. THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH IN GEOGRAPHY FIELDWORK: THE

SCHOOL TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE
The excursion to the countryside to understand the landscape considering the
connection between physical and human elements corresponds to a more traditional
approach to fieldwork. In schools, the moment of the school trip to the field was
understood as a trip to those places that had been studied in the classroom, to apply
observation skills such as reading the landscape, reading maps, location skills, making
schemes, with the purpose of developing a sense of place.
According to Ferreira (1995), fieldwork, as a trip to the countryside, had a major role
in the learning of geographic skills, such as reading maps, using them to locate places,
sketching what was visible on the horizon, and pointing out the most important aspects
of the landscape. The acquisition of these basic techniques of observation and recording
was essential in Geography training, only occurring in situations of contact with physical
settings.

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The work developed represented an integrated view of the landscape in which

the physical and human elements were interconnected. According to Job (2000) the
most important objective of the more traditional study visit was to read, understand
the landscape and to grasp the essence of the place. The landscape was read without
questioning, as if there were no conflicts in it (environmental, social or political). The
student had a relatively passive role in this type of activities.
This vision of fieldwork is associated with a regional geography that defines the
region as the object of study. According to Ferreira (1990), the objective of Geography
is to observe the interrelations between natural and human phenomena. The method of
study of the region was thus found: based on observation, it was important to analyze the
physical environment and then to understand the integration of human activities.
In Portugal, this tradition of fieldwork was very important until the 70s and 80s, when
the first criticisms of this descriptive geography appeared. The descriptive dimension
remains important in Geography Science, but the complexity of geographic phenomena
came to query the inadequacy of this model in the sense of apprehending the true nature
of the phenomena and developing possible explanations. In other words, the mere
observation of the landscape was not enough to explain its the complexity. The need to
bring fieldwork activities closer to scientific research arose since then.

3.
FIELDWORK IN A PERSPECTIVE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
(QUANTITATIVE REVOLUTION)
The need to carry out more rigorous work led to the definition of new objectives for
the organization and implementation of fieldwork in Geography. As in any scientific
research, fieldwork should be developed as a way of testing hypothesis related to
geographical phenomena. This also meant that students would have a more active role
in terms of participation in the tasks to be developed in fieldwork activities. They could
create research hypotheses arising from their own perceptions about the geographical
phenomena being studied.
Thus, fieldwork became an important part in a scientific geography anchored in
quantitative methodologies. Hypothesis testing was the basis for fieldwork, so that
researchers could define general models or theories explaining reality from the point
of view of geography. According to Job (2000) one of the main consequences of this
nomothetic view in Geography (the search for explanatory laws / models) was the
decline of the ideographic tradition in Geography (in the sense that each place is unique).
The observation, discussion, and development of a sense of place do not disappear
in the fieldwork thus understood as an important part of any scientific investigation, but
have moved to a lesser plane by not fitting into this more rigorous and scientific model.

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For many geographers this model has become very restrictive leading in the search for
alternatives to this approach to fieldwork. The main issues that arose were essentially
the adequacy of these quantitative studies to the very nature of geographical studies. For
some the use of this scientific methodology would have a more academic interest but
would be of little application in the real world.
One of the major limitations felt was the need to separate studies on issues of physical
and human geography, something that had been lost with the slightest importance given
to the traditional study visit. In this sense, it was necessary to rejoin physical and human
geography to understand the phenomena. In effect, since the 1990s, the impact of human
activities on the environment has introduced new priorities in geographical studies. It has
become necessary to rethink field work considering that analysing a problem involves
different points of view, even conflict. Therefore, it was important to understand the
social, environmental, and even the values present
​​ in people’s attitudes.

4. FIELDWORK AS GEOGRAPHICAL ENQUIRY

Current problematics in geography have different nature and scale of analyses ranging
from local phenomena with local impacts to a global expression (phenomena such as climate
change, social issues, and problems related to pollution and sustainable development).
Consequently, it was very important to develop an approach that simultaneously mobilized
theories of physical and human geography to research and understand these phenomena.
Doing this involved the application of a variety of geographical research methods. In this
sense, fieldwork is now carried out when problematic issues / situations occur in a certain
place or when different points of view involving conflict have a territorial expression.
Fieldwork is understood as a method of studying problems within contexts whose
characteristics are relevant to the research being developed.
From a geographical enquiry perspective, fieldwork includes different phases and
methodologies that try to answer research questions related to concrete problems and
contexts involving students and their perceptions. Alexandre and Diogo (1997) proposed
a classification of field visits in three types corresponding to different moments of
fieldwork: (i) observation / motivation to be carried out before approaching geographical
contents, used as motivation for learning and leading students in the process of
questioning reality; (ii) data Collection, corresponding to a phase of doing fieldwork
in order to collect data to be compared with the topics addressed in the classroom; (iii)
verification, carried out after learning geographical contents to validate through direct
observation the issues studied in the classroom.
This idea of fieldwork includes methodologies present in other types of research but
is organized around a set of enquiries for which a response is sought as in any research

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work. In this perspective, the local environment is a relevant educational resource. The
city can be viewed as a didactic laboratory. Fieldwork as geographical enquiry becomes
an activity that can be mobilized by teachers to deepen the teaching and learning of
school geography.

5. THE CITY AS A DIDACTIC LABORATORY AND THE LOCAL

ENVIRONMENT AS A LEARNING RESOURCE
Since the beginning of the 1970s, various innovative experiences have been
developed, focusing both on the learning process and on school management, trying
to improve the relation and interaction between the school and the local communities.
The pertinence and scientific validity of the school-community interaction has become a
relatively consensual idea. Although there are no extensive studies at the university level,
it is expressed in several scientific works and in legal norms that range from educational
programs to general educational policy documents (Canário, 1992, 2005; Santos e Cruz,
1995; Zabalza, 1992b; Ferreira et al., 2011).

“The school ceases to constitute an institutional structure put anywhere, always

equal and closed. It must, on the contrary, be “the school of such locality, or
neighborhood, or place”. The school uses all the resources (personal, work,
institutional, cultural, sports, etc.) of its community, being therefore very interested
in that every day they are better and pressing socially for that to happen. And,
simultaneously, it is used as a cultural and formative resource by the neighbors
and organizations of that locality, neighborhood or place. In this way, there is
a crossroads of influences (from time to time, also of conflicts), but, above all,
a social and cultural dynamic is generated in which the school is not seen as
a building in the middle of the territory, but rather as a cultural agency at the
disposal of that territory” (Zabalza 1992a: 33).

Thus, one of the first themes to be included in the theoretical framework refers to an
idea that it is extremely important as a guiding theoretical-scientific principle: viewing
the local environment as a didactic resource and its use as a learning environment. This
problematic relates to the need to narrow the gap between educational institutions and
the local community. This issue is central to this study, also because it is an important
activity during Geography of Portugal course as fieldwork in the city of Lisbon is an
activity to be developed during the school year.
Nowadays, universities are required to play roles that exceed the mere transmission
and acquisition of knowledge. Higher education has a social and civic dimension that

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must be present and developed in all courses4. The University has become an institution
involved in education but has also extended its role in promoting activities that generate
education in a broad sense, and in this context a strong relation with the contexts and the
local community is encouraged. Universities have become “porous” and both influence
and integrate the socio-cultural context in which it is bounded. The university also
relativizes the socio-cultural contexts from which the students originate. This idea also
implies that the creation of educational experiences, typical within a academic context,
as well as in schools, is done “in” and “with” the local community, establishing and
narrowing relations with it.
This rational requires a rethinking of the function and nature of the university
as an institution. This new dimension considers that the university as a social agent
should develop all the educational functions necessary for the integral development
of the students. Therefore, a broader formative interaction with the local community
is very important. We understand, as Miguel Zabalza (1992a) rightly points out, in a
similar reflection about the role of schools, that the connection between the educational
institution and the local is far from being a mere passive acceptance of its demands and
influences. On the contrary, the relationship between the educational institution and the
environment is guided by a dialectical, transactional style of openness to the outside
world. The university does not become a simple reproduction of the social and cultural
dynamics of its community or economy / market. The university, according to Bologna
is understood as a formative and cultural agent within a context. It is also a restless,
divergent social unit, both dynamic and critic (Zabalza, 2013).
The attentive appreciation of this social dimension in the elaboration and design of
these strategies forced the adoption of a scientific and pedagogical position close to the
school model that has been called constructivist, whose objectives, role of the teacher
and role of the student vary as opposed to two other models of school: the transmissive
and the technicist. Contrary to these two curricular models, in a conception of school
and education that is recognized as a social and developmental act and that is oriented
towards the student in its total dimension - therefore, as individual subject and member
of a society - the school is an institution that can and should play an active role in the
positive change of society, that is, in a sociocritical and reconstructionist conception of
school and university education.

4
The Council of Europe, defending a more humanistic view of higher education, has valued the
paradigm of personal and social development in the policy guidelines for higher education.
To that end, it launched a project titled “The University Between Humanism and the Market
- redefining its values and functions for the 21st Century” (Serrano-Velarde, 2010) at the
international conference “New challenges to European higher education”.

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It was in the scope of this notion of education that the learning strategies were created
in the curricular unit of Geography of Portugal. These strategies were also based on the
purpose of encouraging the “leap” from the transmissive teacher to a curriculum creator
teacher – the one who is not stuck to the syllabus but creates thematic contents and
adapts them to the situations and specificities of contexts and real situations. The teacher
that is also a partner, a mediator and a manager of learning processes and situations,
someone that stimulates students not only in terms of cognitive skills but also in what
concerns their personal, relational and social development.
It also meant that our students were not regarded as mere “accumulators of
information” unable to relate to real situations of the local environment, without critical
attitudes and the ability to question real life. On the contrary they became protagonists
and active participants in the building their own learning; they became thinking and
reflective people along with the teacher and colleagues, involved in learning situations
in the local community. The learning environment was not limited to the classroom.
It is believed that a learning environment, whether at home, at university or in the
community, is any set of human and material resources that promotes learning. In this
perspective, a learning environment that provides growth towards the greater potential
of the individual or group can be called a formative environment.
The need to reinforce the relationship between Geography of Portugal classes and
Lisbon’s urban environment is not only necessary but fundamental, given the nature of
the experiences it can provide to students: i) structuring their civic and socio-affective
maturity; ii) empowering positive attitudes and habits of relationship and cooperation,
iii) triggering a conscious and responsible intervention in the surrounding reality in a
perspective of building a territorial citizenship. This line of thinking is fundamental:

“To transmit geographic knowledge linked to the understanding of territories,

that is, to know how to think space; and contribute to the civic education of
young people, linked to the awareness of the social and political problems that, at
different scales, require responsible citizenship. (...) In this context, the Geography
teacher is required to be able to operate simultaneously in geographic education and
citizenship education. The effectiveness of this crossing requires the mobilization
of knowledge and the pedagogical reflection of geographical education, to which
the often diffused demands of education for citizenship are added (Reis, 2002: 95).

The local context is a valuable educational resource, in the sense that it is believed
that outside the university we also learned. It is in the daily life of the student that the
student really learns to develop the critical spirit, the responsibility, the curiosity and the

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originality, a stimulus for active learning and for the fulfillment of the education for the
territorial citizenship (Hugonie, 1997, Claudino, 2015, IGU-CGE, 2015), so important
in the target public in question, future educators and teachers of children from 3 to 12
years of age.
To educate geographically means to help developing the necessary skills to be able to
explain and think geographically (to act in the real world) and not only to describe close
or distant places (Mérenne-Schoumaker, 1985; IGU-CGE, 2015). It is also important
to invest in the attitudinal aspects of learning (experimental contents with affective
components, decision making, affective attitudes, personal commitment) (Cachinho,
2002, 2012, IGU-CGE, 2015). This way, we are also ensuring that geography education
breaks with the transmissive paradigm and becomes a constructivist school, based in
active methodologies helping students to build their own knowledge (Benejam, 1992,
1996, Mérenne-Schoumaker, 1999, 2015. IGU-CGE, 2015).
In this context, it is necessary to summon the most useful didactic strategies to
advance the critical geographical knowledge related to the main problems and themes of
the city that are also territorial problems and require the mobilization of specific analysis
skills of critical spatial thinking. However, this approach stimulates and is corroborating
an engagement of thematic anchors of the contents of the Geography of Portugal in real
social and urban problems. We are not only making sure that student work is polarized
into areas of significant interest for students but also celebrating the social utility of
the geography that is taught and made to learn in order to develop the skills necessary
for territorial citizenship. A geography capable of mobilizing the students’ previous
representations and knowledge, in order to allow reflection on the problems that arise
in the urban environment, by the way societies and their respective groups are using
their space (Cachinho and Reis, 1991, Hugonie, 1989, Souto González, 2002, 2017,
Cachinho, 2002, 2012, IGU-CGE, 2015).
A conceptual and thematic approach to urban space within the framework of a
Geography of Portugal (only in terms of thematic contents) is still important, although
clearly insufficient in the development of the spirit of critical thinking of urban space
production, as evidenced by several recent researches5. As an example, Bento and
Cavalcanti (2009: 1), in a reflection on the constitution of spatial knowledge regarding
the city content and its role in the formation of the professional identity of the teacher,
sought to understand how knowledge contributes for the formation and practice of
citizenship:

5
See Souto González, 1994a, 1994b; Cavalcanti, 1998, 2008; Carlos, 1999; Oliveira, 2008; Bento
and Cavalcanti, 2009; Bado, 2009; Esteves, 2010; Cavalcanti and Morais, 2011.

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“In this respect, it is up to the school Geography to effectively fulfill its task
of training citizens, aware that the right to the city is a right of all. Therefore,
one should not lose sight of the teacher’s own formation, since the exercise of
citizenship is closely linked to the knowledge of the teacher, as a subject who
exercises citizenship and understands what involves the formation and practice of
becoming a citizen and, in particular, to the knowledge related to the conception
of the city that underlies the teaching practice of the Geography teacher. Because
of this, it is important to ascertain what conception this teacher has of the city and
on what theoretical basis he supports his knowledge about the city”.

For this it is necessary that the teacher perceives that the purpose that should regulate
the practice resides in the search to emphasize the insufficiencies of the previous ideas
and attitudes of the students with respect to the understanding of the diverse contents
/ thematic ones in the form of territorial problems, to explain them appropriately, at
the same time as he stimulates critical thinking. The action of the Geography teacher
requires that it be defined no longer by manipulating the students’ educational itineraries,
but rather by the interest in creating educational conditions and experiences that allow
them to participate actively in the process of knowledge construction and access to
performances that progressively express more complex and integrated levels of cognitive
and moral development in terms of spatial thinking.
The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator and guiding the conceptual and
attitudinal change that occurs in the student, providing him with learning experiences
that reveal the need to modify his conceptions and even values before ​​ the changes
that the urban space in question has evidenced. This can only be achieved by defining
the thematic contents related to the city in the form of problems or links that make
the connection between previous knowledge and social spatial reality to the point
that it provokes cognitive and attitudinal conflicts in the student (Is my hypothesis of
explanation sufficient? Should I deepen my knowledge in this respect?), whose lack of
resolution is capable of leading to the recognition of the need to correct and reconfigure
his previous ideas and attitudes. Students’ learning can be improved by organizing
activities whose contents are potentially significant or by mobilizing materials and
teaching resources that can be actively manipulated and worked on by the students
themselves. We believe that this is the case of the proposed field work presented in
this paper. When it is possible for them to establish relevant relations between this new
material and their previous knowledge, in order to achieve a personal representation
of knowledge. When one shows them how the insufficiency of the protoconcepts that
persist in their scheme of knowledge does not adequately explain and intervene in the
production of the present urban space:

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“In order for students to understand the spaces of their everyday life that have
become extremely complex, they must learn to look at both a broader and global
context of which they are all part and the elements that characterize them and
distinguish their local context. I understand that, in order to achieve the objectives
of this education, the place of the student should be taken into account, but with a
view of building a more general framework for this student to enable him to make
more critical analysis of that place” (Cavalcanti, 2008: 43).

A school geography centred in a “conflicting” urban space may trigger curiosity for
problematic training experiences in real life and with real problems. In this case, several
questions were raised in what concerns the neighbourhood being studied by the students.
These questions resulted from the use of the territory itself and all the observable conflicts
(Pinchemel, 1982, Hugonie, 1989, Cachinho, 2002, 2012, IGU-CGE, 2015). The closer
problems are from students’ daily life, the more meaningful they will be. The problems
researched affected their daily lives and the society in which they live and allowed them
to establish relationships with what was happening in the territory of the other (Hugonie,
1992, 1997; Cachinho, 2002; 2012; IGU-CGE, 2015). A problematizing geography of
the real implies knowing how to think of space, means raising key questions in order
not only to recognise it, but also to discuss it, to think about it, to understand it and to
act on it.

“Studying Geography is understanding the processes that engender human life

in space and time. It is to have an idea of the
​​ ideological and political position
that is assumed, thinking the relations that are established with the others, with
the knowledge, with the objects. Concerning the study of the city and life in the
city, especially, it is a question of understanding the ideals implicit in the way
of its social and spatial organization and of learning about the possible ways of
intervening and transforming it in it” (Bado 2009: 28).

This fact is fundamental to educate citizens, to form, from the concrete reality of
urban life, within the framework of permanent values ​​in Portuguese society in general,
and of urban society in particular; aiming at fostering a creative and interested spirit in the
resolution of urban problems at multiple scales, typical of what we intend to increase when
we refer to School Geography as an instigator of a geographic (multiscalar) reasoning
that can start from the organization of life in the city. This is only possible through
the adoption of a “critical pedagogy of the problem” that gives voice to the students,
involving them in processes of reflection and discovery, which, in principle, are more

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successful, guarantee the recognition of true learning and the need for transformative
intervention in the surrounding environment, at multiple scales (Claudino, 2015, IGU-
CGE, 2015, Souto González, 2017).
The constructivist perspective suggests that more than drawing knowledge from
reality, it only takes on meaning as we construct it. The construction of meaning, whether
from a text, from field work, from a given document, from a dialogue, or from any other
type of direct experience6; always implies an active process of internal formulation of
hypotheses and testing in order to valid them. If the proposed solution is rejected and
the situation considered to be “meaningless”, it intends to proceed with new hypotheses.
Taking into account that knowledge is never isolated but forming coherent systems,
learning does not suppose a simple modification of an isolated concept, but rather the
restructuring of the previous conceptual schema by a different one. In this context, it is
understood that learning should focus on solving real problems, from which it can be
deduced that the direct teaching of concepts will probably not be productive, since the
student may retain protoconcepts or prejudices, giving rise to an incomplete knowledge.
In the latter case, students are mainly concerned with memorizing the definitions of
concepts, even if they often do not perceive their meaning, to reproduce them in the
evaluation test and forget immediately.
Thus, concepts should never be given or finished, on the contrary, they should be
understood according to an act of learning as a continuous process of reconceptualization,
re-elaboration and deepening of the known. The concepts must be subjected to a permanent
reconstruction, in a spirit of discovery and investigation (Mérenne-Schoumaker, 2015). It
is assumed that the logic of the scientific research process is transposed into the classroom.
We will not develop here the investigative model that, as the designation itself indicates,
focuses on the process of school research, that is, on the process aimed at detecting problems,
formulating them and solving them, being understood as a problem all the difficulty that
can not be overcome automatically, requiring the implementation of targeted activities
aimed at its resolution. A “problematizing geography of the real” implies knowing how to
think space, means putting key questions in order not only to know it, but also to discuss it,
to think it, to understand it in order to act on it. The problems must imply a choice between
two or more possibilities of solution as it is advocated by the postmodern school with
respect to the plurality and diversity of interpretations. The problem-solving methodology
fuels the students’ curiosity and discovering spirit because it focuses on something that
affects their real and everyday life, something for which they want to find a solution. It is
reflecting on a major problem that affects students, who learn to ask questions and establish

6
Many of the working groups frequently used unstructured interviews and non-participant ob-
servation in the studied area of Lisbon.

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 Maria Helena Esteves, Maria João Hortas and Luís Mendes

conjectures and hypotheses about them, as well as critically question the information that
is provided to them or that they collect through documentary research and fieldwork.

6. FIELDWORK THROUGH A FUNCTIONAL SURVEY IN BAIRRO ALTO,

LISBON
A review of the vast, recent (and not so recent) national and international literature
that deals with field work in school geography7 quickly allows us to conclude some
of the valences that this methodology takes to improve the teaching-learning process
of territory science. From what has been mentioned above, it is pointed out that the
experience of fieldwork in Geography classes can be an important ally of the educator
by contributing to the active construction of the geographic view of the students, both
with a view to deepening the investigative method and critical thinking of the space as
a motor for the (re) construction of values ​​and attitudes, but also of specific procedures
and competences of geographic science, of undoubted contribution to the development
of “knowing space” and a territorial citizenship, as Karina Neves ( 2015: 12-13) puts:

“Through activities involving in situ identification and interpretation of phenomena

studied in the classroom in various areas of knowledge, the use of fieldwork
methodology can, on the one hand, promote the development and improvement
of research procedures - component knowledge in any discipline. The use of this
methodology allows the initiation of scientific research and the handling of certain
instruments such as plans, maps, sketches, compasses, among others, which play
a fundamental role in geographic practice and whose domain contributes to the
construction of student autonomy. On the other hand, the use of this methodology
can also promote a greater meaning of the contents and a closer approximation of
the reality of the students. In addition to the contextualisation contributing to the
development of positive attitudes towards science through the recognition of its
social importance, it still favors the learning of conceptual contents, valuing and
stimulating the interaction with students’ previous knowledge”.

7
Plans (1967), Graves (1978), Debesse-Arviset (1978), Ogallar (1996), Alexandre and Dio-
go (1997), Souto González (1998), Mérenne-Schoumaker (1999), Lambert and Balderstone
(2000), Rodrigues and Otaviano (2001), Silva (2004), Serpa (2006), Alentejano and Rocha-
Leão (2006), Lacoste (2006), Kaiser (2006), Matheus (2007), Straforini (2008), Galvani and
Beserra de Lima (2008), Souza and Chiapetti (2012), Justen-Zancanaro and Carneiro (2012),
Castellar, Cavalcanti and Callai (2012), Dourado (2013), Evangelista (2014), Neves (2015),
Lacerda, Borges and Oliveira (2015), Alcântara (2015), in addition to other references already
mentioned in this paper.

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In this process of valuing previous knowledge, in addition to the concepts of place

and landscape, during the course of the field work they assume a prominent position in
the analysis of the geographical space, by emphasizing, respectively, the dimensions
of materiality as of the symbolic of the place, fieldwork methodology is an excellent
opportunity to (re) signify the student’s knowledge about space, as well as an instrument
for the development of skills related to geographic know-how.
Having presented this theoretical framework, we will describe a learning experience
involving fieldwork in Bairro Alto, in Lisbon8, which was used to accomplish, in
a coherent didactic praxis, the theoretical principles stated above. Through activities
of location, data collection and direct observation of economic activities in the local
reality, students were invited to mobilize observation skills, analysis of geographical
phenomena within the urban economy, its characteristics, dynamics and patterns of
location / distribution.
The objective of this social and functional analysis was to: i) apply the theoretical
principles and concepts underlying orientation and geographical location; ii) developing
skills in observation, understanding and investigation of geographical phenomena; iii)
understanding the characteristics, dynamics and internal organization of urban space; iv)
study the economic activities in an urban area of Lisbon and, v) to contact with the local
reality and problems, through fieldwork.
The choice of Bairro Alto as a “laboratory” is related to its history in the context of
the city and with the functional dynamics that are associated with it recently. Since the
XIX that the presence of small industrial units (printing presses, manufacture of metal
articles, furniture and publishing-related activities) and booths and intellectual meetings,
of which the fado houses and the taverns are still references today, that the neighborhood
assumes the specificity of its functions in the city as a whole. More recently, the exit of the
press activities, with a long history in the neighborhood, left spaces empty that have been
reconverted, giving this territory new uses: spaces of services, art galleries, theaters, bars
and avant-garde shops are mixed today with the old associations and clubs that maintains
the neighborhood traditions, the small grocery stores, the old barbers and the seamstresses.
In addition to these dynamics of the economic fabric, changes in the social fabric are
also associated with the arrival of new inhabitants (gentrification), and the increasing
diversification and differentiation of social and cultural practices confirms this.
The methodological line of the work started with students being given the objectives
of the fieldwork, as well as a description of how and when activities of preparation of
the visit itself would take place. They were also informed about the correct procedures

8
With the collaboration of Célia Martins and Cristina Barbosa, at the time professors at the Lis-
bon School of Education.

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 Maria Helena Esteves, Maria João Hortas and Luís Mendes

for data collecting that a functional survey imposes and the subsequent statistical and
cartographic analysis of the survey, as well as analysis and evaluation of the results.
The need to mobilize good motivation was fundamental to the success of fieldwork.
To accomplish that, teachers gave some examples of recent episodes affecting the
neighbourhood. At the same time students were invited to share their perceptions about
socioeconomic characteristics of the local community being studied, trying to collect
some previous ideas about the Bairro Alto. It was important to understand the general
perception of the group of students about the area of research and connect it to the
theoretical content. At this stage, it was important not to fall into the temptation to
transmit or provide a high volume of information as it would be possible to find more
during fieldwork.
Next, the urban area under study and its geographical location was identified, using
the interactive Lisbon site and Google Maps (fig. 1), to establish a previous indirect
contact with the reality to be studied, observing, for maps or satellite images, their urban
morphology and delimiting the block / area on which the functional survey would be
based (fig.2).

Figure 1. First approach to Bairro Alto by Google maps

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Figure 2. Block boundaries in the study area, Bairro Alto

On the ground, data collection was done using a functional survey form, where the
economic activities / functions in the area under study should be identified according to
a previously given classification. The information collected was organized according to
the given classification and a cartography was built through appropriate visual variables
(fig.3).

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 Maria Helena Esteves, Maria João Hortas and Luís Mendes

Figure 3. Example of functional plant performed by students

These data and more information collected in fieldwork was latter developed in class.
These classes were organized to make sense of the data collected and several sources
were mobilised such as literature review, statistical information, cartographic and
photographic analysis of the area of study. The data were compiled and some explanatory
hypotheses were formulated trying to identify the trends in terms of retail and services
organization in the area being researched.
The analysis of the data and information was an important moment of knowledge
consolidation and reconceptualization. It was also an important moment of skills
development as the students tried to answer some geographical questions that
were raised in the process of understanding the commercial tissue dynamics of the
neighbourhood. Which were the dominant activities? Which were the rarest activities?
How were they dispersed in area being studied? Why there was such a dispersion? What
are the constraints and the most pressing opportunities for Bairro Alto’s activities?
These activities developed during two to three classes at the university, were the most
significant for the students as it was later assessed.

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Cavalcanti (1998, 2008, 2012) and Mérenne-Schoumaker (2015) argue that the
purpose of teaching Geography for young people and adults should be to help them
form broader and more critical thinking and conceptions about the space category
within a critical-social didactic, in which teaching-learning becomes a process of
knowledge by the student, mediated by the teacher and by the content of the subject
taught. It is also argued that learning is investigating. Here – and following the one
mentioned in the previous point – the concept of research is adopted to designate
the learning process, based on the development of the ordinary knowledge and the
investigative strategies developed by the students. Research emerges as a key concept
in the teaching-learning process and in the experience we bring here, we sought to
stimulate it by local consultation by students of works, reports or other documents
of interest to the history and geography of the city of Lisbon, in the Center of Lisbon
Studies, in the municipal archives and in research in various dictionaries of the city
of Lisbon, among other guides, as well as the stimulating field work done and the
non-participant observation in the various visits to the neighborhood. The approaches
related to school research are based on the fundamental principle that knowledge
is operative, that is, the student builds his knowledge from his experiences and the
concepts he already has, from the so-called previous ideas.
In the Cavalcanti line, but focusing now on the specificities of the students who
attend the degree course in Basic Education, this research work in the city stimulated the
mobilization of localization skills; of reading the territory from diverse representations;
the construction of local exploration routes; collection, organization and processing of
information from different sources; of graphical representation of the reality and of the
understanding of the multiple factors that interfere in the dynamics of the places. In the
case of young people with different backgrounds in previous training, contact with this
work methodology allows, on the one hand, the widening of horizons of possibilities
for geographic education and, on the other hand, the awareness of a practice that, as
apprentices of educators / teachers should be able to mobilize with children who are
taking their first steps in World Knowledge and / or the Local Environment Study.

7. CONCLUSION
Field work has always been an important teaching-learning methodology for school
geography. It is through direct observation that the geographer collects much of the
information that is subsequently compiled, correlated and generalized in a laboratory.
For this reason, it is not strange that teachers of geography use it as a preferential strategy.
As Alexandre and Diogo (1997) already pointed out in the 1990s, the certainties that
teachers leave when they choose to carry out the fieldwork suggest that the teaching staff

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 Maria Helena Esteves, Maria João Hortas and Luís Mendes

is fully aware of its pedagogical validity, something that does not always correspond
to the truth, even because the practice has the weight of a tradition of decades.
For some time, the use of fieldwork appears to have been stripped of all other teaching-
learning methodologies, namely the investigative method, and is often perceived as a
playful and fun moment, resulting to the student only as a “liberation” of the class,
without recognizing in it any relation between learning in and outside the classroom. In
fact, the so-called “study visits”, “excursions”, among other forms of fieldwork, which
traditionally presented a merely recreational nature, started to seek a stronger contact
and link between school and the environment.
Field trips are important moments and means of mobilizing students’ motivation for
learning and developing a good teacher-student relationship. Besides the interaction
among students and the socialization opportunity they provide, they can and should be
used to promote learning. The use of field trips and fieldwork enhance the variety of
teaching-learning methodologies that teachers can implement to promote meaningful
learning within real contexts and through real problems.
To be well succeeded fieldwork must be carefully planned, it must involve in this
preparation both the teacher and students. The implementation of a effective methodology
of data collection, data organization, information analysis and presentation of the results
of the study, as well as an assessment of the experience will allow the success of fieldwork
in such a way that it contributes to effective learning. The key idea from which we started
was that the fieldwork allowed a strong connection between theory and practice. More, it
was also defined as an important activity in terms of skills development in different areas
such as observation, analysis, location, orientation, critical thinking and research, being
fundamental in geographic education.
It is important to emphasize that for these students of initial teaching training program,
future teachers and educators therefore, the interactions experienced in the planning and
implementation of the different tasks that make up the fieldwork themselves constitute
opportunities for the development of geographical competences in different dimensions
of knowledge and know-how geography that they should be able to transport to the
classroom. Only by experiencing moments of field work, as trainees, will it be possible
to develop the skills to be mobilized, later, to the children, the main ones involved in the
work with the teacher / educator.
In summary, and reinforcing the opportunities for the development of geographical
competences that derive from an effective practice of field work, the results of the
courses carried out with these students in initial formation allow to affirm that they
are better qualified for the development of localization skills and spatial orientation
using different instruments; collection of information in different sources using various

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methods, techniques, procedures and instruments; landscape reading and knowledge of

the characteristics and dynamics of places at different scales; mobilization of geographic
vocabulary in the construction of knowledge and communication in Geography. These,
developed along with the competences of knowing space but also develop a territorial
citizenship, have already been widely discussed in this text.
Fieldwork activities have very specific pedagogical characteristics, as we have
demonstrated in the learning experience described above. In spite of this, some critical
analysis of current teaching-learning models remains to be done as well as a consideration
of how fieldwork has been used within the different paradigms of geographical science.
Having these in mind, we have tried to problematize the role of the fieldwork as a teaching-
learning strategy. We have also framed this learning activity into the context of theoretical
reflections and practical options for geographical education, mainly within a socio-critical
perspective, problematizing real questions and stimulating critical spatial thinking.

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Didáctica Geográfica nº 19-2018. ISSN: 0210-492-X 101