This article presents a model for organising geographical concepts that aims to support teachers’ choices of what to teach and how to organise a cohesive and appropriate teaching plan for school geography. The model is a result of a collaborative research process between researchers and Swedish teachers. The purpose was to explore how the core concepts of geography, which are implicit in the Swedish syllabus (Örbring, 2017), can be used in teaching as powerful tools for learning (Brooks, 2018) and to develop epistemic teaching practices for school geography to counterbalance the traditional focus on content (Eriksson and Lindberg, 2016; Knorr-Cetina, 1999). During professional development seminars, teachers’ experiences were linked to procedural concepts in geography (i.e. concepts that mediate specific geographical ways of thinking and doing (Lambert, 2011)), used at an organisational level in line with models introduced by Taylor (2008). This article describes a model that integrates geographical concepts and suggests how they could be used as tools in relation to each other as well as to specific content. Here, we present the considerations behind the structure and functions of the model, and teachers’ reflections on producing and using it in class as a way to develop students’ geographical knowing.

This article explores system geographical webbing, i.e., to use a specific connection web to analyze sustainability issues, as an object of knowing in upper secondary Geography teaching. A model task was developed based on systems principles and geographical concepts. Empirical data consists of teaching interventions aimed at encouraging students to perform webbing actions and to construct geographical relationships of sustainability issues. The article describes aspects of the geographical knowing needed for using a connection web and its embedded tools to explore sus- tainability issues. Finally, the article suggests avenues for teachers to support system geographical knowing development. 

Este artículo explora el sistema de redes geográficas, es decir, utilizar una red de conexión específica para analizar cuestiones de sostenibilidad, como un objeto de conocimiento en la enseñanza de la Geografía en el bachillerato. Se desarrolló una tarea modelo basada en principios de sistemas y conceptos geográficos. Los datos empíricos consisten en intervenciones didácticas destinadas a incentivar a los estudiantes a realizar acciones de tejido y a construir relaciones geográficas de temas de sostenibilidad. El artículo describe aspectos del conocimiento geográfico necesario para usar una red de conexión y sus herramientas integradas para explorar temas de sostenibilidad. Finalmente, el artículo sugiere vías para que los maestros apoyen el desarrollo del conocimiento geográfico del sistema. 

The school subject of Geography deals with complex issues that involve changes of the Earth systems that human systems are depending of, such as climate change and related key sustainability issues. The subject content requires an understanding of complex multicausal and dynamic relationships between nature, people and societies and span over large temporal and spatial scales. A systems approach has been suggested as a way of dealing with this complexity. This article reports from a design study that examines how different factors in Geography teaching can enable or impede, different aspects of upper secondary students' systems geographical knowing. Furthermore, the article discusses how this knowing can also be seen as aspects of critical thinking in geography. The teaching intervention used a specifically designed system geographical connection model. The purpose of the article is to contribute with four tentative design principles that aim to provide teaching conditions for students to: I) experience the idea of a complex issue in terms of a specific system, II) test and use system geographical concepts for constructing the system, III) examine and anchor the constructed system in place-specific contexts and IV) synthesise, interpret and evaluate consequences based on different perspectives in order to develop critical thinking. With these principles the article contributes with knowledge that teachers can use to organise geography teaching around sustainability issues and discuss how system aspects can contribute to critical thinking in geography. 

The article explores students’ experiences while using system models to analyze sustainability issues in geography teaching. Students at upper secondary school level in Sweden participated in a long-term teaching design study where system models were introduced and used to analyze complex issues. After the teaching segment, the students were interviewed about their experiences. The data, consisting of 32 interviews and 138 written reflections, was analyzed using phenomenography. The results show three qualitatively different ways of experiencing what it means to work with system models to deal with sustainability issues. The students perceived these as: a) a tool for modelling complex content, b) a representation of complex issues, and c) a way to explore reality in terms of systems. The results were quantified to compare if students’ experiences differed in relation to the teaching that they participated in. The conclusions show that during the first time that the students used the models they experienced the system models as a tool and there was a gap between the models and the real issues. Only few aspects of systems thinking developed. The second time, when the students used the models during a longer period of time they experienced the model work as a way to explore real problems as systems and developed more aspects of systems thinking. The article contributes with knowledge about what students need to discern to be able to develop systems thinking in geography and what learning teaching need to enable.

Artikeln utforskar svenska gymnasieelevers uppfattningar av att använda systemmodeller som ett sätt att arbeta med hållbarhetsfrågor i geografiundervisning. Systemtänkande lyfts fram av forskare som ett angreppssätt elever kan lära sig för att hantera komplexa frågor som rör systemförändringar med påverkan på en hållbar framtid. Geografiundervisning anses ha potential att utveckla elevers systemtänkande genom ämnets tvärvetenskapliga karaktär där natur, människa, samhällen och platser och kan vävas samman och förstås som en helhet. Det är dock få studier som introducerat systemmodellering i geografiundervisning och än mer sällsynt är undersökningar som fokuserar på elevernas röster om fenomenet att använda systemmodeller för att ta sig an komplexa hållbarhetsfrågor. Artikeln baseras på 32 intervjuer och 138 skriftliga reflektioner där elever beskriver hur de uppfattar att använda en specialdesignad systemmodell, kallad sambandsväven under två undervisningsmoment. Elevernas uppfattningar analyserades fenomenografiskt och visar tre kvalitativt skilda sätt att uppfatta arbetet med sambandsväven som ett sätt att: a) modellera ett komplext innehåll med systemredskap, b) representera ett innehåll som system med verkliga exempel och c) utforska verkligheten som system. Resultatet visar också att vid det första tillfället då eleverna arbetade med sambandvävarna upplevdes de som redskap och det fanns ett glapp mellan modellarbetet och de verkliga problemen. Den andra gången uppfattades fenomenet som ett sätt att utforska verkligheten som system och fler aspekter av systemtänkande utvecklades. Artikeln bidrar vidare med kunskap om vad elever behöver ges möjlighet att urskilja för att kunna utveckla systemtänkande genom geografiundervisningen.