Introduction

Geography has been meeting the increasing needs of the 21st century “glocal” society. The Geography Education Majors was established in 1993, and it commemorates the 24th anniversary this year (2017). To meet the needs of our society for geography teachers and specialists, the College of Education offers the geography majors program for undergraduates, the Graduate School of Education for master’s candidates, and the Graduate College for doctorate degrees.

The majors curricula provide the liberal and natural geography curriculum encompassing economics, city, sociology, history, culture, topography, and climate, the geography research methodology majors involving geographic information system (GIS), cartology, survey geography, and remote exploration, and the region geography curriculum dealing with the geography of Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa, and Oceania. Through these curricular programs complemented with theoretical and field studies, we train the students capable of teaching the junior high school youths the science of geography. In addition to semiannual and annual field trips, the department organizes geography olympiads and festivals which offer the opportunities for the majors to interact with the regional community.

Aims

Geography Education aims at cultivating the well-rounded individuals capable of making positive contributions to the development of regional society and country through the study of geography.

The primary goal of the undergraduate curriculum is to nurture the individuals of talent and ability to teach geography at secondary schools. The advanced geography majors program offers master’s and doctoral degrees through the Graduate School of Education and Graduate College, respectively, for eventual research and/or university teaching professions.

Careers

Graduates of the geography education majors have found their careers as teachers or administrators with public and private secondary schools or in government services in last two decades. Those who went on to further study earning master’s and doctoral degrees have been employed by such organizations as National Geographic Information Institute, National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Jeju Tourism Organization, and Jeju Autonomous Provincial Government, NGO groups, environmental guides and illustrators, and international cooperative agents.

History

1993: Established Geography Education Majors program

1998: Established M.S. degree program, Geography Education Majors, Graduate School of Education

2008: Established the Graduate College Faculty of Sociology Education Geography Education Majors

2013: Observed the 20th anniversary of the majors program