Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2002, pp.

181 195

Interdisciplinarity, Participatory Learning and the Geography of Tourism

KAREN SCHMELZKOPF, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey, USA

This article outlines an interdisciplinary course in the geography of tourism. It examines interdisciplinarity and its relationship to geography and the study of tourism, and presents an outline of the course, its conceptual basis, its structure and its goals. It argues that participatory learning and problem-solving activities are crucial to successful outcomes, and that, as a result, interdisciplinary courses can be instrumental in motivating students to become involved in social practice.
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS

Interdisciplinarity, tourism, social practice, participatory learning.

Introduction While some commentators have heralded a revival in the study of geography in the United States (e.g. Murphy, 1998; Cohen, 1998), many students still need encouragement to take their rst geography course. This has been particularly true at the small, private university where I teach: prior to the approval of a geography minor in Fall 2000, the discipline had been represented by only one basic course offering. Consequently, as the sole geographer on campus, one of my initial goals was to create a course that would ful l general education curriculum requirements, capture students attention and provide an enticing and comprehensive introduction to the discipline. In addition, while interdisciplinarity generally is a subtext within geography (Klein, 1990; Mikesell, 1969; Schoenberger, 2001), I wanted to make it explicit in the course for several reasons. First, appropriately enough, the geography programme is housed in the Interdisciplinary Studies department; second, an interdisciplinary approach would facilitate the ful lment of the general education requirements to enhance the integration, synthesis and cohesion of diverse areas of learning (Gaff, 1999; Ratcliffe, 1996); and third, I wanted students to be able to incorporate values of social justice, ecological sustainability, economic equity and cultural diversity into their everyday lives and communities (Howitt, 2001), and interdisciplinary study can be instrumental in motivating social practice. I decided to offer a course on the geography of tourism. Although tourism studies are
ISSN 0309 8265 print/ISSN 1466 1845 online/02/020181 15 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/0309826022014470 2

K. Schmelzkopf not as prominent in the USA as they are in the UK, tourism is an attractive topic for students, it is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and it has innumerable geographic and ethical issues. Furthermore, the study of tourism is an interdisciplinary enterprise. In this paper, I discuss the development of the Geography of Tourism course and the interrelationships of interdisciplinarity with the study of geography and tourism. In the rst section I examine de nitions of interdisciplinarity, the role of curriculum design in developing an interdisciplinary course and the relationships among geography, tourism and interdisciplinary studies. In the second section, I outline the Geography of Tourism course, including the course objectives, the underlying ideology of the course and the course structure. I consider modi cations in the course, student participation in these changes and assessments of learning. Finally, I argue that participatory active learning activities are crucial to attaining the goals of interdisciplinarity and motivating social practice. Interdisciplinarity Academic disciplines are systems of knowledge for which there is a particular content; they are sets of procedures for understanding the world by asking and answering speci c types of questions (Tchudi & Lafer, 1996). Interdisciplinarity has been de ned as the capacity to integrate knowledge derived from disciplines which may have very different views as to what counts as valid knowledge (Jones & Merritt, 1999, p. 336). Interest in interdisciplinary studies developed out of Deweys (1913) progressive educational philosophy and, more recently, constructivist theories of learning, based on the principle that students can and should actively construct their knowledge via their own experience and through collaboration and mediation with other students and with the teacher (Merrett, 2000). While incommensurability often exists between different disciplinary perspectives (Schmelzkopf, forthcoming), interdisciplinary study has the potential to provide a common basis for understanding. Students are encouraged to take a holistic approach, concentrating on issues and problems rather than disciplinary concepts or inquiries (Tchudi & Lafer, 1996). Longitudinal research on interdisciplinary studies indicates that students learn how to tolerate and synthesise diverse perspectives, to think critically and more creatively and to develop greater empathy for ethical and social issues (Kavaloski, 1979; Newell, 1990, 1994; Astin, 1992). Stember (1998, pp. 337 338) lays out three arguments for interdisciplinarity: the intellectual argument that ideas in any eld are enriched by theories, concepts and methods from other elds; the practical argument that world issues are not organised according to academic disciplines; and the pedagogical argument that learning is advanced by integration within the curriculum. This sheds light on why interdisciplinarity is very much on the academic agenda these days. Not only do interdisciplinary studies play a prominent role in contemporary general education, with the latters orientation toward diversity, cultural identities, global studies and moral and ethical issues (Gaff, 1999), but Schoenberger (2001) contends that universities are increasing their investment of resources into interdisciplinary projects in order to strengthen their ties with corporations and public funders who already recognise that practical problems transcend disciplinary boundaries. Not everyone, however, is convinced that interdisciplinarity is possible. Sowell (1995, p. 205) is representative of this position, arguing that academic disciplines exist precisely because the human mind is inadequate to grasp things whole and sponta182

The Geography of Tourism neously, and that much of what is called interdisciplinary is in fact non-disciplinary, wherein the boundaries between disciplines are simply ignored. Other researchers, while recognising certain potential problems with interdisciplinarity, still argue for its possibility. Schoenberger (2001, p. 375), for instance, denounces disciplinary reductionism in which the insights and understandings of a discipline are boiled down to a set of facts that become data for another discipline, while calling for valid interdisciplinary engagement where one seeks to work in and through different disciplinary cultures. Jones and Merritt (1999, p. 336) caution against multidisciplinarity in which disciplines or sub-disciplines are juxtaposed but not integrated. They contend, however, with Palmer, that interdisciplinarity can occur if students are able to think critically about value-based commitments, about the ways knowledge is produced and validated, and about how this varies both within and across the disciplines or sub-disciplines (Jones et al., 1999). And while Bradbeer (1999) agrees with Sowell that there are reasons why information in particular disciplines is constructed in speci c ways and with Kolb (1984) that students may very well be attracted to disciplines encompassing their particular styles of learning, none the less, drawing on the work of Marton et al. (1993), he argues that interdisciplinarity is possible because students are able to use different learning styles in different contexts. Criteria for Curriculum Design Given that interdisciplinarity is a viable enterprise, in order to accomplish the interdisciplinary charge of transcending differences in disciplinary epistemologies, discourses and teaching and learning traditions (Bradbeer, 1999), students must re ect on their learning experience, become active participants, think critically and question presuppositions (Newell, 1994; Hammer, 1999). Pedagogical approaches become important: problem-oriented participatory projects and exercises better facilitate the integration of knowledge than do traditional lecture-style formats (Tchudi & Lafer, 1996; Jenkins, 1998; Klein, 1998). However, three important issues must be considered in using such active learning methods in interdisciplinary courses. First, active learning entails a deep approach to learning rather than a surface approach emphasising breadth of information (Ashcroft & Foreman-Peck, 1994; Jenkins, 1998); however, inherent tension exists between the depth and the breadth required to understand and solve problems (Wolman, 1977; Newell, 1994). It is necessary, therefore, to pay explicit attention to balancing (and compromising) between depth and breadth (Newell, 1994). Second, Merrett (2000, p. 215) cautions us that such situated learning results in teaching that is value-laden, not value-neutral, thus making it essential to articulate the underlying educational ideology of the course. Finally, Bradbeer (1999) argues that different learning styles must be re ected in the curriculum in order to enhance active learning. Interdisciplinarity, Geography and the Geography of Tourism Although inherently interdisciplinary, geography is a discipline, focusing on how cultures and societies write themselves onto the earth and how both the environmental and the social are transformed in the process (Schoenberger, 2001, p. 377). Klein (1996, p. 40) calls geography a synoptic or synthetic discipline, with a loose aggregation of interests allowing for the integration of ideas from other disciplines. While Mikesell (1969) argues that geography is inherently complex because of its close connections with cognate disciplines, Jackson (1996) points out that this connectedness enables geogra183

K. Schmelzkopf phers to ask signi cant research questions and develop dynamic curricula. Geography thus provides students with an organisational framework of meaning by which to incorporate disparate areas of knowledge (Bradbeer, 1999). Tourism, by contrast, is a eld, an object of study, rather than a discipline (Tribe, 1997). As Graburn and Jafari (1991, pp. 7 8) explain: no single discipline alone can accommodate, treat, or understand tourism; it can be studied only if disciplinary boundaries are crossed, and if multidisciplinary perspectives are sought and formed. Likewise, the Alliance Internationale de Tourismes Charter of Ethics for Tourism and the Environment (2000) argues that the many and complex links of tourist industry and cultural and natural environment call urgently for interdisciplinary study and planning. Tourism is complicated and often contradictory: it is a business whose product is pleasure; it is a liminal experience for tourists taking place in the midst of the everyday life of the host community; it uses up scarce resources and land in one place while supporting conservation in another. Tourism actually is a set of industries and the multiplier effect is pronounced. Understanding tourism necessitates examining, among other things, the economic, the political, the ecological and the cultural. And so, for instance, explaining the decline of family tourism in the resort town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, involves examining power relations and local politics, changing religious mores, racism, gay culture and migration patterns, college students and underage drinking, rock n roll and the social in uence of Bruce Springsteen, place promotion, the rise of shopping malls and the construction of freeways (Schmelzkopf, in press). The discipline of geography and the study of tourism are complementary. On the one hand, Squire (1994, p. 1) argues that tourism can provide the discipline of geography with a useful vehicle through which to examine social and cultural questions. On the other, Goodenaugh and Page (1993, p. 72) contend that a geographic approach is particularly suitable to the study of tourism because it gives students a broad perspective on the inter-relationships between societies and environments. Additionally, Mitchell and Murphy (1991) point to the importance of geographers ability to synthesise and model complex worldwide activity within the study of tourism, while Smith and Mitchell (1990) emphasise the bene ts of geographers attention to spatial behaviour and spatial organisation. And while Jenkins (1998, p. 11) argues that the integration of physical and human geography is relatively rare, the study of tourism demands such consideration. The Editorial Aims and Scope of the journal Tourism Geographies (1997) elaborate the relationship between geography and tourism in saying that: Tourism occurs in places. Tourism is sold and begins in a place of origin and is consumed in destination places. Tourism transforms the environment of these places in ways that are distinct from non-tourism processes. Tourism involves the movement of people, goods, services, ideas, and money over space. Tourism presents a distinct way that people view, understand and relate to the world. The Geography of Tourism Course Description The following course description of the Geography of Tourism sets out the content, the aims and the objectives of the course: This interdisciplinary course is designed to provide students with a background in human and physical geography as it relates to the growing phenomenon of 184

The Geography of Tourism tourism around the world. The relationships of culture and tourism will be carefully considered, including issues of ethnicity, nationality, gender, and religion. There will be a strong focus on issues of ethics and the need for social responsibility. Students will examine issues of sustainable economic and social development. They will also evaluate mass tourism and alternative forms of tourism, including ecotourism, indigenous people as tourist attractions, and sex tourism. Case studies and class projects will be used to help illustrate the issues. By the end of the semester, students should have an understanding of how tourism transforms the physical, social, and cultural environments of the earth and how geography can provide a framework for an interdisciplinary understanding of tourism. Ideological Underpinnings of the Course Scrimshaw (1983; cited in Gold et al., 1991) de nes ve ideologies underlying educational curricula: progressivism, which focuses on the needs, aspirations and development of either individuals or communities; instrumentalism, which stresses utility and relevance to the existing social and economic order; reconstructionism, which emphasises the role of education in bringing about social change; classical humanism, which stresses the inheritance of knowledge and culture, especially for an elite; and liberal humanism, which aspires to give access to the best in cultural inheritance to everyone. In keeping with these de nitions, the ideology underlying the Geography of Tourism course is a combination of reconstructionism and progressivism. The development of the course was strongly in uenced by Kropotkins (1885) charge that students put to use the knowledge they learn in the classroom through social practice, and his belief that geographic education is instrumental in promoting cooperation, tolerance and peaceful international relations, and eliminating prejudice based on nationality, race, gender and class. Accordingly, throughout the semester, students are presented with readings and activities in which they must grapple with issues of social justice, ecological sustainability, economic and geographic equity and personal and social responsibility. Course Structure and Content To facilitate participatory learning, the students are presented with diverse readings, and they engage in practical, hands-on exercises and projects that require them to integrate materials in order to come up with solutions. Each class period is structured to include a short lecture and at least one student activity, including the use of Internet materials, a group discussion, or an in-class project. At the end of the semester, students participate in one mandatory eld trip. Introductory Material. Since many of the students are freshmen, I assume they have no background in geography or any other college course, and the introductory section is devoted to developing some common frameworks of meaning. I begin with de nitions of Kolbs (1984) four different types of learningabstract conceptualisation, concrete experience, active experimentation and re ective observationand students ll out a questionnaire in order to re ect on their own styles of learning. I advise them that the course will draw from these different styles, and they will feel especially comfortable with certain parts of the course while at the same time becoming more capable of using 185

K. Schmelzkopf new styles of learning. Next, I give a brief overview of geography, its de nitions and its various approaches, including positivism, humanism, structuration theory and postmodernism. I then provide de nitions of tourism and the key dimensions of tourism, including the tourist, the tourism business, the origin of the tourists, and the host community, host environment and host governments (Tribe, 1997). I go on to discuss the issues of interdisciplinarity, including the kinds of questions asked and problems evaluated in an interdisciplinary study of the geography of tourism. Finally, to encourage students to incorporate the concepts of the course into social practice, they participate in two activities involving the ethics of tourism: Tourism Concerns (undated) Gambia Ranking Exercise, in which the students decide whether and how tourists should make positive contributions to the host community, and a critique of the American Society of Travel Agents (undated) Ten Commandments on Eco-Tourism, which outlines proper ways for tourists to behave with respect to the environment. Themes. I introduce the students to the themes of the courseeconomics, politics and planning, culture, ecology, marketing and media, and ethicsand their relevance to the geography of tourism. These themes are de ned in Table I, along with examples of learning outcomes and related class activities. Newell (1994) stresses that for courses to be interdisciplinary students must develop a sense of the worldview and assumptions of each discipline. Thus, the students consider the fundamental questions asked by practitioners for each theme area and the interrelationships with other themes [1]. During the semester, students use this background information to examine the dimensions of tourism from the standpoint of each theme. Readings. Smeby (1996) found that interdisciplinary courses tend to have lengthy reading lists rather than core textbooks, and this is the case for the Geography of Tourism course. While there are several comprehensive introductory texts in the geography of tourism [2], I nd most to be more appropriate for students majoring in geography or tourism than for students in a general education course. By and large, this is because the texts either assume background in geographic concepts or they devote rigorous detail to particular topics too specialized for an interdisciplinary course. Instead, students read materials from a variety of sources [3]. Outside class, they also work through Geotutor (Stans eld, 1999), an interactive CD-ROM tutorial dealing with physical, cultural, political and economic geography. The CD-ROM not only frees up class time, but it also gives students the opportunity for independent self-paced learning, and it captures Kolbs (1984) learning styles as students interact with, re ect on, generalise about and are then tested on the information on the CD-ROM. Lectures. Classes have a maximum enrolment of 35 students and meet for 75 minutes twice a week for 15 weeks. Lectures take up about 20 per cent of a class period. Related readings are assigned, and students must bring to class a list of at least three major points per reading. At the end of each class period, I distribute blank index cards and ask students for comments, including any points they do not understand [4]. I begin the following class by addressing the responses and I encourage the students to answer each others questions. I then go on to present background on the methodology and presuppositions of a theme and dimension of tourism. After 15 to 20 minutes, we move on to an activity. 186

TABLE I. Geography of Tourism course themes. Examples of learning activities 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Thailand Golf/Sex Tourism Debate Pro t/Culture & Environment Impact Design the Tourist Site Follow the Leakage Exercise Guidebook Debate Beach Restoration Project Thailand Golf/Sex Tourism Debate Ecotourism/Sustainable Development Design the Tourist Site Guidebook Debate Follow the Leakage Exercise Tourism Planning Exercise Thailand Golf/Sex Tourism Debate Ecotourism/Sustainable Development Design the Tourist Site Beach Restoration Project Follow the Leakage Exercise Thailand Golf/Sex Tourism Debate Ecotourism/Sustainable Development Design the Tourist Site Beach Restoration Project

Themes

Examples of learning outcomes

The Geography of Tourism

Economic: Issues of development (both economic and sustainable), distribution of resources, and local and global circulations of money

Understand: 1. the global interrelationships involved in the economics of tourism 2. the relationships of short-term gains versus long-term impacts

Politics and planning: Impact of political structures and processes at the global, national, and local levels. Advantages and disadvantages of planning, various policies, and power structures

1. the role of local and national regulations and policy involved in tourism 2. public private alliances 3. the in uence of political events on tourism

Culture: Interrelationship between tourism and culture, including ethnicity, religion, gender, class, nationality, including issues of consumption and exploitation of rituals

1. the in uence of culture on tourism behaviour 2. impacts on culture of tourism 3. interrelationships of gender, nationality, class, religion, ethnicity with tourism

Ecology: Interactions of tourism with the physical environment, including issues of environmental degradation and conservation

1. the environment as a major tourist attraction 2. ecotourism and sustainable tourism 3. impact of tourism on environmental resources

Marketing and media: The ways in which tourist sites are marketed and represented by the media, and the impact on tourism

1. the impacts of marketing and media on the tourist industry 2. images of culture, gender, and ethnicity within tourism advertisements

1. Internet Advertisement Critiques 2. Guidebook Debate 3. Marketing Campaign for Ethical Tourism 4. Design the Tourist Site 1. Guidebook Debate 2. Marketing Campaign for Ethical Tourism 3. Design the Tourist Site 4. Thailand Golf/Sex Tourism Debate

Ethics: The roles that ethics and social responsibility play within tourism, including moral obligations of those involved in tourism, equitable distribution of resources, and environmental ethics

1. the moral obligations of the tourist industry, local residents and tourists 2. environmental ethics and ethics 3. the ethics of cultural commodi cation

187

K. Schmelzkopf Internet Activities. The classroom is equipped with an LCD projector and an Internet connection. The Internet is packed with tourism information, including advertisements, of cial tourist websites and sites for alternative travel. Although some websites are geared toward younger children, a speci c purpose, or a more general audience, and while the sites vary in terms of quality, they provide a means of generating discussion [5]. Class activities include critiquing Internet advertisements and of cial tourist sites with an eye toward such issues as the use of sex and women as attractions, the intended audience of particular sites and subtexts of racism, ableism, elitism and paternalism. This generates discussion not only of media and marketing, but also of culture, socioeconomics and variations in and interpretations of information. Student volunteers take charge of the computer and lead the rest of the class in the simulations and problem solving. There is a Best Web Site/Article contest each week, in which students must present the website or article, argue why they chose it and then hand in a typed summary. Each student is expected to participate four times during the semester. The project promotes independent learning as students search out websites or articles, evaluate their appropriateness to the course content, present their work and write a brief summary. Active-learning Exercises and Discussions. Throughout the semester, students engage in a series of problem-oriented exercises and small- and large-group discussions (Table I). The exercises are similar in structure to those developed by Healey and Jenkins (2000) incorporating Kolbs (1984) learning styles into classroom activity. For example, in studying tourism in Thailand, students read about the economic and environmental impacts of the golf industry, about the ethics, politics, cultural relationships and economics of sex tourism, and about what would happen locally and nationally if the tourist industry were to cease (concrete experimentation). Small groups are organised to evaluate the readings and argue for and against golf and sex tourism (re ective observation), and class discussions culminate in an effort to come up with alternatives (abstract conceptualisation). Finally, each group presents its plan for tourism in Thailand (active experimentation). In assigning positions, I make sure that one group takes the part of westerners so that we can discuss insider vs. outsider perspectives and issues of cultural relativism. The exercises and discussions are designed to integrate different themes of the course. For instance, in the Thailand tourism exercise students must consider economics, politics and planning, culture, ecology and ethical perspectives. In an exercise examining guidebooks such as the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, students must critique articles that direct tourists toward pristine environmental areas or the private locales of indigenous groups, using concepts from marketing and media, culture and ethics. And in an exercise called Follow the Leakage, students track $1000 as it makes it way through the host community, and must explain the economic, political and cultural reasons why the money moves from pocket to pocket. I carefully monitor the group exercises and discussions, particularly to ensure that all students are involved and focused on the problem at hand. Following the suggestions of Gold et al. (1991), I nd that students respond positively when I participate actively in the exercises, and they pay close attention because they have to turn in a single-sheet response paper summarising the basic points of the exercise or discussion and synthesising how the material relates to the readings and to previous exercises. 188

The Geography of Tourism Field Experience. At the end of the semester, students take a eld trip to a local tourist area. For several weeks prior to the trip, students read about and analyse the particular situation. For instance, because the university is within close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, one trip concerned restoration of eroded beaches. Students rst examined the physical, social and political issues and considered arguments for beach restoration (without it, tourism and local economies will plummet, many houses and business establishments along the shore will be destroyed) and against beach restoration (it is an expensive, temporary measure that could be unhealthy and disruptive to certain marine conditions). During another semester, the eld trip focused on a decaying resort town. Prior to the trip, students were provided with background material, and then developed a tourism plan. For all eld trips, I arrange with representatives from relevant agencies to talk with the students.

Course Modi cations While the structure of the course has remained the same since it was rst offered, the content has undergone signi cant modi cationsoften in response to student suggestions and complaints. This involvement of students in course modi cations is an integral part of the course, derived from both Kropotkins (1885) and Freires (1970) argument that the relationship between teacher and students should be one of dialogue, with the teacher providing direction and positive feedback, and encouraging independent thinking. Drawing on students knowledge to in uence the content of the course encourages cooperative learning among the students and between students and professor. To a great extent, student input evolves from the daily comment cards submitted by the students, class discussions at the end of each semester, and the addition of two or three questions to the universitys standard course evaluation form. And so, for instance, students suggested more background material on each of the themes; they convincingly argued for the elimination of two exercises and several readings because they were redundant; and they urged that more time be devoted to local tourism. (It was as a result of this last suggestion that the eld trips and related readings were added.)

Learning Assessment Students are given three exams during the semester, so that both they and I can measure their progress. Also, students take a learning assessment test, usually at the beginning and end of each semester. Table II gives examples of the questions. The rst part of the test consists of 50 true/false questions examining basic geographic concepts and tourism information corresponding to themes of the course [6]. The second part uses 25 questions derived from Gilbert (1995), examining student opinions about the positive and negative aspects of tourist development. The test is a work in progress, and much more rigour is needed to generate statistically valid results. Nevertheless, the results do show some general patterns: for instance, while the correct answers hover around 25 per cent at the beginning of the semester, this increases to more than 75 per cent by the end of the semester. Additionally, students tend to be more critical of tourism by the end of the semester. Exposure to the test at the beginning of the semester did not in uence nal results, for the results were comparable in courses where the test was distributed only at the end of the semester and in courses where the test was distributed at both the beginning and the end of the semester. 189

K. Schmelzkopf
TABLE II. Sample assessment questions . Part 1: Tourism and Geography Answer true or false Tourism 1. Ecotourism tries to have minimal environmenta l impact 2. The aim of sustainabl e tourism is to make enormous pro ts 3. In the 1990s, Europe gained in market share of tourism, while the Asia-Paci c region lost in market share 4. The ancient Romans and contemporary Americans demonstrat e almost the same tourist patterns owing to safe roads, common language and coinage, and lots of leisure time 5. Tourism is considere d one of the most important means of economic developmen t Geography 1. Laws and governmen t are an example of infrastructur e 2. A topographi c map shows contour lines of elevation 3. Longitude shows the distance north or south of the equator 4. California, Italy and Spain have a Mediterranea n climate 5. If two cities are four inches apart on a map with a scale of 1; 63,360, they are 5280 miles apart on the surface of the earth Part 2: Effects of Tourism Development (from Gilbert, 1995) Decide whether each effect is a bene t (B), a problem (P), both a bene t and a problem (B/P), or neutral (N) 1. Internationa l tourists bring foreign currency into the host country. Tourism is a major export for many Third World countries 2. Package holidays have become a major form of internationa l tourism 3. Entertainmen t based on traditional culture is often presente d for tourists at internationa l hotels 4. Tourism is labour-intensiv e 5. Some government s in developin g countries offer investment incentive s to tourist developer s and operators . These may include tax incentives, speeding up land purchase and approvals , guaranteein g labour availabilit y and pay rates 6. Local inhabitant s often adopt tourist tastes (e.g. for clothing, consumer goods, and even values) in what is called the demonstratio n effect 7. Tourism increase s the demand for agricultura l produce and local crafts 8. Tourist development can diversif y the economies of countries that may have previousl y been reliant on agricultur e or mining industries 9. Tourism employment is often seasonal , a primary source of jobs for the young and unskilled 10. Tourist developmen t is usually concentrate d in a few small areas

Conclusions The goals of the Geography of Tourism course are to attract students to geography, to provide them with an introduction to geography and tourism, to enable them to integrate material through an interdisciplinary approach, to facilitate their roles as active learners, and to motivate them to apply what they have learned in the form of social practice. I would argue that at least the rst four of these goals are being achieved: one or two classes are offered each semester, and all have waiting lists of students who hope to register for the course even though the class is full; additionally, more than half of the students entering the geography programme indicate they became minors directly as a result of taking the Geography of Tourism course. Based on student feedback, most students are acquiring and integrating knowledge about geography and about tourism, and if students wish to pass the course, they must participate in active learning activities. 190

The Geography of Tourism Additionally, anecdotal evidence indicates that at least some students are putting into practice the concepts of social justice, sustainability and equity. Given that geography is inherently interdisciplinary and that every geography course entails the incorporation of diverse sets of information from multiple perspectives, the question arises as to whether there is in fact anything different about this course. Certainly, geography and tourism are a good t, and tourism is so prevalent that at most universities a course in the geography of tourism can provide the means of examining both global and local geographies. I contend, however, that the difference is in the structure of the course, and that its interrelated focus on constructivist, problem-oriented active learning activities enhances its interdisciplinarity and encourages social practice. Research by Vess (2001) corroborates this argument concerning interdisciplinarity, demonstrating that the success of interdisciplinary courses depends not just on the introduction of different themes, but also on the use of innovative pedagogies. Further, throughout the history of the geographic discipline, various geographers have argued that geography can and should be instrumental in transforming society to bring about social justice (see, for instance, Kropotkin, 1885; Reclus, 1895; Harvey, 1973; Bunge, 1977) [7]. Problem-oriented active learning is crucial in motivating such social practice: as Freire (1970) argues, In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they nd themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation (p. 64). Thus, active learning, interdisciplinarity and social practice go hand in hand: the diverse learning methods facilitate students abilities to appropriate and critique disparate information and, ultimately, students are able to integrate and apply this knowledge by mapping it onto the conceptual framework of geography. The course structure can be applied to other courses of an interdisciplinary nature, including other geography courses and those in environmental and urban studies. There are many considerations in developing such a course, but I have found four factors of particular importance. The rst is the substantial amounts of time needed to devise the curriculum and exercises. The second is a willingness to make mistakes and have exercises or discussion fall apart, sometimes quite spectacularly, in front of students. The third is negotiating between the desire to cover every aspect of a subject and the need to eliminate topics owing to time constraints. Such decision making will occur not only when developing the curriculum, but also on the y when a class discussion is exceeding its time limits but engendering crucial insights and analysis. Finally, it is necessary to maintain a certain amount of control over the class while allowing for comfortable interactions, reciprocity and independent thinking. In spite of such considerations, and regardless of the subject matter, the participatory format engenders a constructivist approach to the material, enabling students to integrate materials, think critically and incorporate values of justice, sustainability, diversity and equity into their everyday lives and their communities. Postscript I made revisions to this paper during the rst three months following the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center disaster. Monmouth University is within commuting distance to New York City, and many of us in the Geography of Tourism courses during the Fall 2001 semester were directly affected by the tragedy. My rst response was to shudder at the seeming triviality of tourism, but I quickly understood that the classroom had turned onto a real-life laboratory for analysing the impacts of terrorism and crisis on 191

K. Schmelzkopf tourism, including the pervasiveness of multiplier effects, particularly in surrounding communities. During this time, I read Howitts (2001) article on social justice in geographical education and was struck by the truth of his statement that the boundaries between here and there, between us and them, between nature and culture are all more blurred than we had assumed (p. 152). The evidence of Freires (1970) argument that students actively construct knowledge according to their own life experiences was immediate. But what became absolutely clear was the enormity of the responsibility of a teacher and the truth of Kropotkins claim that geography has great potential for dissipating prejudices based on national identity, race and class, replacing these unsavoury sentiments with feelings more worthy of humanity ([1885] 1996, p. 141; cited in Merrett, 2000, p. 209). Acknowledgements The author extends many thanks to the students of the Geography of Tourism courses who have contributed so much to this work, to the anonymous reviewers for their generous and extremely helpful feedback, to Dan Baker for his usual insights and support, and to Dan and Laura (Schmelzkopf) Baker for being such enthusiastic co-tourists. Correspondence: Karen Schmelzkopf, Department of Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ [email protected] NOTES
[1] For de nitions and summaries of the kinds of question s asked by social scientists , see Zulke (1995). [2] These include Shaw and Williams (1994); Pearce (1995); Williams (1998); and Hall and Page (1999). [3] I begin the semester with three readings: Mitchell and Murphys (1991) article, Geography and tourism, an outline of how geographer s approach the topic of tourism; Nicholson-Lord s (1997) article, The politics of travel, a succinct overview of current concerns about internationa l tourism; and A sound of thunder, Ray Bradburys (1952) short story about a tourist who goes on a time-travellin g hunting trip back to prehistori c times. The rst two readings provide a theoretica l context for the rest of the course, while the Bradbury story is accessibl e and popular with the students and serves as a catalyst for class discussion about tourist behaviour s and the impacts of tourism. And because this is a geograph y course in the United States, I always summarise Randall and Warfs (1996) article on the economic impacts of Association of American Geographers conference s on local tourism. I have used anthologie s such as Judd and Fainsteins (1999) The Tourist City and Theobalds (1999b) Global Tourism, and full-lengt h works such as Bosker and Lenceks (1999) The Beach: the history of Paradise on Earth, Lofgrens (1999) On Holiday: a history of vacationing, Jamaica Kincaids (1988) A Small Place (see Young, 1995, for an in-depth discussio n of incorporat ing Kincaids book into an undergraduat e geograph y course), and Honeys (1999) Ecotourism and Sustainable Development : who owns Paradise? I also assign website readings such as UNESCOs July August 1999 Courier, which is devoted to issues of cultural tourism (www.unesco.org/courier/ 1999 08/uk/dossier/intro.htm). [4] As a result of the index card responses , most students are attentive , indicatin g in their course evaluations that they feel involved in the lecture because of their input. Many thanks to my friend and colleague , Ian Lapp, for this suggestion . [5] Web sites for alternativ e tourism include Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com ) and Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com) . There are also interactiv e sites. These include the Ecotourism Game (www.eduweb.com /ecotourism /eco1.html), AnDiAns World Traveling Adventure Game (www.american.edu /projects/mandala/TED/hpages/worldcaps/index.htm) , Design Paradise Simu-

Interdisciplinary Studies, 07764, USA. Email:

192

The Geography of Tourism

lation Game (library.thinkquest.org /2111/game/game.html) and Choose a Climate Site, a demonstration of the greenhous e warming effects of aircraf t ights (http://www.chooseclimate.org / ying/ index.html). [6] The original test consisted of 150 questions, but was winnowed down to 50 questions in response to students argument that being faced with so many questions , particularl y at the beginnin g of the semester, tends to lead to increasingl y random answers as they proceed through the questions . [7] For more discussion of this topic, see Merrett (2000).

REFERENCES
ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL E DE TOURISME (2000) [www.aitgva.ch /set1ntro.htm , last accessed December 2001]. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TRAVEL AGENTS (undated) ASTAs Ten Commandments on Eco-Tourism [http:// www.astanet.com /travel/ecotravel.asp , last accessed December 2001]. ASHCROFT, K. & FOREMAN-PECK, L. (1994) Managing Teaching and Learning in Further and Higher Education (New York, Routledge). ASTIN, W.A. (1992) What Matters in College? Four critical years revisited (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass) . BOSKER, G. & LENCEK, L. (1999) The Beach: the history of Paradise on Earth (New York, Penguin). BRADBEER, J. (1999) Barriers to interdisciplinarity : disciplinar y discourse s and student learning, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(3), pp. 381 396. BRADBURY, R. (1952) A Sound of thunder, in: R is for Rocket (New York, Doubleday). BUNGE, W. (1977) The rst years of the Detroit Geographical Expedition: a personal report, in: R. PEET (Ed.) Radical Geography (Chicago, Maaroufa Press). COHEN, P. (1998) Geography redux: where you live is what you are, New York Times, 21 March, Section B, p. 7. DEWEY, J. (1913) Interest and Effort in Education (Boston, MA, Houghton-Mif in). ELLIS , A. K. & FOUTS, J. T. (1997) Research on Educational Innovatio n (Larchmont, NY, Eye on Education). FELDER , R. M., AND BRENT, R. (1996) Navigating the bumpy road to student-centere d instruction , College Teaching, 44(2), pp. 43 47. FREIRE, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. M. Bergman (New York, Continuum). GAFF, J. (1999) General Education: the changing agenda, The Academy in Transition Series (Washington, DC, Association of American Colleges and Universities) . GILBERT, R. (1995) Traveler or tourist: tourism in the developin g world, in: J. FIEN (Ed.) Teaching for a Sustainabl e World, internationa l edn (Brisbane, UNESCO-UNEP IEEP and Grif th University) [http://www.environment.gov.au /education/aeen/pd/tsw/intrs/index.html, last accessed December 2001]. GOLD , J.R., JENKINS , A., LEE , R., MONK, J., RILEY, J., SHEPHERD, I. & UNWIN , D. (1991) Teaching Geography in Higher Education: a manual of good practice (Cambridge, MA, Blackwell). GOODENAUGH , R.A. & PAGE, S.J. (1993) Planning for tourism educatio n and training in the 1990s: bridging the gap between industry and education, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 17(1), pp. 57 73. GRABURN, N. & JAFARI, J. (1991) Introduction : Tourism social science, Annals of Tourism Research, 18(1), pp. 1 11. HALL , C. M. & PAGE, S. (1999) The Geography of Tourism and Recreation: environment , place, and space (New York, Routledge) . HAMMER, R. (1999) Integratin g interdisciplinar y perspective s into traditiona l environmenta l law courses, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(3), pp. 367 380. HARVEY, D. (1973) Social Justice and the City (Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press). HEALEY, M. & JENKINS, A. (2000) Kolbs experientia l learning theory and its application in geography in higher education, Journal of Geography, 99(5), pp. 185 195. HONEY, M. (1999) Ecotourism and Sustainabl e Development: who owns Paradise? (Washington, DC, Island Press). HOWITT , R. (2001) Constructin g engagement : geographica l education for justice within and beyond tertiary classrooms , Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 25(2), pp. 147 166. JACKSON, P. (1996) Only connect: approaches to human geography , in: E. RAWLING & R.A. DAUGHTERY (Eds) Geography into the Twenty-First Century (New York, Wiley). JENKINS, A. (1998) Curriculum Design in Geography (Cheltenham, Geography Discipline Network).

193

K. Schmelzkopf
JONES, P. C. & MERRIT, J. Q. (1999) JGHE symposium : the TALESSI Project, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(3), pp. 335 348. JONES, P. C, MERRITT J. Q. & PALMER, C. (1999) Critical thinking and interdisciplinarit y in environmenta l higher education: the case for epistemologica l and values awareness, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(3), pp. 349 357. JUDD, D. & FAINSTEIN , S. (1999) The Tourist City (New Haven, CT, Yale University Press). KAVALOSKI, V. (1979) Interdisciplinar y educatio n and humanistic aspiration: a critical re ection, in: J. KOCKELMANS (Ed.) Interdisciplinarit y and Higher Education (University Park, PA: Pennsylvani a State University Press). KINCAID, J. (1988) A Small Place (New York, Farrar Straus & Giroux). KLEIN, J. T. (1996) Crossing Boundaries: knowledge, disciplinarities , and interdisciplinaritie s (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press). KLEIN, J. T. (1998) The discours e of interdisciplinarity , Liberal Education, 84(30), pp. 4 12. KOLB, D. (1984) Experientia l Learning: experience on the source of learning and developmen t (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall). KROPOTKIN, P. (1885) What geography ought to be, The Nineteenth Century, 18, pp. 940 956 [reprinte d in AGNEW, J., LIVINGSTONE , D. & ROGERS, A. (EDS) (1996) Human Geography (Cambridge, MA, Blackwell]. LOFGREN, O. (1999) On Holiday: a history of vacationing (Berkeley, University of California Press). MARTON, F., DALLALBA, G. & BEATY, E. (1993) Conception s of learning , Internationa l Journal of Educationa l Research, 19, pp. 277 300. MERRETT, C. (2000) Teaching social justice: reviving geography s neglecte d tradition , Journal of Geography , 99(5), pp. 207 218. MIKESELL, M. (1969) The Borderland s of geograph y as a social science, in: M. SHERIF & C.W. SHERIF (Eds) Interdisciplinar y Relationship s in the Social Sciences (University Park, PA, Pennsylvani a State University Press). MITCHELL, L. S. & MURPHY, P. (1991) Geography and tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 18, pp. 57 70. MURPHY, A.B. (1998) Rediscoverin g the importance of geography , Chronicle of Higher Education, 45(10), p. A64. NEWELL, W. H. (1990) Interdisciplinar y curriculu m development , Issues in Integrativ e Studies, 8, pp. 69 70. NEWELL, W. H. (1994) Designing interdisciplinar y courses, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 58, pp. 35 51. NICHOLSON-LORD, D. (1997) The politics of travel: is tourism just colonialis m in another guise?, The Nation, 265(10), pp. 11 12. PEARCE, D. G. (1995) Tourism Today: a geographica l analysis (Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley) . RANDALL , J. E. & WARF, B. (1996) Economic impacts of AAG conferences , Professional Geographer, 48(3), pp. 272 284 RATCLIFFE, J. (1996) Quality and coherence in general education , in: J. GAFF & J. RATCLIFFE (Eds) Handbook of the Undergraduat e Curriculum (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass). RECLUS, E. (1895) The Ocean, Atmosphere and Life (London, J. S. Virtue and Company) [reprinte d in PEET, R. (ED.) (1977) Radical Geography (Chicago: Maarouf a Press)]. SCHMELZKOPF, K. (in press) Landscape , ideology, and religion: a geograph y of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, Journal of Historical Geography, October 2002. SCHMELZKOPF, K. (forthcoming ) Incommensurability , land use, and rights to open space, Urban Geography, 2002. SCHOENBERGER , E. (2001) Interdisciplinarit y and social power, Progress in Human Geography, 25(3), pp. 365 382. SCRIMSHAW, P. (1983) Educationa l Ideologie s, Unit 2, E 204, Purpose and planning in the curriculum (Milton Keynes, Open University Press). SHAW, G. & WILLIAMS , A. (1994) Critical Issues in Tourism: A Geographica l Perspective (Cambridge, Blackwell). SMEBY, J.C. (1996) Disciplinar y difference s in universit y teaching, Studies in Higher Education, 21(1), pp. 69 79. SMITH, R. V. & MITCHELL, L. S. (1990) Geography and tourism: a review of selected literature , 1985 1988, in: C.P. COOPER (Ed.) Progress in Tourism, Recreation and Hospitality Management, Vol. 2 (London, Belhaven Press).

194

The Geography of Tourism

SOWELL, T. (1995) The Vision of the Anointed (New York, Basic Books). SQUIRE, S.J. (1994) Accounting for cultural meanings: the interface between geograph y and tourism studies re-examined, Progress in Human Geography, 18(1), pp. 1 16. STANSFIELD, C. (1999) GeoTutor: building geographi c literacy (Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall). STEMBER, M (1998), Advancing the social sciences through the interdisciplinar y enterprise , in: W.H. NEWELL (Ed.) Interdisciplinarity : essays from the literatur e (New York: College Entrance Examination Board). TCHUDI, S. & LAFER, S. (1996) The Interdisciplinar y Teachers Handbook: integrated teaching across the curriculum (Portsmouth, NH, Boynton/Cook). THEOBALD, W. (1999a) Clari cation and meaning: issues of understanding : the context, meaning, and scope of tourism, in: W. THEOBALD (Ed.) Global Tourism, 2nd edn (Woburn, MA, Butterworth-Heine mann). THEOBALD, W. (1999b) Global Tourism, 2nd edn (Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann) . TOURISM CONCERN (undated) Gambia Ranking Exercise [http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/education/ frame.htm, last accessed December 2001]. TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES (1997) [www.for.nau.edu /geography /tg/aims.html, last accessed December 2001]. TRIBE, J. (1997) The indiscipline of tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 24(3), pp. 638 657. UNESCO, Le Courier, July August 1999 [http://www.unesco.org/courier/1999 08/, last accessed December 2001]. VESS, D. (2001) A study of learning outcomes in an interdisciplinar y fine arts course, Inventio: Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching, 1(3) [http://www.doiit.gmu.edu/inventio/index.htm , last accessed December 2001]. WILLIAMS, S. (1998) Tourism Geography (New York, Routledge) . WOLMAN, M.G. (1977) Interdisciplinar y education : a continuing experiment , Science, 198(25), pp. 800 804. YOUNG, L. (1995) An angry voice from paradise: Jamaica Kincaids A Small Place as a teaching resource, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 19(1), pp. 91 97. ZULKE, F. (1995) Through the Eyes of Social Science, 5th edn (Prospect Heights, IL, Waveland Press).

195