South Africa: Teaching Geography with GIS Across Diverse Technological Contexts

Abstract

This chapter describes the introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into secondary schools in South Africa. We describe a number of efforts to implement GIS within three different categories of schools in the country: private, public, and previously disadvantaged. We demonstrate that while there may be disparities in terms of the amount of resources available to each schooling system, the devotion and motivation of geography teachers across the socioeconomic secondary schooling spectrum serves as an example of what can be done at all levels to teach GIS.