Practicing a values-oriented education in geography. Main results from a national photo-contest run by the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

In 2015 the Italian Association for Geography Teachers (AIIG), in collaboration with other relevant national partners, launched the initiative “Fotografi di Classe” (FdC), a photo-contest open to the participation of classes of every school grade, from primary to high school. The main goal of the contest is to stimulate geography education through creativity and active engagement, by asking pupils to critically reflect on the significance of their local space and on the values they ascribe to it, beyond the most immediate aesthetic dimension. Building on the results of the fourth edition of the contest, inspired by the topic “Il Paese che vorrei. Scatti e immagini dal futuro dell’Italia” (The Country I would like to live in. Pics and images from the future of Italy), the aim of this paper is twofold: first, to discuss the role of this and similar initiatives in enabling a values-oriented education in geography; secondly, to map the typologies of spatialised values expressed by the participants, in order to assess to what extent students are empowered to think critically and spatially.