Evolving curricula and syllabi - challenges for physical geography

Recent technological changes in communications, in research and in learning and teaching styles should prompt developments in approaches to physical geography curricula. This paper questions whether there has been sufficient open discussion of such curricula and those that have been set nationally. Developments in England and Wales over more than fifty years provide the context for the present situation, which is considered according to types of knowledge under the headings of skills, concepts, and global and local knowledge. It is proposed that "Young Britannia", a personification of the student who currently faces a changing world, deserves choices for physical geography training that provide sufficient alternatives. We suggest that there should be further open discussion of future curricular architectures for physical geography.