Featured photograph by Rebecca Hale
National Geographic is where education meets exploration. A pillar of our mission since our founding, education shapes how we engage with each other and our surroundings and inspires educators and learners to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
Chairman Emeritus Gil Grosvenor launched the Geography Education Program in 1985 to provide educators with high-quality, standards-based resources in geography and related subjects. Over the past 40 years, the Education division has continued to expand our reach — bringing the lessons, insights and skills of National Geographic Explorers directly into classrooms and communities around the globe. This May, the National Geographic Society is honoring the legacy and impact of our education programs and celebrating how National Geographic Education turns curiosity into possibility through our expanded vision of transforming learning experiences.
In partnership with researchers, educators, community leaders and learners of all ages, National Geographic Education works at the nexus of science and storytelling to push the boundaries of research and practice to improve scientific outcomes, drive new knowledge, and spark the attitudinal and behavioral shifts necessary for sustainable and resilient, longer-term conservation efforts.
We are inspiring a new generation of changemakers and conservationists by equipping them with the knowledge, tools and opportunities necessary to better understand the world around them and take action to preserve it.
Central to our work and our new vision is the cultivation of an Explorer Mindset — the attitudes, skills and knowledge that our Explorers use to find solutions to the world’s most challenging problems. We work to build an Explorer Mindset in young people and educators by designing learning resources and other solutions, live interactions with Explorers and Explorer-focused experiences that extend Explorers’ impact and amplify their work.
Implementing the New Vision for Education
To bring this vision to life, we have focused our core capabilities on deep and authentic engagements with communities, research and evidence-based work with Explorers and educators, and co-designing content and immersive field experiences. We are implementing these capabilities across our programs, grants and learning design solutions in real time. Below are a few examples of our work in action:
Explorers are at the heart of everything we do at the Society, and Explorers who receive education-focused grants are unique in that they operate at the intersection of science, exploration, storytelling and education. They leverage their expertise to add to and center the knowledge of local experts, co-design learning solutions with local communities and use visual and written narrative to tell the stories of that work for impact. There are countless Explorers engaging in this type of work, from Hilario Poot-Cahun, a Maya linguist and educator giving Yucatecan children access to STEM training in their ancestral language, to Edem Mahu, a senior lecturer of marine geochemistry at the University of Ghana working to build an ocean-literate community in Ghana, and KM Reyes, a community organizer and conservationist based in the Philippines working to educate communities about their immediate and surrounding environments to help protect forests. To learn more about the magic that happens when educators and Explorers collaborate, take a look at this recent Education blog post featuring the Explorer-Educator Exchange.
National Geographic Education is expanding the ways that learners of all ages can connect with the Society’s mission. The “PowerED by National Geographic Society” Hub on the widely used OER Commons includes Open Educational Resources (OERs) and offers an opportunity to leverage and amplify the work of our Explorers. Through this hub, we provide easy access to editable versions of National Geographic, mission-aligned content that Explorers and educators can adapt and localize, creating materials specific to their needs. OERs offer an opportunity for Explorers and educators to bring forth ideas and projects grounded in the global expertise of National Geographic. By contributing OERs to learning communities, we seek to have a positive impact on our Explorers’ ability to amplify and extend their work into the broader communities of Explorers, educators and learners of all ages, who will then be able to interact with the content by adopting, adapting, revising and sharing new knowledge and research with broader learning communities.
Organizational partnerships also play a significant role in our new vision. In 2006, we established the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship (GTF), a professional learning opportunity consisting of worldwide expeditions for pre–K–12 educators made possible through a collaboration between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society. As part of our commitment to expanding our audience collaborations and deepening our engagements, we’re continuously iterating and designing new ways for Fellows to transfer their onboard experience into transformative ways to teach students, engage colleagues and bring new geographic awareness into their learning environments and communities. Earlier this year, educator and Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Alumni Lyanne Abrue traveled with the Perpetual Planet Expeditions team to the Southern Ocean as part of their Ocean Expedition. This transformative opportunity is an example of the incredible collaborations unique to National Geographic when we leverage the power of our Explorer-led programs and impact partnerships.
In 2011, the Cengage Group and the National Geographic Society partnered to bring the world to the classroom and the classroom to life through National Geographic Learning. From delivering English language teaching to students in more than 133 countries to providing K-12 curriculum to classrooms around the world, National Geographic Learning leverages the insights, experiences and imagery of National Geographic Explorers to help learners develop the language and skills they need to be successful global citizens and leaders. Each year, National Geographic Learning engages tens of millions of learners around the world to develop the Explorer Mindset and become the next generation of planetary stewards.
These programs, tools and Explorers are at the core of our new education vision, and we will work tirelessly to test, learn, evolve and optimize this work to ensure their impact into the future.
Education is Embedded in the Goals and Mission of the Society
At its core, the National Geographic Society is a learning organization that reveals the world to audiences worldwide, providing fresh new perspectives on tackling the world’s most pressing problems. From immersive learning experiences that spark curiosity, to dynamic digital content that brings the work of Explorers to life, over the past 40 years, we’ve evolved to meet the challenges and opportunities of the moment. In the next 40 years and beyond, we will find new ways to address critical global challenges, inspire people to act, and build an Explorer Mindset in educators and learners of all ages.
To learn more about the programs mentioned here and stay up to date with the Education team’s work, please visit the Society’s Education Resources webpage.
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