Acta geographica Slovenica, 62-1, 2022, 55–64
TEACHING AND LEARNING LANDSCAPE
IN PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SPAIN:
A NECESSARY CURRICULAR REVIEW
TO EDUCATE CITIZENS
Francisco Xosé Armas-Quintá, Francisco Rodríguez-Lestegás,
Xosé Carlos Macía-Arce, Yamilé Pérez-Guilarte
Small village in the geographical centre of Galicia (Spain).
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Francisco Xosé Armas-Quintá, Francisco Rodríguez-Lestegás, Xosé Carlos Macía-Arce, Yamilé Pérez-Guilarte, Teaching …
56
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.10457
UDC: 373.3.016:911.5(460)
COBISS: 1.01
Francisco Xosé Armas-Quintá1, Francisco Rodríguez-Lestegás1, Xosé Carlos Macía-Arce1,
Yamilé Pérez-Guilarte2
Teaching and learning landscape in primary education in Spain: A necessary
curricular review to educate citizens
ABSTRACT: The study of landscape is not new, nor is society’s concern for the environment. It occupies
a central place in teaching geography and offers many opportunities for the integration of one’s own con-
tents of geographic education. Landscape must be presented as a portion of space on the Earth’s surface
where natural elements and the actions of human beings interact, a complex reality where nature and cul-
ture mix. Knowing a  landscape means more than knowing a  portion of the territory, it also implies
understanding the social groups and peoples that inhabit it. In this regard, and in addition to the study of
exceptional, singular, or exotic landscapes, it is necessary to value the importance of ordinary landscapes
close to schoolchildren. In this article, a curricular review of primary education in Galicia (Spain) is car-
ried out with the aim of knowing how the study of landscape is approached, also taking into account the
guidelines set out in the basic curricula at the national level.
KEY WORDS: geography, landscape, curricula, didactics, environment, Galicia, Spain
Pokrajina poučevanja in učenja v osnovnem šolstvu v Španiji: Potreben pregled
kurikuluma za izobraževanje državljanov
POVZETEK: Preučevanje pokrajine ni novo, prav tako ne skrb družbe za okolje, ki zavzema osrednje mesto
v pouku geografije in ponuja številne možnosti za integracijo lastnih vsebin geografskega izobraževanja.
Pokrajino je treba predstaviti kot del zemeljskega površja, kjer se prepletajo naravni elementi in dejanja
ljudi. Je kompleksna realnost, kjer se mešata narava in kultura. Poznavanje pokrajine pomeni več kot poz-
navanje dela ozemlja, pomeni tudi razumevanje družbenih skupin in ljudstev, ki jo naseljujejo. V zvezi
s tem in poleg preučevanja izjemnih, edinstvenih ali eksotičnih pokrajin je treba ceniti pomen običajnih
pokrajin, ki so blizu šolarjem. Članek predstavlja kurikularni pregled osnovnošolskega izobraževanja v Galiciji
(Španija) z namenom spoznati pristope k študiju pokrajine, ob upoštevanju smernic, določenih v temeljnih
učnih načrtih na nacionalni ravni.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: geografija, pokrajina, učni načrti, didaktika, okolje, Galicija, Španija
The article was submitted for publication on October 13th, 2021.
Uredništvo je prejelo prispevek 13. oktobra 2021.
1 University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
francisco.armas@usc.es (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8644-8185), f.lestegas@usc.es (http://orcid.org/0000-
0002-1733-3085), carlos.macia@usc.es (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8597-4557)
2 University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain
yamile.perez@udc.es (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2086-3765)
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1 Introduction
The study of landscape is not new, nor is society’s concern for the environment. This fact has been mate-
rialising in the celebrations of the different international conferences on the environment promoted by
the UN and UNESCO in which the need to create a common consciousness to preserve our environment
through education in all countries has been stressed at all levels.
Numerous works from different disciplines have been devoted to the conceptual and epistemological
analysis of the landscape (Corbera Millán 2016; Cebrián Abellán and García Martínez 2016; Rubio Tenor
and Ojeda Rivera 2018), especially those of a territorial nature such as Geography (Serrano Giné 2013),
which meant an enrichment of the term (Luque Revuelto 2012). The landscape is no longer seen and treat-
ed as a combination of sciences, but is placed above them to evolve towards a universal way of observing
the environment (Vallina Rodríguez 2020).
Furthermore, at present, we are witnessing an unusual scientific and technical interest in its study, pro-
tection and enhancement (Mulero Mendigorri 2013), especially by geographers (Gómez Ortiz 1993),
surpassing the environmental and territorial sphere and permeating, increasingly, towards areas of
marked cultural and political character (Serrano Giné 2013). Along with this, this interest comes from a cap-
italist-oriented strategy of economic valorisation of the territory and decisively promoted by public
administrations (Corbera Millán 2016).
The purpose of the European Landscape Convention arose as a result of environmental degradation
and the need to conserve the natural and Europe’s cultural heritage. This Convention encouraged the dif-
ferent public administrations to adopt policies at different scales in order to protect, plan and manage European
landscapes. In the same way, all forms of European landscapes, natural, rural, urban and periurban, both
emblematic and ordinary, were recognised, in addition to the need to promote education about the land-
scape (Council of Europe Landscape Convention 2000). The adoption of the Council of Europe Landscape
Convention has been the basis of a shared language and the beginning of overcoming a long period of dia-
logue of the deaf, disagreements and useless nominalist debates in which the concept of landscape was
repeatedly described as polysemic, ambiguous or flimsy (Zoido Naranjo 2012).
The worry for the study of landscape in schools is strengthened with the establishment of the Escuela
Nueva, where the student is considered as the centre and end of teaching and makes them the protago-
nist of education. In this regard, it is argued that learning must start from their own experiences, which
is why the immediate environment takes on an extraordinary didactic value. If in the first decades of the
last century landscape was a pedagogical resource that allowed certain learnings to be tackled, at present
it is also an educational objective that aims to contribute to creating a collective consciousness about the
need to maintain the different ecosystems that define the Earth’s landscapes (Gómez Ortiz 1993).
In Spain, all references to the educational interest of the landscape come from the Institución Libre de
Enseñanza (Free Institution of Education), which carried out its activities between 1876 and 1939. One
of the most prominent promoters of this pedagogical project was Francisco Giner de los Ríos, a distin-
guished follower of the philosophical krausista movement. From this system of thought, the educational
principles of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza are specified in encyclopedic teaching, comprehensive edu-
cation (intellectual, aesthetic and moral), active teaching, the intuitive method, the Lessons of things (Type
of textbooks dedicated to teaching, especially regulated ones, which were composed of texts on various
topics whose main purpose was reading, writing and, on rare occasions, calculus.) and, in a singular way,
hiking excursions. These are the procedures that will allow children to approach directly to nature that
surrounds them and the real world, developing the capacities of observation, investigation, personal ini-
tiative and sociability (Melcón Beltrán 1995).
Teaching geography through the landscape is part of a didactic trend with a long tradition in our coun-
try, especially in primary education. Today this tradition is revising its concept and orientation as the idea
of landscape deepens, introducing a new vision of landscape education into the school curriculum. This
aims to be a tool for the intellectual and personal growth of students in a framework in which formal and
informal education meet to respond to the challenges of the 21st century (Batllori i Obiols and Serra i Sala
2017). Thus, this article presents an exhaustive review of the basic curriculum of primary education, reg-
ulated by the Royal Decree 126/2014 (Boletín Oficial del Estado 52, 1. 3. 2014) and the curriculum of primary
education in the Autonomous Community of Galicia, regulated by the Decree 105/2014 (Diario Oficial
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Francisco Xosé Armas-Quintá, Francisco Rodríguez-Lestegás, Xosé Carlos Macía-Arce, Yamilé Pérez-Guilarte, Teaching …
de Galicia 171, 9. 9. 2014) in order to analyse what is proposed in Spain for the teaching and learning of
the landscape at all levels of this educational stage.
2 Methods
Understanding how landscape teaching and learning is being carried out in primary education in Spain
and Galicia meant, in addition to analysing the basic curriculum of primary education (Royal Decree
126/2014) and the curriculum of primary education in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Decree
105/2014), reviewing the scientific production related to the study and teaching of the landscape, espe-
cially that published in the Spanish journals with the greatest impact on geography, geography didactics
and social sciences didactics.
In the case of Geography journals, the ten Spanish journals with the highest impact indexed in the
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and in Scopus were consulted over the last eleven years (2010–2021) using
»landscape« as the keyword. In total, more than three hundred issues of the journals have been reviewed:
Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, Scripta Nova, Anales de Geografía de la Universidad
Complutense, Ciudad y Territorio. Estudios territoriales, Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica, Cuadernos
Geográficos, Documents d’Anàlisi Geográfica, Estudios Geográficos, Investigaciones Geográficas, and Investigaciones
Regionales. In the same way, the most outstanding journals of geography didactics and social sciences didac-
tics in Spain have also been reviewed, including Didáctica Geográfica, Revista de Investigación en Didáctica
de las Ciencias Sociales, Íber. Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales, Geografía e Historia, and Didáctica de las
Ciencias Experimentales y Sociales.
In relation to the revision of the basic curriculum of primary education (Royal Decree 126/2014) and
the curriculum of primary education in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Decree 105/2014), the
contents of the thematic blocks »Common contents«, »The world that surrounds us« and »Living in soci-
ety« are analysed, with special attention paid to the second block because it contains all the topics related
with the landscape.
3 Literature review
At present, the landscape is present in a good part of the dimensions that make up human life and this
implies analysing, explaining and understanding it from different perspectives, which contributes to con-
solidating its complexity (Rubio Tenor and Ojeda Rivera 2018). The concept of landscape has been the
object of multiple approaches and meanings with a multifaceted vision that encompasses both purely mor-
phological postulates and aesthetic, symbolic and spiritual visions (Silva 2009). In addition, the concept
of landscape has great possibilities for the convergence of different approaches, as well as its usefulness
when tackling the difficult and complex task of territorial governance (Zoido Naranjo 2012). It is also impor-
tant, when defining the landscape, to take into account certain insights that are typically of it, such as its
evolutionary trend and its dynamism (Pérez Alberti 2008; Fernández Álvarez 2013).
Landscape is the result of people’s relationship with their perceived, daily or visited environment, an
element of territorial identity (Mata Olmo 2008), and the greatest exponent of the natural and cultural
evolution of a territory (Martínez de Pisón 2000). Every landscape, whether material or imaginary, is a rep-
resentation of reality, a social and intellectual construction and a cultural product (Mateu i Lladó 2014;
Corbera Millán 2016) that can vary from one culture to another and, also, from one era to another (Maderuelo
2010). The views on the landscapes are diverse but all of them are essential to understand the relation-
ships between the human being and the territory. Not only the places matter but also the collective feelings
and certain forms of life that have their projection in the landscapes (Benito del Pozo 2012).
The most common source for subjective knowledge of the landscape is the mental construction, like
a sketch, that an individual makes regarding the shape of the territory (Venegas-Moreno et al. 2021). The
perception of the landscape is shaped by representations linked to the observer’s cultural environment, by
experiences, memories and individual intentions, as well as by material spaces. In this way, one part of per-
ception has a subjective component and another has a notable sociocultural background (Cosgrove 2002).
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The consideration of landscape as an element of quality of life and identity of places, as heritage and
resource for sustainable territorial development has emerged strongly in recent times (Mata and Ferrer
2021). Different authors have insisted on explaining the recovery of interest in the landscape as a kind of
awareness of the deterioration that it has been suffering as a consequence of the industrialisation and urban-
isation processes (Corbera Millán 2016). Lately, there has been a serious landscape impoverishment and
a good part of the essence of our landscapes has deteriorated. Diffuse urbanisation, disorganised urban
growth and detachment from traditional urban settlements, has destroyed the territorial logic of much of
the country. The causes that have given rise to this situation are varied, but the lack of awareness of the
landscape and of a sensitivity towards this exceptional heritage asset that is the landscape can be highlighted
(Nogué 2010).
Landscape must be presented as an experiential space in which the human being not only lives and
develops, but, due to their ability to transform it, has the obligation to watch over it, harmonising its exploita-
tion and preservation (Gómez Ortiz 1993). Landscape is also an experience, a way of seeing and imagining
the world producing feelings and aesthetic and ethical evaluations. Landscape only opens the eyes of those
who know how to interpret it (Liceras 2013). It is a complete intellectual exercise where, in addition to
the necessary rigor and intelligence, sensitivity and direct experience are particularly appropriate (Martínez
de Pisón 2010).
3.1 Some considerations for landscape education
The concept of landscape has a prominent presence in the curriculum of primary education social sci-
ences, and among its educational proposals, the landscape as a social and cultural construction and the
large landscape units are part (Batllori i Obiols and Serra i Sala 2017). Work is being carried out, espe-
cially in geography, so that the study of the landscape does not refer only to the elements that compose it,
but rather deepens the relationships that arise between the elements that it is comprised of (Fernández
and Plaza Gutiérrez 2019).
Landscape and environment have always been present in schools (Gómez Ortiz 1993; Busquets 2010)
and it has been an educational resource which has played an important role in pedagogical renewal move-
ments by means of promoting field work and its relationship with the environment (Busquets 2010). Landscape
currently occupies a very important place in very diverse fields of knowledge (Liceras 2013) and has devel-
oped according to the progress and diversity of the approaches taken, but its presence in schools has stood
out, especially, in the subjects of Geography and Natural Sciences (Gómez Ortiz 1993; Busquets 2010).
The study of landscape can be approached at any level of education, from the initial stages of the train-
ing of individuals, due to its conceptual richness and interdisciplinarity character, as well as adapting its
didactic methodology to the progressive development of the cognitive capacities of the students (Liceras
2013). Despite this, it is necessary to bear in mind that landscape education should not be associated with
a break with disciplinary approaches towards the knowledge of landscape but must incorporate percep-
tual and social dimensions into these approaches (Busquets 2010).
Landscape studies in schools must be conceived from a double perspective; on the one hand, instruct-
ing students in certain curricular areas and a deeper understanding of specific contents and, on the other,
educating them towards the cultivation of a reflective and critical spirit (Gómez Ortiz 1993). Landscape
has, in education, a notorious tradition associated, mainly, with the teaching of geography and history. This
teaching background is the basis of knowledge and appreciation of landscape by the youngest, although
it should be updated in terms of its heritage, social and global dimensions, as well as the values that it trans-
mits (Prats and Busquets 2010).
The study of landscape occupies a central place in the didactics of geography, while offering numerous
opportunities for the integration of content typical of geographic education, ranging from the development
of spatial thinking and cartographic literacy to commitment and participation of citizenship (García de
la Vega 2019). It is logical, then, that the landscape is a common object of study in all educational systems
and that it has played an important role in the activities developed by the pedagogical renewal movements,
which promoted preferential attention toward the environment and field work (Busquets 2010; Feliu and
Hernández 2015).
Landscape education requires the use of multiple resources from the environment itself, with activi-
ties outside the school that must also have continuity within the classroom. In this sense, the instruments
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traditionally used to perceive landscapes were closely associated with direct observation and the use of
conventional photographs, sketches and cartographic documents. However, nowadays the impact of new
technologies, digital cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and, especially, Web GIS can-
not be ignored as resources for landscape education. Through GIS, students can select and combine different
layers of geographic information, which will help them understand the complex interplay of physical and
human factors in shaping landscapes, as well as develop critical and creative thinking. In addition to GIS
and Web GIS, there are other applications and digital tools, such as those developed by Google (Google
Earth, Google Maps, Google Street View), which are changing the methods and procedures for learning
about landscape in the classrooms (De Miguel González 2016).
Educating people about landscape does not mean dispensing with the various disciplinary approach-
es toward the knowledge of landscape, but rather incorporating the perceptual and social dimensions into
these contributions (Busquets 2010).
4 Landscape in the curriculum of primary education in Galicia
The inclusion of landscape in the curricula of primary education has been a notable success, and this inter-
est in the study of landscape has been in force in teaching practice over the years (Gómez Ortiz 1993). In
Spain, the didactics of geography has consolidated the study of the landscape from different disciplinary
and didactic perspectives. Although the curriculum is the normative reference in education, the treatment
of the landscape in schools should be completed with methodological strategies and specific didactic resources,
which would also imply resorting to other documents, regulations and educational research (García de la
Vega 2019).
The Galician Primary Education curriculum (Decree 105/2014) aims to contribute to the personal and
social development of students, as well as their integration and participation in the society in which they
live. As stated in the curriculum, the area of social sciences integrates various fields of study among which
are geographic, sociological, economic and historical aspects, although, in reality, the contents will bare-
ly cover the objective of contributing to the personal and social development of the student. The review
of the contents for the social sciences revealed a scarce presence of human geography, which is a great weak-
ness when it comes to understanding the different social, economic and cultural processes that shape the
current information society in which we are immersed. As a complement to this curricular review, it would
be highly interesting to carry out an exhaustive review of school textbooks, as has been done in other stud-
ies at European level (Senegačnik 2010; Komac, Zorn and Ciglič 2013; Senegačnik 2018). The analysis of
school textbooks represents one of the great lines of research in teaching social sciences and, according
to Souto González (2002), is one of the key tools in the didactic programming of a class.
Landscape didactics promotes the acquisition of geospatial skills and fosters skills in specific appli-
cations. Landscape studies and geospatial technologies applied to didactics constitute one of the educational
challenges in Geography (García de la Vega 2014). In this respect, it seems appropriate to take advantage
of the ease of access to this great variety and quantity of resources to promote quantitative and qualitative
progress in the study of the landscape. These resources should contribute to the formation of the students’
ability to manage and interpret the information, as well as to contrast the data from field work with those
obtained from other sources (Busquets 2010).
The primary education curriculum of the Autonomous Community of Galicia organises the contents
by thematic blocks in order to »facilitate the curricular realisation of the area and of the stage« (Decree
105/2014, 37,478). In this way, the contents, evaluation criteria, learning standards and key competences
are organised around four thematic blocks: Common contents, The world that surrounds us, Living in soci-
ety, and Traces of time. In the first of these, the common contents of the area are established, alluding to
the »different techniques, strategies and working methods that enhance and favour the acquisition of learn-
ing about the knowledge of the environment by the students«. In the same way, the curriculum also has
a special consideration in this block with information and communication technologies when it comes
to »searching for information, simulating processes and presenting conclusions regarding the social sci-
ences« (Decree 105/2014, 37478).
The first thematic block organises the common contents in fifty-eight themes, of which only twenty-
four are different or slightly different. This means that, of all the subjects proposed for the six primary
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education grades, almost two thirds are identical. From our point of view, this thematic block does not
contribute to achieving the proposed objectives, nor to constituting the fundamental axis in order to deal
with the curricular elements of the other thematic blocks. This reiteration of content, as well as of the eval-
uation criteria and learning standards lead us to reflect on whether this thematic block should have a place
in the curriculum as its own block. If so, the contents should be rethought, and specific topics should be
proposed and adapted to each course and to the contents of the other three thematic blocks. As designed,
perhaps a list of common suggestions for the entire stage of primary education would have been more use-
ful.
The weaknesses that were detected in the organisation of the contents in block one are also applica-
ble to the rest of the thematic blocks. The first thematic imbalance is seen between blocks two, three and
four, since half of the topics are included in block two, The world that surrounds us, while only a quarter
of them are dedicated to studying block four, The Traces of Time. This imbalance is not justified nor is it
coherent with what is included in the curriculum itself when describing the contents of this thematic block
by stating that »it is important for students to acquire the historical references that allow them to devel-
op a personal interpretation of the world through basic knowledge of the history of Galicia and Spain,
respecting and valuing common and diverse aspects« (Decree 105/2014, 37479).
The thematic decompensation that was detected in the different thematic blocks in which the curricular
contents are organised in primary education, was also evidenced in the number of topics assigned to each
of the courses of this educational stage. There is a notable difference between the number of topics pro-
posed for the first three courses and the last three and, although the depth of analysis and content are greater
in the higher level courses, this inequality is not justifiable. The fourth and fifth year gather half of the
topics of the entire educational stage destined to study block two, The world that surrounds us, and some-
thing very similar happens in the case of fifth and sixth years, which concentrate half of the topics of thematic
block three, Living in society, and block four, The tracks of time. However, only two of the forty-six top-
ics are suggested for the first year of primary school in thematic block four, The Traces of Time, and five
of the seventy-six topics in thematic block two, The world that surrounds us. 
Of the four thematic blocks in which the curriculum is organised, the ones that refer to the study of
society, the economy and the natural environment are, the second, The world that surrounds us, and the
third, Living in society. Although the contents proposed for these two thematic blocks allude to the study
of geography, the curriculum only makes explicit mention of this discipline in the second block, where
»the study of geography is carried out, both of the immediate environment, bringing students closer to
the reality they know, such as more distant contexts […] includes content that encompasses the universe,
the representation of the earth and orientation in space, water, responsible consumption, climate, climate
change, the landscape and its main elements« (Decree 105/2014, 37479).
The study of geography that is presented in the curriculum in block two, The world that surrounds
us, is limited exclusively to physical geography content and, in our opinion, with an uneven level of detail
and a very transmissive model centred approach. In this regard, almost half of all the topics proposed in
this block in all courses of the educational stage are related to the weather, the climate and various aspects
related to cartography (plans, maps, scales, orientation in space, etc.).
The contents of block three, Living in society, are aimed at »understanding the characteristics of dif-
ferent social groups« as well as »the production and distribution of consumer goods, production sectors,
the economic life of citizens, the entrepreneurial capacity« (Decree 105/2014, 37478). This block presents
a reduction in the number of topics with respect to block two of twenty-five percent, which leads us to
reflect if, in the curriculum of primary education in Galicia all issues related to physical geography (time,
climate, lithology, etc.) have more interest than human geography and the different social aspects (Armas
Quintá, Rodríguez Lestegás and Macía Arce 2018).
In relation to the study of the landscape in the curriculum of primary education of the Autonomous
Community of Galicia, all the topics that are proposed are included in block two, The world that surrounds
us, since this is also included in the basic curriculum of the area of social sciences of Primary Education
(Royal Decree 126/2014). If we consider the contents that make specific reference to the landscape, eight
topics out of the seventy-six that are proposed for the entire educational stage are included in the second
block, and these are present in all courses except the first. Even though this represents ten percent of the
subjects, if the evaluation criteria and the learning standards are analysed, it can be observed that most
of them are repetitive, changing only and exclusively the scale of analysis.
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Several examples can be found in the following topics that appear in the curriculum. In the third year
of primary school, the contents include »Landscape: definition, basic elements that characterise the land-
scapes of Galicia«; in fifth year, »The landscape: elements that form it, types of landscapes«; and, in sixth
year, »The landscape: elements that form it, types of landscapes«. Something similar happens with the sub-
ject that is proposed for the fourth year of primary school, »The geographic diversity of the landscapes of
Galicia«; for the fifth year, »The geographical diversity of the landscapes of Spain«; and, for sixth, »The
geographical diversity of the landscapes of Europe«. This fact is also seen in the evaluation criteria and
learning standards.
The evaluation criterion »Explain what a landscape is, identify the main elements that it is composed
of, and the characteristics of the main landscapes«, appear in third, fifth and sixth years, varying only the
scale of analysis. In the learning standards, the same dynamics are followed, with a good part of them being
repeated in the different courses of the educational stage, also varying the scale of analysis. We have exam-
ples of this in the standards »Define landscape, identify its elements and recognise the main types of
landscape« which appears exactly the same in third, fifth and sixth. Along with this, in the learning stan-
dards of the topics dedicated to the study of the landscape, a direct and systematic relationship of the landscape
with the relief units and the hydrographic slopes is made. This can be seen in the learning standards that
are collected in the topics dedicated to landscape for the third course, »Locate on a map the main elements
of the landscape: relief units and the most important rivers of the autonomous community; the fourth,
»Locate on a map the main relief units in Galicia and its hydrographic slopes«; the fifth, »Locate on a map
the main relief units and their hydrographic slopes«; and the sixth, »Locate on a map the relief of Europe,
its watersheds and its climate«.
After analysing the contents related to the landscape in the curriculum of primary education of the
Autonomous Community of Galicia, it can be seen that these are closely related to physical geography, as
well as a prominent presence of the transmissive teaching model to the detriment of promoting teaching of
an active, reflective, and critical geography. This fact is appreciated in learning standards that are intended
to describe, define, name, identify, locate or place. Descriptive geography is constructed from a juxtaposi-
tion of supposedly objective and neutral statements that are destined to be reproduced at the time of evaluation.
The master class predominates, almost always supported by the textbook, while the use of other materi-
al such as maps, graphics, images or documents is only intended to illustrate or confirm the stated knowledge.
The rhythm of the lecture hardly leaves time for the students to raise doubts or questions, and the intel-
lectual activities demanded of the students are almost always of the same nature: to identify the knowledge
enunciated by the teacher and present in the textbook, and to reproduce it in an exam (Rodríguez 2002).
All these deficiencies are in line with what Macía et al. (2017) point out on the problems that some stu-
dents show when remembering concepts or reflect on ideas that were explained in previous courses.
The approach that is proposed for the study of landscape in the primary education curriculum of the
Autonomous Community of Galicia is far from what the scientific community suggests in this regard, start-
ing with the European Landscape Convention. It indicates the need to conserve the natural but also the
cultural heritage, as well as to recognise all the forms of the landscape; the natural, the rural, the urban,
the periurban and the ordinary, as well as the emblematic ones (Council of Europe Landscape Convention
2000). Authors such as Liceras (2013) point out that the landscape is portrayed as a complex reality where
nature and culture mix, and that knowing a landscape means more than knowing a portion of a territo-
ry and having to study the social groups and peoples that inhabit it. There is also an emphasis, in the scientific
literature, on conceiving landscape studies at school from a  double perspective. On the one hand,
instructing students in certain specific contents and, on the other, educating them in the cultivation of
a reflective and critical spirit (Gómez Ortiz 1993).
5 Conclusions
Although references to landscape are very present in the school curricula of primary education, as well
as the concern of society for the environment, in the case of Spain in general, and in the Autonomous
Community of Galicia in particular, the curricular approach that was designed for the study of landscape
can be greatly improved and is far from the suggestions in this regard expressed in the scientific community
and in the European Landscape Convention itself. In the curriculum review that was carried out for pri-
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mary education in Galicia, as well as in the basic curricula at the national level, it was revealed that many
of the aspects for landscape study and landscape education are not considered. Both the scientific litera-
ture and the European Landscape Convention emphasise the need to conserve the natural heritage but
also the cultural one, as well as to recognise all the forms of landscape, the emblematic and the ordinary.
Knowing a landscape is more than knowing a portion of the territory, it is important to study the social
groups and peoples that inhabit it.
In the review of the primary curriculum in Galicia, it was considered that the study of landscape is
limited, in general, to the physical elements and to its natural aspect, and to a lesser extent to the envi-
ronmental problems derived from the action of human beings. At times it seems that the term landscape
and environment are confused given that content related to the environment is also included in other top-
ics in the curriculum. The presence of landscape in the curricula of primary education is scarce, although
these limitations are more pronounced in the stage of secondary education. Along with this, it should be
noted that the contents related to landscape are closely related to the transmissive model instead of pro-
moting the teaching of an active, reflective, and critical geography. This aspect is pointed out in the scientific
community, where the need to instruct students in certain curricular areas, strengthen specific contents,
but also to educate in the cultivation of a reflective and critical spirit is emphasised. Therefore, a thorough
curricular review is necessary in primary education in Galicia, and also of the basic curricula at the nation-
al level to achieve the objectives of studying landscape and educating in landscape.
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