Teaching energy geographies in transition: evolving content and pedagogical shifts

Abstract

In the decade since the 2016 special issue on teaching energy geographies in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education, much has changed in both energy geographies research and how it is taught. Research has proliferated, moving into a variety of new topical areas and incorporating a wide variety of methodological approaches. At the same time, higher education teaching has been upended, with the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for greater efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion changing students and their expectations. These have led to a rethinking of teaching modalities and pedagogies. In this article I reflect on a decade of teaching energy-related courses, first charting a topical evolution that includes the rise of renewable energy, the evolving geographical political economy of fossil fuels, and challenges related to electricity market design and its effects on the energy transition. The article then addresses evolutions in pedagogical approach, describing assignments that illustrate my shift from problem-based to challenge-based learning which, I argue, helps move knowledge creation out of the classroom and into the local community. In the conclusion I direct energy geographers towards four topics and challenges I believe will be important for energy scholar-teachers to contend with in the coming years.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 2026 · DOI ↗