Paper short abstract:

The aim of this communication is to show the interest of anthropology and its methods to a better understanding of the primary school pupils' achievements in the field of geography

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of a survey that was conducted among first and second year elementary school pupils in France. Pupils were asked to propose different types of facilities to be developed on an island so that a population could live there. The survey aims to understand what the pupils mobilize in terms of knowledge, awareness, and geographic skills to respond to the proposed exercise. We uderline that currently the data from this survey are being processed. While we can grasp from a first analysis what the pupils mobilize in terms of geographical knowledge, we realize that this survey does not allow us to get a precise understanding of the perceptions that pupils have of their space and the way in which they can apprehend and represent it. For this reason, a straight collaboration with anthropology and the use of its ethnographic methods, such as participant observation and interviews following the survey, would surely have enabled us to better understand the work and the world of thought of the pupils in relation to this notion of "living". The questions we will address here are as follows: What might be the contribution of anthropology to a better understanding of the productions and the universe of thought of the students in geography? How can we combine the views of geography and anthropology on the notion of "living"? What (if any) new collaborative methodologies can be developed?