Cartographic Literacy: a challenge for teacher training

This paper upholds the relevance of geography as strategic knowledge and as a way of looking at the world, which endorses its usefulness as scholar subject. However, the teaching of geography must be understood as geography education aimed at promoting geographic literacy, which is focused on spatial literacy and the development of spatial thinking that is omnipresent in our daily lives. Geography contributes to this task through cartographic literacy, since maps are powerful instruments to achieve this goal. However, the deficient use of maps in schools is reviewed and the institutional limitations to ensure adequate cartographic literacy among teachers are mentioned. Finally, the need for teachers to receive sufficient training in relation to the necessary competences to conduct the teaching and learning process of cartographic language is stated.