Photo: mypubliclands (Public domain)
Job description
Beyond delivering lectures, a postsecondary geography teacher builds course materials such as syllabi and assignments, leads and moderates classroom discussion, and writes, administers, and grades exams. Faculty also help shape their department's curriculum over time and often serve on academic or administrative committees that set institutional policy. Some geography instructors focus purely on teaching, while others split their time between the classroom and their own research, which typically requires a PhD in the field to pursue.
Pros
- High upside earning potential, up to $165k
- Faster than average projected growth (3.3%)
- Considerable independent judgment over curriculum and research direction
Cons
- Only about 300 positions nationwide, one of the smallest job pools in academia
- Requires a PhD, a long and competitive credentialing path
- Above-average hours, often exceeding a standard 40-hour work week
A typical day
The 9:30 lecture is on urbanization, and the professor runs it as a puzzle: why did this city grow here, on this river, at this moment — maps flipping decade by decade until the pattern clicks for the room. Office hours bring a student pitching a senior thesis on food deserts, and the professor helps sharpen it into something answerable with data. The afternoon research block belongs to the professor's own project on climate migration, cleaning county-level data and drafting a conference paper. A curriculum meeting about the GIS course sequence rounds out the day, then grading map projects in the evening — the discipline's pleasure is that its evidence is visible, and its questions never run out.
Tasks at the job
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as urbanization, environmental systems, and cultural geography.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting, and most of the day is spent sitting at a desk.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. The work is highly structured, following set procedures.
Education necessary or common
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the relevant field
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- PhD in geography (the required credential)
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP Human Geography — the field's foundation, take it early
- AP Environmental Science
- AP Statistics — spatial analysis is quantitative
- AP World History — geography and history explain each other
- AP English Language — academia is a writing career
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Geography Bee competitions
- Model UN
- A GIS mapping project of your own design
- Tutoring — teaching is half the professorship
First steps you can take now
- Take AP Human Geography and go beyond the syllabus with your own map projects
- Learn QGIS free and produce one analysis map
- Email a geography professor and ask about their research path
- Understand the road: geography degree, PhD, then the academic market
