Educating to recognise: heritage appropriation of the quaternary deposits of the Galician coast by Teaching students

One of the distinctive features of the coastal landscape of Galicia is its great number of quaternary pedosedimentary deposits, which are of extraordinary quality in terms of the information which, they provide, making them stand out from the rest of the European Atlantic coast. They record the memory of the land and can be considered to be repositories documenting paleoenvironmental changes on local, regional and global levels, as well as geomorphological contexts related with human history. Imbued with a renewed understanding of heritage, which values natural formations beyond the appreciation of their aesthetic aspect, scientific thinking has begun to consider these deposits as cultural assets. However, a total disconnection arises between these aspirations and the recognition of such assets by the political administration and citizens. In the belief that a change in this situation will only be brought about via an education which generates a social conscience regarding geomorphological landscapes, this study examines the relevance of a form of heritage education which is critical in nature; an approach focused on initial teacher training is proposed and data showing the results of this approach are presented.