2018: Stephen Scoffham

Dr. Stephen Scoffham's professional work has been in the area of Primary Geography, and he has a long association with Canterbury Christchurch University, where he is currently Visiting Reader in Sustainability & Education.

He is also involved in a number of campaigns which look to advance the place of geography at this key stage. He serves on the Steering Group of the Humanities 20:20 group, for example.

Stephen's Presidential Address was on the theme of 'Celebrating Geography'.

I have used and referred to a great many of Stephen's books and resources over the years, and this book with Paula Owens has been of particular value when preparing some KS2 work of my own for colleagues as part of our curriculum developments for the coming academic year.

One of the first times I met Stephen was in around 2006 when I worked on a project with David Lambert to develop some atlases for Collins as part of the GA's consultancy work.

 I still use those Atlases in my own classroom, and enjoyed the process of discussing how to make sure the atlases didn't stay on the shelves as much as they normally did.

The following 'biography' was written by Stephen himself and taken from a number of sources.

Initially a primary school teacher, Stephen worked for many years as a teacher educator before taking up the post of Visiting Reader in Sustainability and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. 

Stephen is an established author of geography teaching materials and one of a very small number of author/consultants for school atlases. 

With well over a million sales, Stephen's publications have been used in many different parts of the world and translated into languages as disparate as Georgian, Hebrew, Gaelic and Portuguese (Brazil). He served for many years as the GA’s publication officer and devised two different editions of its best-selling publication – the Primary Geography Handbook. During his Presidential year he also started a 'tradition' followed by other recent GA Presidents of engaging more with committees and special interest groups and attending meetings - he came to several Secondary Phase Committee meeting while I was secretary, for example.

He joins a number of other GA Presidents in the million-selling club. I have a way to go to reach that yet...

Deeply aware of the dangers of global warming and sustainability issues, Stephen focused his presidential year on contemporary challenges and argued for new and positive approaches using ‘celebrating geography’ as a unifying theme.

Stephen was brought up in Hertfordshire and went to St Albans School before studying philosophy and history at the University of Kent. After training as a teacher, he took up a post as the leader of a research project into urban environmental education. It was here that he developed his ideas about outdoor learning and the value of first-hand experience. As Schools’ Officer for the Canterbury Urban Studies Centre Stephen pioneered new approaches to using the school environment as a teaching resource. 

He then joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a tutor in primary education where his interest in learning, creativity and international understanding provided a rich foil for his ideas about geography education.

Stephen has travelled widely in Europe and Asia. 

He lived for a while in Istanbul after graduating before journeying on foot with friends across the Anatolian plateau – a distance of some 500 miles. As a university tutor he led study visits to south India for over a decade inspiring groups of teacher educators and leaving them with indelible experiences of different ways of living. 

More recently Stephen has directed his attention towards promoting sustainability awareness in academic life, writing about sustainability leadership and pioneering practical initiatives. A sense of place and a sensitivity to the environment pervades all these different endeavours. And his interest in the surroundings, both urban and rural, is something he pursues as a hobby as an enthusiastic walker, gardener and photographer.

In recent years, Stephen has been part of the project team for the Meaningful Maps project.

This explores how young people conceptualise their surroundings. Some of the students at my own school were involved in the early stages of the project, submitting their own maps, and work is ongoing to produce research papers and other outcomes from the project exploring young children's cartographical imaginations.

Stephen was also very helpful to me during my time as Junior Vice President, as he was the Past President during that time, and helped me with the responsibilities and chatted through some of his own experiences to help me get used to the role. This is all part of the Presidential 'journey' which those who put themselves forward for Presidency are taken on. 

References
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Scoffham

https://www.routledge.com/authors/i19629-stephen-scoffham

Meaningful Maps: http://meaningfulmaps.org/

As with some recent Presidents, Stephen has a Twitter account.

Image copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

Numerous books - too many to list here.
SCOFFHAM, S. Using the School's surroundings:A Guide to Local Studies in Urban Schools Guildford Ward Lock 1980

He has also co-authored many books with other Primary colleagues including Paula Owens.

As always, memories of Stephen's time as GA President welcome...