W Vincent Tidswell - PGCE tutor

Updated September 2023

Vincent Tidswell was never a GA President, but he gave a great deal to the Association, and wrote many articles for the GA journals.

He has been referenced in a range of articles that I've read while researching Presidents, and there's a personal reason for adding Vincent to the blog as well. My blog, my rules after all.

Vincent was a geography teacher before moving into teacher education, and was Head of Geography at the King's School, Peterborough, which I had the pleasure of visiting several times during my time working with the Geographical Association. After his teaching career, he moved into higher education and teacher education.

He was my tutor when I completed my PGCE at the University of Hull between 1986 and 1987. He interviewed me and gave me a place on the PGCE course, and was the person who visited me during my first time in the classroom - at both Primary and Secondary school level.



Here's a picture I took a few years ago of the house where we had our PGCE meetings.
The room to the left of the door was Vincent's office, where I had my interview for PGCE. I had already been turned down by Bath and Coventry, and Hull was one of my options, and Vincent took a punt on me as a teacher.
Vincent I remember wasn't convinced I had what it takes to be a teacher, as I was perhaps a little quiet and self-effacing. I still am of course.

Following my PGCE, I had many interviews, and spent some time doing supply in Rotherham, before getting a first job at John Flamsteed School in Denby, Derbyshire. I shall be talking about my journey during my Presidential lecture of course.

Canon Pyon Farm will be familiar to many from the Herefordshire Farm Game that Vincent developed.
This was a regular part of my teaching for many years, and the students enjoyed the use of games. He also wrote a series of books which grew from the quantitative revolution a little, but were always concerned with the way that geography was changing, and to help teachers upskill themselves to prepare for these changes.

In 1990, Vincent had a piece published in 'Geography' called 'Capes, Concepts and Conscience: Continuity in the Curriculum", which still has a lot of useful things to say.
In the article, he talks about the changing nature of the geography curriculum, but shows that some ideas have persisted through all the changes. He went back to the idea of subject knowledge, and it is a piece worth re-reading thirty years on.

He also worked with Chris Kington, a former GA President.

I was sad to hear of Vincent's death some years after qualifying as a teacher and starting my professional journey. He hadn't been the best of health in that year when I qualified, and retired at the end of that year.
His obituary was published in 'Teaching Geography' and written by Brian Fitzgerald, one of the people he worked closely with.



Source:
FitzGerald, Brian P. “Obituary: Vincent Tidswell 1930-1997.” Teaching Geography, vol. 22, no. 4, 1997, pp. 195–195. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755758. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

I've also been delighted over the years to have been invited back to work with the new generations of PGCE colleagues at Hull University, and to talk about the legacy of my time there, and some further ideas. I call my session "I've been to Hull and back" - thanks to Justin Woolliscroft for the invitations over the years.

Shopping Game by Alan Parkinson on Scribd

References

Tidswell, V.W and Barker, S.M: "Quantitative Methods: An approach to Socio-Economic Geography" (University of London Press, 1971)

TIDSWELL, W. V. “Agricultural Land Use and the Local Environment.” Geography, vol. 58, no. 4, 1973, pp. 343–350. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568166.

Tidswell, Vincent. “Capes, Concepts and Conscience: Continuity in the Curriculum.” Geography, vol. 75, no. 4, 1990, pp. 302–312. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571878.

FitzGerald, Brian P. “Obituary: Vincent Tidswell 1930-1997.” Teaching Geography, vol. 22, no. 4, 1997, pp. 195–195. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755758.

Tidswell, Vincent. “An Exercise from the Atlas of Nebraska.” Teaching Geography, vol. 6, no. 2, 1980, pp. 82–82. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23752276.

If anyone has any other memories of Vincent's time supporting the GA, or any images, I would be very pleased to have them.

I was very interested to hear of a strong connection with another President.
I went to see Chris Kington to talk about his own Presidential year, and he said that he had Vincent's archive in his loft...

Also check the earlier updates on what Justin Woolliscroft was doing to try to find out more about Vincent in March 2020.

Update

The image that I have now added to the top of the post was sent to me by former President Sheila Jones in October 2020, as part of a pile of images taken in 1993. Lovely to have an image... Keep the memories coming.

Update 2021

Thanks to Ashley Kent, GA President for 2006 for sending me some memories of Vincent as part of his own blog post. He was a great friend of Derek Spooner, who I guess I must have seen at the time I was training.

He told me:

Vincent I knew through his work and the ‘new’ geography ....his Pattern and Process in Human Geography was followed by Keith Hilton’s Process and Pattern in Physical Geography. 

Keith was a colleague of mine at the Institute of Education....and knew Vincent through working at Hereford College of Education. 

Vincent also had links with Brian Fitzgerald who I met at St Dunstans College. 

That was for me as a keen young man/geographer....a really exciting time...we felt very much at the frontier of the ‘new’ geography, both new in terms of content and pedagogy. 

Oxford Geography Project was really at the leading edge....as were the Schools Council Projects....GYSL and 14-18 ...and the one I was very much part of...the 16-19 Project. 

People like Brian, Rex et al were at the forefront....it was great fun being part of it! 

The first book Mike and I wrote was a direct effort to help teachers to keep up to date with the ‘new’ geography then in several school and university syllabuses. 

Of course Mike and I were helped by being a part of Cambridge and US developments....we went to Madison Wisconsin after Cambridge...where a great deal of that stuff was going on.

Exciting times, and Vincent was very much part of that. I like to think he passed on a little of that love for exciting new approaches and pedagogies to his trainees, of which I am proud to have been one.

Update February 2021

Vincent was mentioned in the Presidential Address of Chris Kington, described as "a teacher trainer who had published one title which had barely troubled the scorers". He convinced Chris to publish "Pattern and Process in Human Geography" based on the work of Haggett and Chorley. It took a while to create apparently but has proved influential.

Updated September 2023

Thanks to Brendan Conway.

'the ways in which the professional geographer thinks and works'
A great find by our school librarian...
'Pattern and Process in Human Geography'
by Vincent Tidswell, formerly Head of Geog at @KSP_News and PGCE tutor at @UniOfHull
First published in 1976 (1984 edition shown⬇️) pic.twitter.com/3jyu43xT5s

— BC (@mildthing99) September 17, 2023

In the mid 70s, Vincent served on the GA's Standing Committee on the role of Models and Quantitative Techniques. Sheila Jones also served on the committee. Also Everson and Fitzgerald there, who wrote a very popular 'A' level text that I certainly used. Rex Walford was also on that committee.

This was chaired by Richard Daugherty.