1998: GeoVisions

The GeoVisions Committee of the GA was active from the 1998 through to around the year 2000. It was looking at what a geography for the 21st Century would need to be. Now that we are a fifth of the way through it, have we managed it...

It involved a committee of various people who have been related to the GA for many decades and included people I have worked with on projects myself, particularly Di Swift, who chaired the project, and Chris Durbin. Linda Thompson is also mentioned, who was Chair of the Secondary Committee when I joined it, but then moved on to another role. Diane also led the Young People's Geographies project, of which more to come later. 

The strapline of the project was:

‘Create the future … don’t just let it happen’ 

The full list can be seen below:

Coordinated by Roger Carter a former GA President who is next up on the blog. It was also referenced by Keith Grimwade in his Presidential lecture.

Mentioned by him in his Presidential lecture:

It is hard to look into the future with any certainty. I have been working with the Geo Visions Project (Carter et al., 1998) ' in order to help to raise the debate about the future of geography. I would like to close with what the Geo Visions Team believe a geography for the twenty-first century will need: 

 • A renewed emphasis on the professionalism of teachers We need fewer voices telling us what to do and how to do it. Equally, we must reassert our own professional responsibility.

 • A focus on children and young people Let us focus less on what is to be done to them and more on their hopes and fears for the future. It is their world too: we should listen to them more.  

• An all-inclusive debate about future needs Education is far too important to be left in the hands of a few, be they educators, politicians or chief inspectors. We must keep the debate open. 

 • Attention to alternative and preferred futures Education for the twenty-first century should engender a real feeling by everyone that they matter in society and that they can make a difference individually or collectively. 

 • Commitment to the capabilities for a better world. The knowledge and skills needed to compete industrially are not necessarily the same as those needed to build equitable, sustainable communities. We need a broader vision, and a better balance between skills and knowledge on the one hand, and values and commitment on the other. 

 • A critique of geography as a subject to promote a better world

Any memories of engagement with this project welcome.

A booklet was produced in assocation with TIDE Global (PDF download)

A report as well.

This includes a quote from Roger Crofts, of SAGT, who is someone I've met several times, most recently at an FSC 75th Anniversary event where he spoke about his life in geography:

“It is essential that geography is not just seen as social geography or cultural geography or biogeography or geomorphology, but that there is some interlinking between these different elements if the subject is to retain its relevance.” 

Professor Roger Crofts, COBRIG Seminar 1998

To find out more about more recent GA projects, head for this relatively new archive page on the GA website which details what the project work of the GA has involved. I am proud to have been involved in quite a few of these projects over the years, including the most recent GEO project, for which I am currently writing some materials.

GeoVisions also led into the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography, of which more to come...

References

Carter, Roger, et al. “The Geo Visions Project.” Teaching Geography, vol. 23, no. 4, 1998, pp. 201–202. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755721. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

Robinson, Roger, et al. “Wiser People — Better World?” Teaching Geography, vol. 24, no. 1, 1999, pp. 10–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755686. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

If anyone has memories of participation in this project, or knows of the outcomes, please let me know. It looks to have huge relevance today.