A chance to be the next Chief Executive of the GA

A chance for an exciting new role for someone in 2024.

Full details here.

We now seek a new Chief Executive to provide strategic leadership of the GA and its passionate, professional staff team of 18, based at the Association’s headquarters in Sheffield. This is a strategic role for a collaborative leader to shape and drive the development and implementation of the Association’s strategic vision. 

Our current Strategic Plan comes to an end in 2025, giving you the opportunity to work closely with trustees and members to build on past achievements and identify and develop new opportunities to enable the Association to thrive into the 2030s.

Denise on the move

Denise Freeman has now completed the first third of her GA Presidency for 20223-4.

She said:

Advocating for geography education sits at the heart of what the GA stands for and what we do as a community. As President I have placed advocacy at the centre of my work. Over the current academic year I will be travelling to different parts of the UK and meeting those involved in all stages of geography education.

As part of the Presidential cycle I am currently a trustee of the GA. Being a trustee is a great way to actively support and contribute to the Association. I am currently busy working with other trustees to recruit our next Chief Executive.

Another aspect of ‘life at the GA’ is the great work and dedication shown by our special interest groups and phase committees. Over the past term, I have been privileged to attend many meetings for these groups. Thank you to all the volunteers who give up their time to support the Association through these groups and their activities.

Finally, as we head into 2024, my attention is increasingly turning to our Annual Conference. The theme is ‘Geography for Everyone’ and I can’t wait to explore this with all who attend. Do get your early bird tickets here.

A special ESRI StoryMap has been created to trace her travels to various parts of the country: north, south, east and west.

A change of Chief Executive

This blog has traced the history of the GA's Governance, including the change to a structure which included a Chief Executive.

A recent important change was announced.

Alan Kinder is stepping down as Chief Executive after 11 years in the role. 

Alan’s last working day at the GA will be Thursday 21 December 2023. Best wishes of course to Alan for his new role, and heartfelt thanks for all that he has achieved in that time. This will be an interesting period for the GA. 

In a recent update in the Newsletter we learned:

Alan will be taking up a new, dual role early in 2024, as Chief Executive Officer of the Regional Studies Association and General Manager of RSA Europe.

During his time at the GA, Alan crafted two strategic plans (covering the periods 2014–19 and 2020–2025), led the successful implementation of the 2014–19 plan and ensured the GA further developed under its current strategic plan. 

This work focused on bringing geography teachers together, meeting their professional needs, raising the profile of the Association and advocating for high-quality geographical education. It underpinned a doubling of GA membership between 2012 and 2023 and significant growth in the number of schools and teachers engaged with the GA, particularly through its professional development events and social media activities.

Alan represented the GA and the interests of the geography teaching community on national and international stages throughout his time in post, providing expert advice to (amongst others) the Department for Education, Ofsted and Ofqual. 

Through his advocacy work and the extensive body of professional advice and support material he authored on behalf of the GA and its partner organisations, Alan exerted a considerable influence on the curriculum and professional practice we see in geography education today. His recent work to develop a GA Framework for the school geography curriculum will continue to shape the nature and scope of the geography curriculum in the years ahead.

GA Chief Executive Alan Kinder said:

“As a former teacher of geography, it has been the most enormous honour and privilege to have served as the GA’s Chief Executive for more than eleven years. This is a vibrant community, supporting a vital part of every young person’s education. 

Teachers of geography deserve the assistance of an independent subject association, focused squarely on their needs and interests, and I hope I have been able to play a role in representing and supporting teachers effectively during my time in post. 

As I begin to prepare for the exciting professional challenges that lie ahead for me, I’m confident that the GA will use its current strategy as a strong foundation for further progress in the years ahead.”

The search for Alan's replacement is underway.

In the meantime, the leadership of the Association will be shared amongst a number of people in important SLT roles at Solly Street along with several prominent volunteers (and former GA Presidents).

Professor Alastair Owens, the Chair of Trustees shared the news on the plans for continuity of leadership.

Interim leadership arrangements

I am delighted to announce that Elaine Anderson (Head of Publishing), Alex Forsyth (Finance and Operations Manager), and Becky Kitchen (Head of Professional Development) have agreed to share the responsibilities of the Chief Executive role until a new Chief Executive is in post. 

I am also pleased to share that John Hopkin, current Honorary Treasurer of the GA and a former President, has agreed to provide mentorship and support of the acting Chief Executive team, ensuring that there is co-ordination of their roles and responsibilities.

I am very grateful to Elaine, Alex and Becky for agreeing to provide leadership and continuity at this time of transition. Collectively they bring a wide range of skills, know the Association very well, and are already focused on the leadership and delivery of our strategic priorities. During their period of leadership any communications for the attention of the Chief Executive should be addressed to ChiefExec@geography.org.uk so that it can be allocated to the individual with relevant responsibilities.

I am also grateful to John who will bring great wisdom and longstanding GA experience to his advisory and mentoring role.

Search for a new Chief Executive

The GA’s Board of Trustees has established a search committee to oversee the appointment of a new Chief Executive. Following a selection process, the committee has recently contracted the recruitment agency Peridot to assist in this process. 

An advertisement and ‘job pack’ are currently being prepared and will be shared shortly; we encourage members to further share this with any individuals they think suited to the role. Please feel free to write to me at a.j.owens@qmul.ac.uk if you have suggestions for candidates. We hope to have the new Chief Executive in post by the summer of next year.

I am grateful to the entire GA community – our members, those who run our committees, special interest groups and branches, the dedicated staff who work in Sheffield, the trustees and our partners and collaborators – for their continued support and commitment during this period of transition. As we approach the end of the year, I wish everyone a restful and happy holiday period.

Prof Alastair Owens - Chair of Trustees, The Geographical Association

Spring Conferences in the 1950s and 1960s

More images of finds in the GA Archive in Solly Street. I need to spend some more time exploring these documents to see who was involved in presenting the sessions and any other secondary details locked away in their contents... All I had time to do was capture their front cover showing the different venues and Presidents overseeing them e.g. the Spring Conference of 1962 was hosted by Stanley Henry Beaver at Keele University.

These are the front covers of some of the programmes from back in the day. Part of the albums on my Flickr account.

Also a Summer School brochure. Another initiative that no longer takes place. These were organised from the GA's HQ at the time: the Park Branch Library. In 1959, they took place in Spain and Switzerland.

Domesday Discs - 1986

The BBC's Domesday Disc project appeared in 1986.

It involved students collecting data, and adding to a digital laser disc the size of an old LP, which was read using a special reader, and navigated using a tracker ball which could be rotated by the hands. The final product was quite costly to purchase - a real investment for a school. I believe the price included the BBC Micro that was required to run the associated software and hardware.

Initially estimated to require the involvement of 10,000 schools and about one million children, the intention was to make the role of schools central in a data gathering project that would assign each school to a geographical area, have parents and local societies collect data, with the schools "acting as a focus and providing the computer". Questionnaires about geography, amenities and land use were to be completed, with school pupils and other contributors also able to write about their local area and "the issues affecting them" in their own words

Source: Wikipedia

As with the Land Utilisation Surveys of Stamp and Coleman, students were involved in its production and data collection, and it was a BBC project aimed at commemorating the 900th anniversary of the original 'Domesday' survey of 1086 ordered by William the First of England.

I still have one of the discs - although not the player and tracker ball to make use of it. There was an also an EcoDisc based on Slapton Ley which we also had in my geography department.

This website provides further details on the project.

There is an article from former GA President Margaret Roberts on the use of the Community Disc in an issue of 'Teaching Geography' from 1990. An early contribution to TG from Margaret.

I remember some external organisation coming in and filming me demonstrating the discs - I wonder what that was for, and whether it still exists somewhere - it would be wonderful to see it as I was fresh into my teaching career....

References:

Roberts, Margaret. “Locations, Lines and Areas: Exploring the Community Disc in the BBC Domesday System.” Teaching Geography, vol. 15, no. 1, 1990, pp. 17–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23752172. Accessed 23 Sept. 2023.

National Archives detail: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16160

https://www.atsf.co.uk/dottext/domesday.html

Some of the resources that came from the project:

Research Paper (Open Access)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232993632_The_Domesday_Project--an_educational_review

The BBC later produced two further discs: an EcoDisc and one on Volcanoes.

I remember seeing them both - and also the very detailed instruction manuals.

A web based version existed for a while with an update for places in 2011. It's now on the National Archive site.

And a video of it in action:

Keen to hear from anyone who has memories of using the BBC Domesday Discs.

Aerial Intelligence in WWII

There have been several GA Presidents who have been revealed as working in aerial intelligence during the Second World War. This is explored in their entries.

For example, Michael Wise graduated in 1939, and served in the Army in Europe and the Middle East during the Second World War, reaching the rank of Major and was awarded the Military Cross.

Wise was awarded the Military Cross for his conduct in the fierce battle of the Argenta Gap in April 1945 (see Jackson and Gleave 1988). His company’s forward ground was overrun by a surprise enemy attack and its headquarters were under threat. The citation for his medal refers to his ‘calm and confident bearing … [as] an inspiration to all members of his company, and his manner of dealing with a most difficult and dangerous situation is beyond praise’. 

During the war of 1939–45, intelligence was gleaned from aerial photographs by a newly founded organization that developed into the Allied Central Interpretation Unit. This was based primarily at Danesfield House (known as Royal Air Force Medmenham) some 50 km west of London, in Buckinghamshire.

David Leslie Linton gets a mention here. I know that he was involved in suggesting launch sites for the 'V1 and V2' weapons.

Work at Medmenham, although important for the war effort, required interpreters familiar with aerial photographs rather than geology as such – but geology did assist the search for storage sites for ‘V’ weapons, terrain interpretation for the 1944 Allied landings in Normandy, and in guiding plans to bomb German industrial complexes hidden underground.

W G V Balchin wrote a useful summary which I have mentioned in a previous blogpost. He mentioned some of those involved and why geographers were useful.

Geography has always been vital to the prosecution of war, in three ways: first, intelligence is critical; secondly logistics (geographical factors influence the deployment of men, materials and firepower); thirdly, in action (geographical factors enter in decisions on the disposition of forces, where to attack or defend, what routes to follow, where to land invasion craft and so on.

References

Balchin, W. G. V. “United Kingdom Geographers in the Second World War: A Report.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 153, no. 2, 1987, pp. 159–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/634869. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.

https://www.proquest.com/openview/a4b517a601813d3c3c3fc825fb1fb8fb/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818801 - Linton's work

World War One.

Charles Close was of course involved in World War I.

In Great Britain, a Topographical Section, later renamed Geographical Section, was assigned to the general staff in 1904 (Geographical Section, General Staff or GSGS). Until 1911, this section was headed by Charles Frederick Close (1865-1952), who reformed organisation and training based on his experiences of surveying in India; after that, he took over as Director General of the Ordnance Survey.

The OS remembers the staff it lost every Remembrance Sunday.

BAAS Publication

It was only when I started reading about the range of GA Presidents who were involved with the British Association (for the Advancement of Science) Section Committees that I remembered a dog-eared publication I bought some time ago from a second hand bookshop in Norwich.

I can't see any names involved in its production that are also closely linked to the GA on this occasion. It includes a nice map of Norfolk though.

Dudley Stamp's maps revisited

Thanks to Steve Brace for the link to a new research project making use of Dudley Stamp's Land Utilisation Survey UK project.

We scanned Dudley Stamp maps & compared them with modern satellite data to record the extent of land-use change across Britain in mid-20thC. Our map outlines land conversion for every 10km x 10km sq. @andysuggitt & @AGAuffret#geographyteachers #NEA https://t.co/UIEk3Sw9Lj

— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) November 5, 2023

The full piece in 'The Conversation' explores a new project. 

Our answer was to use the detailed maps that a huge army of volunteer citizen scientists (many were schoolchildren!) collected under the leadership of Sir Dudley Stamp in the 1930s/40s. His team visited every county of Britain, noting down the land-use of the time... 🗺️(3/17). pic.twitter.com/2PVljhHbA2

— Andy Suggitt (@andysuggitt) November 1, 2023

The outcomes are reported in this research paper. (Open Access at the time of posting).

We estimate that roughly 90% of lowland meadow and pasture has been lost. Land was converted either to arable farmland, which saw a 22% increase, or to agriculturally improved grassland, which now occupies 27% of Britain’s land area.

Urbanisation saw the nation’s built area expand from 4% to 5%. And woodland cover doubled from 6% to 12%, largely due to a concerted effort to increase the country’s reserve of timber. For better or worse, the nation’s land use became less mixed and more consolidated.

All of this environmental change is thought to have had a profound effect on biodiversity. According to the recent State of Nature Report, the abundance of UK species has declined by an average of 19% since 1970. Some 1,500 species (or 16% of those analysed) are now threatened with national extinction.

The full piece outlines further changes affecting particular species.

All the maps are available for free download.

Our answer was to use the detailed maps that a huge army of volunteer citizen scientists (many were schoolchildren!) collected under the leadership of Sir Dudley Stamp in the 1930s/40s. His team visited every county of Britain, noting down the land-use of the time... 🗺️(3/17). pic.twitter.com/2PVljhHbA2

— Andy Suggitt (@andysuggitt) November 1, 2023

M. R. G. Conzen

Another post on people who were never President, but served the Association in various ways.

Conzen was born in 1907 and died in 2000.

1935–2000: Member of the Geographical Association - 65 years a member!

 Michael Conzen was born in Berlin, the only child of parents with strong artistic bents. Conzen decided that geography was going to be his subject through map reading, hiking in the countryside, and reading, not through the inspiration of his teachers. He entered the University of Berlin's famed Geographical Institute in 1926, when it was at the zenith of its intellectual reputation. He was taught by, amongst others, Albrecht Penck, Otto Schlüter, Hans Bobek and Alfred Wegener, the latter of whom gave lectures on his revolutionary theories of 'continental drift.

In 1933, Conzen fled Germany for London where his fiancée, and future wife, Freda, was studying. There was little call for geography teachers in depression-hit Britain and so, thanks to the advice proffered by the then Geographical Association President, H.J. Fleure, Conzen enrolled as one of the first two students on a new course in town and country planning at the University of Manchester, subsequently working for four years as a planner in Cheshir

Fleure's involvement was through the International Student Service that was engaged in trying to help the many young refugees entering Britain in the 1930s and 40s.

Freda was employed in the GA office, typing, packing up parcels for the lending library and the like; whilst, 'Con' was employed to redraw many of the maps for publication, and became one of the regular reviewers of books for Geography through the later 1930s (signed G.C.). This was good practice for writing academic geography in English and culminated with one of the few reviews published in Britain of Richard Hartshorne's The Nature of Geography in volume 2.

In 1946, Conzen moved to Newcastle where he began lecturing for GA Branches all over the north of England through the 1950s and 1960s.

He is survived by his son Michael, Professor of Geography at the University of Chicago.

Happy to learn more about Mr. Conzen's involvement with the GA.

Source:

Slater, Terry. “M.R.G. Conzen, 1907-2000.” Geography, vol. 85, no. 4, 2000, pp. 355–355. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40573480. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/college-les/gees/mrgconzencv.pdf

Conzen, M.R.G., 1958, “The Growth and Character of Whitby”, G.H.J., Daysh (Ed.), A Survey of Whitby and the Surrounding Area, Shakespeare Head Press, Eton, pp.49-89. 

http://spacesyntaxistanbul.itu.edu.tr/papers/invitedpapers/Jeremy_whitehand.pdf

Michael Cross' memories

I enjoyed this account of going to Oxford University in the 1950s... by Michael Cross.

There are mentions of quite a few former GA Presidents along the way.

A few extracts

There were also, I remember, the Admiralty Handbooks. These were written by geographers in both Oxford and Cambridge during the War years to inform the military of the history, geography and culture of countries in the sphere of war.

We were all well aware of the Davisian cycle of erosion and it seemed almost to be geomorphologically 'fashionable' to look for erosion surfaces - they seemed to play such a major part in the interpretation of landscapes. Wooldridge and Morgan's Geomorphology along with Wooldridge and Linton's Structure, Surface and Drainage in South East England were necessary 'reads'. We were also made aware of a new (to most of us) hypothesis challenging Davis's, one formulated by Penck - summarised by "wearing back as opposed to wearing down". Little were we to realise that over the decades to follow another half dozen or so hypotheses would be suggested by competing geomorphologists. (I have often thought that it would be true to say that wherever two geomorphologists are gathered together, they will disagree!)

Research on frontal systems had only properly got underway in the inter-War period. Air masses were new to us. The then latest edition of Austin Miller's Climatology had what appeared to be an added chapter, Air Masses, and we were advised to buy this edition and avoid older second-hand copies without it. I find it remarkable that today it is routine for TV weather forecasters to refer to air masses in their forecasts. Similarly, most had not heard of the jet stream. I believe some empirical knowledge of jet streams was gained by fighter pilots over Japan in WW2 but it only 'filtered through' to the general public with the growth of high-level airline flights in the 1960s and beyond. During my three years I cannot recall any mention being made, detailed or otherwise, of the jet stream.

Jean Brunhes 'classic' text La Geographie Humaine, although nearly forty years old, was recommended reading, as was The British Isles by Dudley (later Sir Dudley) Stamp - aka 'Deadly Dudley'! 

I wonder why he was Deadly Dudley... as in deadly dull?

In 1954, the annual meeting of the British Association was held in Oxford and thus the accompanying volume The Oxford Region was an up to date source. Edited by my tutor A F Martin and by R W Steel, other familiar names are listed on the Contents page (Dr Steel left midway through my time at Oxford and went on to become Professor of Geography at Liverpool.)

Reference:

https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/alumni/news/181127-mcross-1950-geog.html

Alan Kinder to step down from his GA Chief Executive post

I have covered the story of the previous GA Chief Executives as part of the writing of this blog.  

It was announced today that Alan Kinder is going to be stepping down as Chief Executive of the Geographical Assocation. He is moving to a new job with the Regional Studies Association in 2024.

The Chair of the RSA Board is Professor Neil Lee, Geography Department, London School of Economics and readers of the blog will know that the GA and LSE were connected for many decades, with some former GA Presidents being drawn from LSE staff, and the GA Conference being held there for many years too.

Alan leaves the GA in a strong position having completed 11 years in post. He has been an excellent Chief Executive, taking over from Professor David Lambert.

I first knew Alan when he co-chaired the Secondary Phase Committee I served on from 2004, when he was an Advisory teacher in London. He also co-edited the KS3 Toolkit series in 2007ish which I contributed to. I have co-presented with him at GA Conferences. 

He has overseen some dramatic changes in the GA's structure, staffing and operations and taken it through the pandemic to emerge in a very strong position with record membership levels.

I wish him all the best for his next challenge. 

This also means that there is an exciting job opportunity for someone as well: as the GA's next Chief Executive.

Yesterday was also the deadline for nominations for GA President 2025-26 and it will be interesting to find out who has put themselves forward... 

Statements below from the GA website:

GA Chief Executive Alan Kinder said:

“As a former teacher of geography, it has been the most enormous honour and privilege to have served as the GA’s Chief Executive for more than eleven years. This is a vibrant community, supporting a vital part of every young person’s education. Teachers of geography deserve the assistance of an independent subject association, focused squarely on their needs and interests, and I hope I have been able to play a role in representing and supporting teachers effectively during my time in post. As I begin to prepare for the exciting professional challenges that lie ahead for me, I’m confident that the GA will use its current strategy as a strong foundation for further progress in the years ahead.”

GA Chair of Trustees Professor Alastair Owens said:

“Alan Kinder has been an outstanding Chief Executive of the Geographical Association. Over his eleven years of energetic and committed leadership, he has worked tirelessly to support the geography education community, resulting in unparalleled levels of engagement with the Association’s activities and a doubling of its membership. Alan is a skilled and influential advocate for the discipline while also being a generous mentor, colleague and friend. While sad that he will be moving on from the GA, I congratulate him warmly on his new roles at the Regional Studies Association.

We are delighted to announce that the new CEO of @regstud will be Alan Kinder @GAChiefExec. Read the full story https://t.co/hdcPG7DkHp pic.twitter.com/vi0PtAzYZe

— Regional Studies Association (@regstud) November 2, 2023

Thought for the Day

From the GA President for 1972, teacher Alan D Nicholls.

"We see the demands on the teacher changing, and in particular his [sic] former role in describing the world is usurped by the television, radio and cinema. 

Now he has to equip his pupils to live critically and, if possible, creatively in this smaller, new world of the jet plane and computer.

 This I think is a powerful argument that a sabbatical year for travel should be provided so that they, having seen something of the world for themselves, can correct wrong impressions which their pupils may have received from the various media."

NICHOLLS, A. D. “Environmental Studies in Schools.” Geography, vol. 58, no. 3, 1973, pp. 197–206. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40568109. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.

The British School of Geography (1978)

Mentions of the GA above.

Also of Hugh Robert Mill and Halford Mackinder.

Halford John Mackinder (1861-1947), a man of dynamic personality and unlimited energy, was a true professional, strongly influenced by German thought in geography, deeply concerned for detailed regional study and at the same time an ardent student of world political geography. Having an Honours degree in History, he turned to geography to explain much that hQ had learned of past time and, having presented a challenging paper at the Royal Geographical Society in 1887 on the "New Geography", he was an obvious choice for the new Readership at Oxford, where he proved to be a dynamic influence. 

 Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbazhum.muzhp.pl%2Fmedia%2Ffiles%2FOrganon%2FOrganon-r1978-t14%2FOrganon-r1978-t14-s205-216%2FOrganon-r1978-t14-s205-216.pdf&psig=AOvVaw18z_BLVJJSZVWU0-ptq8KE&ust=1698868139546000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=2ahUKEwjp6ouRh6GCAxUKWqQEHS62CwwQr4kDegQIARBX

Filmstrip header

E.W. Shanahan was the author of a number of books in the 20s and 30s, including one on South America.

In a review of the book, there is this useful aside on the continent:

D. Chapallaz

I first noticed the name D. Chapallaz on a report on a consultation to create a single examination to replace CSE and 'O' Levels, which was proposed in the mid 1970s. It was over a decade until the GCSE was created and introduced - at the start of my teaching career.

I had a look to see who they were as it's an unusual name.

Mr. D. Chapallaz was the Secretary of the Secondary Schools Committee - the one I served on when it was called the SPC in the 1970s. He lived in Hitchin at the time - his address is included. He also served on other committees and his name appears in a range of articles.

I also found a Nick Chapallaz works for a company called GeoPlace - that's quite an unusual name and two people linked with geography and geospatial - he previously worked for ESRI UK - could there be a connection?

I wonder also if he was this old boy from Haberdashers' Aske's.

It would be good to find out more about Mr. Chapallaz and also an image too. Another of the many people to have passed through the Association's committees over the years, of which there are many thousands. A few have had their moment here, but many others still remain 'anonymous'.

Sources

“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 60, no. 4, 1975, pp. 311–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41415055 

Chapallaz, D.P., Davis, P.P., Fitzgerald, B.P., Grenyer, N., Rolfe, J. and Walker, D.R.F. (1970) Hypothesis Testing in Field Studies, Teaching Geography Occasional Papers 11, Sheffield: The Geographical Association.

Blue Sky thinking

For the last few months I've been keeping an eye out for invites to Blue Sky - an alternative to Twitter / X, where I have a large number of followers (almost 8000) which I have built up over a period of 15 years.

The changes since Elon Musk took over have degraded the experience, increased the pointless ads, and also connected the experience of using Twitter - now renamed as X for some pointless reason - with the views of Elon Musk - someone with the money to change the world for the better... but whose businesses are changing it for the worse.

I even offered a free copy of my book: 'Why Study Geography' for a working Blue Sky code.

Finally, thanks to the author Julian Hoffman, who is working away on his latest book, I received a code earlier today and set up my new account.

My follower account is currently rather lower than 8000... but I'm finding a few familiar names there, and will connect with others in the weeks and months ahead I'm sure.

I'm also taking the chance to widen the accounts that I follow to have an alternative network experience. I believe I am the first former GA President to have an account on this new network.

See you there perhaps - please follow if you are and I'll follow you back. 

Hopefully I'll get some invite codes to share in due course.

High-tech Geography

The Geographical Association has a very high reputation for its publications: the most recent of which is the 2nd edition of Margaret Roberts' seminal 'Geography through Enquiry'.

 In the year 2000, the GA published a book called High-tech Geography: ICT in Secondary Schools. I have a copy as shown in the pictures.

It was compiled by Sheila King who was working as a Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education at the time.

Although just over 20 years old now, things have rather moved on since then.

In the year 2000 I was starting my dalliance with the internet and web pages, and learning HTML coding. My first websites went up on Tripod hosting, and then I bought my own Domain name in 2001 with the appearance of the GeographyPages website.

The book features chapters written by different contributors. See the contents below.

There are contributions from several people mentioned on this blog as well, including Chris Durbin and David Gardner as well as David Hassell from BECTa, who worked with the GA and funded quite a few projects, including one I was involved in, where I wrote about blogging. I also attended a few research events they funded.

Diana Freeman, who produced the AEGIS GIS mapping package also added a chapter. I later worked with Diana a little when I was freelance.

I liked the chapter on presentation software which suggested that geography teachers might be interested in a new product which was called Microsoft Powerpoint. It replaced the overhead projector and transparencies apparently, with some whizzy effects; and David Hassell explained how to teach when you only have one computer... imagine that...

Complex Locations

I hope that in the blog I have flagged up some important female geographers who played a significant role in the development of the GA. Quite a few of them are featured in this book, which can be downloaded in full from the link below.

Bonus points if you can name the three ladies on the front cover.

Source

https://epdf.tips/complex-locations-rgs-ibg-book-series.html

OFSTED Subject Report Livestream

The GA has always had a relationship with OFSTED / HMI and several previous Presidents held HMI roles, either nationally or regionally e.g. Michael Storm. 

A GA event, with Mark Enser, Alan Kinder and Denise Freeman - the current GA President is taking place in November.

I am very much looking forward to this!

A chance to talk to @The_GA members about the new @Ofstednews geography subject report.

Book your place and come with questions. https://t.co/7S4s20GRCr

— Mark Enser 🌍 (@EnserMark) October 20, 2023

 

75 000 views

Thanks for visiting and reading.

If you have any further information on any former President of the Geographical Association, or even the current one, please get in touch.

I am always interested in hearing more information relating to your own experiences of previous GA Conferences (especially from years gone by), CPD events, books of interest, curriculum change and anything else GA related.

Dorothy Mary Preece

Preece was a teacher in Crewe. Always good to find out more about the women who helped shape the GA in the past. Always good when an old branch comes back to life...

She was a Geography Mistress at Crewe County Grammar School.

She wrote some books with H.R.B. Wood.

Source:

https://epdf.tips/complex-locations-rgs-ibg-book-series.html

If anyone has further information on D M Preece that would be appreciated as always.

The Geographical Field Group (GFG)

I was directed to search for information about this group after reading a paper by Richard Clarke.

This links to my entry on K C Edwards.

GFG is mentioned in Edwards' papers.

Professor Edwards was keenly committed to the promotion of serious field studies as an important element of undergraduate study. He was for many years the chairman of the Le Play Society's Students' Group, before becoming president of its successor, the Geographical Field Group, after the war. He remained president until his death. He also held the presidency of the Nottingham branch of the Geographical Association. From 1937 to 1958, he was convenor of the Standing Conference of Heads of Geography Departments in British Universities.

His wide geographical knowledge of the East Midlands led to his being released on secondment between 1944 and 1946 as the Regional Research Officer for the newly-established Ministry of Town and Country Planning. In 1956, he launched The East Midlands Geographer and in 1966 he edited Nottingham and its region for the British Association's Nottingham annual meeting of that year. In 1967, Professor Edwards was nominated to the East Midlands Regional Economic Planning Council, and his services to planning and the region were recognised by a CBE in 1970.

As a result of pre-war field studies and doctoral research, Edwards became an authority on the geography of Luxembourg. This experience was used in wartime intelligence. He subsequently initiated and edited the National Atlas of Luxembourg, published in 1971. He was also familiar with Poland through field study and led the first official post-war delegation of university geographers there in 1959. Professor Edwards died in Beeston, Nottinghamshire on 7 May 1982.

The Edwards Resource Centre at the Geography Department is named after him. They also offer Edwards Prizes.

This UoN Blog explores his fieldwork and explains the link above to the name of the university's resource centre.

In the 1930s Nottingham lecturer K.C. (Kenneth Charles) Edwards was ‘in the forefront of those geographers who were actively promoting field studies and making them an integral part of academic training’, developing a range of local and European ‘field camps’. That training – which today might range from learning how to conduct interviews or retrieve archival information, take soil samples or measure water quality – also equips geography graduates for a world of work beyond University research.

Teaching through fieldwork can also help develop an important ethical concern that reaches beyond the processes we might be studying to consider what it means to research and work in a place. Edwards’ local commitment, for example, bore fruit in 1962 in a volume of the New Naturalist series devoted to The Peak District, with contributions on geology from the former head of the Department H.H. Swinnerton. 

 It was also seen outside of the University, where Edwards supported the work of the Ramblers’ Federation and the Youth Hostels Association and assisted the Nottinghamshire Footpaths Preservation Society to plot rights of way on six-inch scale maps

Sources:

https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/472738d20933a32c722007f440d8429613fe887bf05a8794e65845e7b16534e1/588348/Anteric_Clarke_2009_as_published_version.pdf  

https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/2019/09/04/coal-cotton-and-the-value-of-local-fieldwork/

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/about/history.aspx

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/5234/1/5234.pdf - work in Poland (PDF download)

Edwards was one of several former GA Presidents to contribute a volume to this well known series of books with distinctive colours.


K.C. Edwards (1962) The New Naturalist: The Peak District (London: Collins)

2008-11: The APG

I posted my 12 000th post over on LivingGeography a month or so ago: a blog I started when I heard that I had been appointed as the Secondary Curriculum Development Leader, working for the Geographical Association at Solly Street and around the country. 

The job lasted for just three years until funding issues meant my post was made redundant and I moved on to other things - such as unemployment, AKA freelance consultant.

In September it was 15 years since I originally left teaching and started work for the Geographical Association at Solly Street. And I've now been at my school for ten years, which seems crazy.

2008 was a time when the Action Plan's work was underway, and I recently revisited that time when I came across a few pieces on the state of school geography at the time, with the advent of a new curriculum, government intervention and a lack of support for what came to be called 'curriculum making'.

I feel very proud to have been part of the team, along with others, to deliver on the Action Plan for Geography.

In January 2008, Marina Hyde wrote in 'The Guardian'

John Lyon responded to the criticism in a letter which was published in January 2008. I later had the great pleasure of working with him when he was the Programme Director of the Geographical Association.

My arrival at the GA coincided with the 2nd phase of the Action Plan. We worked closely with the Royal Geographical Society. The Director of the RGS at the time, Rita Gardner wrote about the new national curriculum. She had previously (in November 2007) talked about the subject's great value.

GA Conference 1988

At the LSE...

As previously posted, one of the speakers was Michael Palin.

COVIC and Alfred Hugh Fisher

COVIC has been mentioned before on the blog.

It is the Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee, and GA Presidents were involved in its work at the time.

This article in the Cambridge University Special Collections blog describes some work carried out at the start of the 20th century.

It was written by Sabrina Meneghini.

It describes a journey made around the British Empire by an artist called Alfred Hugh Fisher.

He was hired to take photographs and make paintings in order to create a visual record of the people, landscapes and geography of the vast empire. From these images COVIC produced a series of illustrated lectures and textbooks which were to be presented as geography lessons to schoolchildren.

The 6 books that resulted are held in the library.
The Indian volume was written by Halford MacKinder... who was not a native of India...

Image source: https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=16032

MacKinder was appointed for the supervision of the whole project, including the preparation of the textbooks. In 1910 he entered Parliament and consequently had less time to commit to COVIC, therefore the succeeding textbooks were authored by the economist Arthur John Sargent.

The texts inside each of the books are rich in historical and geographical descriptions. The front covers, with the illustrations and the titles showing either the natural products, the animals or the distinctive landscapes of the countries, provide information of the inside arousing readers’ curiosity.

The textbooks were accompanied by sets of lantern slides (no less than 350 per book) and the complete lists can be found at the end of each book.

A selection of the images are available on another blog post by the same author.

In 1902 the Colonial Office was charged with creating a visual record of the British Empire. The COVIC produced sets of lantern slides which were to be presented as a series of geography lessons to school children. The project’s cultural exchange aims were twofold: British schools would receive images of the colonies, while colonial school children would receive and see slides from the Mother Country. In 1907 the Committee hired Alfred Hugh Fisher, an artist and newspaper illustrator, for a duration of three years. He was given the responsibility of creating a visual description of Britain’s overseas territories.

This was quite a commission.

The first two posts were from 2018, but there is a follow up from April 2023 by Sabrina, updating on her PhD research.

Sabrina recently completed her PhD at DeMontfort University, entitled Classroom Photographic Journeys: Alfred Hugh Fisher and the British Empire’s Development of Colonial-era Visual Education, which made heavy use of the Library’s Royal Commonwealth Society photographic collections.

Congratulations!

The new post describes the journey in more detail and includes some of Fisher's photographs and paintings.

There are also diary and letter images.

His journey started in October 1907 in South Asia where he visited India (at the time of Fisher’s journey the term India included the areas in the Indian subcontinent administrated by the United Kingdom and ruled by the British Raj. It extended over present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka), Burma [present Myanmar], Aden, Somaliland, and Cyprus. From July 1908 to May 1909, he travelled to Canada, Newfoundland, Weihaiwei, Hong Kong, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. In his last journey, from October 1909 to August 1910, he sailed from Gibraltar and Malta to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Fiji. COVIC purchased images from places he was not able to visit such as the West Indies [Caribbean], and South Africa. Some were acquired from official bodies, others from amateur photographers.

Fisher was the first and only photographer employed by COVIC.

Sabrina says that:
British geographer Halford John Mackinder, attempted to influence how Fisher’s work would shape COVIC’s with instructions on how and what to photograph. Fisher did not always follow these instructions and his own vision of the Empire can be seen through his artistic works.

In the section on India.

The type of images requested by Mackinder to Fisher in India had to show the stability and order of the colonial society. It was important to illustrate to British pupils the Empire’s most valuable possessions and the achievements accomplished by British in the Indian subcontinent. Fisher documented the various forms of cults in India, ancient buildings, princes and rulers from different Indian states, railways, engineering infrastructures, and scenes depicting the development of the colonial economy to demonstrate the good functioning of the Empire and the subservience of its subjects.

The letters in this Yale archive would make interesting reading for sure.

Fisher sent his documents in the hope that his biography would be written.

Some of the material can be accessed in digital form by following links from the main page above. Fascinating stuff.

Source of text:

https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=24905

This is a fascinating story and I'll try and track down the PhD in full as it sounds like it will be well worth finding out more...

'Geography through Enquiry' 2nd Edition - now available to purchase and pre-order

The GA President in 2008, fifteen years ago, was Margaret Roberts

The new updated edition of her classic 'Geography through Enquiry' is now available for immediate download as an eBook in PDF format, or as a pre-ordered actual book which will be out in a month or so according to the GA website.

Here's the shop link from the GA website.

This second edition of Margaret Roberts’ key text focuses on what learning geography through enquiry can mean in the secondary school classroom. It identifies four key aspects of classroom enquiry: a questioning approach to geographical knowledge; critical study of the evidence on which geographical knowledge is based; the development of geographical understanding; and reflection on learning.

In addition to updating information and listing new references, this new edition includes recent examples of classroom practice, contributed by a range of practising teachers and educators from around the world. The book gives attention to challenges faced by teachers in dealing, for example, with stereotypical representations, students’ misunderstandings, disinformation and eco-anxieties. It also includes four new chapters: the contribution of students’ knowledge to enquiry-based learning; investigating geographical futures; geographical enquiry in a digital world; and reflecting on learning.

This book is designed to support secondary school geography teachers at all stages of their professional development. It will also be of interest to teachers wanting to carry out research into pedagogic practices in the geography classroom, to teacher educators and to policy makers.

I have my copy and started to read through it earlier. I will post a review here once I've had a proper read.

I was pleased to see that my own small contribution to its creation was acknowledged at the start. I was one of the teachers and other geography colleagues who were connected by Margaret to share our thoughts on the original edition and what aspects of it were the most important to focus on for the 2nd edition. Matt Podbury, Richard Allaway and Ellena Mart were amongs other familiar names who shared ideas for digital resources in particular as well as some of the new challenges, including AI.

Hull Spring Conference 1929

Here's the programme for the GA's Hull Spring Conference in 1929.

Some highlights.

A lecture from the President Henry G Lyons.

A trip to the Fish dock.

A lecture by H J Fleure.

A trip by charabanc to Filey.

“PROGRAMME FOR THE SPRING MEETING TO BE HELD AT HULL.” Geography, vol. 15, no. 1, 1929, pp. 46–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40559499. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Primary Geography: Alastair Owens

The GA President for 2022-23, Professor Alastair Owens is the subject of the Primary Geography interview in the Autumn 2023 issue of 'Primary Geography'. Well worth a read...

Subscribers will have received their printed copies.

Thought for the Day

"most land can be upgraded into a sphere of usefulness which is not inherent to it, but can be upgraded only to a certain extent,  depending on the starting point which is the inherent character of the land.."

Dudley Stamp

Fanny Copeland and the Le Play Society

I didn't know anything about Fanny Copeland until I came across this article while looking for something on the work of Laurence Dudley Stamp.

Special thanks to Richard Clarke for his work on this research.

Born in Ireland, raised in Scotland, she made her life as an adopted Slovene, having lived in a number of European countries.

In this capacity, she welcomed a field trip from members of the Le Play Society, which I have mentioned several times on the blog.

This section talks about Copeland's involvement:

She had invited George Ingle Finch, to lecture.

Finch was also an activist within the London Le Play House Organisation (LPHO).  

The LPHO was a key organisation in the development of inter-war British geography.  

It had been established in 1920 by a curious mix of geographers, sociologists and educationalists to take forward ‘regional studies’ using an interdisciplinary analytical framework based on the trilogy of ‘place’ (the natural environment, physical and biological), ‘work’ (the economy, and daily life of its people) and ‘folk’ (their community and social organisation).  

This approach was itself derived from the work of the 19th century French sociologist Frederick Le Play (who emphasised ‘family’ as the basic unit of society, rather than ‘folk’).  

The LPHO provided a home for several bodies, including student groups and a ‘foreign fieldwork committee’ whose emphasis on ‘human ecology’ during the late 1920s became increasingly at variance from that of the Sociological Society (another body within the LPHO which was championing the ‘professional’ disciplinary practice of academic sociology).  

The two bodies split in 1931, with the Sociological Society recasting itself as a professional institute - the Institute of Sociology - and the foreign fieldwork committee becoming the nucleus of a separate organisation, the Le Play Society (LPS), under its first President, Patrick Geddes.  Geddes died in 1932, shortly after the formation of the LPS and was succeeded as its President by Halford Mackinder. 

I'd been unaware of this earlier incarnation of the Le Play Society, or the close link with the IBG. I need to go back to some of my earlier sources perhaps.

The LPS (a precursor of the Institute of British Geographers) became a major influence on the development of geographical fieldwork between the two World Wars.  Its first ‘foreign study’ (in August 1932) led by Dudley Stamp was of Solčavsko, a then ‘remote’ Alpine valley system on the Slovene - Austrian border.

It resulted in some outputs:

Dudley Stamp (1933) 'Slovene Studies'

This review of the book mentions two other former GA Presidents:

"Halford Mackinder in his Foreword to Slovene Studies described it as ’an honestly made brick for the palace we are rearing.’ (in Stamp 1933)  The LPS subsequently held up the 1932 visit as a model of how regional studies should be carried out.  The Society's own (1935) guide to regional fieldwork describes it as 'An excellent example of regional survey by a Le Play Society group doing field work as a summer vacation course abroad'. (Barnard 1935: 114, 1948)  Thirty years later (after the LPS had been wound up) the visit was described by Beaver (1962: 236) as 'one of the best examples' of the LPS’s work.  Beaver did much within the Joint School of Geography at King’s College and LSE during the 1930s to promote fieldwork and his own interest in the Balkans were fostered by his leadership of several LPS ‘expeditions’ (Phillips and Turton 1975)."

At this point the British Association and Section E appear - something else which has appeared quite a few times on the blog.

And this is followed by two more references to former GA Presidents: Sir John Russell (President in 1960) and K C Edwards.

"In 1947, well before the Society’s eventual closure, its ‘student group’ had become a separate body (Turnock 1991), recasting itself as the ’Geographical Field Group’ (GFG) with K C Edwards, by now Head of Nottingham University’s Geography Department as its President.  The GFG as a body of ‘professional geographers’ regarded the LPS as elderly amateurs and too ‘sociological’; the emphasis on civics and the Le Play method was dropped (Merchant 2000)"

I now need to find out more about the Geographical Field Group (GFG).

References can be found in the bibliography of the article below.

Copeland lived a long life, full of mountains and connections, and she was described as a "buzzing fly" (hopefully in a positive way).

Clarke says of her:

"In Copeland’s own work one can find elements of the idealism of Patrick Geddes, the mysticism of Vaughan Cornish (especially in her writing on mountains) and the pragmatism of Dudley Stamp."

Hilda Ormsby crops up here too - I love all the connections and interconnections here. There is so much that could be done with this era and the work of GA Presidents...

Source:

Clarke, Richard (2011) "Fanny Copeland and the geographical imagination. Scottish Geographical Journal 127(3) ,pp.163-192

https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/8156/1/ClarkeAnteric_2011_FannyCopelandGeogImag_SGJ_Pre-Pub.pdf

Stamp, L. Dudley, ed. 1933. Slovene Studies: Being Studies Carried Out by Members of the Le Play Society in the Alpine Valleys of Slovenia (Yugoslavia). London: Le Play Society 

Edwards, K.C. 1932. Anglezi studirajo Slovenijo. Planinski vestnik, no. 10: 193-198

Beaver, Stanley H. 1962. The Le Play Society and Fieldwork. Geography 47: 225-240

A quote I got from here as well:

‘Geographical knowledge needs to be understood as something that is constituted through a range of embodied practices (such as travelling, seeing and recording).  

The ‘field’ is not some self-evident place, something ‘out there’ to be ‘discovered’ in an unproblematic sense, it is produced in the ideas and the recorded or remembered movements of geographical actors, created through their discourse and shared through the networks of academic (and amateur) exchange.’ 

(Stoddart and Adams, 2004)   

Stoddart, David R and William M Adams. 2004. Fieldwork and Unity in Geography. In Unifying geography: common heritage, shared future, ed. John A Matthews and David T Herbert, London: Routledge.