John Bale

This post updated with some sad news in October 2023.

A review of John Bale's biography - by Trevor Higginbottom.

This is a very well-written and absorbing autobiography that tells us much about geographical education from 1960 to 2001. During this period John Bale's career included posts at Townfield Secondary Modern School for Boys, where he encountered 'deadbeat teachers' and 'lively' boys, Avery College of Education and the University of Keele. In 1998 he was appointed to a professorship in the latter's Education Department. 

The book contains many insights into the important influences during this period of, for example, the Geographical Association, the London Schools Geographical Group and the 1970 Charney Manor Conference. Individual geographers played an important role in Bale's career, including 'the dynamic walking whirlwind' Rex Walford and Michael Wise. Bale was a sportsman with a specialist interest in sport geography, in which he became a leading world figure. The book contains reflections on the influence of subject trends on his thinking in this respect, including 'quantitative' and 'welfare' geography. 

He became less interested in teacher training, finding lesson observation 'often a numbing experience where the main objective seemed to be one of control'. 

Arguably, Bale's influential work could have been used much more in lower secondary and primary geography to develop both the cognitive and affective dimensions of the subject, given that sport is an important motivational topic for many young people. For example, the very influential 'Geography for the Young School Leaver' Project's learning materials included very little on this theme. 

In 2001 Bale took early retirement from Keele 'severing (his) increasingly tenuous (and increasingly tedious) links with geographical education'. 

In the same year he assumed a new role in the Centre of Sports Studies at the University of Aarhus where, until his retirement in 2006, he made very significant contributions in the humanistic and social scientific fields of sport. 'Professional' autobiography is a genre which other geographers might consider: for example, some long standing geography teachers might usefully describe their involvement in the 'golden years' of curriculum development in geographical education in the latter third of the last century. It is important that this is recorded given that, hopefully, there might one day be a return to these exciting processes of curriculum change in the subject.

Source:

Higginbottom, Trevor. Geography, vol. 100, no. 2, 2015, pp. 121–121. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43825437. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Another reviewer here also says good things about the book.

I'd love to take a read if anyone has a copy lurking on their shelves. It's proving elusive via eBay / ABE Books etc. which are my usual ports of call.

John was a PGCE Tutor at Keele University, and is fondly remembered by those he taught.

He also co-edited this book with Rex Walford and Norman Graves (two former GA Presidents)

It is well worth a look at - there are some useful chapters on the development of geographical education.

His book on Primary Geography is also one that I have in my library of old educational books at school. 

Updated October 2023

I was contacted by Jeremy Krause, a former GA President with the sad news that John passed away recently.

He said:

This is a sad loss of someone who, in their own way, influenced so many of us as a geographer and especially as someone committed to Primary Geography.
'Geography in the Primary School' published in 1987 came at a time when there was much debate about what the Primary Geography Curriculum should contain. The first chapter of John’s book entitled ‘Young geographers and the worlds inside their heads’ clearly indicates his take on children’s education. 
I have lost one of the greatest influences on my geographical and education career. I met John when he was Head of Geography at Nobel School in Stevenage. He supported me with my undergraduate dissertation. A few years later I met him at Avery Hill and then at Keele Uni. It was John that encouraged me to undertake my Masters.
He was one of those people 'you meet along the way’ - he shaped who I am. He gets mention in my GA Presidential Blog

My father’s obituary, @guardianobits https://t.co/x8rldzc6yj

— Anthony Bale 📚🐈‍⬛🏳️‍🌈 (@RealMandeville) October 25, 2023

The Guardian Obituary is here.

It describes the importance of a teacher: Frank Baber, in igniting John's love for Geography.

My Dad, Prof. John R. Bale, died peacefully at home yesterday aged 83, after living with dementia for many years. Here we are together in a photo booth c. 1979, & some of his books as a geographer & sports historian. Scholar, runner, Welshman, Guardian-reader, & a wonderful Dad pic.twitter.com/epl4rDJUGk

— Anthony Bale 📚🐈‍⬛🏳️‍🌈 (@RealMandeville) October 21, 2023

We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Professor John Bale who has sadly passed away at the age of 83. John was an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the @ICSHC and pioneered the geographical study of sport. @DMUHistory @BritSportHisSoc pic.twitter.com/yoHHc5LTtJ

— ICSHC (@ICSHC) October 27, 2023