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.

2008 - Working for the GA

It was in September 2008 that I started work for the Geographical Association. I worked there for three years, and it was the best time of my professional life and every day was CPD as I travelled across the UK and Europe, learning, writing, teaching and pushing forward the idea of what school geography could be.

I worked with many wonderful geographers, and had the chance to visit hundreds of schools and work with thousands of teachers as we worked to deliver the projects funded by the Action Plan for Geography and meet the KPI targets.

See the recent post on John Lyon for more on the time we worked together at Solly Street.

I kept notebooks all the way through that period of three years, to jot down everything I was doing, and also keep agendas of meetings etc.

Here they are:

When my job was made redundant I was bereft and thanks to many people who offered me some help in the next few years. I thanked them here.

Particular thanks as always to Claire Kyndt for changing that around 8 years ago.

2016: Mary Biddulph

I have had the privilege of working with Mary Biddulph
on a range of projects over the years.

Mary worked for many years in teacher education at the University of Nottingham.

We worked together on the Young People's Geographies project, which ran from 2006-2011. I started as a teacher, but was involved with the final stages of the project as a GA employee.

Mary has kindly filled in the Zoom form that I created for the recent Presidents.

Mary was born in Brighton in 1960.

She started school in the West Midlands, her family having moved there when she was four years old. However, she then moved to Maidstone in Kent when she was 12 and went to school there until she finished her A levels.

Of her time in education she said:

"My geography education was relatively uninspiring...except for the fieldwork at A level - geography made so much sense after the field week in Swanage. I did my degree at the University of Sussex, where there was a lot of emphasis on International development (many thanks to (former GA President) Tony Binns for his enthusiastic teaching) and historical geography (many thanks to Brian Short for his wisdom and insight). It was here I first read 'Topophilia' by Yi Fu Tuan - this changed my view of geography for ever. I recommend it to everyone. 

I did my PGCE at the University of Nottingham and have lived in the East Midlands ever since. Harry Tolley and Frank Molyneux were my tutors, and it is fair to say they were both, in very different ways, inspirational."

This is a reminder of the importance of those previous generations of ITE trainers who trained the current generations of teachers - people like Vincent Tidswell who I was fortunate to have had train me.... I may need to investigate these two gentlemen next...

Mary responded next to this question, which I have asked all the available Presidents: "What has your career been e.g. teacher / academic / author / other work outside the obvious geography sphere?"

Mary said:

"I feel I have done bits of all of the above in my time. However, I started my career in geography education as a young (and very naive) teacher in an inner-city school in Derby. The students there were magnificent - so skilled at running rings round me!

I had to learn fast. I became a PGCE tutor at the University of Nottingham after eight years in the classroom. The transition was just luck - right place at the right time - Harry Tolley needed a part-time colleague and I was lucky enough to be it. 

Working alongside Harry was wonderful, and I learnt so much from him during my early years as a PGCE tutor. His boundless enthusiasm for and commitment to geography education made him an excellent role model for this early-career PGCE tutor. I worked in ITE Geography at the University of Nottingham for nearly 30 years. It sounds like a long time, but it isn't. The time flew by. The University afforded me many professional opportunities for which I am forever grateful. Yes, the chance to travel to many interesting places was a benefit of working at the University, but there were three other and much more significant benefits: 

1. The freedom to think / read / reflect on geography education and its significance to children's education. 

2. The opportunity to work with many wonderful hard-working PGCE students and their subject mentors in schools - this was a real privilege. 

3. The chance to be part of a wider community (including the GA) of committed geography educationists who fed my ideas and challenged my thinking. 

Part of the freedom of working in the University was being able to seize opportunities as they came along. For me, an example of such an opportunity was my involvement in the Young People's Geographies (YPG) project. The project comprised a unique combination of teachers, academic geographers and school students all working together developing the geography curriculum - it was both great fun and so inspiring. The school students involved in the project had such rich ideas about geography and were so perceptive about what the curriculum could be. We need to listen to them more than we do."

As one of those teachers I certainly learned a great deal from my involvement in the project.

She told me more about her Presidential theme.

Inclusive Geographies? was the theme I selected. 

I chose this theme because I wanted the geography community to think about the extent to which school geography, and geography more generally is (or is not) inclusive of a diverse range of students and teachers. The question mark is significant to the theme. 

I am convinced that there was then, and there still is, important work to be done to ensure all young people access the kind of geographical education that will serve them well in their current and future lives. I also think there is work to be done in ensuring the geography teaching profession better reflects the communities it serves. 

These are complex issues and there are no simple answers, but nonetheless they are issues not to be sidestepped. Prior to being president I edited the journal 'Teaching Geography' for three years, and while in this role served on the GA's Education Committee. I was also a member of the YPG project team (the project was funded by the Action Plan for Geography) and had also been involved in the evaluation of a couple of other GA projects. Since being president I have stepped back a bit but am currently on the Geography Education Research Working Group (GERWG) and am also a member of a group looking at developing a curriculum framework for geography."

I ask all former GA Presidents why the GA matters:

"The GA matters to me because it provides me, and many others, with membership of a community of practice committed to high quality geography education. It is home to, and even a refuge for, a wide range of geography education professionals who debate, discuss, argue and pontificate on the question: What exactly is a 'high quality geography education'. It provides a place where assumptions about school geography are challenged and where teachers can be sure of the quality of the ideas it encourages. School geography has not always had a secure place in the school curriculum, and the GA has been crucial in advocating for the subject in policy circles where the significance of geography to young people's education has been often been completely misunderstood. The GA continues to play an essential and ongoing role in ensuring geography is part of the education project. I'm not really sure how I got involved. It just seemed to happen a gradually.

I asked her about any successes of her Presidential year:
"I think it's difficult to judge 'successes', but my sense of achievement just came from working with the excellent staff at HQ and working with the 'team' of presidents to support the mission of the GA. Whilst the presidential lecture is the big public event for the president, it is really a small part of the presidential year - the rest of the year is really a team effort and HQ staff and the vice presidents and the past-president are key to that effort. Having said this, being president is good fun and it does mean that you get to engage with a wide range of enthusiastic geographers - attending the final weekend of Worldwise quiz in Blencathra, seeing the hard work of the different committees and enjoying the less formal aspects of the annual conference are all special parts of the role that I remember with great affection."

She also trained the current Nottingham University PGCE tutor Mal Kerr, just as she herself was trained by the previous generation.

Thanks to Mary for answering the questions so thoughtfully, and thanks in advance for the ongoing curriculum work which will be one feature of my own Presidential year.

"I still think there is work to do in helping a wider range of teachers and educators to get involved in the work of the GA. In particular, we need to think about how to engage the enthusiasm of early career teachers before they are no longer 'early career'."

References

Academic writing: https://www.tandfonline.com/author/Biddulph%2C+Mary - some very recent papers.

'TG' editorials feature in many issues too of course.

YPG has its own blog posts which includes some of the references, particularly a paper Mary co-wrote with Roger Firth and a special issue of 'Teaching Geography'.

Images - Copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

Making Geography Happen

Making Geography Happen was an Action Plan for Geography (APG) funded project which ran from 2010. It was coordinated by Ruth Totterdell and involved a number of schools and teachers.

I had the privilege of being involved in several meetings of the project, and helping to film some interviews with teachers discussing their contributions, and that of young people who were also involved.

Seven schools were involved in the project.

The idea behind the project, which is funded by the Action Plan for Geography is that we have been following students through units of work, and across key stages to try to identify and articulate moments when geography "happens": when an activity produces a recognisable change in geographical understanding....

The Making Geography Happen project was evaluated by Geoff Bright from the Education and Social Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University, in December 2012.

Read more about it from the link at the top of the post.

Don't forget the PROJECTS page on the GA website for more on this sort of activity.

2007: Action Plan for Geography Events

I've already blogged about the Action Plan for Geography, which funded a whole range of CPD, activity, events, and support for teachers.

This was the brochure for some of the events that took place in the early years of the APG, just before I joined the GA (more on that in future blog posts).

GA Action Plan for Geography Events Booklet from GeoBlogs

2002: Professor David Lambert

Any blog that is aiming to tell the story of the GA can't help but mention the huge contribution made by Professor David Lambert.

David was appointed at the start of Peter Fox's term as President, and he also helped appoint David, as he has with all the CEOs and also myself as I mentioned in Peter's blog entry.

For three years, I had the great privilege of having David as my boss, and it was a time when I learned more than at any other time. Here is the announcent of his appointment in GA News.

This German lecture from 2015 gives a flavour for the tremendous scholarship around the subject that embodied David's contribution to the new direction and strength

Along with Rita Gardner of the GA, David was successful in gaining ministerial support and government funding for the Action Plan for Geography - 2006-11 - 2 phases of funding.

David's inaugural Presidential lecture was held at the Institute of Education - more on that to come nearer the time.

David has published widely, and his work continues to be influential and will be for many years to come. He has written handbooks for teachers with other colleagues, as well as books on curriculum thinking, and powerful knowledge. He has also made numerous contributions to GA journals, and to content on the GA website.

He also involved me in the GeoCapabilities project to help shape the teaching resources and training course that were part of the 2nd phase of the project.

David started out as a geography teacher before moving into teacher education and ending up at the Institute of Education. For a while, he shared the job of CEO of the GA with his work at UCL, bringing some synergy between the two roles, and the CPD work of the GA and the development of the manifesto.

Here is the actual Manifesto launch at the GA Conference in 2009. David is about to show the film that we made to support the booklet. More on that nearer the time when it was created.

This was the first public screening of the film that I made to go with the manifesto, and which has been viewed thousands of times since on various platforms. You can watch it below. I remember my heart was pounding right about now:

A Different View: Promoting Geography from The Geographical Association on Vimeo.

Ideal to use at open evenings, with parents, governors, your leadership team or at options evenings.

The GA's manifesto for geography A Different View, published in 2009, describes geography as 'one of humanity's big ideas' and makes a compelling case for geography's place in the curriculum. It shows the value of thinking geographically, provides an introduction to 'living geography' and some important reflections on the changing role of fieldwork, demonstrating the practical importance of 'real world' geography. You can use the Manifesto to promote geography and in any context where geography is taught, explained or encouraged. A Different View was produced and funded by the GA, as part of its charitable role to advocate for geography education.

Find out more: https://www.geography.org.uk/GA-Manifesto-for-geography

I helped to create some of the supporting materials for the manifesto, which occupied quite a bit of my time working in Solly Street.

Image: Alan Parkinson

Everybody needs good neighbours

Karl Kennedy from 'Neighbours' was in the same hotel as the GA crew when we went to Wrexham in 2009 to take delegates through the 'Living Geography' series of events that took us around the country. Ruth Totterdell, Jeff Stanfield, Justin Woolliscroft and myself were presenting, and Lucy Oxley was there to welcome the delegates. 

There's a signed copy of the GA's manifesto for geography: "a different view" knocking around somewhere...

I've previously mentioned how John Craven was involved with a previous Worldwise Quiz.

Any other celebrity endorsements and links with the GA that anyone can remember from other events? I remember a (non-GA) event when Bill Oddie apparently ended up going on about how he hated the subject at school or some such... I asked on social media and heard from several people who were at the event and told me some more about it....

Image: Ruth and Lucy with Alan Fletcher

Updated August 2021

Alan Fletcher was one of the Celebrity supply teachers for the BBC