IGU - CGE

The IGU (International Geographical Union) will have their 100th conference next year in Paris.

This year's IGU-CGE conference was held last week in Prague.

The keynote speakers and several of the other sessions involved people who I have been privileged to work with over the years on ERASMUS+ funded projects including Michael Solem and the third phase of GeoCapabilities is well represented too.

On the IGU site, there is history of the IGU, which was originally co-written by Norman Graves, former GA President and added to by other people. (Downloadable as PDF or Word document)

He talks about the original seminars organised with the UN, which included Neville Scarfe from the UCL IoE.

In 1950, UNESCO organized their first seminar on the teaching of geography in Montreal. This seminar was chaired by Neville Scarfe (1908-1985), who at that time was Head of the Geography Department at the University of London Institute of Education. The result of this seminar was UNESCO’s A Handbook of Suggestions on the Teaching of Geography (Unesco, 1951) mainly drafted by Neville Scarfe.

Following the book, the next stages of the development drew in L Dudley Stamp. This followed the early UK Land User Survey which has appeared on the blog before.

Neville Scarfe reported his association with L. Dudley Stamp, a British geographer at the London School of Economics. Scarfe, a British geography teacher, became senior lecturer at the London Institute of Education in 1935. He was a professional acquaintance of Stamp’s since the London geographers were, in Scarfe’s words, a friendly and sociable group. Both were members of the Royal Geographical Society, which was a further reason for contact. It is likely that Stamp and Scarfe collaborated during the 1930s and 1940s when Stamp organized the school children of the United Kingdom to map the land use near their schools. Scarfe had a network of many geography teachers and students who participated in the mapping. Stamp and Scarfe both participated in the first post war IGU conference in Lisbon, Portugal in 1949, where geographical education and international cooperation were topics being addressed with considerable interest. It was during the Lisbon Congress that the IGU appointed a Committee on the Teaching of Geography under the chairmanship of Neville Scarfe.

The history also talks about the publication of the 1965 UNESCO New Source Book for Geography Teaching.

This can be borrowed from the Internet Archive website.

It features several chapters by Norman Graves on the teaching of geography which make interesting reading, and also a chapter by Tom W Brown who was a teacher at the King's School, Gloucester on the organisation of the geography classroom.

GEReCo

Updated June 30th 2021

Several GA colleagues and former Presidents are members of, or have been connected with the activity of GEReCo: the Geography Education Research Collective. 

A new website is apparently launching soon. Perhaps with a new logo?

GEReCo includes a number of people who you will be familiar with from this blog as they have featured before. There is a strong link between the group and the Association and Education Group in particular.

Geography Education Research Collective / UK Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union

Professor David Lambert has been a member, alongside Mary Biddulph, Claire Brookes and Graham Butt amongst others in recent times.

Secretary of the group is Dr. Nicola Walshe, who has been working in a number of contexts, and invited me to Homerton many times during her time there leading the PGCE. She will be working at UCL IoE shortly, which is a wonderful new challenge for her. John Morgan is also returning to UCL so that will once again make it a department with many GA connections.

Nicola will join the Institute as Head of Department and Professor of Education in the summer, ahead of the 2021/22 academic year.
GERECO runs a number of research seminars. I have attended a few in the past in person.

We are very excited for our annual @GEReCo_1 seminar #geographyteacher #primarygeography #geographylead #lcgeography Please spread the word! https://t.co/IHDvZhTofV

— Dr Susan Pike | GA President 🌍 (@SusanJPike) June 21, 2021

The next one is next week and you can register for it on Eventbrite.

This is a reminder of the long tradition of the GA and its Presidents of engaging with research.

Updated June 30th 2021

The new GERECO website has now gone live, and describes the earlier years of GERECO and its recent merging.

There is a list of members and their backgrounds here... which includes a former GA President, the current President, a former GA Chief Executive and others heavily involved in the association's work.

And here is a recording of this year's seminar, which I was able to catch most of live while on duty.

Why Study Geography

There are plenty of former GA Presidents mentioned in my new book. Plenty of mentions for the Geographical Association's work as well.

"I have always been a Geographer and have always believed that the state of geography in universities depends on attracting good sixth formers to become undergraduates."

Andrew Goudie 

My latest solo authored book comes out today. I've had copies for a week, and colleagues and some of those who contributed to the book have been receiving copies as well. Family copies are earmarked and  I'm delighted with the finished product, which is part of a growing series of books asking the same question for different subjects.

There's already been interest from a number of countries including the USA and Turkey, and I'm hoping for further reviews in addition to the ones that the publishers have already elicited from geographical journals and organisations, and individuals who can help the book reach its intended markets.

It is called 'Why Study Geography' and is published by the London Publishing Partnership.

It explores why students should continue to study the subject, and provides answers to a number of key questions from Y9-13, plus their parents and UCAS tutors.

Here they are opposite on the Contents page.

The final chapter contains links to over 50 resources to support your exploration of geography including films, books, websites, podcasts and others.

It explores all aspects of the subject and is unashamedly 100% geography. 

There are so many people who have helped me out with the book in various ways. These include colleagues from the GA and the RGS, along with teaching colleagues. It includes vignettes from a number of people including Kit Racklet, Corinna Hawkes and Ben Hennig. There are details of how the subject developed, and more on academic geography. It finishes by exploring the reasons why geography matters now more than ever - mirroring the theme of this year's GA Conference under the Presidency of Gill Miller.

Copies will be available from additional outlets soon including bookshops, online outlets, Book Depository and others.

I would suggest it would make a good book for a number of different groups of people:

- students - of different ages

- parents

- UCAS tutors / careers advisers

- geography teachers - both ECT and experienced teachers

- teacher educators - ITE colleagues from a number of different routes

Look out for lots of tweets with the hashtag #whystudygeography over the next week or so as we try to make as many people as possible aware of the book and its potential value for their work.

If you do get a copy, please post a review on Amazon.