GA Birmingham Branch

One of the aspects of the Presidential year that I always planned to do was to speak to as many GA Branches as wanted me to be there...

I won't be making thelong journey across country to Birmingham next Wednesday but will be joining the GA Branch there by Zoom to do a session at the end of the day.

Details of the session are here:

Wednesday 1^st December 2021 4-5pm

"A day in the Life: Enquiring into Everyday Geographies in the curriculum" 

Teacher talk

Mr Alan Parkinson, CGeog, FRGS, FRSGS

Head of Geography at King's Ely (Junior), author & freelance geography consultant 

President, Geographical Association 21-22

RSGS Tivy Medal winner 2013

@GeoBlogs

Alan Parkinson is an inspirational geographer and teacher who is the current President of the Geographical Association. This talk will be of great interest to all Geography teachers whatever their experience of teaching from trainee teachers to teachers of many years. This is a highlight of this year’s talks.

I hope it's a highlight :) Looking forward to finding out what I'm going to say. I may just talk about Peppa Pig World...

Lost in the Post - 23rd June 2009

'Lost in the Post' was the name of David Lambert's inaugural professorial lecture at the UCL Institute of Education. I helped with the presentation that David gave on the evening. A good evening down in London, with a reception to follow where I had the chance to speak to many of the names who are featured on this blog.

Published copies of the lecture are still available to purchase. 

Description:

In tandem with many schools embracing a post-disciplinary approach to the curriculum, geography itself seems to have fragmented, struggling for its identity and is, arguably, lost in the post.

This lecture posits that contemporary geography is a school subject of great significance and has a lot to offer children and young people growing up in a confusing, rapidly changing and dangerous world. Well-prepared teachers can use this subject in a way that contributes both to their own and their students' capabilities. Lambert argues that geography is re-emerging as a subject discipline for its times, both in academia and in the public realm. In the context of our collective need to more fully to understand human occupancy of the Earth, geography in schools has a new role to play.

Image: Copyright: UCL IoE

1988 Conference

One from the GA archives at 160 Solly Street, found on my recent visit...

Was anyone present at this lecture and remember it?

1985: A world turned upside down

In 1985, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal delivered this joint GA/RGS/IBG lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on the 10th April 1985. This was Pat Cleverley's conference and she sent me a copy of the conference programme as well, which has appeared on another post on the blog.

He was also known as Sonny Ramphal.

This event was one of the first introductions for many to the Peters projection rather than Mercator, and he called on geographers to help people see the world in the round. I remember starting to see a Peters map around this time, and bought one when I first started teaching. Radical geography!

This was one of the highlights of that year's conference for many according to reports, and he was a high profile guest of the conference that year.

Reference

Ramphal, Shridath S. “A World Turned Upside Down.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 3, 1985, pp. 193–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570953. Accessed 26 Sept. 2020.

GA Oxford Branch Programme 2020-21

A vital part of the GA's support for teachers is the network of GA Branches with their programmes. These are going online this year, or in some cases being reduced due to issues with an appropriate format for the sessions to avoid safeguarding issues.

Here is an example of one branch's programme.... some excellent speakers on here...

GA Oxford Branch 2020 from GeoBlogs

GA eConference 2020

Thursday's GA Conference 2020 Public Lecture and Awards were streamed on YouTube for the first time ever replacing the face to face event.
Paul Rose spoke about the power of his own teacher in changing his life.
I also took part in a panel on 'Geography at Home' which can be viewed here.

Gill Miller's Presidential lecture also kicked off proceedings yesterday. If you missed them head over to the GA's YouTube channel to watch at your leisure. 
Gill's lecture has been viewed over 1700 times at the time of posting.