The GeoVisions Committee of the GA was active from the 1998 through to around the year 2000. It was looking at what a geography for the 21st Century would need to be. Now that we are a fifth of the way through it, have we managed it...It involved a committee of various people who have been related to the GA for many decades and included people I have worked with on projects myself, particularly Di Swift, who chaired the project, and Chris Durbin. Linda Thompson is also mentioned, who was Chair of the Secondary Committee when I joined it, but then moved on to another role. Diane also led the Young People's Geographies project, of which more to come later.
The strapline of the project was:
‘Create the future … don’t just let it happen’
The full list can be seen below:
Coordinated by Roger Carter a former GA President who is next up on the blog. It was also referenced by Keith Grimwade in his Presidential lecture.
Mentioned by him in his Presidential lecture:
It is hard to look into the future with any
certainty. I have been working with the Geo Visions
Project (Carter et al., 1998) ' in order to help to raise
the debate about the future of geography. I would
like to close with what the Geo Visions Team believe
a geography for the twenty-first century will need:
• A renewed emphasis on the professionalism of
teachers
We need fewer voices telling us what to do and
how to do it. Equally, we must reassert our own
professional responsibility.
• A focus on children and young people
Let us focus less on what is to be done to them
and more on their hopes and fears for the
future. It is their world too: we should listen to
them more.
• An all-inclusive debate about future needs
Education is far too important to be left in the
hands of a few, be they educators, politicians or
chief inspectors. We must keep the debate
open.
• Attention to alternative and preferred futures
Education for the twenty-first century should
engender a real feeling by everyone that they
matter in society and that they can make a
difference individually or collectively.
• Commitment to the capabilities for a better
world. The knowledge and skills needed to compete
industrially are not necessarily the same as
those needed to build equitable, sustainable
communities. We need a broader vision, and a
better balance between skills and knowledge
on the one hand, and values and commitment
on the other.
• A critique of geography as a subject to promote
a better world
Any memories of engagement with this project welcome.
A booklet was produced in assocation with TIDE Global (PDF download)
A report as well.
This includes a quote from Roger Crofts, of SAGT, who is someone I've met several times, most recently at an FSC 75th Anniversary event where he spoke about his life in geography:
“It is essential that geography is not just seen
as social geography or cultural geography or
biogeography or geomorphology, but that
there is some interlinking between these
different elements if the subject is to retain its
relevance.”
Professor Roger Crofts, COBRIG Seminar 1998
To find out more about more recent GA projects, head for this relatively new archive page on the GA website which details what the project work of the GA has involved. I am proud to have been involved in quite a few of these projects over the years, including the most recent GEO project, for which I am currently writing some materials.
GeoVisions also led into the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography, of which more to come...
References
Carter, Roger, et al. “The Geo Visions Project.” Teaching Geography, vol. 23, no. 4, 1998, pp. 201–202. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755721. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.
Robinson, Roger, et al. “Wiser People — Better World?” Teaching Geography, vol. 24, no. 1, 1999, pp. 10–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23755686. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.
If anyone has memories of participation in this project, or knows of the outcomes, please let me know. It looks to have huge relevance today.
