Updated August 2023
Molly Long was a tutor in the School of Education at the Institute of Education. She was particularly interested in education, and the role that children had to play in their own conception of the subject. Her Presidential Address was called 'The Interests of Children in School Geography' and as such was a rare Presidential address with a focus on pedagogy and the classroom.
She explored the sorts of activities that children said they did and did not like, following a survey which was sent out to the GA membership
(an innovative move at the time.... much easier to do these days with Google Forms).
When she was younger, Molly gained a scholarship to Godolphin and Latymer School, before studying at Bedford College, London, her home city. She trained as a teacher at the University of London Institute of Education (
ULIE) in 1946, and became a lecturer in teacher education in 1948.
At that time Neville Scarfe had
recently been appointed to succeed James
Fairgrieve as Head and sole member of staff of the
Geography Department. Molly must have made a
great impression on Neville Scarfe, as after
teaching in schools in Reading and Beckenham,
she was appointed to the Institute's staff, in 1946
as Assistant Tutor, and in 1948 as Lecturer in
Education (with special reference to the teaching
of geography). There are some strong links here with the history of the Association.
When I trained as a geography
teacher in 1949-50, Molly Long was one of the
three tutors in the Geography Department
working alongside Neville Scarfe and Reginald
Honeybone
(from Norman Graves' Obituary of Molly)
In 1952, Molly published work in 'Geography' on children's reactions to geographical pictures. This was a main research interest.
In 1969, it was announced that Molly would be GA President in the Annual Report, published in 'Geography'
Molly worked at the Institute of Education until her retirement in 1976.
She worked on quite a few publications, which were influential at the time, particularly following the Second World War.
Books included:
World Problems: A Topic Geography (Secondary school series)
Teaching Geography - published in 1966 -
(https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780435345402/Teaching-Geography-Molly-Long-Robertson-0435345400/plp ) - a blog post on this book was added a few weeks ago - I have a copy of the book in my library.
Rex Walford describes her work with Bertie Roberson (a colleague at UCL) to produce a secondary teacher manual in the 1960s. They both employed "creative pedagogy" at a time when the old style geography was beginning to be challenged.
The preface of their teacher manual sets the tone from the outset:
"The whole trend of our argument is that children should be led to think about the subject matter offered.....the idea of geography as a 'soft option' for the unintelligent remains".
Molly's Presidential Lecture was called "The interests of children in school geography".
The 2nd chapter of her book, Rex explained, featured a '
Regional' approach. This was going to be a feature of geography for some decades to come. When I first started teaching 'A' level Geography in the late 80s, the Cambridge board specification we used was regionally based.
Molly died in 1997, and her obituary was written by the textbook author (and former GA President)
Norman Graves.
I am grateful to Alex Standish from the IoE for the image of Molly, from a framed picture which is in his office at UCL - a reminder of the legacy of the past for today's teacher educators.
References
Long, Molly. “CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL PICTURES.” Geography, vol. 38, no. 2, 1953, pp. 100–107. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563406.
https://issuu.com/davidward7/docs/ora_newsletters_volume_iii_1990-1999 - memories of Molly Long by her husband
LONG, MOLLY. “The Interests of Children in School Geography.” Geography, vol. 56, no. 3, 1971, pp. 177–190. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567553.
Long, Molly. “CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL PICTURES.” Geography, vol. 38, no. 2, 1953, pp. 100–107. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/40563406
Graves, Norman. “I. L. M. (Molly) Long (1916-1997).” Geography, vol. 82, no. 2, 1997, pp. 148–148. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/40572829
Complex Locations: Women's Geographical Work in the UK 1850-1970By Avril Maddrell
Her main biography details were sourced from this book, which has also informed numerous other entries on the blog regarding the important female contribution to the GA over the decades.
Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
As always, if anyone has further information relating to Molly Long please let me know so that I can expand on this post.
Updated December 2020
Thanks for Simon Catling for sending through some memories of Molly:
"I have enjoyed reading your blog on Norman Graves, the inspiration for many of us. When I did my MA in geography education at the Institute in 1971-3 (the 3rd or 4th year it ran, I think) I was one of a group of 4 students. We had superb seminars where one of us would read our essay for that week (we wrote 24 essays over the 3 terms of the year, weekly) and then it would be debated. Alongside Norman,
Molly Long, Bertie Roberson and Michael Naish were our tutors. It was a fascinating, invigorating, rigorous and very informative first year of the MA. Mick Naish supervised my MA thesis. I think that was, part-time on a Monday late afternoon, an invaluable course for my geographical education. The reading, thinking and writing was a very real education, demanding but just right.
While a young primary teacher I did two week long courses which were influential. In early 1975 I did a Place, time and Society 8-13 course run by Ray Derricot, Hazel Sumner and Gordon Elliot at an ILEA centre. In early 1978 I did an environmental course at Avery Hill College in Eltham, run by Colin Ward. Both were influential in my thinking.
Gordon Elliott introduced me to a producer at the BBC which led from the autumn of 1975 to me being an adviser, alongside Michael Storm (who had just become the geography adviser in the ILEA), to a new series of primary geography programmes."
Via Ashley Kent
My memory of Molly Long....former president and my tutor ....was my first meeting with her.
Whilst smoking....she smoked a lot!...she asked me to sit down and asked me ‘if I was one of those new quantitative people’.
She knew my background was the University of Cambridge then University of Wisconsin, Madison...and both at the forefront of new developments.
She and Bertie (Roberson) had ‘nailed their colours to the regional mast’ and saw the ‘new’ geography as threatening...sadly since she was a wise and good tutor.
The divisions were clearly evident in the split between the tutors at the time....Graves and Naish...the new guard...Long and Roberson the opposite!
Updated August 2023
As with quite a few other former GA Presidents, Ashley Kent worked at the Institute of Education for many years.
Molly Long was a tutor in the School of Education at the Institute of Education. She was particularly interested in education, and the role that children had to play in their own conception of the subject.
