PGCE 1986-7

As I've blogged about previously on this blog, I completed my PGCE between 1986 and 1987 at the University of Hull.

My tutor was the rather lovely W V Tidswell. He has his entry on the blog here.

I did teaching practice at Withernsea Primary School, Andrew Marvell School and my main stint was at Bransholme School.

We had our theory (Main Method) sessions in a lecture theatre but mostly in a bungalow off the Cottingham Road. My picture of it is below:

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

I've started a series of posts over on LivingGeography which will share the contents of my PGCE Main Method folder, which I still have. They will be tagged #pgce1986

The first session with Vincent used the research of Molly Long, GA President in 1970.

There are also mentions of the work of quite a few other Presidents as well - of which more to come in future posts.

As you can see, the quality of the photocopying back then was a little shocking and the page also had Vincent's impenetrable handwriting at the top :)

The research involved asking students their opinions on 25 tasks they might be asked to do in a geography lesson. I think we were supposed to avoid the ones they didn't like and do more of the ones they did like.

To read more, go to the research itself.

Reference:

LONG, MOLLY. “The Interests of Children in School Geography.” Geography, vol. 56, no. 3, 1971, pp. 177–190. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567553.

Influencing the rest of the world

The work of the Geographical Association and its Presidents has spread around the world, and while creating the blog I have come across their influences.

This article is an interview from the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria (GTAV).

It is an interview with John Collins.

He describes a two year leave of absence in 1958/9 from a teaching job in Australia where he travelled to England and to the IoE under the mentorship of a teacher called John Rigg.

"fairly boring stuff" apparently the history of the Geographical Association :)

Following that, he had a remarkable career around the world.

He returns to discussing some other well known names - including Molly Long.

Source:

https://www.gtav.asn.au/documents/item/672

Geographical Pictures

Molly Long's work was linked to children's conception of geography, and pedagogy, around initial teacher education at the IoE. She was GA President in 1970.

She wrote several papers on the theme of exploring how young children conceptualise places, and how they respond to images. I am part of a group of people including former GA President Peter Fox who are working on a project called the Geographers Gaze.

As part of that work we have been exploring how to make better use of the GA's Lantern Slide collection.

See previous posts on magic lantern slides.

References

Bertie Roberson

Bertie Roberson worked at the Institute of Education: which has links with many former GA Presidents, particularly Molly Long.

His obituary was published in 'Geography' in 1995, and written by Norman Graves. He was also a colleague of former GA President Molly Long. He was also a long-serving member of the Secondary Section Committee, of which I was also a member for many years.

Reference

Graves, Norman. “B.S. Roberson 1911-1994.” Geography, vol. 80, no. 3, 1995, pp. 290–290. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572678. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

UCL IoE and the GA

Updated January 2021

There has been a long association with UCL IoE and GA Presidents over the years, and also the Chief Executive Professor David Lambert of course.
Some Presidents were involved in teacher training at the Institute of Education, others were academics. Others gave lots of service to the GA but were not Presidents, such as Bertie Roberson, who served on the Secondary Section and other committees for many years while working at IoE

In 2004, there was a Centenary celebration and reunion and several former GA Presidents were there, notably Bill Mead, who is the next President to be featured on the blog.

A Geography Education MA has been offered for over 50 years.

Also worth exploring the following GA Presidents who have a connection:
Norman Graves
Molly Long

Ashley Kent and others... 

When I started to volunteer and serve on the GA's Secondary Phase Committee in 2004 (which seems like a lifetime ago now) we used to meet on Saturdays in the geography lab at UCL with the wave tank and other equipment, on the Bedford Way site. I also led quite a few CPD sessions, and attended others, in the hotel opposite the IoE.

I also made a few visits to the office shared by David Lambert and John Morgan, and later Alex Standish, over the years, including when I worked on the GeoCapabilities project. I attended several seminars there over the years as well, including a memorable one with Michael Young and Margaret Roberts, and also David Lambert's Professorial lecture "Lost in the Post" for which I produced the visuals for David's presentation.

James Fairgrieve was perhaps the most famous IoE colleague of them all, and featured in the Presidential Address of the 1996 President Ashley Kent, where he outlined his life and also the strong connections between the IoE and the GA. It is well worth reading to get an idea for the links and the changing nature of Geography. Ashley's Presidential Address was given at the Institute of Education. Fairgrieve worked from 1912-1935 at the IoE (previously known as the London Day Training College) and became GA President when he retired.

Reference

KENT, ASHLEY. “Challenging Geography: A Personal View.” Geography, vol. 82, no. 4, 1997, pp. 293–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572948. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

He provides additional detail on Fairgrieve's life.

Source:
https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/news-events/news/alumni-news/former-students-newsletters/FSN%2015.pdf  (PDF download)

All memories of UCL and the GA welcome as we move into the final year of the blog project and enter the 1980s...

Neville Scarfe

Updated August 2023

Neville Scarfe was an influential tutor at the Institute of Education who was connected with several GA Presidents, because of their own association with UCL. Molly Long, President in 1970 was closely connected with the Institute during her career.


A brief biography:

Neville Vincient Scarfe was born in 1909. 

In 1927 he achieved a first-class honours B.A. in Geography, at age 19 heading the honours list. The following year he acquired a teaching diploma, which from 1928 to 1931 he put to good use as senior geography master at Bemrose Grammar School, Derby. Thence he transferred to the University of Nottingham, where for four years he lectured in geography and earned a master’s degree as well. 

From 1935 to 1951 he worked as senior lecturer and head of geography at the University of London Institute of Education. From this last position he took leave of absence on war work (1939-1945), serving as director of press censorship, Ministry of Information, London. 

After the war a visiting professorship (1948-1949) at Syracuse University, New York State, and the task of co-ordinating the UNESCO International Seminar at McGill University preluded his five years (1951-1956) as Dean of Education at the University of Manitoba. From the latter position he submitted his application for the corresponding deanship at University of British Columbia.

The Neville Scarfe Education Building (University of British Columbia)

The University, in Vancouver, has a Neville Scarfe building and Lecture Theatre. 

He was Dean of Education there for 18 years and achieved a huge amount.
https://studiohub.ca/on-the-boards/ubc-neville-scrafe-lecture-theatre

He contributed an article on games in geography to 'Geography' in 1971.
His son is an actor.
He died in 1985.
I wonder what he may have made of the current status of Canadian Geography. There is an excellent Royal Canadian Geographical Society, but geography doesn't have a high status in the school curriculum in Canada.

Source:
SCARFE, N. V. “Games, Models and Reality in the Teaching of Geography in School.” Geography, vol. 56, no. 3, 1971, pp. 191–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567554. Accessed 6 July 2020.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1955.tb01745.x

Neville Scarfe and British Columbia

https://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/view/403/521

https://educ.ubc.ca/neville-scarfe/ - biography source

Throughout his career, Neville wrote over 100 articles and gave numerous speeches on education around the world. His intuition and progressive understanding of post-war learning instilled in the Faculty the idea that teachers are made, not born. With this spirit in mind, he created rigorous, specialized streams taught by enthusiastic professors to produce dynamic and informed educators. Always an advocate for educational reform, Neville was particularly critical of the findings of the 1960 Report of the Royal Commission on Education (the “Chant Report”), calling it “contradictory and conservative”*. He took particular issue with its recommendations for harsh discipline in classrooms and the assumption that children will behave belligerently unless taught otherwise.

Image source:

http://www.marclandry.ca/Marcs_Sensory_Oasis/Play!_files/The%20Scarfe%20Papers%20Intro.pdf

Further memories of Neville Scarfe welcome - he was an important geographer on both sides of the Atlantic and I am sure there is plenty more to come.

Updated August 2023

https://educ.ubc.ca/neville-scarfe/ - biography source

After World War II, Neville Scarfe returned to the Institute of Education of the University of London, where he taught the principles and practices of the teaching of geography. This sparked his interest in the philosophy of education—this was a pursuit he continued for the rest of his life, so it was probably what could be considered his main interest.

https://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/view/403/522 - his influences

They included James Fairgrieve, who he described as 

"a down to earth geographer bent on assisting students to imagine world characteristics accurately, the better to imagine political and social problems"

https://snaccooperative.org/view/64845894

Scarfe was a proponent of play in education.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00094056.1962.10726996

1970: Mrs. I Molly Long

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

Molly's 'Teaching Geography' book is available to borrow from the Internet Archive.

I also referenced Molly in an article on the GA Presidents project that I had published in Routes journal in 2021. It's well worth reading in my opinion (although I may be biased)

New in the GeoLibrary

As part of the research for writing this blog, I've expanded my collection of vintage geography education books. ABEbooks and similar sites are a good way to get hold of vintage copies of books at a reasonable rate, especially as we haven't been able to indulge in one of my favourite things: browsing in second hand book shops.

Here's the latest arrival, co -written by former GA President Molly Long and Bertie Roberson.

Also mentioned in Rex Walford's book on Geography in Secondary Schools.