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

The Action Plan for Geography

For several Presidents, their period of office coincided with the Action Plan for Geography.

This ran from 2006-11

Several of the GA Presidents mentioned this in their Presidential lecture.

Keith Grimwade told me:  "The big curriculum initiative during my Presidency was the Action Plan for Geography.

Lord Adonis was a great supporter of geographical education but could not understand why we had the RGS/IBG and the GA - politicians prefer dealing with just one organisation. Negotiating and securing the GA’s distinctive role was, I think, one of my biggest achievements, much of which went on behind closed doors and could not be broadcast. 

I keep a letter from Lord Adonis acknowledging my work, and recognising the GA’s contribution."

Action Plan for Geography from GeoBlogs

References

It is well worth downloading the Action Plan for Geography Final Report to see what the GA and RGS-IBG did when working together.

Final Report and Evaluation

Perhaps it is time for another big joint project.

https://www.geography.org.uk/Action-Plan-for-Geography-

https://www.rgs.org/about/the-society/what-we-do/teachers/action-plan-for-geography/

Jim Knight

In 2008, Jim Knight, who was a Minister for Education attended the GA Conference as part of an association with the GA which was developed as part of the Action Plan for Geography. There are several other occasions when politicians have been connected with GA activity, as part of the GA's policy work. He attended John Westaway's Presidential conference. We have also had Justine Greening doing a video session (a taste of things to come), and David Blunkett attended the official opening of Solly Street.

Image copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

2008-9: a different view

a different view was the GA's manifesto for geography which was developed and published during the Action Plan for Geography, at a time when I was working for the GA. It was the brainchild of Professor David Lambert, and turned out to be one of the outcomes from that time which has had the greatest impact. I still see the posters up in classrooms I visit to this day.

The whole process took months to pull together, along with the associated materials including ideas from Fred Martin and a whole range of others adding teaching materials linked to the image sets which were developed.

Here's an image I came across recently. It's a screenshot of a folder from the time when we were working on, and trying to pull together the text and images. I was later asked to work on the promotional video for the project using Animoto. There's a few images here that made it into the final document, and some that didn't such as the one of the Quiraing and one of a ruined house at Hallsands.

You can still see some of the materials on the web as well.

Here's the video which I worked on, which itself took very many iterations before the timing, music, transitions and images worked nicely. I still show it myself from time to time.

A Different View: Promoting Geography from The Geographical Association on Vimeo.

More to come in other blog posts.

Di Swift and David Lambert

This is an excellent paper which can be downloaded from the GA website still. See the link below. I used this piece to help me with a section of my 'Why Study Geography?' book.

More on Di Swift's work for the GA to come, as I spoke to Di a few weeks ago for about an hour about her work for the GA and the projects she was involved in.

The changing nature of GA Presidents

David Lambert told me a little about his thoughts on the changing nature of GA Presidents over the years in an email sometime ago. It reflects the changing nature of the Association itself, as it moved from a group of public school masters through a range of university departments, with the occasional curve ball such as Hilaire Belloc toward advisors, teachers and eventually primary educators, but as yet no people of colour and only around 1 in 8 being female.

"In the earlier stages the GA looked like a personal fiefdom of very few influential (and doubtless brilliant) men (mostly). It was led by prominent geographers for many years (just as chief examiners were also usually academic geographers. One of the most recent was Bill Chambers)."

This phase ran up until the late 60s probably and then changed from there, as the "new geography" began to emerge. We also had to wait untul 1968 for Alice Garnett to become the first female President, and 1975 for the first female teacher President in Sheila Jones.

"This was followed by a period of influential geography educators (usually teacher educators/trainers; Patrick Bailey, Rex Walford, Ashley Kent etc). Then local authority advisers and inspectors (Jeremy Krause, Keith Grimwade). Then occasional and subsequently more frequently, primary educators (Wendy Morgan to start with … Simon Catling etc" 

Occasionally, individuals outside the formal education mainstream (Kington). Then, occasionally, also serving school teachers (Morrish, Jones, Fox, Parkinson). 

The big question is where is the next development in the leadership of the GA going to come from? Susan Pike mentioned this in her GA Conference lecture.

David went on to mention some other challenges which meant that potential candidates may not be able to come forward and feel that they had time to do the role.

These included:

• the destruction of the network of local education advisers (although a few remain in counties or local authorities) and the almost non existent specialist inspectors (Leszek excepted) ; 
• the grip of REF on academics, which means that they may have less time to give to the Presidency; 
• the intensification of work for school teachers and the relatively low status of subject leadership roles in schools; 
• the changes in, and challenges facing university led teacher education … where are the next leaders coming from?

This partly arose from the nature of Presidential choice: essentially people were approached and asked to be President as the council or executive committee felt they might have the contacts or the experience that were needed at particular times. Now there is an election, and Presidential candidates are expected to have 'worked their way up'. 

Could that be adapted so that the GA goes back to approaching someone - perhaps someone who may represent groups that have previously not been represented by GA Presidents past, myself included...

Will the pandemic also increase the chance of people putting themselves forward. One thing that may have put off previous candidates was the need to travel to meetings at Solly Street, but this is no longer required thanks to TEAMS and ZOOM.

Just some thoughts as we move into the last 15 years of the project and get closer to the present day.... Your thoughts welcome.

Valuing Places

I spoke to Di Swift recently about the origins of the Valuing Places project which she said was one of the most influential of all the GA's projects and also marked a change in the nature of the Association. The project ran from 2003-2006.

As mentioned in recent posts, it was Chris Kington who made a bold decision to take the GA into deficit by appointing several full time officers, including a CEO.

Valuing Places was a CPD-led curriculum development project (2003-06) which explored how teaching about places within key stages 2 and 3 developed students' understanding of global interconnections. It paving the way for the GA's later work on 'Living Geography'.

Key Aims

• Increase public understanding of our global mutual dependence and the need for international development by valuing the uniqueness of places at a variety of scales and exploring how these are interconnected.
• Educate every pupil in the country about development issues so that they can understand the key global considerations that will shape their lives.
• Establish a real understanding of our interdependence and of the relevance of development issues to people's everyday lives.

By exploring localities familiar to us and linking these at a variety of scales, Valuing Places was about valuing ourselves in those places, revealing our roles and responsibilities towards both the people and environment and all the other places that our place is linked to.

Another key focus of the project was inclusivity. Through the involvement of an extremely large number of teachers and pupils a wide range of teaching and learning styles was used both in terms of professional development and in terms of the resources produced.

Valuing Places also aimed to promote opportunities to raise standards of achievement. Teachers were engaged and motivated by their involvement in some sophisticated debates about the global dimension in their teaching about place. Pupils were equally valued, since they were the starting point of the work - their views, their places and their connections with the wider world.

The project had a number of regional officers.

A special edition of 'Teaching Geography' in 2005 looked back at the project and its outcomes.

References

Valuing Places: https://www.geography.org.uk/Valuing-Places

Teaching Geography, Spring 2005 - special edition, 

2002: Professor David Lambert

Any blog that is aiming to tell the story of the GA can't help but mention the huge contribution made by Professor David Lambert.

David was appointed at the start of Peter Fox's term as President, and he also helped appoint David, as he has with all the CEOs and also myself as I mentioned in Peter's blog entry.

For three years, I had the great privilege of having David as my boss, and it was a time when I learned more than at any other time. Here is the announcent of his appointment in GA News.

This German lecture from 2015 gives a flavour for the tremendous scholarship around the subject that embodied David's contribution to the new direction and strength

Along with Rita Gardner of the GA, David was successful in gaining ministerial support and government funding for the Action Plan for Geography - 2006-11 - 2 phases of funding.

David's inaugural Presidential lecture was held at the Institute of Education - more on that to come nearer the time.

David has published widely, and his work continues to be influential and will be for many years to come. He has written handbooks for teachers with other colleagues, as well as books on curriculum thinking, and powerful knowledge. He has also made numerous contributions to GA journals, and to content on the GA website.

He also involved me in the GeoCapabilities project to help shape the teaching resources and training course that were part of the 2nd phase of the project.

David started out as a geography teacher before moving into teacher education and ending up at the Institute of Education. For a while, he shared the job of CEO of the GA with his work at UCL, bringing some synergy between the two roles, and the CPD work of the GA and the development of the manifesto.

Here is the actual Manifesto launch at the GA Conference in 2009. David is about to show the film that we made to support the booklet. More on that nearer the time when it was created.

This was the first public screening of the film that I made to go with the manifesto, and which has been viewed thousands of times since on various platforms. You can watch it below. I remember my heart was pounding right about now:

A Different View: Promoting Geography from The Geographical Association on Vimeo.

Ideal to use at open evenings, with parents, governors, your leadership team or at options evenings.

The GA's manifesto for geography A Different View, published in 2009, describes geography as 'one of humanity's big ideas' and makes a compelling case for geography's place in the curriculum. It shows the value of thinking geographically, provides an introduction to 'living geography' and some important reflections on the changing role of fieldwork, demonstrating the practical importance of 'real world' geography. You can use the Manifesto to promote geography and in any context where geography is taught, explained or encouraged. A Different View was produced and funded by the GA, as part of its charitable role to advocate for geography education.

Find out more: https://www.geography.org.uk/GA-Manifesto-for-geography

I helped to create some of the supporting materials for the manifesto, which occupied quite a bit of my time working in Solly Street.

Image: Alan Parkinson

Frances Slater

Frances Slater was mentioned in a communication from David Lambert as being a key player, but who never became GA President. One of several others such as Norman Pye.

Frances worked at the Institute of Education, and was a contemporary of other Presidents such as Norman Graves.

A New Zealander by birth, Frances Slater gained her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Iowa and worked at the London University Institute of Education. She gave a summer school course at McGill in 1975.
She wrote a book called 'Learning through Geography' which remains influential. I have a copy on my main 'geography shelf" by my desk. There are some good ideas contained within its pages, although the book was published in 1982.

References

Slater, Frances. “Education Through Geography: Knowledge, Understanding, Values and Culture.” Geography, vol. 79, no. 2, 1994, pp. 147–163. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572411. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.

HELBURN, N. “An American's Perception of British Geography.” Geography, vol. 64, no. 4, 1979, pp. 327–333. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40569989. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.

Lambert, David. “A Different View.” Geography, vol. 94, no. 2, 2009, pp. 119–125. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40546302. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.

Inside the black box

An influential book, written by David Lambert and Paul Weeden: long-time chair of the GA's Assessment and Examinations Working Group. (now the AESIG)

It followed on from another influential book by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam.

Paul remains the Secretary of the AESIG.

It is currently chaired by Elizabeth Rynne.

Another example of the GA's involvement in teacher development.

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...

Impolite Geography on Black Lives Matter

In early June, I posted about previous anti-racist work which had been carried out by the GA and its working groups and volunteers.

David Lambert and John Morgan were involved in the production of a book for the GA, and they have just posted on their Impolite Geography blog some thoughts on the GA's statement and their own memories and reflections of the work the GA has done over the years, referencing several of the same documents I mentioned, including work by Rex Walford.
Well worth reading.

Thought for the Day

Without geographical perspectives and a chance to ‘think geographically’, any young person’s education is, simply, incomplete. 

Without geographical knowledge and understanding young people are not fully prepared to encounter the world fully and confidently

David Lambert 

(2010, GA Magazine - on the launch of 'a different view')