GA Conference 2021 - time to book your place

April 8th - 10th is the date of the 2021 GA Conference.

Unfortunately it will be online rather than face to face once again, but we were prepared for that this time round.

Booking is now open.

The theme, chosen by President Susan Pike is an important one for our current times: Compassionate Geographies.

Compassionate Geographies
It gives me great pleasure to announce the theme of the GA Conference for 2021: Compassionate geographies. Geographers are compassionate about the planet and all who inhabit it. The conference theme also encompasses all the GA stands for – compassion in supporting and challenging geographical learning, with a view to a better understanding of the world and its people. Compassion works at numerous levels across a high-quality geography education:
The geography education community has compassion for all its members. Participating in this community, through support and collaboration, ensures every member of the community can find their professional voice.
Our community cares greatly about the quality of geography education for young people. We care about the accuracy of the learning we share with them and each other, the quality of our teaching and more.
Conference 2021 will be an opportunity to celebrate and meet to share our compassion to excite and inspire our learners in geography.

Dr Susan Pike

Why studying Geography is important

If the conference was going ahead as planned, one of my contributions was to do a session for the Young Geographers' strand.
This didn't form part of the final eConference.

As I knew the conference was cancelled, I didn't spend the day or so needed to finish it off, but have put in some notes of what I would have said. If I am called on to do this session next year it will all have changed anyway, so I thought I'd share it as part of my contributions to the eConference.

I've shared it here for you to view / fillet as required to help with transition perhaps for Y11 / Y13 students over the coming weeks.

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.

1964: GA Branches

Cartography by J E Hall, Dept of Geography University of Sheffield 
Original copyright: Geographical Association, published in 'Geography' journal in 1964

GA Branches still had gaps in coverage - something which we are still tackling and conscious of today.

As we gather electronically for the GA's eConference. It's worth noting the importance of GA Branch activity which can hopefully continue in some way, perhaps using Zoom or similar to gather people together.

GA Branches 1964 by Alan Parkinson on Scribd

The SPC and eConference 2020

The SPC was created in 1927.

I served on the GA Secondary Phase Committee for many years, joining in 2004 when Gary Dawson and Rob Lodge chaired, later to be Alan Kinder and Sarah Watts, followed by other geography luminaries.
I stepped down for a few years when working for the GA 2008-11, then rejoined. I stepped down at the end of 2019 again when I became the GA's Junior Vice President, spending a few years as Secretary.

The GA SPC has a Facebook page, which will be sharing news and quotes from the GA's eConference, which is taking place from lunchtime today through to Saturday teatime.



Stephen Schwab and Paul Hunt were co-chairs for some years and they are going to be sharing some of the workshops that had been prepared for the GA Conference, but weren't added to the final eConference schedule for lack of space.
I'll share some links over on LivingGeography once they are available.