Biographies of all the Presidents of the Geographical Association since the founding of the Association in 1893. Researched by Alan Parkinson (GA President 2021-22), with contributions from others, including the former Presidents themselves where possible.
If you were present at the GA Conference 2022, you will have seen Shaun Flannery, the official photographer for the event, who was very busy moving from one event to the other and capturing the variety of sessions that were on offer.
Here's a couple featuring me - if you were there, see if you can find yourself:
Me opening the GA Teachmeet in the evening of the first full day - copyright: Shaun Flannery / Geographical Association 2022
At the Public Lecture and GA Awards we announced the next Vice President (and future President) of the GA: Denise Freeman - copyright: Shaun Flannery / Geographical Association 2022
Now if you missed out on coming along to the conference and booking but are now regretting it, we also have an offering for you.
Around half of the overall conference sessions were streamed live or recorded on the day.
This is the big month for any GA President since 1976 (prior to that the GA Conference was held over the New Year and the first week of January to kick off the President's year and allow them to set out their stall.)
The first part of the month was obviously dictated by the preparations for the GA conference, and ensuring that as many people as possible were able to attend in a format which suited them. This resulted in a number of late changes to the programme - inevitable when there are so many hundreds of people involved and their circumstances change.
We were also keeping a wary eye on COVID cases rising and the need to avoid unecessary contact with others - although guidance had also changed. Some people reconsidered their plans to attend the conference.
As always, the approach to the Easter holidays meant a great deal of extra work for the team at Solly Street and building excitement with late bookings pinging in minute by minute towards the deadline for registration, which was then extended for a few more days as there was a rush of last minute bookings.
April started with me already on holiday, and there was plenty of pre-conference organisation and admin to do. It was time to complete my GA Presidential address, which I thought I had done, but kept tinkering with until a week or so before the time.
I updated my Chirpty circle diagram ready to put into my Presidential lecture, which shows the people I interact with on Twitter.
There are many elements to draw together for a conference and they all came together well. I am so grateful to everyone who took part, and particularly to Isabel Richardson, Becky Kitchen and everyone at the GA, many of whom came along in person.
I prepared my presentation for the GEOLive event, which was based around my book 'Why Study Geography'.
My Presidential lecture was also finalised, and then tweaked endlessly, and there were still things that I remembered I was going to say.
On the 10th of April, I headed over to Guildford - first long drive for a while and first time on the M25 since before the pandemic.
I got involved in a few things:
- Arriving on Sunday and spending four hours helping to set up the GA reception desk and stand, stuff delegate bags, prepare lanyards etc. Also finally got my GA Presidents badge.
- Meeting the team who were going to be live streaming sessions, including Maddie Duggan who I had met before
- A lovely Italian meal in Guildford the evening before everything started, up on the High Street.
April 11th-13th was the actual GA Conference. It was really wonderful.
- Talking to exhibitors and welcoming delegates - I spoke to as many people as I could
- Welcoming and chairing the Public Lecture by Professor James Cheshire
- Attending the wine reception and also the conference dinner on the first evening
- Sorting accommodation
- Chairing a number of sessions, including Professor Ian Cook's excellent Follow the Things session,
- Trying to speak to as many of the attendees, exhibitors and delegates as I could
- Doing my Presidential Address to a large crowd - a little down on previous years, but there were people joining online and I was very pleased with how it went - thanks to Alastair Owens for the introduction
- Chairing a discussion with the author Cal Flyn - her book 'Islands of Abandonment' was one of my favourite reads of recent years and has been nominated for (and won) a whole range of awards. It was lovely to see Cal, although there were a few technical issues on the day which meant she couldn't see us.
- Attending a number of sessions including those presented by Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke, Alan Kinder and Eleanor Rawling
- Lunch sat in the sun with my department from King's Ely Geog, who had come out in force to supprt me. Particular thanks to Claire Kyndt for stepping up and presenting a workshop on her fieldwork ideas based on the 'Dear Data' book
- Up to the Teachmeet at the end of the day, at Seasons Restaurant near the Cathedral. Some wonderful presentations, particularly the one from Iram Sammar. You can watch a recording of the Teachmeet here.
- Food at the networking and board games evening - a chat to Peter Vujakovic of the British Cartographic Society
- Down to the Beermeet - a bit of a walk - some great conversations and thanks to those who bought me a drink
- Chairing a session on Follow the Things by Professor Ian Cook
- Watching several excellent sessions, and also presenting my own session at the GEOLive event.
- Helping to take down some of the conference elements that I had helped to set up on the Sunday
- Chairing the final session of the day: the Rex Walford Lecture
A few images from the day - there are many more to come, but I haven't been given the links to view them just yet.
Delegates will be able to access copies of the recordings now.
Thanks to all the GA Solly Street HQ staff:
Copies of presentations will also be appearing on the GA Conference webpage.
Some other things I got up to this month:
- continuing to work on ERASMUS projects, including contributing to the GI Pedagogy project
- liaising with the various schools that I work with in a number of ways
- creating some materials for the MAT that I am supporting for the next term and a bit
- setting up multiplier events for ERASMUS
- pencilling in meetings at the Council of British Geographers (COBRIG) at the RGS-IBG
- working on my paper for the 100th IGU in Paris - my session has been scheduled for the Wednesday of the IGU.
- heading down for a day wandering London, visit to RGS-IBG and then an amazing conference
- setting up a D3 multiplier event on Eventbrite
My Ordnance Survey webinar needed preparing for the end of April, and this was on the theme of fieldwork. Thanks to those who came along. The recording will be available for that soon as well.
Also preparing a suite of resources for a Prince's Teaching Institute event in June.
April 29th saw the GA going green...
Make sure that you start planning for the National Fieldwork Week.
I rounded off the month by sharing the news that we have a new elected Trustee vacancy and also have a new co-opted trustee who will
I also visited Cambridge and got a copy of a number of new books, and saw some excellent art from Ai Wei Wei, and David Hockney.
As usual, here are the month's Twitter statistics - a bumper month with a quarter of a million impressions.
I'm also closing in on 7000 followers having added over 1200 in the 8 months since I made my Tweets open for my Presidential year, and 200 in the last month alone.
In it, Iain reflects on his career and involvement with the committee and the GA:
This piece is one for looking back, remembering those members of the committee who contributed so much and whose efforts should not be forgotten. Over the years we have been so well supported by people like George Metcalf, the NATFHE rep and the committee Treasurer in the days when we had a delegated budget.
One meeting a year was always at the Victory Club at Marble Arch as he was able to stay at a reduced rate having made the journey down from Dunfermline.
Other members of our illustrious team have included Brian Harris from Thames Valley, Alan Marriott, Andrew Powell from Kingston, Tim Foster from FSC Blencathra, Antony Allchin, Mick Dawson, Dave Turton, Julia Jones, Helen Hore, Simon Oakes, Bob Digby, and others too numerous to mention.
Secretaries, Treasurers, Saturday fieldwork organisers, Travel and Tourism specialists, Geography Matters Editors [Dave T had a couple of blokes out at “the airfield” who printed it very cheaply, and we gave away huge numbers of copies at conference]. Those were the days!
I have been chairman for long enough and could not have done the job without the support of my wife and the committee members, particularly Antony and then Helen, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. To Gill for taking on the editing of GM in the face of a number of difficulties and her own personal workload. And to all the committee members that I have not mentioned – thank you for your support and contributions to the work we have undertaken.
I am now what Catherine Owen reminded me of as we gossiped at the back of a conference session, an OLD, some would say very old, WHITE MAN - and the time is right for change.
The committee will be co-chaired by Laura-Jayne Ward and Ellie Barker and I wish them all the success for the future. I am confident that they will do a great job in the tradition of the P16/HE PC. They are looking for someone to fill the gap left by my leaving, to add new skills and greater diversity to the committee. I am only sorry that I will not have the opportunity to work with Servel Miller from Chester whom I am certain will add greatly to the deliberations of the committee.
Thank you all for your friendship, help and support over the past 40+ years of my GA membership. I shall miss being involved and hope to see some of you at conference this and in future years. Post-16/HE Phase Committee.
This was another rather busy month all round, and was the start of the second half of my Presidential year.
March sees the build up to the conference and a push to get delegates organised for their bookings - it's pleasing to see the bookings rising through the month, but also a time to keep fingers crossed that this year's budgets and personal circumstances don't mean people fail to book a ticket. The remote option is a useful addition now, although it adds significantly to the logistics of planning the event.
There is a meeting of the GA's Governing Body in the first weekend of the month. This was originally planned to have been face to face meeting finally, but ended up being online again, as it was scheduled just before the removal of some of the legal requirements on meetings and isolating were removed by the Government. This was a very busy meeting which had a great many items on the agenda.
This is a time when the next Vice President (and ultimately President) is ratified, along with other decisions.
There are also decisions made in this week about the GA Publishers Awards and also the GA Awards. Voting closes for the GA Award for Excellence as well.
The results of all these will be announced at the GA Prize Giving and Public Lecture which kicks off the conference.
The following week I was gearing up for a trip - the first overseas trip for over two years. This took place in Gent in Belgium. It was a meeting of the partners of the GI Pedagogy project, and we were delighted to be there. More on that later in the post.
National Fieldwork Week is taking place in June, and there were plenty of meetings and other work around this event. I organised a couple of events for the week.
Thanks to Paula Richardson for her hard work driving this forward, and also to the new website manager Emmalene for her hard work in getting the materials up on the website.
Some other things that occurred this month:
- a great many conversations and other decisions about the planning for the GA Conference, including exchanges around the final stages of the conference. This is getting closer now. There were decisions on chairing sessions to make, and numerous meetings and Zoom calls with Isabel and Becky who are spearheading the conference planning. A huge amount of work.
This offers guidance for all the delegates at our conference, and other events, and explained how we are supporting visitors in many wayss.
- further work to get ready for the National Fieldwork Week in June.
- liaising with and talking to chairs of the GA's SIGs - as President, I have requested that I receive copies of the minutes of all their meetings in case there are things I can do to support them, and to learn about the range of activity going on - these meetings occur almost every other weekend, and there is plenty to learn from colleagues who are experts in their chosen area - there were specific meetings with particular groups, along with Alastair Owens (who will take over as President in September 2022)
- reviewing for Routledge
- preparing for the IGU in Paris in July and liaising over fees and hotel planning as well as preparing a trip to the Place de Saint Sulpice for a Georges Perec pilgrimage...
- uploading resources and ideas for colleagues in the Liverpool alliance of schools I am supporting
- starting to prepare materials for another group of schools I am working with, and ideas for training in the new academic year
- working on the two ERASMUS projects I am completing for my school - one of these is now in the final stages and there has been a great deal of work to do there.
I led a session for the West London Alliance on curriculum making - the 2nd of two sessions.
We also had the amazing news of the discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship 'Endurance' - an expedition I had been following since the beginning and a period of history I have a great many
At the end of the 2nd week of March, I headed for Gent.
Thanks to the partners of the GI Pedagogy project for their company during a sunny long weekend where we were able to complete a lot of work, and also have a couple of nice meals in the city. It was lovely to be able to use my passport and get out of the country for the next 2 years.
There is also a new pathway for the GA Conference, which had been developed by Christine Winter (one of the new GA Research Engagement leads) and Kit Rackley. Many thanks to both of them, and anyone else involved, for their efforts.
We worked on the Geographers' Gaze materials - they will appear in a month or two hopefully.
In the third week, I contributed to a session for the GeogLive! event.
To round off the month, I went for a weekend in Center Parcs to decompress for a while and enjoy time in the woods - the weather was glorious.
The final week included more meetings, and a final event.
I hosted a GeogChat meeting on the theme of Everyday Geographies. Thanks to those who took part in the discussions. Search the #GeogChat tag to see some of the contributions.
The month ended with snow... quite a change after the sunshine of just a few days ago.
This was a particularly tough end to the Lent term. We are constantly thinking that things must be getting back to normal, but they really aren't. There has been a lot of staff and pupil absence due to COVID and at times I have been fairly sure I have had it for a 2nd time, but have always tested negative.
I am very much keeping my fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks. I look forward to seeing you in Guildford in 2 weeks time.
Images of Gent: Alan Parkinson, and shared under CC license
— Decolonising Geography (@DecoloniseGeog) March 17, 2022
Chris Winter and Kit Rackley have worked to identify sessions which relate to the theme of decolonial and anti-racist education. I am grateful to them for their time.
There are some very useful sessions which have been identified.
I'm taken the time to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks, and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared. This concludes the process.
It will be lovely to have my hand on a physical copy of the final programme and go through it with a highlighter as a ritual of attending conference since 2004.
I'm going to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks, and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared. I'm now on sessions numbered 101-125 in order of their appearance in the conference programme.
It will be lovely to have my hand on a physical copy of this.
I'm going to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks, and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared. I'm now on sessions numbered 76-100 in order of their appearance in the conference programme. Will be lovely to have my hand on a physical copy of this.
This is the 700th post on the blog, which tells the story of the 106 GA Presidents to date, and also the wider story of my own Presidency and other moments from the GA's history (and geography).
A very busy month once again, as they all are for GA Presidents in the run up to the GA Conference in April.
Started fairly quickly on the 1st of February with a GA Cambridge Branch lecture on supply chains. This is a good session and one with a lot of content which I'm happy to offer to other GA Branches or audiences. There's always plenty of relevant news stories in the media each week related to supply chains, including a timely article in the New York Times as well as a Guardian feature on a day in the life of a lorry driver. Check out the activity at your local GA Branch.
The 2nd of February was the Governance Working Group - this used to be called the President Group, and meets ahead of Governing Body to set the agenda and ensure that all the papers that are needed for that important business are in place.
Sadly, that was also the day I tested postive for COVID19, and the next week was a bit of a write off although I kept up to date with my inbox as much as possible when I felt up to it. Best wishes to everyone who has had COVID, and please make sure you get your vaccines and booster when offered to give the best protection if (and probably when) you test positive.
I am needle-phobic but felt no hesitation in going and getting jabbed at the earliest opportunity.
I spent some time during this period pottering on what I could do, lacking in energy a little and not able to do much for quite a few days:
- Judging five resources for stage 1 of the GA's Publishers Awards, ahead of a meeting of those who were sharing their thoughts to take them forward to the next phase.
- Supporting the Worldwise Board in planning for iGEO 2022
- Reading through Eleanor Rawling's work on the National Curriculum Framework (following on from GTE)
- Responding to a range of queries from GA members and others with regards to work / projects / conference etc.
- Worked on thinking through the early phases of a range of exciting projects, some of which will see the light of day and support teachers in particular parts of the country
- Reviewing book proposals
- Working on a GIS book
- Working on ERASMUS projects: GI Pedagogy and D3 - both of which are coming to a close this year.
The GA President serves as a Trustee for the three years of their Presidential journey, and joins the GA's Governing Body.
They join a group of people who serve a particular period of time - usually between three and six years.
There are named trustees who are responsible for additional aspects of the GA's work, particularly finances. I also filled in an audit sheet. We often reflect on the nature of our skills and consider how to broaden the diversity of this group in the widest sense. There are also co-opted members, who are brought in because of their particular skillset and backgrounds.
Thanks to all those who have served, currently served, or will serve on Governing Body.
Wednesday 9th was a busy day.
I started with a session for the East London Geography Hub, presenting along with Brendan Conway.
This was on my Presidential theme of Everyday Geographies.
This was followed by me hosting GeogChat - a regular weekly twitter chat that takes place on Wednesday. The theme was about the Pandemic and its influence on the curriculum. I shared ideas and had some excellent contributions from others.
Goodness me. You have finally got the reigns of Geog Chat. You are the most powerful person that I know. Perhaps we should simply rename Geography as 'Alan'.
I also put together a session for teachers in Liverpool. They have the support of the Archdiocese of Liverpool School Improvement Trust (ALPSIT)
Thanks to the legendary Hywel Roberts for getting me involved in this event and other work with the trust which will continue up to the summer.
Our Geography specialist for our Subject Leader conf is Alan Parkinson @geoblogs Alan is Head of Geography @ King's Ely Jnr in Cambridgeshire, Author of 'Why Study Geography?', Chartered Geographer & Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society & award winning innovative teacher! pic.twitter.com/1lvJ5fvSin
There were over 100 people signed in when I joined on the Tuesday to do an hour long canter through Primary curriculum making ideas, with some contributions from the thinking of Paula Owens, Simon Catling and several others.
I'm going to continue to work with ALPSIT until the end of the academic year by providing some ideas for their ASSEMBLE platform.
I popped to school to pick up some marking and other bits and pieces.
The final weekend of the half term was the 25th Charney Manor Primary Conference.
I was keeping an eye on the weather as there were two named storms in the forecast, the second of which would ultimately disrupt my arrival at the conference which was a disappointment. In the end, however, the storm was to have the last word as the Conference venue lost its power, so the whole event had to be cancelled until next year.
I returned to school for the final week of the month. A busy week it was too, with my continuing recovery from COVID:
- Further edits on articles for GA journals
- Reports, parents' evening and a Saturday Open morning to attend at school
- Some writing of examination materials for a company
As you'll have seen from the blog, and the 106 Presidents so far, a relatively small number have been teachers (or former teachers) when they became President.
If you are a teacher, you may have an idea of putting yourself forward at some point - whether during your career or after retirement, we have an exciting vacancy in the Senior part of the school which means you get a chance to work with me at my school.
I'm going to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks, and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared. I'm now on sessions numbered 51-75 in order of their appearance in the conference programme. Will be lovely to have my hand on a physical copy of this.
I'm going to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks over on Living Geography. and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared.
Arriving in 2022 means that this was the start of the second phase of my Presidency, and the 8 months leading up to the end of August. January has been a very busy month.
I started the year with meetings related to the working of the GA, and connecting with the GA's Strategic Plan (2020-25)
There was good news with an award for one of the GA's resources. Well done to all those involved in creating the resource which has won a TeachPrimary award.
We're delighted to have received the @TeachPrimary four star award for our Primary Geography CPD Packs 1-5 in the mail today!
Once again, thank-you to @TeachPrimary for the award and for the beautiful trophy.
The Governance Working Group is going to meet at the beginning of next month, but preliminary meetings and discussions were held to set agenda items. For those who want to know more about the governance of the GA, the GWG sets the agenda for Governing Body.
We also had first sight of a National Research Report on the "professional needs and views of teachers of geography". This was launched just before the end of the month and we were expecting to see quite a bit of coverage on TES and elsewhere, and this was certainly the case.
The report was co-written by Alan Kinder and Dr Emma Rawlings Smith.
Alan said:
'This GA National Research Report has been a year in the making and I’d like to thank all those GA members and others who gave their time towards such an insightful exercise. With a growing membership, the GA needs to work ever-harder to listen to and represent the views of its members. This report distils a huge range of ideas and makes recommendations for the GA, for policy-makers, for school leaders and teachers or geography. Our next challenge will be to pursue these findings and recommendations, so that children and young people in schools everywhere benefit from the improved support we are able to provide to teachers of geography, nationally and internationally.'
We also did final edits on the text of the latest Advocacy for Geography piece in the latest GA Magazine, which was the first in the new format, with a reducd page length for the print copy, but a larger and more flexible online offering. Check that out if you are a GA member.
If you aren't a GA member, I recommend that you join the 10 000 plus existing members to help amplify our voices.
This followed some final edits on an article which I wrote for the Summer 2022 issue of 'Primary Geography' on the transition curriculum I have developed at school. This will be out in the next issue, and thanks to those colleagues who I've worked with since last Easter to change what is taught in Years 3-5.
We also had further discussions regarding the Geographers' Gaze project. This has been funded by former Honorary Treasurer Brian Ellis and we are getting close to the first release of materials. Digital transfers of our selected lantern slides have been made and notes created. The next phase is going to be planned during the summer, and keep an eye on the website for the details of the first phase going live. We hope that you find it useful. There will be a second phase of images eventually. We have plenty of wonderful images to share with you.
I presented a session on Everyday Geographies for the GA's Tyne and Wear branch. Thanks to those who came along and for the excellent questions at the end of the session from those who were there and took my thinking in new directions.
We started to send out the details of the GA conference to all those involved as well, as Bryan Ledgard worked on the design for the actual booklet. I also started previewing every session at the conference over on my LivingGeography blog.
There was also the recruitment of the moderating team for the Primary and Secondary Geography Quality Marks for the Summer 2022 season. I look forward to reading through the portfolios of the schools that have applied for the award.
I worked on updating the wording of some of the GA's Policies, and we also had discussions about some forthcoming changes to the GA's Governing Body in the year ahead. That acts as a reminder to everyone that there are some opportunities for you to get more involved in the GA coming up as we move into March.
The year always starts with planning for the term ahead and the Education Group meeting - the 2nd of the meeting that I chair as President. I worked on the agenda and papers for the meeting and then chaired it - a long meeting with plenty of interesting discussions. We also welcomed Eleanor Rawling who has been working on a framework which was shared with us, and was also going to be included in the GTE conference the following weekend.
This included this very helpful diagram showing where different groups get involved in the process of curriculum change.
I also checked submissions for the IGU Session that I am chairing in Paris in July to find that there were 12 submissions to be part of the session that I am going to be chairing.
I attended a meeting of the GA Worldwise Board. Once again, this is a way for people to get involved in the work of the GA, particularly by organising or sending a team to a local Worldwise Quiz.
The Board were interested in the conference theme that I had developed and I will help with the development of some special activities for Worldwise Week later in the year. I've helped create materials in the past. It was lovely to chat to the Board members, who include a number of former Presidents: Sue Lomas, Mark Higginbottom and Steve Rawlinson, along with a former colleague
A flyer has been produced for the National Fieldwork Week which is coming in June.
I also had a chat with a film producer and we worked on a project which is going to be part of the BBC's Bitesize and children's programming in 2022. This was very exciting to be involved in, and followed some other work last year on the new BBC Regenerators resources for Primary.
The conference programme was shared in draft ahead of April, and bookings opened. I started blogging about each of the sessions on the programme.
I also completed the first draft of an article for the summer issue of 'Teaching Geography'. Historically, the GA President's conference paper was always reproduced in an issue of 'Geography' journal, as they were often presented in that format: read out from a paper, rather than being a little more improvisational.
The end of January is the Geography Teacher Educators' Conference (GTE), which had been due to be held at the University of Worcester.
I was pleased to be able to kick off the whole event with my own presentation on the GA Presidents and their influence, and a slightly redacted version is here:
Particular thanks to Elena Lengthorn and other members of the GTE for their organisation, and for changing to an online format at the last minute.
I led a 90 minute session for teachers in London last week as well on the theme of curriculum making. This involved a series of ideas linked to the nature of curriculum and the part of teachers and students in the process.
This was based around some ideas on curriculum making, and also drew on David Gardner's new book.
As always, here are the Twitter statistics for the month. A reasonable return on the tweets that I've sent, and a lot of the numbers came in the last weekend when GTE Conference was particularly busy tweet wise.
This was a very busy month, and the next month starts promptly, with 2 sessions in the first 2 days.
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