Sunday, 30 January 2022
Thursday, 27 January 2022
The GA's National Research Report - now available
The GA has carried out a great deal of research throughout its history and released papers and pamphlets at intervals, often involving the President of the time, or former and future Presidents. The latest report has been compiled over the last few months and is now available to view.
Download a copy of the report here.
The Geographical Association (GA) published a national research report today, focused on the professional needs and views of teachers of geography.
The report presents the findings from a two-stage ‘listening exercise’, comprised of an online survey and a series of focus group discussions with geography educators from the primary, secondary and post-16/HE phases and from Initial Teacher Education (ITE).
The most consistent finding of the research is that subject-specialist issues are a key concern for all those involved in geography education, primary geography subject leaders, secondary practitioners early in their career, experienced secondary school heads of geography and geography ITE tutors. It concludes that more action is needed to meet the demands of geography educators for support with subject-specialist knowledge, skills, confidence and connections. The research also:
• points to the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on geography education, highlighting that these impacts vary greatly from school to school and between individuals
• identifies what geography teachers value about their professional subject association, particularly their desire to network with one another
• emphasises the relevance of global environmental and social issues to geography and the need for the geography education community to respond to these issues.
GA Chief Executive Alan Kinder 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 of 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.’
The most consistent finding of the research is that subject-specialist issues are a key concern for all those involved in geography education, primary geography subject leaders, secondary practitioners early in their career, experienced secondary school heads of geography and geography ITE tutors. It concludes that more action is needed to meet the demands of geography educators for support with subject-specialist knowledge, skills, confidence and connections. The research also:
• points to the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on geography education, highlighting that these impacts vary greatly from school to school and between individuals
• identifies what geography teachers value about their professional subject association, particularly their desire to network with one another
• emphasises the relevance of global environmental and social issues to geography and the need for the geography education community to respond to these issues.
GA Chief Executive Alan Kinder 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 of 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.’
I was pleased to have played a part by facilitating one of the focus groups. Thanks to all those members and non-members alike who contributed to the fnal report, and particular thanks to Dr. Emma Rawlings-Smith and Alan Kinder who co-authored the report and to all those involved at various stages in its production.
The TES has picked up on the fieldwork issue for newly qualified teachers, which has been missing from many ITE courses:
New geography teachers lack the confidence to teach fieldwork after having limited experience of it during the pandemic, @The_GA warnshttps://t.co/DzJgTBx14c
— Tes (@tes) January 27, 2022
Saturday, 1 January 2022
GA Presidency Month 4: December 2021
December saw a range of activity in the first part of the month which came at the end of a long and varied term which was particularly tiring and challenging, with growing COVID cases in school, and waiting to find out more about the new variant and its potential implications for us, as cases rose and the threat of another lockdown began to loom the week before Christmas.
December 1st was the first of another month of activity supporting GA branches.The GA Birmingham Branch has continued with a programme of excellent speakers, including Ben Hennig.
Thanks to those teachers who came along, and to Bob for sending a recording of the session, which I think went very well.
The 2nd of the month saw the latest of our Parents' Evenings via Parent Cloud. These may well become one of the legacies of the pandemic, with the end to face to face appointments, or perhaps hybrid events.
My booster jab was given on the 3rd. Many people in the world are yet to receive their first vaccine, although impressively over 800 million Indians have received their first dose. It turns out this is going to very important with the Omicron variant.
ERASMUS projects have continued and we have negotiated extensions on the project as they have been majorly affected by the pandemic which has impacted on our chances to work with the teachers who are part of the project. They have been delayed and subject to alteration.
Zaragoza in Spain is a city that I have never been to (yet) and my trip there had to be cancelled last weekend following the emergence of the Omicron variant and changes to travel arrangements.
I also had to cancel a proposed trip to Romania in the New Year, and an event in London as well due to people having to isolate.
I also filled in my CPD log for my Chartered Geographer status this week. I have been a Chartered Geographer since April 2007, and the GA Conference will mark my 15th anniversary as a CGeog (Teacher).
To find out more about this opportunity to get accreditation for your CPD and other efforts check out the Chartered Geographers section of the RGS website.
I had a GIS resource to work on and spent some time on that as well.
I also put out the call for papers for the session that I have had accepted at the 100th IGU in Paris. If you would like to be part of the session you need to submit your abstract by January 11th. Let me know if you would like further information.
I also had to get copy for the Spring 2022 issue of my Webwatch column for GA Magazine's Spring 2022 issue finished. The magazine is getting a face lift in 2022 with a new format which means the full version of Webwatch will now be available to download with a smaller version in the magazine.
With the GA now passing 10 000 plus members (as you may have read in a piece I wrote for the GA website)
Christmas was a bit of a pause for most people.
I continued to potter on projects during the school holidays:
- The first day of the holidays I had a meeting with Alan Kinder.
- Wrote an article on the KS2 work I am doing at school. This will appear in 'Primary Geography'.
- Worked on ERASMUS project outcomes for GI Pedagogy and also D3 - check out the course we have created here.
- I also bought and started reading David Gardner's new book, which is out now as an eBook - it's excellent, and comes with an accompanying GeogPod broadcast which I listened to this week as well.
- I worked on finishing a new session called 'Click and Collect' to present at a number of GA Branches this coming year. It links with another resource I'm working on, which also connects with the idea of Supply Chains. That will all emerge in 2022, as part of my 'Curriculum Vitae'
Omicron cases continued to rise as we entered the final few weeks of 2021 and many of the teachers I follow on Twitter tested positive.
Here are the Twitter stats for the month as usual.
Thursday, 30 December 2021
Routes Volume 2 Issue 2 - an article featuring this blog
This is the 2nd issue of the 2nd volume of the ROUTES journal.
Routes is a peer-reviewed digital journal for sixth form and undergraduate geographers looking to read and publish geographical knowledge. They publish work from all areas of geographical scholarship, including both human and physical geography. Routes is a free, open-access journal with no pay-walls or subscriptions. It is free to submit and review work for Routes and there are no deadlines for submission.
Well worth seeking out, particularly as I am pleased to have an article in the journal of my own research into the people who have previously held the position of GA President which is located in this very blog.
The editorial for the issue is here.
Well done to the other contributors to this issue as well:
Examining the impact of the East Coast Low Storm, June 2016 on Narrabeen-Collaroy Beach, Sydney, AustraliaAnna Pennington (Teacher of Geography at Pangbourne College)
Landscape assessment: A useful tool for A Level enquiry
By Edward Jones (Geography Teacher at Buxton Community School)
Walking in Paris: locating hidden sights in the city
By Emily Chandler (Geography Teacher at St George’s The British International School – Düsseldorf Rhein-Ruhr)
By Emily Chandler (Geography Teacher at St George’s The British International School – Düsseldorf Rhein-Ruhr)
I particularly like this article as it connects with some of the influences of my GA Presidential theme of 'Everyday Geographies'.
Exploring the interactions between children’s sense of self and their sense of place through sport
By Zoë Sayliss (Geography Teacher at Berkhamsted School)
By Zoë Sayliss (Geography Teacher at Berkhamsted School)
The importance and relevance of geographies of wellness to A Level independent research
By Charlotte Fulham (Geography Teacher at Bedford Free School)
By Charlotte Fulham (Geography Teacher at Bedford Free School)
Why not suggest to your students that they write and submit an article for a future issue - all the information on how to do that is on the Routes website.
Thanks to editors Cyrus Nayeri and Lizzie Rushton, and the peer reviewers and to all those who have supported the journal in various ways, including submitting articles.
Cite my article as shown below:
Parkinson, A. (2022) Researching the changing professional profile of the Geographical Association’s Presidents 1893-2021. Routes 2(2): 67-79Tuesday, 28 December 2021
Pandemic Presidents
It occurred to me that Gill Miller, Susan Pike and myself are the latest in a series of "pandemic Presidents": those whose term of office have fallen during a pandemic. Hopefully Alastair Owens' will be immediately post-pandemic.
The last time that there was a similar pandemic was following the first World War.
At the time, the Spanish Flu apparently led to 1918 being the first year when deaths were higher than births.
The President in 1918 was Sir William Mitchell Ramsay
The President in 1919 was Professor Grenville A J Cole, FSA
It would be fascinating to find out more about the impact that the Spanish Flu had on the workings of the GA at the time.
Monday, 20 December 2021
On the move to Fulwood Road
An interesting article on the move from Park Library and the potential for visitors...
Something that might be returned to perhaps in due course.
Reference
Garnett, Alice. “The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 49, no. 1, Geographical Association, 1964, pp. 59–72, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40565765.
Sunday, 12 December 2021
IGU - a call for paper abstracts
This information will be appearing in a number of locations, including the GA website over the next month.
There is a month to the deadline for submitting a paper as part of a session that I have had approved at the IGU in Paris in July 2022. It's also a month to the deadline for early bird booking.
This may be of niche interest to some reading this, but it is posted so that I can direct those who may be interested and attending the event to see the full details. The final results will also be of direct interest to those who teach in any capacity as we explore the idea of a curriculum framework.
This will be the 100th IGU Conference in Paris in July 2022.
My session at the IGU’s centennial conference will continue a long tradition of GA / IGU engagement, involving former GA Presidents including Norman Graves and Sir Dudley Stamp. I will draw on previous employment as the GA’s Secondary Curriculum Leader and experience in developing curriculum artefacts and vignettes to help bring curriculum documents to life. This will hopefully be the start of a renewed international conversation about curriculum: to reconnect with each other after several years of enforced separation.
Title of proposed session:
Developing a curriculum framework for Geography at national level
The session is described as follows:
The Geographical Association (GA) has pursued its mission ‘to further geographical knowledge and understanding through education’ since 1893, during which time it has undertaken successive exercises to reframe the school geography curriculum in the UK and further afield.
One of the GA’s flagship initiatives at present is a fundamental review of curriculum thinking in geography education.
This initiative has taken a very wide range of evidence and perspectives into account to work on the production of a geography curriculum framework that is informed by research and practice, reflects the contemporary world and discipline and can be used by the Association to exert influence on national and international curriculum conversations in the future. This work is being led by Eleanor Rawling, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education, and will emerge during 2022.
The curriculum framework will be introduced at the session, along with a description of some of the other projects which influenced the thinking. Key issues around such work will be explored, with reference to other national curricula. The curriculum framework also creates opportunities for teachers to develop deeper (powerful) knowledge and equip students with choices about whether and how they wish to act, as well as a better understanding of how and why others do/do not act in the same way.
Alan will outline his ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - a curriculum for life: to engage young people and equip them with key questions that they will carry forward with them beyond their schooling. The Climate Emergency and other global issues should be threads running through any new curriculum, but teachers need support in considering how such issues can become objects of study, so that they may be examined in school without the attendant real-world pressures we otherwise face when dealing with complex social, political and environmental challenges. Should this be part of the framework, or the associated guidance? Such questions will be discussed.
If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. The IGU website has reopened during December and early January for the submission of papers and there will then be a selection process to create the programme for the session that I will chair.
The IGU website will be open for submissions until January the 11th 2022. These are abstracts at this stage.
Go here to submit your abstracts
https://www.ugiparis2022.org/fr/soumission-de-resumes/29
Summaries are possible in two formats:
Oral communication: Presentation of 15 minutes maximum, in one of the working languages of the session (see the presentation sheet of the session to which you are submitting your proposal)
E-poster: If your e-poster proposal is accepted by the session organizer (s), the poster must respect the charter (.pdf format) and be placed in the E-Poster area accessible with your identifier, before June 15, 2022 .
Summary format
The sessions will be organized on the principle of one or more session (s) lasting 1h45, each corresponding to 4 presentations of 15 min maximum and 5 min of discussion.
Submission of an abstract
Abstracts must be submitted in French or in English.
The submission form must clearly specify the working language of the communication, with reference to the languages proposed in the session. There will be no interpretation service during the sessions, unless the session organizers offer and provide it themselves.
The sessions will take place face-to-face or virtually; there will be no hybrid sessions.
Submission format
Title : 255 characters maximum, spaces included
Summary : 2000 characters maximum, spaces included
Keywords : 5 maximum
References : 5 maximum
Make sure your paper is linked to the session in the Geographical Education section of the event.
We will share the date and time of the session in the final programme as soon as we can.
The session is described as follows:
The Geographical Association (GA) has pursued its mission ‘to further geographical knowledge and understanding through education’ since 1893, during which time it has undertaken successive exercises to reframe the school geography curriculum in the UK and further afield.
One of the GA’s flagship initiatives at present is a fundamental review of curriculum thinking in geography education.
This initiative has taken a very wide range of evidence and perspectives into account to work on the production of a geography curriculum framework that is informed by research and practice, reflects the contemporary world and discipline and can be used by the Association to exert influence on national and international curriculum conversations in the future. This work is being led by Eleanor Rawling, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education, and will emerge during 2022.
The curriculum framework will be introduced at the session, along with a description of some of the other projects which influenced the thinking. Key issues around such work will be explored, with reference to other national curricula. The curriculum framework also creates opportunities for teachers to develop deeper (powerful) knowledge and equip students with choices about whether and how they wish to act, as well as a better understanding of how and why others do/do not act in the same way.
Alan will outline his ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - a curriculum for life: to engage young people and equip them with key questions that they will carry forward with them beyond their schooling. The Climate Emergency and other global issues should be threads running through any new curriculum, but teachers need support in considering how such issues can become objects of study, so that they may be examined in school without the attendant real-world pressures we otherwise face when dealing with complex social, political and environmental challenges. Should this be part of the framework, or the associated guidance? Such questions will be discussed.
If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. The IGU website has reopened during December and early January for the submission of papers and there will then be a selection process to create the programme for the session that I will chair.
The IGU website will be open for submissions until January the 11th 2022. These are abstracts at this stage.
Go here to submit your abstracts
https://www.ugiparis2022.org/fr/soumission-de-resumes/29
Summaries are possible in two formats:
Oral communication: Presentation of 15 minutes maximum, in one of the working languages of the session (see the presentation sheet of the session to which you are submitting your proposal)
E-poster: If your e-poster proposal is accepted by the session organizer (s), the poster must respect the charter (.pdf format) and be placed in the E-Poster area accessible with your identifier, before June 15, 2022 .
Summary format
The sessions will be organized on the principle of one or more session (s) lasting 1h45, each corresponding to 4 presentations of 15 min maximum and 5 min of discussion.
Submission of an abstract
Abstracts must be submitted in French or in English.
The submission form must clearly specify the working language of the communication, with reference to the languages proposed in the session. There will be no interpretation service during the sessions, unless the session organizers offer and provide it themselves.
The sessions will take place face-to-face or virtually; there will be no hybrid sessions.
Submission format
Title : 255 characters maximum, spaces included
Summary : 2000 characters maximum, spaces included
Keywords : 5 maximum
References : 5 maximum
Make sure your paper is linked to the session in the Geographical Education section of the event.
We will share the date and time of the session in the final programme as soon as we can.
Get in touch if you would like to know more details.
Wednesday, 8 December 2021
GA Awards - deadline approaching for this year
If you are a GA member you can nominate someone for an Award, particularly if they are involved in one of the GA's areas of activity such as the Volunteer Groups, Journal articles, GA Branch activity or some other role.
Details of the awards, nomination forms and other information on the awards is here.
Each year, at the GA’s Annual Conference, the Association presents a number of awards to recognise and celebrate the contribution of individuals towards geography education. GA awards include:1. Honorary Membership
Honorary Membership (normally one award per year) – this is the highest award made by the GA, in return for sustained and outstanding service to the Association. It confers lifelong and complimentary membership of the GA on its recipients. Read a list of GA Honorary Members here. Download the Honorary Membership of the GA nomination form here.
Honorary Membership (normally one award per year) – this is the highest award made by the GA, in return for sustained and outstanding service to the Association. It confers lifelong and complimentary membership of the GA on its recipients. Read a list of GA Honorary Members here. Download the Honorary Membership of the GA nomination form here.
2. GA Annual Awards for Excellence
GA Annual Awards for Excellence (up to two awards) – for an individual who has made a significant contribution to furthering geographical knowledge and understanding through education and/or to the work of the GA over the previous year. Read a list of past recipients here . Download the GA Annual Award for Excellence nomination form here.
GA Annual Awards for Excellence (up to two awards) – for an individual who has made a significant contribution to furthering geographical knowledge and understanding through education and/or to the work of the GA over the previous year. Read a list of past recipients here . Download the GA Annual Award for Excellence nomination form here.
3. Distinguished Service Award
GA Distinguished Service Award (download nomination form) - for an individual who has made a notable contribution to the work of the GA and its charitable mission, particularly through specialist volunteer groups in the geographical community over a sustained period of time.
GA Distinguished Service Award (download nomination form) - for an individual who has made a notable contribution to the work of the GA and its charitable mission, particularly through specialist volunteer groups in the geographical community over a sustained period of time.
4. GA Outstanding Service Certificates and Diploma
GA Outstanding Service Certificates (download nomination form) - for outstanding service by a GA branch member to their local branch.
GA Outstanding Service Diploma (download nomination form) - for outstanding service to the GA through participation on GA committees or special interest groups.
GA Outstanding Service Certificates (download nomination form) - for outstanding service by a GA branch member to their local branch.
GA Outstanding Service Diploma (download nomination form) - for outstanding service to the GA through participation on GA committees or special interest groups.
5. GA Certificate
GA Certificate (download nomination form) – for the completion of three years service on a GA committee or special interest group.
GA Certificate (download nomination form) – for the completion of three years service on a GA committee or special interest group.
6. GA Rex Walford Award
GA Rex Walford Award - for inspirational and innovative practice for those undertaking primary or secondary geography initial teacher education.
Further information about each of the awards including eligibility, nominations and judging is available to download below, together with the appropriate nomination forms.
Additional awards presented annually by the GA include:
Excellence in Leading Geography - journal articles judged to have made the greatest contribution to the development of good practice in geography teaching, as voted for by GA members. Recent recipients are published in GA Magazine. The awards will be presented at the GA Annual Conference.
GA Publishers' Awards - previous awardees are listed on our GA Publishers' Awards pages.
Geography Quality Marks – to reward and promote high quality geography in primary and secondary schools.
GA Rex Walford Award - for inspirational and innovative practice for those undertaking primary or secondary geography initial teacher education.
Further information about each of the awards including eligibility, nominations and judging is available to download below, together with the appropriate nomination forms.
Additional awards presented annually by the GA include:
Excellence in Leading Geography - journal articles judged to have made the greatest contribution to the development of good practice in geography teaching, as voted for by GA members. Recent recipients are published in GA Magazine. The awards will be presented at the GA Annual Conference.
GA Publishers' Awards - previous awardees are listed on our GA Publishers' Awards pages.
Geography Quality Marks – to reward and promote high quality geography in primary and secondary schools.
Please consider nominating someone for an award. If you don't nominate them they have very little chance of winning.
Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license
Saturday, 4 December 2021
The Geographical Club
The Geographical Club, formerly called the Raleigh Club, is a dining club closely associated with the Royal Geographical Society. It was founded in 1826, so is coming up to its bicentenary.
The history of the club features many names associated with exploration and travel.
On 24th May 1830, a momentous meeting of the Club took place. Sir John Barrow ( Second Secretary of the Admiralty) was in the Chair , and a motion was proposed, ‘ that a new and useful Society might …. be formed, under the name of The Geographical Society of London.’ The submission that led to this proposal was that, ‘….among the numerous literary and scientific societies established in the British metropolis, one was still wanting to complete the circle of scientific institutions, whose sole object should be the promotion and diffusion of that most important and entertaining branch of knowledge, GEOGRAPHY.’ Thus, The Raleigh Club had the distinction of being the parent body of The Geographical Society of London, later receiving the patronage of William IV to become the Royal Geographical Society.
Source: http://www.primestrategy.com/geogclub/history.html
Seven former GA Presidents have been the President of the Club:
- Douglas Freshfield
- Lord Nathan
- Charles Close
- Harry Lindsay
- Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich
- L Dudley Stamp
- Michael Wise
The first President of the Club was the geologist Sir Roderick Murchison.
Friday, 3 December 2021
A Geographer's Gaze
A couple of months ago, I went up to Solly Street to have another meeting for our Geographers' Gaze project.
Thanks to the other members of the team, and to Brian Ellis for funding the project.
Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license
10 000 members
Yesterday, a piece that I had written went up on the GA website to celebrate the fact that we had broken through the 10 000 member mark for the first time in quite some time after decades of slow decline in GA membership.
This is really encouraging and also a challenge for the Association to continue to provide the quality of support and services that members expect and deserve, and also to retain members. It's important for the work that the GA does that we are speaking on behalf of so many people when it comes to consultations and policy work. Thanks to everyone who has joined us and continues to support the Geographical Association.
Wednesday, 1 December 2021
GA Presidency Month 3: November 2021
The 3rd month of my Presidential term started with the 2nd week of my half term. Previously this has been used for overseas trips: Iceland or somewhere in Europe and occasionally returning from SAGT conference. This time it was more home based, and involved quite a lot of writing and work on ERASMUS projects.
I had the usual mix of events large and small which I had signed up to present.
Planning and emails regarding the GA Conference 2022 continued of course with speakers to add and additional work around that.
I attended the AGM and Committee meetings of my local GA Branch: the Cambridge and District GA branch. I will be speaking in 2022 on my conference theme.
COP26 began at the very start of November. The GA has been involved in a range of activity around the themes of the conference, and the importance of the decisions taken there. COP took place during the first couple of weeks and there were various links, including the arrival of my DressCode shirt.
I spoke to some students in Scotland as well, while standing in a wood on the UEA Campus. This was then used in some way at COP26.
Our COP26 Climate Emergency Newsroom team were delighted to interview Alan Parkinson, President of the Geographical Association today in preparation for their week in the Glasgow University newsroom next week. Thank you, Alan @GeoBlogs pic.twitter.com/YGzzs6DPwq
— Lesmahagow High School (@LesmahagowHigh) November 5, 2021
We also had some good news that a proposal we had put forward for the UGI-IGU in Paris was accepted. This is based around the work that the GA is doing in the area of curriculum thinking. This is an area I used to work for the GA in of course.
I will be sharing more on this through GA channels as we will be looking for possible contributions and e-posters in this area for our session in July 2022.
Eleanor Rawling is leading the work on the curriculum framework for the GA, and we will be putting out a call for papers in a few days time.
In the 2nd week of the month, there were a few other events which I took part in.
GA SIG Wales - I had been invited by Gill Miller, President in 2019-20 to take part in an event on transition around the new Curriculum for Wales.
Check out the work they are already doing on the curriculum frameworks on the SIG Wales page of the GA website.
I did a small input and was then followed by some other speakers:
You have a month from the time of this post to catch up with an event which I presented at on Wednesday this week for the SIG Wales Volunteer Group.
https://t.co/5IOA8ecjd0. Available for 30 days. Find out more about the Welsh Special Interest Group on the GA website, including details of the Curriculum Scaffolds mentioned in the webinar. You can also follow them on twitter @GASIGWales. 🌍
— Laura Gilleland (@LauraGilleland) November 11, 2021
You can watch me speaking from 4 minutes in - the sound gets a little muffled toward the end - which seems to be happening a little at the moment with my laptop.
The presentation slides are here:
If anyone has any questions, please get in touch...
The President joins Governing Body (GB) for the duration of their Presidential journey. This now lasts for three years, but I was the last person for whom this was a four year journey.
It was good to meet up with new staff members at Solly Street and actually have the whole Presidential team in the building for the first time ever (in our case) and for several years in general.
The following weekend was my own daughter's graduation.
Earlier in the week I was interviewed by Dorian Brown of Teachers Talk Radio. It was a good chat about the power of Subject Associations and my journey to being President. Click here for the link.
Wednesday the 24th of November was the Oxford GA Branch Lecture - 'Your Place or Mine' as well: the David Pilgrim Lecture
This is a variation of a lecture which I have done before at a nnumber of venues. It was hosted by St. Edwards School (Teddies) in Oxford - a long drive over and back.There was a really good crowd of students - the largest audience of the year, although Tim Marshall is doing next week's lecture. It was my first face to face event for quite some time as well.
There were also one or two issues with conference as speakers pulled out and I had to work to find replacements. Work also continued with visits by colleagues to the conference venue to scope out the hybrid nature of the event.
The month ended with delivery of the new GA textbooks for KS3 which have been created and which are excellent as well.
Here are the Twitter statistics for the month to finish:
I am now a quarter of the way through the Presidency. Time is going quickly, and I will be half way through before I know it I'm sure.
Wishing everyone a restful Christmas break in advance.
December's monthly update will appear in early January 2022.
Sunday, 28 November 2021
Norman Graves and the IGU
The International Geographical Union (IGU) has its centenary conference in Paris in 2022.
Its title is:
Developing a curriculum framework for Geography at national level
The session is described as follows:
The Geographical Association (GA) has pursued its mission ‘to further geographical knowledge and understanding through education’ since 1893, during which time it has undertaken successive exercises to reframe the school geography curriculum in the UK and further afield.
One of the GA’s flagship initiatives at present is a fundamental review of curriculum thinking in geography education.
This initiative has taken a very wide range of evidence and perspectives into account in order to produce a geography curriculum framework that is informed by research and practice, reflects the contemporary world and discipline and can be used by the Association to exert influence on national and international curriculum conversations in the future.
Its presentation, for discussion, at the IGU’s centennial conference continues a long tradition of GAIGU engagement, involving former GA Presidents including Norman Graves and Sir Dudley Stamp. There will be inputs, possibly remote or pre-recorded from those people involved in the development of the curriculum framework: an initiative led by Eleanor Rawling, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education.
The curriculum framework will be introduced, along with a description of some of the other projects which influenced the thinking. Key issues around such work will be explored, with reference to other national curricula.
One aim is to create a ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - a curriculum for life: to engage young people and equip them with key questions that they will carry forward with them beyond their schooling. The Climate Emergency and other global issues should be threads running through any new curriculum, but teachers need support in considering how such issues can become objects of study, so that they may be examined in school without the attendant real-world pressures we otherwise face when dealing with complex social, political and environmental challenges. Should this be part of the framework, or the associated guidance? Such questions will be discussed.
The curriculum framework also creates opportunities for teachers to develop deeper (powerful) knowledge and equip students with choices about whether and how they wish to act, as well as a better understanding of how and why others do/do not act in the same way.
Current GA President Alan Parkinson was previously the Geographical Association’s Curriculum Leader and is a practising teacher with much experience in developing curriculum artefacts and vignettes to help bring curriculum documents to life. Ideas for breathing life into the framework will also be explored and shared. This will hopefully be the start of a renewed international conversation about curriculum: to reconnect with each other after several years of enforced separation.
If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. The IGU website will be reopened during December and early January for the submission of papers and there will then be a selection process to create the programme for the session that I will chair.
I will be channelling a former GA President who was heavily involved with the IGU for many years, and wrote this excellent book in 1979: Professor Norman Graves. He has his own entry on the blog. It will also draw on the current work of another former GA President: Eleanor Rawling.
Tuesday, 23 November 2021
GA Birmingham Branch
One of the aspects of the Presidential year that I always planned to do was to speak to as many GA Branches as wanted me to be there...
I won't be making thelong journey across country to Birmingham next Wednesday but will be joining the GA Branch there by Zoom to do a session at the end of the day.
Details of the session are here:
Wednesday 1st
December 2021 4-5pm
"A day in the Life: Enquiring into Everyday Geographies in the curriculum"
Teacher talk
Mr Alan Parkinson, CGeog, FRGS, FRSGS
Head
of Geography at King's Ely (Junior), author & freelance geography
consultant
President,
Geographical Association 21-22
RSGS
Tivy Medal winner 2013
@GeoBlogs
Alan
Parkinson is an inspirational geographer and teacher who is the current
President of the Geographical Association. This talk will be of great interest
to all Geography teachers whatever their experience of teaching from trainee
teachers to teachers of many years. This is a highlight of this year’s talks.
I hope it's a highlight :) Looking forward to finding out what I'm going to say. I may just talk about Peppa Pig World...
Friday, 19 November 2021
Talking on the radio
This morning was the broadcast of an interview I had with Dorian Brown: a host on Teachers Talk Radio. Many former GA Presidents have found themselves on the radio, or television, and there are a few YouTube clips of former Presidents on some of the entries on this blog.
You can listen again here:
We talked about the GA and blogging and a whole range of other things.
If you enjoyed it, check out some of Dorian's other recent guests, also from the GA 'community'.Your commute for later sorted...
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Climate Change and Geography
The GA recently released some statistics from a YouGov poll on the public's opinion of the value of geography's curriculum content ...
