GA Conference 2008 Presidential Address Sustaining Geography John

GA Conference 2008 Presidential Address Sustaining Geography John Westaway, GA President

Sustaining geography • Geography – past, present and future • Who are geographers and where do they come from? • Where is geography now and how did it get there? • What next for geography? • Geography for sustainable development and the sustainable development of geography

Geography – past, present and future Who are geographers and where do they come from?

The invisibility of geographers • Who and where all the geographers? • GA as Geographers Anonymous?

Guess the subject! It was his love of maps, of globes and atlases, which had years ago led him, in a roundabout way, into the world of _______. So many maps had he pored over in his time that he dressed, without fully realizing, in the pastels of cartography: yellow corduroy trousers (6000 -9000 feet above sea level), the jacket of darkly woven maroon (Antarctic Tundra), shirt of Viyella peach (less than 1 inch of rainfall per annum), and the red fleck on his woollen tie looked like International Boundaries or population over 500 persons per square mile. ’ From: Homesickness by Murray Ball and the missing word is …. zoology

Where do geographers come from? • Some are born geographers • Some achieve geography • Some have geography thrust upon them

Some are born geographers Daydreams in the classroom • Football (Bristol City) • Cricket (Gloucestershire) • Pop music (Rolling Stones et al)

Some have geography thrust upon them

Some achieve geography What attracts young people to geography? • Attractions of the subject? • Charismatic teachers and/or good teaching? • Leads to a particular career? • Being good at it?

Attractions of geography? • Exotic places? • Issues? • Physical environment? • Fieldwork?

Charismatic teachers or good teaching?

Good at geography?

Bristol – a GA President hotspot Pat Cleverley (1984 -85); Vic Dennison (1980 -81); Sheila Jones (1975 -76)

Bristol – a GA President hotspot Jeremy Krause 2001 -02 Chris Kington 2002 -03 Margaret Roberts 2008 -09 John Hopkin 2010 -11

The quantitative approach GAPi /GAP _____ Popi/Pop Where: GAPi is the number of GA presidents who were born, live or lived, teach or taught in city i GAP is the number of GA presidents in the nation Popi is the population of city i Pop is the population of the nation Source: Walter Isard. Methods of Regional Analysis. MIT Press, 1960

And the results are … 1975 -2011 Location quotient – 20. 2

How to make more young people achieve geography • Ensure young people continue to experience geography • Ensure that what they experience is high quality geography

Geography – past, present and future Where is geography now and how did it get there?

Where is geography now? • Marginalisation of geography in primary (and secondary? ) schools • Declining numbers at GCSE & A level • Lots of satisfactory or worse geography teaching (Ofsted) • Poor public image – pub quizzes; boring • Invisibility of geographers

… and how did it get there? A brief history of geography • The Halcyon Days of Geography(? ): the whole of geography until 1991 • Post-National Curriculum – the Dark Ages(? ): 1991 -2008

The Halcyon Days? 1960 s

The Halcyon Days? 1970 s & 1980 s • GYSL • Bristol Project • Geography 16 -19 But …. . ‘…(there is) the need for a close and critical look at all tasks requiring straight copying, an exercise with more custodial than educational usefulness. Copying is not as rife at Hampstead as elsewhere … ’ ‘… too much time is spent in transferring quite complex maps and diagrams from printed page or blackboard …’ Notes based on an Inspectorate Study visit, 1981

The Dark Ages? • 1991 -95: the 1991 National Curriculum • 1995 -2000: the 1995 National Curriculum • 2000 -08: the 2000 National Curriculum

The 1991 National Curriculum

1991 -1995 • Compulsory geography 5 -16 • Overloaded & overprescriptive curriculum – 5 Attainment targets – 183 Statements of Attainment – 10 levels of attainment • ‘Double page spread’ textbooks making sense of the NC • Testing & school performance tables • Standard Attainment Tasks (SATs) developed for key stage 1 -3 geography

Geography SATs

The 1995 National Curriculum

1995 -2000 • Dearing Review – revised NC for Geography – Reduced content – Single attainment target – 8 levels of attainment plus EP; level descriptions • Geography optional in key stage 4 • No statutory testing of geography in key stages 1 -3 – Teacher Assessment instead • Optional Tests and Tasks for Key Stage 3 • Relaxation of Po. S in key stages 1 & 2 • Schemes of Work for key stages 1 and 2

The 2000 National Curriculum

2000 -08 • Revised NC for geography – Further content reduction – Increased flexibility through reorganisation • Return to full National Curriculum in primary schools • Scheme of Work for key stage 3

So why is geography faring so badly? • Are things that much worse than in 1990? • Quality of teaching? • Non-specialist teachers/less subject support? • Tests, league tables and subject priorities? • Curriculum non-development? • More competition?

Geography – past, present and future What next for geography?

At the crossroads: 2008 ‘Geography is at a crucial period in its development. More needs to be done to make the subject relevant and more engaging for pupils, particularly at Key Stage 3’. Christine Gilbert, HMCI • Primary review • New secondary (ie key stage 3) curriculum • 14 -19 – New GCSEs (2009) and A levels – Diplomas, including one for Humanities

Opportunities & Challenges: Primary Review • New improved geography curriculum? But: • Aims of primary review – more time for literacy & numeracy; arts & music? PE & sport? compulsory MFL?

Opportunities & Challenges: Key stage 3 • New, improved programme of study – key concepts; flexibility But: • Place of geography (& subjects generally) in whole curriculum – two year key stage 3? Move to more integrated curriculum?

Opportunities & Challenges: 14 -19 • New GCSE & AS/A level specifications – scope for improving quality of geography teaching & learning But: • Diplomas – new humanities diploma - squeeze on geography GCSE & A level?

Opportunities & Challenges • Opportunities provided by the new geography curriculum frameworks • Challenges come from the wider curriculum framework in all key stages & phases. Why should curriculum managers give geography any sort of priority? • We need to argue the case for geography (again)

A case for geography • A case for geography 1987 • A case for geography 2008 Ø Different curriculum context - geography still a statutory subject 5 -14, but subjects no longer king Ø Audience for the case for geography not primarily the government, but more curriculum managers in schools

A case for geography Choices • Stick to our knitting? And become an intrinsic, pure, minority pursuit • Go for legislation? Because ‘geography is essential’ • Emphasise vocational utility – maps, GIS? • Argue for extrinsic educational purpose and the contribution geography can make to the educated person? David Lambert. Paper to GA Governing Body 8 Mar 2008

Geography for sustainable development and the sustainable development of geography

A focus on sustainable development? • Geography has a real opportunity to establish itself more securely in the school curriculum through a more explicit focus on sustainable development • Sustainable development is near the top of society’s agenda. Government launched Sustainable Schools strategy two years ago - schools will be expected to become more sustainable

The case for a sustainable development focus • Sustainable development could be to geography what literacy and numeracy are to English and mathematics

Sustainable development and geography • The central place of English in the school curriculum owes much to the fact that it includes literacy • The central place of mathematics in the school curriculum owes much to the fact that it includes numeracy • Why can’t geography occupy a more central place in the school curriculum because it includes sustainable development?

The case for a sustainable development focus • Sustainable development could be to geography what literacy and numeracy are to English and mathematics • We’re already doing it – and have been for many years

GYSL People Place & Work 1975

Geography National Curriculum 1991

Geography National Curriculum 1995

Geography National Curriculum 2000

Geography National Curriculum 2008 • Environmental interaction & sustainable development is one of the seven key concepts identified for geography

The case for a sustainable development focus • Sustainable development could be to geography what literacy and numeracy are to English and mathematics • We’re already doing it – and have been for many years • Significant overlap between geography & ESD

So what is ESD? ‘ESD enables pupils to develop the knowledge, skills, understanding and values to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future’ National Curriculum 2000

Geography & sustainable development: the overlap Key processes/key elements Geography ESD fieldwork … an essential element out of classroom learning values & attitudes viewpoints & opinions issues … now & in the future Futures how … economies, societies & environments are interconnected systems approach – interaction between economic, social & environmental systems questioning, investigation & critical thinking …, weighing evidence, presenting reasoned argument responsibilities to other people, the environment … question own lifestyles & attitudes

Geography & sustainable development: the overlap Concepts Geography NC GCSE Geog pilot Place Uneven development Space Interdependence Scale Futures Interdependence Sustainability Physical & human processes Globalisation Environmental interaction & sustainable development Cultural understanding & diversity ESD Citizenship & stewardship Interdependence Sustainable change Needs & rights of future generations Uncertainty & precaution Quality of life Diversity

Geography & sustainable development: the overlap Content Geography ESD Flexible choice of content The Sustainable Schools framework ‘doorways’* * www. teachernet. gov. uk/sustainableschools/

Sustainable Schools

Sustainable schools – travel and traffic

Sustainable schools – global dimension

The challenge for geography • New curriculum frameworks • Three more years of the Action Plan for Geography • The Sustainable Schools strategy

Sustainable schools and geography So what do we need to do?

What can the GA do? • APG sustainable development strand – curriculum development examples and online CPD on GTT website; • Places People Want: building sustainable communities details & online CPD on GA website; • Focus on sustainable development in journals (Primary Geographer, Autumn 2007; Teaching Geography, articles on sustainable schools, 2008); • Geography Awareness Week (23 -27 June) focus on sustainable schools

What can teachers do? • Make sustainable development more prominent and/or explicit in your new teaching schemes • Make explicit links to the Sustainable Schools framework in your teaching schemes • Check what your school is doing about the Sustainable Schools strategy and ensure SMTs know about it and the central role geography is, or should be, playing • Be proactive in the school’s adoption of the Sustainable Schools framework, making clear the links to geography scheme of work • Make geography indispensable – in terms of what and how you teach and your students learn

Geography for sustainable development … … and sustainable development of geography!