My Twitter notifications have been growing over the last few days because I was copied into a tweet from Jo Coles regarding challenges facing geography.
What would you say have been the biggest challenges to geography’s place in education, or to geog’s curriculum, in the last 20 years? Many thanks. Cc @GeoBlogs @GeogMum @Jennnnnn_x @kate_stockings @davidErogers @MattPodbury @richardallaway @EYPPC_GA @SteveBraceGeog @RSAChiefExec
— Jo Coles (@GeoDebs) February 16, 2024
The post has had a large number of views and responses from people from a range of different contexts (which is likely to affect the nature of the response due to different priorities and experiences).
There have been a range of suggestions, which include:
- a lack of subject specialists, and decisions made to priorities exam groups over KS3 groups - lessons taught by teachers with other specialisms
- less support at lower key stages which feeds through into the older age groups
- the cost of fieldwork, particularly coach travel - for departments but also families - can lead to a divide in experiences which increases educational inequalities
- specification content overload and the nature of examinations
- the impact of the pandemic on students and families
- encouraging young people to see geography as a valuable subject for future careers
- competition from other subjects
- lack of time in training for Primary teachers, who often have to teach all subjects
- the Government / OFSTED
- cost of resourcing new resources with constant changes
The post says 'the last 20 years', which takes us back to 2004, when geography's place was certainly declining, Rita Gardner and David Lambert persuaded the Government of the time to invest in Geography.
Prior to the Action Plan for Geography (APG) the subject had faced a significant decline in English schools. The number of young people choosing to take GCSE or A Levels in the subject had fallen consistently for a number of years and Ofsted had reported on the need to improve standards and teachers’ subject knowledge. In many schools the positive and important contribution that geography can make to a young person’s education was being eroded. In 2005, this was recognised by the then Secretary of State at the Department for Education, Charles Clarke MP, who responded to a request to establish a Geography Focus Group to review the challenges to Geography and identify how they could be addressed. The focus group brought together senior academics, business leaders, media figures, head teachers and teachers; as well as senior staff from the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG) and the Geographical Association (GA).
Between 2006 and 2011, the RGS and the GA collaborated on the Action Plan for Geography, which funded a whole range of projects and networking. The evaluation of the project can still be viewed here. The text above is taken from this document. There was an earlier crisis which the Geographical Association was also involved in, involving 'A Case for Geography' by Tony Binns and Patrick Bailey. back in 1987.
Of course, this was a long time ago now, and the world has moved on since, particularly with the pandemic. I know that some of these challenges are already being tackled. I'm involved in a few projects which are exploring some of the areas which were mentioned above, but more will be revealed later in the year.
I would say that in terms of the challenges to geography's place in education and the curriculum, there is huge variation in the nature of this challenge both between and within schools, including between state and independent of course.
A few thoughts:
1. There is the difference in the nature of the geography department in each school: a group of experienced subject specialists, or teachers with other specialisms - who may not even have chosen to have geography on their timetable allocation? I've said for years that every teacher is a Head of Geography because for the students they teach, you are their experience of geography. This is a great responsibility.
2. The availability of up to date textbooks (they cost a lot of money) against the cost of colour photocopying teacher made (or bought, or stolen) resources, and the rapid pace of change in the subject which necessitates new material.
This is something that I researched for my Fawcett Fellowship last year. It is hopefully going to be published in a book either this year or next.
3. The reduction in ongoing support / CPD is also significant. Some schools will support teachers in the development of their practice, but budgets may not allow it in every case. The increase in the contribution which schools have to pay for those in the TPS has squeezed budgets even more, and a day course costing hundreds, plus travel costs, plus cover costs makes it an expensive business. This is also a challenge for subject associations / RGS to persuade schools to keep up their membership(s).
4. The choice of specification for GCSE / 'A' level (and other options) is also important, as different awarding bodies provide different levels of content, and assessment models, and also offer geography which is more critical or contemporary... or the 'same old'.
5. Fieldwork is a major part of geography, and also significant when it comes to decisions around options time. Coach costs have soared, and local fieldwork may be interesting and rigorous (if teachers have the skill to see the possibilities and draw in external expertise and connections to academic techniques) but for some students it is still seen as boring, compared to distant and unfamiliar locations.
On the horizon is the GCSE Natural History. This will offer some fresh competition in those schools which take the gamble with an unproven specification requiring new skills, and famliarity with a whole range of new content.
A poll on the Facebook page I set up around this new speification suggested it was probably going to be geography teachers who would mostly be teaching it.
Ultimately all geography teachers should continue to be ambassadors for the subject, take responsibility for keeping their subject knowledge up to date, support other colleagues where they can through sharing and acknowledging the work of others, and keep abreast of opportunities to draw in authentic voices. We need to 'know' our students and their contexts and be aware of the issues which may impact on their attendance or concentration. The value of geography for future careers should also be stressed - you can do more with it than just teach geography (although that's a decent job to be fair).
We should look to be synoptic and not get hung up on dated case studies; encourage students to be critical and provide extension tasks and homework which reward exploration and enquiry. The power of personal geographies also needs to be modelled and integrated into curriculum planning where possible.
Finally, and this is relevant to me personally, a lot of geography teachers are going to be leaving the profession in the next few years, but recruitment onto ITE courses is well down. It would be good to (see piece by David Preece and Andrea Tapsfield)
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