Geography in schools and education for survival

David Lambert

Geography in schools and education for survival

Geography Matters (by David Rayner)

Crisis, what crisis?

• Environmental– global climate change

• Economic– global financial crisis

• Educational– how to respond?

What geography is significant to the 21st century learner?

What’s the purpose of school geography?

• And end in

itself?

• Or

• A means to

an end?

Geography underpins a lifelong ‘conversation’ about the earth as the home of humankind. It is not a narrow academic subject for the few. It is a fundamental idea. It is of relevance to everyone.

- Geography fascinates and inspires - Geography deepens understanding- Thinking with geography enables decision-making - Geographical enquiry encourages skills development

Source: the GA Manifesto A Different View (www.geography.org.uk/adifferentview)

‘Geography is all about the living, breathing essence of the world we live in. It explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future.

What could be more important than that?’

Michael Palin, 27 November 2007 At the reception at the Speaker’s House, House of Commons, to celebrate the successes of the Action Plan for Geography.

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so they will be positioned to make it a better place.”

Gardner H (2000) Intelligence Reframed: multiple intelligences for the 21st century, NY: Basic Books. P 180-1

The moral implications of teaching geographyQuestions:

1.What are the children learning (anyhow)2.What are the children learning through my

teaching?3.In what ways is this learning an educational

achievement?4.Has it enabled students to travel ‘with a different

view’?

According to the QCA: The curriculum aims to enable all young people to become

• Successful learnerswho make progress and achieve• Confident Individualswho lead safe and healthy lives• Responsible Citizens who make a positive contribution to society

Whole CurriculumSkills, Knowledge and Attributes:

• Skills; Functional Skills (Lit/Number/ICT) + Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills

• Knowledge and Understanding; Big ideas that shape the world - eg chronology, conflict, scientific method

• Attitudes and dispositions; eg determined, adaptable, learning to learn

Some Different Aims From the Nuffield Review www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk

• To introduce ideals which inspire and are worth pursuing

• To introduce a defensible set of values which can sustain young people into the future

• To encourage the disposition to take responsibility for self, the environment and wider community

• To provide insights into the physical, moral, social, cultural and economic worlds

• To prepare young people for employment - through self knowledge, basic competences and understanding and confidence in learning

The subject

• Geography – not as an end in itself but a resource in the service of educational aims

• Geography - “defined not as a collection of facts but as the state of the art conceptual frameworks of the subject”

Engaging with young people’s curiosity: questions that can be addressed by ‘thinking geographically’

• Identity: Who am I? Where do I come from? Who is my family? What is my ‘story’? Who are the people around me? Where do they come from? What is their ‘story’?

• Place in the world: Where do I live? How does it look? How do I feel about it? How is it changing? How do I want it to change?

• The Physical world: What is the world (and this place) made of? Why do things move? What becomes of things?

• The Human world: Who decides on who gets what, and why? What is fair? How do we handle differences of opinion?

Student Experiences

Geography: the subjectTeacher Choices

Underpinned by Key Concepts

Thinking Geographically

Which learning activity ?

Does this take the learner beyond what they already know ?

Curriculum Making

ImportanceWhy the subject matters and how it contributes to the aims

Less prescribed contentbut an increased focuson subject discipline… the key ideas and skillsthat underpin a subject.

A new look at subjects

The study of geography stimulates an interest in, and a sense of wonder about, places and helps make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. It explains how places and landscapes are formed, how people and environment interact, and how a diverse range of economies and societies are interconnected. It builds on pupils’ own experiences to investigate at all scales from the personal to the global.

Geographical enquiry encourages questioning, investigation and critical thinking about issues affecting the world and people’s lives, for the present and future. Fieldwork is an essential element of this. Pupils learn to think spatially, using maps, visual images and new technologies, including geographical information systems, to obtain, present and analyse information. Geography inspires pupils to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world, their values and responsibilities to other people, to the environment and to the sustainability of the planet.

What are the key concepts in Geography?

KEY PROCESSES

What are the stages of enquiry?Creating a need

to knowspeculating, hypothesising,

generating ideas, asking questions,

planning how to research Using sourceslocating evidence,

collecting, selecting, sorting, classifying,

sequencing

Reflecting on Learning

evaluating,identifying areas for

improvement

Making sensedescribing, explaining,

comapring, contrasting,analysing, concluding

Chesterton College, Cambridge

The moral implications of teaching geographyQuestions:

1.What are the children learning (anyhow)2.What are the children learning through my

teaching?3.In what ways is this learning an educational

achievement?4.Has it enabled students to travel ‘with a different

view’?

School Geography and “Capabilities”

A student ‘thinking geographically’.

What does that mean? What does she need in order to be able to do that?

Capability

Derives from Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum and their work in human welfare and development economics:

What it is to be ‘truly human’?

Anything that prevents fully human functioning is a deprivation of capability

Thus, poverty is not simply ‘low income’. It is:

a lack of choicea lack of opportunity

Other examples of capabilities:

• being able to imagine, use the senses, think and reason

• being able to form a conception of the good and to plan one’s life accordingly

• being able to show concern for others, to empathise and to live successfully with others

• being able participate effectively in political choices, with free speech and association

[after Nussbaum 1993]

Human capabilities and education

Not to be confused with imparting value free ‘skills’ for the ‘knowledge economy’

Education to enhance the agency of youngpeople, clarifying values and deepening understanding.

Human (intellectual) ‘functioning’Based on significant organising ideas

For example,

A “Global Sense of Place”- Porous boundaries- Meeting points- Power geometries

This enables a framework for understanding. It helps us puts more specific matters into the context of wider implications and interdependencies.

Human capabilities and education

• autonomy and rights• choices about how to live• creativity and productivity

In a context of ‘moral seriousness’

“Vibrant City”

The neo-liberal orthodoxy has “dulled our ability to think for, or beyond, ourselves”[Wadley 2008]

IdentityWho am I? Where am I from? Who is my ‘family’? What is their story? And the people around me?

SocietyWho decides on who gets what, where and why? What is fair? Why care?

The physical environmentWhat is the world (and this place) made of? Why do things move? What becomes of things?

Our place in the worldWhere do I live? How does it look? How is it changing? How might it become?

School geography and capabilities

School geography enables young people to extend and develop their:

• world knowledge and knowledge of earth as the home of humankind

• relational understanding of people and places in the world

• disposition to link social, economic and environmental processes

“We are encouraging schools to be outward looking, globally minded and future focused.

(Schools should) enable open-ended engagement with wider world issues … It’s the tensions that students confront when they do so that are important.”

Prof Bill Scott

A Different View

The GA’s ‘manifesto’ links

Geography: “Knowledge about the earth as the home of humankind”

and

Education “ ... to travel with a different view”

www.geography.org.uk/adifferentview

Sharing and learning from good practice - FEB 2008

Sharing and learning from good practice - FEB 2008

Is it possible to imagine school geography underpinning radical debate with young people about ‘how to live’?

Sharing and learning from good practice - FEB 2008

Is it possible to imagine school geography underpinning radical debate with young people about ‘how to live’?

Yes please

Geography in schools and education for survival