Dear All,
I have been following the school geography
thread with great interest. Andrew is right – the Action Plan is designed
to address some of the issues raised.
It will make a bit of a difference because
it provides some capacity and opportunity to raise the profile of geography in
schools, support teachers in that really demanding and creative work that we
call ‘curriculum making’, provide fresh new ways of
using/exploring/enjoying geography with students (from 5 -19 years)….
(read more on www.geography.org.uk/apg
)
It also provides the circumstances in
which we can refresh conceptual frameworks for school geography – driven
by a strong sense of purpose and educational goals. And a vision on how
geography may develop from early
years to A-level, rather than be the same dish served up in slightly different
ways.
All this is based on careful analysis on
how we got here – it is complicated, but a key element is how geography
has been marginalized in recent years – ever since the government of the
day bureaucratised the curriculum and set out its ‘contents’ for
teachers.. er, to ‘deliver’. What we want is for geography teachers
to get encouragement and support to re-engage with the subject and use it,
brilliantly, to excite and engage young people in enjoyable, worthwhile and
relevant enquiry. The USP for us is that geography is the school subject that
tries to keep things whole (interdependence, connectedness…). It helps us
see and understand the ‘big picture’ in real places. It helps us
think about the future more intelligently.
The GA is very keen to maintain and
develop links of the kind being discussed – at meetings (many teachers
cannot get out of school easily), in professional Journals etc. It is essential
that teachers engage with Teaching, Learning and THE SUBJECT. It is he last of
these that has fallen off the end, for the moment. But things are changing.
I would be happy to share wider GA plans
and activities if anyone is interested.
Dr David Lambert
Direct line: 07980951182
The GA supports teacher led
curriculum development
From: Andrew Lee
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 05 September 2006 17:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: School Geography
For/From the Critical Geography Discussion Group
There are moments of communication between academic geographers and
geography heads of departments. The GA conference often has a number of academic
geographers sharing ground and I know that the Geography Action Plan
has intentions to create academic ambassadors to connect schools with
academics, but there needs to be more of this. Often the richness of the
subject fails to be driven into schools, which is a great pity. Still, new
developments in the GCSE syllabus may be an improvement -- however, this
is yet to be seen, but early indications are that there will be a push in
increasing the 'relevance' profile of the subject, which has to be a good
thing, and indeed something that informs the richness of much academic
geography. The key is to get this kind of thinking into the classroom, whether
it be through an engagement with climate change or through human/cultural
geography etc.
The RGS-IBG too is developing a standard chartered geographer (teacher)
which is encouraging the engagement of teachers with broader professional
development which must necessarily connect teachers with the growth areas of
the discipline. I spoke just last week with the Head of Information Services
and Resources at the RGS-IBG, Steven Brace, who expressed some interest in the
creation of refresher courses which could bring educationalists into contact
with academics for regular updates about what was happening at the tertiary end
of the discipline. (This could also be a two-way vehicle).
=============================
Dr Andrew Lee FRGS
Head of Geography
Vincent Square
T| +44 (0)20 7821 5788
F| +44 (0)20 7821 0458
On 5 Sep 2006, at 12:41PM, Steve Cummins wrote:
Hi
As I am completely ignorant about this issue I was wondering if there
was a formal continuing professional development programme for geography
teachers in schools. Do school teachers reconnect with academic geography
regularly or is it an informal practice? If they don't maybe this could be
key..helping teachers make geography 'public'.
Steve
PS Just reading
Andrew Lee wrote: