Final Call for Papers: “Co-production and learning spaces: where do geographers learn and does it matter?”

Session at RGS-IBG 2014 Annual International Conference, London, August 26-29, 2014.

Session convened by Heather Barrett (University of Worcester, UK)

Sponsored by HERG (Higher Education Research Group).

In recent years learning practices within higher education have changed significantly, moving increasingly from instructivist to constructivist models of engagement (Harrison and Cairns 2008).  Students are encouraged to become actively engaged in their learning and are increasingly seen as partners in learning and co-producers of knowledge and understanding.  This shift in pedagogic approaches has been accompanied by developments in learning technologies and also the spaces and places within which learning takes place with a move from the formality of the lecture theatre to more informal/social learning spaces in the design of new teaching facilities.  Learning involving the co-production of knowledge, group and team working, problem based and active learning, blended learning and community involvement, for example, has fuelled a drive towards the development of different more flexible and seemingly creative learning spaces both within universities and beyond, both physically and virtually.  However, as Boys (2010) notes, the fostering of new approaches to learning and the development of communities of participation through the provision and promotion of new learning spaces is often offered up as obvious and unproblematic.   She identifies a number of intersecting myths embedded in much current work that require fuller investigation, specifically the treatment of formal and informal learning as binary opposites where informal learning is seen as good because it is social, personalised, and integrates physical and virtual environments and formal learning is seen as bad because it is viewed as offering a one‐way transmission of factual knowledge from teacher to learner.  To date, investigation into these ‘myths’ has come primarily from within creative disciplines such as art, design, architecture and media, given their use of a wide range of learning spaces and long-standing emphasis of open ended multi-disciplinary and problem based learning (Boys 2010).

The discipline of geography is also well placed to contribute to these debates, given both its traditions of teaching and research.  Pedagogically, geography as a discipline utilises a wide variety of learning spaces, from lecture theatres to laboratories and importantly spaces and places beyond the classroom out in the field.  Equally, geographers have embraced the opportunities offered by new digital learning technologies, including the use and development of virtual environments and mobile technologies.  Secondly, geographical research has a long tradition of critically examining the dynamic and complex relationships between people and the spaces they inhabit and use.   Recent non-representational approaches have focused attention on the importance of everyday bodily practices, experiences and performance in shaping complex relationships between ourselves and our material worlds and environments (see for example Lees 2001; Thrift 2003).

The session therefore invites papers exploring the ways in which space and place matter to geographical education and the complex relationships between learning spaces and how they impact on learning activities and experiences.  Specific themes that may be explored include;

•	The ways in which geography’s learning spaces have changed in recent years in response to the move from formal to informal learning. 
•	The ways in which these spaces of geographical education are similar or different to those of other disciplines.
•	How and when space ‘matters’ for learning at the level of the intimate and local ‘embodied’ encounters between students and their tutors.
•	What students make of the spaces they are asked to learn in and what spaces do students feel best stimulate co-operation, creativity, research and reflection.
•	The place and nature of face to face learning encounters in an era of rapidly changing technology that is mobile and portable and which can facilitate connectivity beyond the university.
•	Whether the variety of spaces and environments encountered in geographical teaching contribute to key geographical graduate attributes – are geographers more employable and are they more satisfied with their learning experiences?

The session will consist of a number of presentations with time for a short discussion following each one. 

Abstract submission: Presenters are asked to send abstracts (up to 300 words), including title, author name(s), affiliation and email addresses to [log in to unmask] by 13th February 2014.   Notification of accepted papers is expected by February 17th 2014.


For general information on the conference, please visit: http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm 


Please feel free to forward this Call for Papers to anyone who might be interested.

Best wishes
Heather


References:

Boys, J. (2010) Towards Creative Learning Spaces London, Routledge.
Harrison A and Cairns A (2008) The Changing Academic Workplace, DEGW UK Ltd.
Lees, L. (2001) ‘Towards a critical geography of architecture: the case of an ersatz Colosseum’ Ecumene, 8, 51-86.
Thrift, N. (2003) ‘Performance and…’ Environment and Planning A, 35, 2019-2024.