Placing 'fieldwork': critical pedagogies of undergraduate fieldwork in Geography
Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers (AAG), Chicago, April 21-25, 2015
Session Title: Placing 'fieldwork': critical pedagogies of undergraduate fieldwork in Geography
Organizers:
Peter Garside - Associate Professor, Kingston University
Annie Hughes – Associate Professor, Kingston University
Sponsored by the Geography Education Specialty Group of the Association of American Geography and the Higher Education Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society, UK.
Fieldwork has long been a central pillar of geographical teaching and learning at both school and university levels (QAA Benchmarking Statement, Geography, 2007; Richards and Johns, 2012). The importance of fieldwork as constituting an appropriate tool for the development of subject knowledge and skills continues to be accepted (QAA, 2007). Existing research has examined the pedagogical value of fieldwork and its contribution to geographical education (see for example Fuller et. al, 2006; Herrick, 2010; Stokes et. al. 2011). Fieldwork has been identified as an important vehicle for developing transferable skills such group work, project work and time-management (McEwan 1996; Haigh & Gold 1993; Jenkins, 1994; Bradbeer 1996; Kneale 1996). However, more recent work has begun to problematize the uncritical relationship between fieldwork and learning. It is argued that experience of the 'real world' is never unmediated, straightforward and transparent (Nairn 2005; Hope 2009). Therefore, fieldwork is an embodied experience with complex sets of reciprocal relationships at play between individuals and field environments. In this regard, it is crucial that students and University academics are aware of, and critically reflect on, the politics of their own positions. This would include exploring multiple understandings and experiences of fieldwork as they are shaped by and mediated through students differing ethnicities and cultural backgrounds (and as they interconnect with gender, class and age) in addition to exploring the diverse impacts and relations of fieldwork on host communities.
This session invites conceptual, empirical and methodological papers addressing critical pedagogies of undergraduate fieldwork. Papers might address, but are not limited to:
Conceptual questions:
• What is the pedagogic value of fieldwork?
• How do we ensure that fieldwork maximises the attainment for all groups of students?
• How do we ensure inclusivity and equality in field learning?
• Does fieldwork offer undergraduates an authentic real world experience?
• What is the effectiveness of fieldwork in engaging with societal power relations?
• Limitations on and barriers to fieldwork e.g. health/safety, logistics, cost etc ?
Methodological questions:
• How do we teach methods and research techniques effectively through fieldwork?
• Are field techniques best learnt in the field?
• The role of field work in developing undergraduate' transferable skills.
Empirical questions:
• What is the impact of undergraduate fieldwork on host communities?
• What is the best way of assessing undergraduate fieldwork?
• What is the value of overseas fieldwork?
• Are local trips as valuable as long-haul fieldwork destinations?
• The role of fieldwork for retention and the development of cohort identity.
We invite interested scholars to submit an abstract of 250 words (see AAG guidelines http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/call_for_papers) until 24th October 2014.
Abstracts can be sent to either organizer:
Dr Peter Garside – [log in to unmask]
Dr Annie Hughes - [log in to unmask]
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