GA EDI Report newly published

 

When I was serving on the GA's Governing Body, work started on a report exploring the diversity and inclusion of all aspects of the GA's activity. This was going to be produced by a Working Group called the DIWG.

It has taken a while to carry out the research that underpins the report. Thanks to all those who were involved in producing this.

Thanks to Steve Brace for sending me a copy of the report.

You can download your own copy from here.

Thanks also to the report's co-authors:

Elaine Anderson, Nona Anderson, Peter Jackson, Alastair Owens, Hina Robinson, Iram Sammar and Christine Winter.

The report is published today. It can be downloaded from the GA website.

GA press release says:

Despite growing diversity of the geography GCSE cohort, at A level and at university geography is one of the least diverse of all subjects.

The subject, and its institutions, are not serving all geography teachers nor all young people who could benefit from studying geography. Change is needed.

The Geographical Association (GA) recognises the need for change and invited feedback from a wide range of participants on its work and governance.

The Geography for Everyone? report, and the research on which it is based, was commissioned by the GA’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, established in response to the GA’s 'listening exercise'. This spoke of the need to ‘drive forward initiatives for greater diversity in the Association and support for anti-racist teaching in geography’.

While the research sets out to explore diversity and inclusion from a range of perspectives, the themes of ‘race’ and ethnicity were strongly emphasised in interviews with participants and are central to the report, perhaps reflecting wider societal concerns and movements like ‘Black Lives Matter’. The report’s co-authors Elaine Anderson, Nona Anderson, Peter Jackson, Alastair Owens, Hina Robinson, Iram Sammar and Christine Winter commented:

'Working together on this report has opened our eyes to some of the challenges that the Geographical Association faces in becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

But we are also optimistic that the GA can use the insights and recommendations in our report to drive change so that it supports the needs of all geography educators and helps to build a discipline that values the experiences and perspectives of everyone.'

The GA welcomes this report and its recommendations. These will help bring positive change to the Association and the subject.

The GA is currently preparing its new 2025 -30 strategic plan and ‘Geography for Everyone’ will be one of its guiding principles.

GA Governing Body vacancies for September 2023

After four years as a trustee as part of my Presidential journey through the GA, my term in office comes to an end at the end of August 2023.

At the same time, there is also the end of a term of office for several other GA colleagues who I have worked with for the last four years. This means that there some vacancies on the GA's Governing Body, which is of course a good training ground for those who may have ambitions to become more involved with the Association and give back to the association.

There are actually four vacancies to be filled, which carry different responsibilities.

You can read more about them on the GA website page, and the links here.

Chair of Trustees

Honorary Treasurer

Elected Trustees

Co-opted trustee

For those who may have previously suggested that the GA and its Governing Body needs to become more inclusive and diverse, this is your opportunity!

Happy to answer any questions about the roles and the wider work of the GA's Governing Body if anyone is interested in finding out more.

I will blog my thanks to some of those people who are leaving GB later in the year...

New GA Chair of Trustees Role

The Geographical Association is looking for a Chair of Trustees to support the existing Governing Body fulfil its role in a fascinating and ever-changing educational landscape. It will also involve working with the current Presidential team - JVP (me), VP (Susan Pike), President (Gill Miller) and Past President (Stephen Scoffham) along with other key members of the GA's group of trustees. This is an interesting change in the governance of the Association, and we are looking for someone who has significant experience and skills which will allow us to learn from each other.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone. Please share with people you think may be available and ideal for the role.

Details are here on Guardian Jobs. Feel free to get in touch via Ricky Buck / Gill Miller for more details and information.

Deadline is the 20th of February.

Documents are available from the Guardian Jobs page.

Flooding Resources on the GA website

Flooding is an issue which features at KS3, GCSE and 'A' level, and the GA have just added a new section of resources written in association with the Environment Agency. 

Here are the 9 sections that are included in the materials.


 You can also see a range of VIMEO films, such as this one of Gerd Masselink, and some case study links on a related area of the website.

Lovely work.

#125geotips to come

As a member of the Geographical Association's Secondary Phase Committee for the last 13 years (with a short break while I worked for the GA), I've presented many times at the GA Conference since, and also been involved in national curriculum change discussions, awarding body consultations for new GCSEs, consultative groups, book reviewing and many other contributions to the work of the GA.
Follow us on Twitter too please @GA_SPC

This year we are tweeting out 125 Top Tips.
We've produced a series of Top Tips before, and you can access or download them all from our SPC page on the GA website.

Here's the Advent Calendar that I put together to get the project off to a good start too...

Geography Top Tips Advent Calendar by GeoBlogs on Scribd

Keep following for the next 125 days, which are also a countdown (or count up) to the GA Conference in Sheffield.
2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the GA, hence the 125 tips

Follow us on #125geotips and please feel free to send us any suggestions of your own to get involved in the project please. We'll happily RT your own geographical toptips with the hashtag...

Quality Mark Twitter Chat

Starting next Monday - between 4pm and 6pm…

IB course with Richard Allaway

A rare chance to work with Richard Allaway of Geography all the Way fame, on an IB Geography course in the UK takes place in 3 weeks time.
The course is held at Heathrow Airport, and is on a Saturday so no cover needed (probably)

Details and booking information here.

GA Worldwise Week 2014

Worldwise Week (formerly Geography Awareness Week, is organised by the Geographical Association.
This year's resource pack is available, and would provide some good ideas for those wanting to continue the theme of this year's conference 'Crossing Boundaries' with some end-of-the-school-year extension work.

Head to the GA website to download the pack and join in from the 23rd to the 27th of June.

Supporting Geography teacher mentors

At the GTE Conference in January 2013, I heard about the work that was underway on a new area of the Geographical Association's website.

This was being led by Andrea Tapsfield and colleagues on the GA's Teacher Education Special Interest Group.

The background was that with an increasing number of teachers being mentored within schools as part of their training, alongside the needs of NQTs who would need continuing support. There has been considerable effort to prepare a range of materials on all aspects of the task of MENTORING colleagues since then.

The area of the website is now live.

You will find that it is useful for any teacher, not just those who are mentoring others, or being mentored. This is a wonderful addition to the GA website.

There are resources for FIELDWORK for example - dig deeply and you will find some really important resources here.

GA NQT Conferences 2014

This blog was started to coincide with the NQT Conferences run by the Geographical Association.

These are being run again during early 2014
So far, they will take place in the following venues:

30th January - Birmingham
6th February - London

Outcomes and further resources from this will be provided on this blog through the Spring and Summer term as delegates complete their NQT year...

Global Learning Programme now underway

The Global Learning Programme, which involves the GA and a range of other organisations is now underway, and a new page has been added to the GA website.

The resources include two online courses on FOOD that I wrote while working for the GA.

A huge pity that this was delayed by the coalition government, as I would now be working on this... ah well..

Secondary Phase Committee Twitter feed...

Back in 2004, I joined the GA's Secondary Phase Committee.

It was a big learning experience for me. At the time, I was one of the few members who was a teacher. I shared my website: Geography Pages at the first meeting, and slowly got a little more confident being a member of such a group. It led me to a few projects where I was able to develop confidence in the fact that I had something worth saying... I got involved in the production of a new atlas, and made lots of new friends.

When I joined the GA in 2008, I gave up my place on the committee, as there is always a waiting list.

You can now sign up to follow the SPC on Twitter. This will tell you about what we get up to, and also hear about our workshops that we led at the GA conference.

There were three workshops that we were involved in - one advantage of being a member is that you are guaranteed a spot on the conference programme.
Here's our recent 'team photo' in the august surroundings of the October Gallery in London.

Geography Awareness Week 2013 - Mission:Explore section...

The Geography Awareness Week, which is organised by the Geographical Association takes place in June 2013.
The materials have now been made available on the GA website as a PDF download (click the link to download the materials as a PDF)

There's a useful MISSION EXPLORE section at the end of the booklet which I wrote, and I've also written some Webwatch links for each of the other sections.

New GA course for IB Geography

A new course for 2013 - Richard Allaway of Geography all the Way fame amongst (many) other things, will be coming over to London in June to run a course for the Geographical Association.
The course is called 'Developing a Curriculum for IB Diploma Programme Geography'

Course overview

This course will bring International Baccalaureate DP Geography teachers together with the aim of discussing and sharing ideas about structuring, resourcing and delivering the 240 hours of teaching necessary for the higher level course. You will leave with fresh ideas, plans for the new academic year and access to a range of online resources.

Delegate reviews of similar courses

'It was fantastic, questions answered and more!'

'Spot on - directly relevant to the course. Excellent communicator!'

Prices

Registration fees include all course materials, refreshments and lunch.

GA Personal/Group/Concessionary Member: £180
New Member Package*: £279
Non-member: £300

*Includes course fee and one year's GA membership for your school.

Aims and outcomes

• Consider the 'perfect' IB DP lesson - does it include links to the syllabus, a bit of Theory of Knowledge, some geographical skills, exam practice and even some enjoyment?
• Look at the teaching of the IB DP Geography course's higher level content - Global Interactions.
• Review how we are supporting students throughout the duration of the course by coaching their exam technique, linking the content together, trying to get them to think more like geographers and IB students and discussing where the Internal Assessment fits in.
• Find out about some of the online tools that can be used to support IB DP Geography students.

Course programme

09.00-09.30  Coffee and registration

09.30-11.00  Session 1 - a lesson

What does a 'perfect' DP lesson look like? Thinking about developing textbook resources into engaging lessons tailored to your students' needs.

11.00-11.15  Refreshment break

11.15-12.45  Session 2 - a unit

Focusing on the Global Interactions higher level content. Case studies, approaches, helping your students to be 'higher level' and coaching their extended response writing skills.

12.45-13.30  Lunch

13.30-15.30  Session 3 - the whole course

Supporting students during their 240 hours of DP Geography. Using online tools to help encourage reading and geographical thinking for these busy students.

15.30  Close

Course presenter

Richard Allaway, Teacher of Humanities and IB DP Geography at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations. Author of geographyalltheway.com

GA Google Earth courses repeated...

The Google Earth and beyond courses that I have been running for the GA are to be repeated next year.
For full details visit the GA website.

The dates are:

Birmingham - Thursday 23 May 2013
London - Thursday 20 June 2013

They will feature a larger dollop of ArcGIS Explorer Online as I am going to be doing some work with ESRI UK in the next few months.

There is also going to be more integration with GE Graph as I've had a chance to develop that a little further since the first iteration of the courses....

Book now to secure a place...

That's quality

I had the honour of spending several days earlier in the year on the team moderating the Secondary Geography Quality Mark that is awarded by the Geographical Association to those schools who meet the criteria.

I had been part way through putting together an application for my department when I joined the GA, so I appreciate the time that it takes to put together a good application portfolio of evidence.
This year was up to the same high standard as the previous years, in fact we probably saw the most impressive applications we have ever had. I was particularly impressed with a Minecraft video made by one of the schools from Hong Kong who applied (you don't have to be a UK school to apply for the mark)
It was also good to see that there were some schools that I'd had previous contact with applying for the award, and that plenty of schools were also applying for Centre of Excellence status...

You can see the details of the schools who were successful on the GA website.

Why not send off for further details and register your department.
It could be the start of a new educational journey for you.

I look forward to seeing your application in August 2013

GA Curriculum Consultation

Head over to the GA website now and read the latest update on the ongoing preparations for the new National Curriculum.
The GA has been working to put together some suggestions for what a new curriculum could look like.
It's a cautious document, given the various agendas that underlie it, and the Government's known penchant for core knowledge. The documents build on the earlier work of the manifesto 'a different view', which was a major influence on much of the GA's work over the last few years.

It recognises that there are many different departments, teachers, favoured topics, non-specialists etc. It will not please everyone all the time, or even some of the time. Most people will question the placement of particular topics. The problem is that as soon as one item is moved, it has consequences elsewhere. If  you feel that there is something missing, the only way that it has a chance of being in the amended document which may well influence the people who make the final decisions is to add it to the GA page. So it is important to participate in the consultation on the GA website.

Please note that the table below is for illustration only and shows the questions that you are invited to respond to having read the supporting documents.....

You will not be able to type into the table and submit your comments, for that you need to go to the GA website....

1. The aims and outcomes statements for each key stage support planning and make the rationale for geography clear.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:
	2. The content and guiding questions for each key stage provide coverage appropriate for the core of a student's geographical education.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:
	3. The level of detail of the curriculum proposals is appropriate for a national curriculum.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:
	4. The paper on 'Thinking Geographically' shows how essential content can be used to develop students’ conceptual understanding of geography.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:
	5. The assessment descriptors for each content exemplar provide appropriate standards and outcomes in a way which will support assessment.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:
	6. In general, and all things considered, I support the GA's proposals for the national curriculum.
	Strongly agree    Agree    Disagree    Strongly disagree
	Any additional comments:

The Outstanding Geography Student Award

This is a new initiative that has been created by Discover the World and the Geographical Association.

Check the DTW blog for more information.

Discover the World have teamed up with the WorldWise strand of the Geographical Association to offer your students an outstanding opportunity. In September 2012 we will be announcing details of an exciting new annual award; aimed at Y9/10/11 students. Enter your students’ essays, relevant to their studies, into this national competition, and be in with the chance of winning five places on an incredible Norway study trip for your school. The winning school and student will also receive a GA certificate to be announced at the GA annual conference in April 2013.  

To enter students can submit an essay answering one of the questions provided. Essay questions will be relevant to DTW study aids and the various syllabuses helping to facilitate student learning. At the time of the launch there will be three Discover the World study aids:

1. Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Iceland.

2. Solheimajokull glacier, Iceland.

3. Tourism in Norway.

In addition, in no more than 200 words, students are to explain why they should win the award, how they will benefit from the experience and how they will use geography in their later life.

The competition is designed to:

 - help promote geography as an exciting subject.

 - incentivise students to write an essay, relevant to their studies, whilst facilitating their learning.

 - encourage students to study geography post GCSE.

 - help aid teachers when promoting their subject at options.

 - recognise outstanding geography students.

The new Geography Curriculum - the latest development...

I received an e-mail today from David Lambert about developments towards the new curriculum...

The Department for Education, through Nick Gibb has asked Alex Standish (some of you will be familiar with the name) to write a national curriculum for geography. The final draft has been made available to the GA, and shared on the website.


Alex Standish is an assistant professor of geography at Western Connecticut State University and author of "Global Perspectives in the Geography Curriculum: Reviewing the moral case for geography", published by Routledge.


The draft curriculum has been added to the GA Website Curriculum Consultation page as a 17 page PDF download. (Click to download)
Before you read the document, you should first read Alex's 'position statement' which sets out his thinking as he approached the task:


"This geography curriculum was compiled at the request of the Department for Education as a contribution to the national curriculum review. It has been written with input from teachers, department heads, and geography faculty. At secondary level it in part reflects the content of IGCSEs. Nevertheless, it remains my personal interpretation of what children should learn in geography at different key stages so that they become capable students of geography.
There are of course other ways of organising the geography curriculum, but one of my aims is to raise expectations of what pupils are capable of learning. If private schools are able to teach geography in the depth and breadth demanded by the IGCSE then so should everybody else. I believe that all children are capable to being educated to a high standard and it is time we started raising our expectations of how much children in the state sector can learn.
I also recognise that writing a curriculum and implementing it are two different things. To offer this curriculum would mean adding more geography in primary schools where there are fewer specialists. Nevertheless, there is nothing here that could not be taught by a primary teacher supported by suitable materials. At key stage one and two pupils should be using their local environment as a primary resource. Teaching about the UK in years 5 and 6 would require more work and ideally the production of some new teaching resources. But by age eleven, children should have learnt about the geography of their country, the physical and human environment and be capable of making and using maps. If this is not possible today, it is something we should work towards.
Another aim of this curriculum is to re-introduce regional geography to the English curriculum. This should be taught not by cataloguing facts about different regions, but rather to enable children to understand and interpret the range of cultures and landscapes that exist across the surface of the globe. Regional geography went out of fashion in the UK with the decline of Empire. It is high-time it was re-introduced to the curriculum so that children leave school having been introduced to all the major regions of the world. Surely this should be a primary aim of the geography curriculum?
In writing this curriculum, my objective has been to make a contribution to the conversation about what knowledge and skills children need to learn in geography. How this is taught in the classroom is the prerogative of teachers, as it always should be."


I note the link with iGCSE. Having been involved with the development of a new iGCSE book which is due to be published at the start of 2012, I know that any content can become engaging with the right treatment.

Once you've read the document, it would be great if you could LOG IN to the GA website (this will ensure that you are logged as a member and your statement will have more impact), and HAVE YOUR SAY on the Curriculum Consultation Page.


This is NOT the final curriculum (YET), but we need as many opinions as possible. If you don't express your opinion in the right place, it may not make a difference. You may be thinking YES, Regional Geography is back ! Please go to the GA's page and add a comment...
It's important that you also read the GA's suggested documents so that you can compare the approaches...

I haven't had chance to read the document, but will post some thoughts about it in a day or so....

I'm off to find my notes on Benelux and Denmark that I used to teach back in the late 80s.... my Head of Department at the time said that they would come in useful some time as education goes round in circles....


Image: Thingvellir, Iceland - Alan Parkinson (where the USA meets Europe...)

GA Curriculum Consultation - make your voice heard.

The Geographical Association has added a major consultation to the website on the theme of "what makes a better school geography"....
It appeared yesterday.
It's a chance for you to get involved in a consultation on the changes to the Geography curriculum. There are several elements to the consultation, which can be viewed HERE.


There is a paper which describes a suggested 'national' curriculum, although the realities are that the curriculum document will be influenced by each school's particular circumstances and characteristics. The document suggests particular significant places that might be included, but there is a recognition that these will include those that are 'significant' for students too: very much influenced by the idea of 'living geography'.

There is also a presentation which suggests some of the geographical 'core knowledge' that will enable and open up other aspects of the curriculum. This has been put together by the GA's strategic partner ESRI UK, and works using the ArcGIS online tool. This is well worth a look as it consists of a series of maps containing specific information. Is the balance here correct ? are there places missing ? are there too many places named ?

When you've read the documents and the other materials that are presented here, please visit the FEEDBACK PAGE and provide your views. This is really important.