Think ‘geographer’ and you’ve probably conjured up a sequence of images: tweed jackets? Elbow patches? Map reading? Oxbow lakes? As David Preece explains in Huh, being a geographer is a mindset, a way of viewing the world rather than reeling off capital cities at the pub quiz.
‘In geography, we want students to become mindful and curious about their positionality within the world and to have the tools to investigate it. The key to being a geographer is that you are required to look at the connections between the human and the physical worlds.
‘Geography is not a linear set of building blocks. Experience tells us that students engage more with fresh topics than by repeating the same old. Justification for the curricular decisions you take is key. Teaching should be sufficiently broad and rich without being tokenistic.
‘There is a difference between fieldwork & field trips. Fieldwork is how you do geography. It is fundamental academic work and how we understand the world in the first place. Students as geographers must go out and measure and investigate the world and gain first-hand knowledge.
‘We're educating geographers to be well-informed, responsible members of society. To engage as equals is part of the development of young people into young adults: ‘I’m part of this conversation, I’m part of this discipline, I’m part of this world.’
No tweed jackets required!’
Three documents to support line managers about geography
1. M.Enser, (2021) Powerful Geography
2. M.Jones (2017) Handbook of Secondary Geography
3. Willy (2019) Leading Primary Geography
If you’d like to know more, you can watch the full conversation with David on Myatt & Co (£/free trial)
Until next time
Mary
And when you’re ready, you might find these helpful for curriculum and leadership development in your school
NEW: Huh Leadership Lobby: a blended, self-paced course with live check-ins, led by me and Andrew Morrish. It is designed for aspiring, new and established leaders, it starts April 2023 and places are limited.
Huh Curriculum Leaders Course: UPDATE: The June course is now open, and the last two were oversubscribed
The spring Primary Subject Networks now available to book, live and recorded (£/free trial). Secondary subject networks are coming soon!