recruitment, retention & results in a-level geography steve brace head of education and outdoor...
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Recruitment, retention & results in A-level geography
Steve Brace Head of Education and Outdoor Learning
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)[email protected]
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
• We exist to “advance geographical science” in universities and schools, and with the public and policy makers.
• 15,000 Fellows and members
Who inspired me? What inspires young people?
• No one forgets a good geography teacher
• Mr (John) Benson – Lincoln Christ Hospital School, Lincoln
• No one forgets a good field trip– Whitby, Snowdonia
A couple of weeks ago
Geographical inspiration during registration (Y6!)
Kerry? Vinson Massif - Antarctica
Matthew? Port au Prince – Haiti
Maylan? Aconcagua – Argentina
Osjan? Mexico City – Mexico
The state of geography
• c200,000 entries at GCSE • c30,000 entries at A2• c5,000 students start an undergraduate course
But:<20% in poorer schools, c100 academies (50%) and c140 maintained
schools don’t offer GCSE or A Level geography
Unequal access: why some people don’t do geographyPaul Weeden & David Lambert. Teaching Geography Summer 2010
What is geography?
People
PlacesEnvironments
Geography
Geography in schools
• Geography – as a school subject – provides a way of helping young people in schools to learn about, and reflect on, aspects of their world. This engagement with the world means that geography is constantly changing as society changes.”
Teaching geography 11 – 18
David Lambert & John Morgan 2010
At A Level
What can A Level achieve?
• Deeper subject knowledge• Higher level understanding and skills (inc
technology)• Independent learning (and curiosity about
the world) • Pathways into further study and
employability
But …
A chasm has developed between thosewho teach at school and those who teach inuniversities.Schools and universities: the great divide Andrew Goudie Geography 1993
University and non-university geography appear toinhabit different worldsGeography as the world discipline: connecting popular and academic geographical imaginations Alastair Bonnett 2002Area
However: the benefits of linking schools and HE
• New research in the classroom can be invaluable. It can be really powerful for a teacher to be able to say, ‘here is new research from the University of X and it shows ‘this’ about that geographical issue or location’.
• While your research process is fundamental, the real need is for information about ‘what’ you found and ‘why’ it is important, rather than ‘how’ you did it.
Communicating Geographical Research Beyond the Academy RGS-IBG 2010
How this helps
• Combining up-to-date knowledge, understanding & skills• Relevance – not just ‘topicality’.
• Lecturers were concerned with the dominance of ‘issues’ over ‘processes’ in schools e.g. ‘In school there is a fixation on issues with insufficient theory and process-response underpinning.’ This included the uncritical teaching of geographical models.
Joined-up geography’: connecting school-level and university level geographies. Jennifer Hills & Mark Jones Geography 2010
e.g. Christaller Model
• Christaller could use his theory in practice with the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich in Germany and its conquered territories, including a reconfiguration of the geography of Germany’s eastern conquests such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. Christaller was in charge of planning for occupied Poland.
• http://world-geography.org/people/137-walter-christaller.html
• See also ‘economic take off’, Burgess etc
Keeping up-to-date – the value of CPD
• How many of us (or our colleagues) have?– Attended a lecture about new research– Read a journal article about new research in geography– Kept up to date with our university tutors (or former student’s) and
asked them for information or invited them to talk to 6th formers?
Our research is the internet, geofiles, Geography Review etc … it’s not necessarily current.’ (1)
(Emphasis on) CPD, linked to ongoing academic research, in order to: ‘stimulate renewed interest in my main subject where I feel I am getting stale. (2)
(1) & (2) Joined-up geography’: connecting school-level and university level geographies. Jennifer Hills &Mark Jones Geography 2010
Ask the (academic) Expert? www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org
Further study & careers through geography
• Further study at university www.rgs.org/studygeography
“But Sir there’s no point doing geography as I don’t want to be a geography teacher – (like you!)”
• Online Ambassadors: George-Risk Management, Sarah-Pollution Analysis, Caroline-GIS Retail Planning. Introducing real geographical topics by real people
Some challenges
• Topicality - a changing world a changing geography• Purpose – understanding or action?• The case for geography: with pupils, parents and the public …
1. Topicality1957 or 2007 Which is relevant?
Image of Lynmouth floods removed for copyright reasons
Image of Tewkesbury during the 2007 summer floods removed for copyright reasons
2. Geography’s purpose?
• Is it to understand – is it to preach?
• ‘The replacement of knowledge with morality as the central focus of the curriculum … global problems are not presented as issues to be interrogated for truth, knowledge and meaning, with a view to developing ideas about the potential courses of social and political action. Instead, the solution is to be found in the personal and presented as a given: consume less, have fewer children, take public transport, be less money-grabbing (&) support charities.
Alex Standish The Corruption of the Curriculum 2009
3. The case for geography
• Geography illuminates the past, explains the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?Michael Palin, President RGS-IBG
Michael’s letter promoting GCSE and A Levels: www.rgs.org/schools I would encourage your son or daughter to choose a GCSE or A Level in geography. It meant a lot to me and it could mean a lot to them.
The wider public case
The RGS-IBG’s wider role is to encourage a spatially, environmentally and socially aware citizenship that understands, and cares about, the world; an informed awareness of the nature and diversity of peoples, places and environments, locally and globally; how and why they are changing and linked; what challenges they pose; and how our own lives affect the planet and its resources
Futuring Geographers: The role of the subject organisations Rita Gardner & David LambertGeography 2006
A wider perspective: what drives performance?
• Autonomy – taking control of your work• Mastery – the desire to improve• Purpose – the direction of travel
• “The surprising truth about what motivates us”:– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
• Doing something with our subject (in our own time)
Michael Barber Instruction to Deliver (2007)
Further information/support
• RGS-IBG Membership www.rgs.org.joinus – School Membership, Young Geographer (14-24),
Fellowship & Chartered Geographer (Teacher)– www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org– www.rgs.org/schools – www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk
• Events e.g. lectures, master classes & study days, careers events