Simon Catling

Children's personal geographies and the English primary school geography curriculum

Abstract There is limited recognition of the role that childrens geographies play in the English primary school geography curriculum. Childrens personal geographies of the classroom and playground are largely unnoticed by teachers and their impacts and potential are ignored. While this is less the case in relation to childrens personal geographies of the local environment, the requirements of national curriculum geography for younger children are enacted largely through an adult interpretation of the world-at-hand and only in a limited way make use of childrens experience, perspectives and interpretations to deepen a largely descriptive geography of place. It is argued that this discontinuity between real lives and the school curriculum can be challenged and overcome in both the formal and informal school geography curriculum. The danger, though, of turning childrens geographies into an alternative content for geography is countered through the involvement of children in the decision-making processes about their geographical studies, even within the context of a national curriculum. This demands a greater trust, openness and flexibility in curriculum making with primary teachers.

Teachers' perspectives on curriculum making in Primary Geography in England

The phrase ‘curriculum making’ has recently been used to describe medium-term planning and teachers’ enactment of such planning in the classroom. This narrows the terms initial use from that in the first half of the twentieth century when it was employed inclusively from national programmes to lesson planning. While considering related studies about curriculum making, this paper focuses on the interpretation described and used by the Geographical Association (GA) to encourage more open approaches to medium-term curriculum planning in England by teachers. It reports the outcomes of a small-scale study of primary teachers’ perspectives on their experiences of curriculum making during one GA project, ‘The Young Geographers Project’. It identifies a number of ‘curriculum dynamics’, including teachers’ feelings of liberation, childrens agency in curriculum making, the importance of subject knowledge, engaging with childrens everyday experiences and interests, and purposefulness for curriculum topics while retaining flexibility and openness. Reflecting on these findings, 10 features pertinent to curriculum making are noted.

Formative experiences of primary geography educators

This paper reports the initial findings of a study in the UK and the Republic of Ireland of teacher educators and teachers who are involved in promoting geography education in primary schooling. Following research by Buttimer, Chawla, McPartland, Palmer and others, it sought to investigate the connections between early formative life experiences and adult engagement in geographical studies and education. The research asked respondents to record those “autobiographical memories” they considered had “turned them on” to geography. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the 37 responses received. It emerged that informal/personal experiences and formal educational experiences were influential. Several significant features emerged, including experience of “freedom to roam” locally, family holidays, outings and trips abroad, access to and using maps, fieldwork activities at primary or secondary school and with other organisations and the impact of a good teacher. While the outdoor findings echo Chawlas reviews of environmental educators, the love of maps is an additional finding. Traffic and other factors have inhibited childrens outdoor experience in recent decades, and school fieldwork has declined. This study re-emphasises the essential impact of such experience in stimulating peoples geographical engagement and encourages the need to foster learning outside the classroom for all children.

Preservice Primary Teachers’ Depth and Accuracy of Knowledge of Tropical Cyclones

Abstract Climatic hazards are a key feature of life. It is vital that teachers are knowledgeable about these phenomena in order to develop their students’ understanding of them. This study used a mixed methods approach to examine the accuracy and depth of preservice primary teachers’ (n = 430) knowledge of tropical cyclones. The findings suggest that prospective primary teachers hold alternative conceptions about the causes, spatial distribution, and impacts of these phenomena and that their explanations of processes lack structural complexity and integration. Issues raised by these findings and implications for teachers’ geographical knowledge and their professional standards and preservice teacher education are discussed.

Giving younger children voice in primary geography: empowering pedagogy – a personal perspective

It is argued that childrens voice can and should be enhanced in primary schooling, and particularly in geographical learning. Using examples from different aspects of geographical experience and content, four approaches to engaging childrens voice are presented: children leading and developing geographical topics; children bringing their ethno-geographical expertise into the classroom; children being listened to beyond the classroom and children learning from and heeding other childrens voices from around the world. Interwoven with discussion of these approaches are matters concerning the purpose of locational knowledge, identity, geographical knowledge as powerful knowledge and the value of hazards education. The case is that this strengthens the teachers’ role through its focus in empowering childrens and teachers’ learning, not only in geography but more widely for the primary curriculum. This argument draws on critical pedagogy, which supports strongly childrens agency in schooling. It concludes by specifying principles to enable childrens voice in their learning and which empower pedagogy.

The need to develop research into primary children's and schools’ geography

In the mid-1990s, shortly after the launch of this research journal in 1992, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (IRGEE), Downs (1994) argued the need for increased research and useful data to support development and growth in geography education. One response soon after was the publication of an edited book on the range of research topics, methodologies and methods in environmental and geographical education (Williams, 1996). Since then, IRGEE has been an informative and stimulating conduit to share and stimulate research. However, this was not a starting point; it was a valuable development. Earlier collections of readings in geography education had included research papers (e.g. Ball, Steinbrink, & Stoltman, 1971; Graves, 1972), as had occasionally the range of education and psychology journals. More recently, texts on research in social studies and environmental education have included some reference to or connection with geography education (Levstick & Tyson, 2008; Stevenson, Brody, Dillon, & Wals, 2013). Newer research journals, including Environmental Education Research, Research in Geographic Education and, most recently, the virtual journal Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO), have reported a range of geography education research. Thus, Downs’s plea has been responded to. There is much more evidence of research, more data are available and this is more widely communicated. However, there is still much to do. In particular, there remains a real need for research into younger children’s geographical experience, learning and teaching pertinent to the primary and elementary grades (4to 11/12-year-old children). There is research into younger children’s geographical learning, but it is relatively limited. Wiegand reviewed the range of research relevant to primary children’s understanding and learning soon after the introduction of geography in the national curriculum in England in 1991 (Knight, 1993; Wiegand, 1993). A little later, a further summary of studies in primary geography education followed (Scoffham, 1998). Other publications appeared subsequently containing several chapters on younger children’s geographical and environmental learning (e.g. Robertson & Gerber, 2000, 2001). However, research publishing has focused much more on secondary and high school and student contexts. A scan of IRGEE illustrates this point. In its first 21 volumes (1992–2012), IRGEE published just 39 major papers directly relevant to primary geography – just 13%, less than two major articles per volume! In addition, over this time, 22 shorter forum articles concerning geography in primary education were published, half of which appeared in one forum on primary geography in England! Similar situations can be found in other geography and environmental education journals. Across the years, however, this limited research has been used to underpin guidance for primary teachers (e.g. Bale, 1987; Catling, Willy, & Butler, 2013). This is informative, but it fails to provide an insight or direction.

Sources of Evidence for Conducting Research in Geography Education.

This paper outlines a number of sources for use in research in geographical education. Sources within and beyond geographical education are noted, with examples of the range of sources that can be called upon.

Seeking Younger Children’s ‘Voices’ in Geographical Education Research

While there has been research into children’s geographical and environmental understanding, comparatively little has provided insight into children’s perspectives on their geographical learning. Some depth of understanding is available about children’s personal local environmental experience and about spatial cognition, but there is much about children’s geographical experience and knowledge which is either not researched or where the research is very limited. Some recent research is outlined by way of identifying the need for greater research activity in the geographical perspectives of younger children.

English Geography Textbook Authors’ Perspectives on Developing Pupils’ Geographical Knowledge and Thinking

Key purposes in teaching geography are developing pupils’ geographical knowledge and thinking, informing them about the world and encouraging their understanding of geography’s key concepts. Textbooks are a traditional resource for promoting and developing pupils’ geographical understanding and thinking, widely used around the world. There is much research into the nature and uses of school geography textbooks, though with negligible focus on the perspectives of their authors. Textbook authors are important: they mediate geographical knowledge. They have the power to shape pupils’ geographical thought, though it is unclear how much this has been their intention. This research investigated writers’ purposes, as well as subject and pedagogical expertise. The study examined the perspectives of a sample of English authors of primary and secondary school geography textbooks, inquiring into their aims for and valuing of geographical learning, and their approaches to engaging pupils’ understanding and thinking. Open-ended questions and a rating scale were used in a questionnaire to seek authors’ views, drawing on a convenience sample. Analysis of their responses identified that these authors were interested in developing pupils’ geographical knowledge and thinking, which they saw as the subject’s key curriculum purpose. They felt that their up-to-date subject knowledge was vital for textbook writing, as was their pedagogical skills to develop geographical thinking progressively in individual textbooks and through series. They intended to encourage the role of geographical thought in pupils’ awareness and knowledge of the world, to show the value of the subject and to give pupils greater insight and understanding.

What Do Geography Textbook Authors in England Consider When They Design Content and Select Case Studies

ABSTRACT This study investigated the perspectives of seven English authors, on aspects of their geography textbook writing for schools in England, through a questionnaire-based enquiry. This investigation asked about the features that geography textbook authors consider to be the most important when designing student activities, and which criteria they used to select and develop case studies for their textbooks. The authors emphasized the geographical content and key concepts for developing pupils’ knowledge base, rather than the learning processes. The key criteria identified by the majority of the authors were the geographical relevance of the case studies, coverage of the national curriculum requirements, and geographical balance.