Volume 47 | Number 1 | Spring 2022

Editor:
Melanie Norman Writing for Teaching Geography
Email: m.j.norman
@brighton.ac.uk Teaching Geography provides a forum for sharing:
• practical strategies for teaching geography
Editorial contact:
Elaine Anderson • critical reflection on geography teaching
and learning
Email: eanderson@
geography.org.uk • curriculum innovation and change in geography.
If you have a teaching strategy, practical idea,
resource to share or particular view on educational
practice, we would like to hear from you.
Teaching Geography welcomes articles from PGCE
students, ECTs and practising teachers. If you have
an idea but have never submitted an article before
and would like some advice, please contact Melanie
Norman (m.j.norman@brighton.ac.uk), the Editor
of Teaching Geography, who will be happy to
discuss it with you.
We welcome the submission of these types of article:
1.  ■ Geographical concepts (2500 words) articles
critically discuss and illustrate approaches to teaching
geography or current educational views and how they
impact on geography.
2.  ■ The G-Factor (2000 words) articles (supported
by online resources) are based around a practical
idea for teaching one or a sequence of lessons.
3.  ■ How to... (750 words) articles provide practical
advice and strategies for geography departments.
4.  ■ Spotlight (2000 words) articles provide
specialist subject information and propose
approaches for teaching these topics.
5.  Raising issues (1200 words) articles aim to
be thought-provoking and spark debate about
controversial or contentious topics.
There is detailed information on preparing articles
for publication at https://www.geography.org.uk/
Write-for-GAWrite-for-GA

Get involved
Writing journal articles is integral to the geography
education community as important connections and
links can be made. In our commitment to increase
diversity and inclusion, we encourage contributions from
authors and on topics and themes from underrepresented
groups – particularly black and minority ethnic (BME)
teachers and educators, early career teachers, SENCOs,
and mentors. It is important that GA publications reflect
the wealth of knowledge from diverse perspectives in our
society to enable a responsive approach to geography
education. If you feel you have ideas or teaching
approaches that could be communicated through
an article, please do get in touch.

To find more go to:

www.geography.org.uk/write-for-GA

Volume 47 Number 1
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ISSN 0305-8018 (print)
ISSN 2043-6831 (online)
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Teaching Geography do not suggest practices which might be
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Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to identify and contact
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The Teaching Geography Editorial Board
Editor: Dr Melanie Norman Vice Chair of GA Education Group
Dr Richard Bustin Head of Geography, Lancing College, Sussex
Hannah Finch Noyes Head of Geography at St Helen and
St Katharine, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Lucy Fryer Geography and Geology Teacher, King Edward VI
Grammar School, Chelmsford
Dr Aidan Hesslewood Head of Geography, Spalding Grammar
School, Lincolnshire
Fred Martin Consultant to the GA
Dr Emma Rawlings Smith Lecturer and Researcher in Education,
University of Bangor
Dr Ian Selmes Former secondary geography teacher and former
Lecturer in Secondary Geography Education, University of Leicester
Justin Woolliscroft Former Lecturer in Education (Geography),
University of Hull
Corresponding members:
Grace Healy is the Curriculum Director at David Ross Education
Trust, a PhD student at the UCL Institute of Education and Chair
of the GA’s Teacher Education Special Interest Group.
Charlotte Milner is a Teacher of Geography at Westminster City
School, London.

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
Contents Teaching
Geography
Editorial5 Generative learning in the geography Volume 47
Editor Melanie Norman introduces this issue of
classroom: teaching food webs  26 Number 1
Teaching Geography. Glenn Briscoe describes how he uses generative Spring 2022
learning approaches with key stage 3 students,
Award for excellence in leading taking food webs in the savannah as an example.
geography – vote now! 6
Teaching the Anthropocene to year
Details of the shortlisted Teaching Geography
articles for 2021.
9 students  30
Mark Blackwell outlines a way of introducing the
The GA’s National Fieldwork Week: concept of the Anthropocene to year 9 students. ■
6–11 June 2022 7
What constitutes a good A level You choose – climate change
Paula Richardson introduces the GA’s National
Fieldwork Week.
geography education?  32 (see page 8)

Simon Oakes and Emma Rawlings Smith discuss

COP26: You choose – climate change 8 how far A level geography supports students who go
on to study geography at university and also what
Rachel Barton and Hannah Finch Noyes detail it offers for those who go on to study subjects other
a simulation activity they taught during the than geography. ■
COP26 fortnight which aimed to help students
set themselves realistic targets in reducing their
carbon footprint. ■
Reading for a degree: transitions to
Racial capitalism and
higher education  36 the school geography
In praise of local fieldwork  11 Matt Finn outlines ways to support A level students curriculum
in reading around the subject and preparing for (see page 15)
David Alcock discusses the important role that local university. ■
parks can play in providing locations for fieldwork. ■
Reviews  40
Racial capitalism and the
school geography curriculum  15
Nona Anderson, Briley Habib, Shanique Harris,
Daniel Whittall and Christine Winter introduce Cover image: ‘At One with
the concept of racial capitalism by illuminating Cofa’s Tree’, created by Matt
the role of racialisation and the power of capital in
Volume 47 | Number 1 | Spring 2022

Chu on Pepper Lane. © Jennifer

Ferreira. My place: Coventry
producing and reproducing social difference, using (see page 19)
the examples of migration and ‘natural’ hazards. ■

My place: Coventry  19
Jennifer Ferreira describes the transformation of
Coventry, UK City of Culture for 2021.
From the archive: Values
visions and viewpoints  22
Fred Martin provides an overview of key points from
a selection of Teaching Geography archive articles
so teachers of geography can reflect on, clarify and
implement the values they believe to be important
for their students’ education in geography.
Accompanying
online materials
For articles with this symbol, go to http://www.
geography.org.uk/journals and click on Teaching
Geography. Select Spring 2022 from the dropdown
menu and you will find the additional resources for
these articles if you scroll to the bottom of the page. The code below links to
Teaching Geography online.

The Geographical Association is the leading subject association for all teachers Key to articles
of geography. Our charitable mission is to further geographical knowledge and ■ Geographical
understanding through education. Our journals, publications, professional events, concepts
website and local and online networks support teachers and share their ideas and ■ The G-Factor
practice. The GA represents the views of geography teachers and plays a leading ■ How to...
role in public debate relating to geography and education. ■ Spotlight

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
3
Geographical Association
Hybrid Annual Conference and Exhibition
Monday 11 – Wednesday 13 April 2022
University of Surrey
Everyday Geographies

Book online now at

www.geography.org.uk/conference
Editorial
A year on from my last editorial I did not expect
to be referring to the impact of COVID-19,
but the pandemic is still a situation we are all
adapting to. COVID-19 had an enormous impact
on Coventry, UK City of Culture 2021, where
planned celebrations had to be put on hold until
May 2021. Jennifer Ferreira’s ‘My Place’ article
describes some of the city’s events and our cover
photo celebrates the Caribbean heritage of the
city. Coventry is well known for its industrial
past being an early centre for watch and clock
making. It was the first place to mass-produce
bicycles and to establish itself as a hub of motor
manufacturing. Coventry is England’s most
central city and is sited on the River Sherbourne,
which runs under the city centre. The opening
ceremony for City of Culture 2021 began with
Pauline Black OBE (lead singer with the The
Selecter) singing ‘The River Song’ with a group of
dancers following the course of the river above its
underground channel as depicted in Figure 2 on
page 20. Events will continue into 2022 and the
Coventry 2021 website details upcoming events.
David Alcock’s article ‘In praise of local fieldwork’
discusses the pressures that arose at his school
due to the pandemic with regard to pursuing
fieldwork activities. This resulted in greater use
of the local environment for several year groups.
Paula Richardson introduces readers to the GA’s
National Fieldwork Week ‘to inspire all teachers
to enjoy being outside the classroom again’.
Paula fears the pandemic has caused teachers
to lose confidence in taking students out of the
classroom.
COP26 was a big event during the autumn of
2021 and will be fresh in students’ minds so
the stimulus activity devised by Rachel Barton
and Hannah Finch Noyes is a good way to keep
students mindful of personal targets to address
their carbon footprint.
The article ‘Racial capitalism and the school
geography curriculum’ encourages readers to
take a different stance on teaching the topics
of migration and natural hazards by planning
lessons from the perspective of racial capitalism
theory. The authors claim that teaching about
migration and natural hazards without referring
to racial capitalism, amounts to telling ‘half
a story’. This is similar to the much discussed
‘single story’ evident in teaching a variety of
geographical topics.
In the ‘From the archive’ piece, ‘Values, visions
and viewpoints’, Fred Martin has selected a range
of articles from the last 45 years that identify
the values geography teachers believe to be
Melanie
Norman
important in school curriculum geography.
I endorse Fred’s pertinent comment ‘Suffice Guest Editor Melanie
it to say that irrespective of the date of Norman introduces
authorship, much remains as relevant now this issue of Teaching
as when it was written’. Geography.
Two articles focus on classroom activities at
KS3 which readers might find useful in their
own contexts. Glenn Briscoe describes how he
developed his approach to teaching about food
webs using the principle of generative learning
and Mark Blackwell outlines how he introduced
the concept of the Anthropocene to year 9
students.
The two remaining articles will be of particular
interest to readers engaged with teaching at
A level. Matt Finn outlines ways in which A level
students can be supported through reading
around the subject prior to study at university.
Emma Rawlings Smith and Simon Oakes discuss
the outcomes of their survey on ‘What constitutes
a good A level geography education’.
Overall this is a wide-ranging edition of Teaching
Geography which I hope will engage readers.
Please can I urge you to vote for the article
from 2021 most deserving of the GA ‘Award for
excellence in leading geography’ as featured on
page 6. Can I also urge readers to set up activities
for the ‘GA’s National Fieldwork Week’ 6–11 June
2022 as featured on page 7. I am also hoping
that the GA Conference in April will be a face-to-
face event where readers and contributors can
meet in person for the first time in three years.
I wish Alan Parkinson all the best for his ‘Everyday
Geographies’ Presidential year.
In closing, I’d like to return to ‘The River Song’
event in Coventry. The dancers finished at a
point in Broadgate under a canopy of messages
written by local people expressing their hopes
and aspirations for the future of Coventry.
A poignant comment from a local student
was simply a hope for ‘No more coronavirus’.
(BBC 2021).  |  TG
References
BBC News (2021) ‘Curtain up on Coventry’
Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 website:
https://coventry2021.co.uk (accessed 01/01/22)
Editor Dr Mel Norman on the
South Downs near Beachy
Head. Photo: Tony Norman.
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
5
 Award for excellence in leading
geography – vote now!
GA members vote for this award and it is given to one article from the 2021
series of Teaching Geography that voters feel has made the most significant
contribution to geographical teaching and learning. The link to the voting
form is on the GA website – www.geography.org.uk/Elections-awards-surveys/
GA-journal-awards. Voting closes on 1 March 2022 and the award will be
presented to the author of the article receiving the most votes at the GA
Conference on Monday 11 April.
If you also subscribe to Primary Geography and Geography please do vote
for articles from those journals as well.

A case for the curriculum: health GCSE fieldwork: tackling the shift
geography from content to process

Tessa Sittner taught health geography at North
London Collegiate School. She is currently a
visiting lecturer in Geography Secondary Teacher
Education at Middlesex University and is a
Chartered Geographer (Teacher) – Spring 2021
Tessa uses the COVID-19 epidemic to introduce
students to concepts and skills relating to health
geography.
Download: https://www.geography.org.uk/
Journal-Issue/20fe0f30-5310-4c5e-9c85-
9ea3ee11e816
Holly Meneer is a geography teacher at Queen
Elizabeth’s High School, Gainsborough and
a PhD student at the University of Roehampton
– Autumn 2021.
Holly describes how her department revised their
GCSE fieldwork to concentrate more on process
than content and ensure their students were
better supported for their GCSE exams.
Download: https://www.geography.org.uk/
Journal-Issue/b4d4b810-7102-49ba-87dc-
80a50176ce47  |  TG

Representing without misrepresenting:

the ethics of case study writing
Alistair Hamill is Head of Geography at Lurgan
College, Co Armagh – Summer 2021
Alistair describes writing an A level case study
on Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala, to ensure the
people and place were not misrepresented when
using secondary sources.
Download: https://www.geography.org.uk/
Journal-Issue/82ed6ea9-3383-472e-a2db-
116f0f98dc40

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
6
The GA’s National Fieldwork
Week: 6–11 June 2022
COVID-19 has had a significant effect on schools’
ability to organise fieldwork (Office for Standards
in Education (Ofsted), 2020; Morris, 2021). The
GA’s Fieldwork and Outdoor Learning Special
Interest Group (FOLSIG) is aware of a loss of
confidence: in taking students out and arranging
safe transport and also the time to organise visits
or, simply, generate ideas on what to investigate.
The GA aims, together with our strategic partners
(Discover the World Education; Environment Agency;
Field Studies Council; Ordnance Survey) to support
and inspire teachers to resume the benefits of
outdoor education for all students with a National
Fieldwork Week, to be held during the week
beginning Monday 6 June 2020. This will provide a
focal point to encourage teachers to take students
outside – in the school grounds, the local area or
further afield. It is hoped that the GA can inspire all
teachers to enjoy being outside the classroom again.
A simple, common theme of ‘Change’ has been
chosen. By now most areas will have experienced
significant changes, many because of the
pandemic: this will be an opportunity to come
together as a subject community to look at
these in relation to our own areas and share the
outcomes, both in journal articles and through
social media as well as locally.
What happens next?
• A series of resources and journal articles
covering the current academic year, as well
as information and activities on a dedicated
section of the GA website from February.
• The GA Annual Conference 2022, to be held at
the University of Surrey and online, will include
a number of fieldwork sessions.
• The GA’s strategic partners will support the
project with information and activities.
• There will be a certificate of participation,
for schools and the students who take part.
Organising the fieldwork
Not everyone will be able to take whole class
groups out at one given time in the week so take
part at a time to suit you – this could include a
References
All websites last accessed 16/10/2021.
Morris, B. (2021) The Importance of Fieldwork in Geography Teaching after COVID-19. Available at https://blog.
insidegovernment.co.uk/schools/fieldwork-in-geography-teaching-covid-19
Ofsted (2020) COVID-19 series: briefing on schools, November 2020. London: Ofsted Publications. Available at https://www.
gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-series-briefing-on-schools-november-2020
Paula
Richardson
double lesson, and morning, afternoon and all-
day slots, if possible. The activities suggested
provide ideas using a variety of timings. Students
could be set the task of investigating change in
their local area as a homework activity, pooling
their evidence when they are back in class.
The emphasis should be on a critical look at
change: environmental, human, physical or a
mixture of all three. This may uncover a wealth of
first-hand evidence from families, local businesses,
shops and the students themselves. In the early
stages of the pandemic everyone was encouraged
to take exercise in their local area: but what kind
of impact did this have on places?
Schools can showcase their findings by presenting
a display in the school, local community hall
or church hall. This not only has the benefit of
linking school and community but shows that the
school is interested in and caring about changes
which are happening in every part of our lives.
Topics to explore
• Changing shopping habits – how has this
affected people, the environment and the
shops themselves?
• Is shopping online always beneficial?
• Are new housing estates being built in our
area? If so, where are they and what is driving
their development?
• Is public transport well used? Why, or why not?
• What is the impact of working from home in
our area?
• Has the high street changed in recent times?
• Have there been any changes in the
countryside recently?
• How do individuals feel their lives have
changed, short- and long-term?
Fieldwork is the glue which binds so many aspects
of geography together. We hope that this will
be a time when as a geography community we
can work together to do something we all enjoy.
Please put the date in your diary and encourage
staff and students to take part. This is a wonderful
chance to ensure fieldwork resumes its rightful
place in the curriculum.  |  TG
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
7
 Rachel Barton
and Hannah COP26: You choose – climate
Finch Noyes
change
COP26
Rachel and Hannah
The COP26 summit in Glasgow in October/
detail a simulation
November 2021 was an excellent opportunity
activity they taught to engage our school community in discussions
during COP26 about how we can take practical action to reduce
which aimed to global emissions. The tagline on the UN climate
help students set change website (UN, n.d.) is ‘Science, Solutions,
themselves realistic Solidarity: for a liveable future’. Students can
targets in reducing hold fatalistic attitudes about climate change
their carbon and we were pleased that COP26 focused on
footprint. strengthening national commitments, which
we hoped would inspire our students as future
leaders too. In the past, a number of students
have joined the Extinction Rebellion protests, yet
Accompanying have taken contradictory action in their own lives
online materials – such as travelling to the marches by car! Protests
certainly have their place, but we queried whether
‘gluing themselves to the M25’ (BBC News, 2021)
was really going to help in this global crisis.
Student and department
engagement
Student leadership is vital to student engagement,
so during October we worked with our sixth form
geography society to develop a focus for the
COP26 fortnight. We wanted students to feel they
could actually make a difference, rather than
suggesting things that were beyond their control
(for example, changing energy supplier). They
decided to narrow the focus to fashion and food,
and events were scheduled with the support of
many other departments (Figure 1). Indeed, it
was surprisingly easy to encourage other
departments to integrate climate change
initiatives into their lessons or clubs, and it was
a great opportunity to engage in cross-curricular
links. We would encourage other schools to
consider a similar approach, even beyond COP26.
Context of the game
We wanted to plan a lesson that could be
taught across all year groups, including our
junior department – years 5 and 6 – during
the COP26 fortnight. Our aim was to develop a
simulation activity that would challenge students
to recognise that setting realistic goals about
personal carbon budgets is crucial: your income
or life circumstances may mean you cannot
be as environmentally friendly as you would
like. Working in an independent school, we also
wanted students to empathise with low-income
families: the most expensive environmental
initiatives are beyond their reach.
The game
We named the game ‘You choose – climate
change’ because we wanted students to be aware
that most of the choices they make impact their
carbon footprint. The game was also inspired by
Goodhart and Sharratt’s (2003) book in which
children choose options about their ‘dream’ life.
This acted as a ‘hook’ at the start of the lesson,
when many students remembered the front cover
with affection.
Students were divided into pairs or groups of
three. Each group was given an annual income
of £180 using monopoly money, and a decision-
making sheet to record and total their scores. The
rules of the game were explained to the students
(Figure 2). Nine scenarios, differing in monetary
cost and carbon emissions, were presented and
students were asked to choose four options for
each scenario (Figure 3). (All the activities –
including the full list of scenarios, teacher’s notes
on them, and the ‘You Choose’ Powerpoint – are
available to download.) Students were given

Figure 1: Examples of COP26
climate change fortnight
events.
Talks A local school knew a scientist who attended COP26 – we teamed up for a Q&A online
session in the evening, which meant it was accessible to students at home. Our Head
of Food and Nutrition also spoke to students about food and climate change.

Clubs Many clubs ran activities, ranging from Pi club which analysed climate change data
to TechSoc discussing whether technology is contributing to, or saving the world from,
climate change.

Student-led initiatives Focusing on fashion, the students arranged a collection of second-hand clothes
which were donated to the Salvation Army. Sixth-form students ran a survey about
sustainable food options they enjoy eating which were passed to our catering team
for development.

Lunch We ran a competition to create a sustainable menu, and our catering team cooked
it during the fortnight; in addition, they have now committed to a regular meat-free
Monday.

Lessons Activities ranged from a discussion in PE about whether sports matches can
become carbon neutral, to psychology students exploring changing ideas about
environmental issues.

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

Assembly Sixth-form geographers organised a whole-school assembly to explain simple,
© Teaching Geography practical ways of improving our consumption of food and fashion.
8

1. Each round begins with a family scenario. You
have to decide which option is best for your
family and – most importantly – the planet!
2. Discuss in your groups your decision and pay
the correct money to your teacher.
3. You will score carbon points – how good
Scenario 1 –
You choose...
You are planning a special party for
your daughter’s 12th birthday. She
has chosen 5 friends from school
she would like to celebrate with.
What do you choose?
Family
Option 1 Option 2
scenario
Scenario 1 Ice skating at Travel by train
the Oxford ice to London for
rink ££ the day and
visit the tourist
sites £££
a short time to make their choices before we
discussed the different options with them as a
class, including giving students some facts about
the carbon footprint of some of the scenarios. The
carbon and monetary costs were then revealed
to students, at which point they paid their money
and recorded their carbon points.
Some students rapidly ran out of money, as the
lowest carbon options were frequently the most
expensive. We announced mid-way through the
game that they had inherited £700 to use to treat
their family with a holiday. Students now faced
the challenge of choosing a holiday, when most
travel options are difficult: the carbon cost of just
one flight is so much more than other methods of
travel.
After adding up their scores, students were
keen to engage in a debrief, provoking valuable
discussions about the challenges of living
sustainably on a budget. They were asked to
consider questions such as which group achieved
the lowest carbon score and how? What was the
most challenging decision you faced and why?
What changes to your own life could you now
make as a result of the game?
What did the students learn?
After the lesson, we asked students to complete
a questionnaire about it. In terms of enjoyment,
the game was rated 4.6/5 by the 76 students who
completed the survey. It was clear from the levels
Figure 2: Instructions to give
is your choice at helping reduce carbon to the students.
emissions? You are aiming to get the lowest
carbon score possible. These scores will be
revealed at the end of each round.
4. The challenge is to balance money and
carbon emissions while still living a realistic
life! The group which has achieved
Figure 3: An example of
a family scenario.
Option 3 Option 4 Carbon points
Forest bush- Visit the Harry
craft party in Potter studios,
the woods, travelling by car
toasting ££££
marshmallows
and building
dens £
of engagement in the classroom that students
enjoyed the lesson, with many commenting
on how fun and interactive the game was. One
student wrote that it was ‘applying geographical
knowledge in a fun, competitive way’.
It was also interesting that many students were
keen to discuss what they had learned during the
lesson. Giving some surprising statistics at the
end of each round really made students question
their lifestyle choices. For example, a conventional
ice rink emits 5.52 tonnes of carbon dioxide
every month (the equivalent of 610 homes)! We
didn’t overwhelm students with doom laden facts
about every decision they made, but the activity
clearly benefited from the real-world examples
of the carbon cost charged to students. Students
also enjoyed applying the experience to their
own lives. One student commented ‘It put into
perspective how much carbon I use and made me
think about everyday decisions’. Another wrote
‘I enjoyed having to work out problems that we
will likely face in later life.’ This was helped by the
life scenarios being seen by students as ‘realistic’,
which made them think more deeply about the
consequences of their decisions.
Challenges
Student responses to ‘what did you find most
challenging about the game?’ are summarised
in the Wordle (Figure 4). They reflected upon Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
how challenging it was to get the right balance 9
 Figure 4: Student responses
to the question ‘What did you
find most challenging about
the You Choose… game?
Online resources
To download the ‘You
choose’ PowerPoint and
activities go to http://
www.geography.org.
uk/Journals/Teaching-
Geography and select
Spring 2022.
Hannah Finch Noyes is
Head of Geography at
St Helen & St Katharine
School, Abingdon, and is a
member of the Teaching
Geography Editorial Board.
Rachel Barton is a
geography teacher at
St Helen & St Katharine
School.
Email:
hspencer@cantab.net
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
10
between achieving low carbon emissions, having
enough money and making realistic life choices.
Some students were left with very little money
at the end of the game and therefore found
the final scenario (treating a terminally ill pet)
very difficult, as they could not afford the most
expensive option. However, this provided a good
opportunity to discuss pets’ carbon footprint,
which surprised many students. The challenge
of managing a tight budget helped the students
understand that the best options for the
environment aren’t always financially accessible
to all. Making choices – train travel, sourcing
local food with lower food miles, solar panels and
electric cars – cost some students most of their
budget, so they were unable to make the best
low-carbon decisions later on in the game.
Students found making realistic and honest
decisions during the game very challenging. One
student commented that the most challenging
aspect was ‘knowing what was the best option
to help the planet but it not being the same as
what your truthful response is.’ Many students
were quick to select the options with the lowest
carbon points, such as cycling to work or taking
a holiday in their back garden, yet would never
actually choose this in real life. They consequently
learned that it may be difficult to have the quality
of life they want without having a large carbon
footprint.
The game provided an excellent opportunity
for discussions comparing the carbon impact of
many life options, such as electric car/train/bike/
plane/car-sharing and the statistics provided
made many students realise that taking the
train is on balance a better option than buying
an electric car. The game highlighted specific
activities that create particularly high/low relative
carbon emissions, and some students commented
that ‘I learnt that going by train to France cuts
90% of carbon admissions compared to going
by plane’ or ‘I learnt that ice rinks are actually
not that good for the environment’. This meant
References
All websites last accessed 26/11/2021.
BBC News (2021) Available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-58721909
Goodhart, P. and Sharratt, N. (2003) You Choose. London: Doubleday/Random House.
UN (n.d.) Science, Solutions, Solidarity: for a liveable future. Available at www.un.org/en/climatechange
that all the students who played the game came
to the realisation that their carbon footprint is
determined by a wide variety of aspects in their
day-to-day life.
Future development
Finally, we asked students what future
improvements we could make to the game. Some
suggested it could have more choices or scenarios,
which demonstrates that students enjoyed
engaging with the game. One student suggested
that the scenarios could be more relatable to their
age group; for example, many students didn’t
understand the energy scenario as they had no
experience of selecting energy tariffs. However,
including such scenarios prompted us to challenge
students to engage in a dialogue with their
parents about their choices; it was also important
that students recognised that energy costs will be
a significant element of their household budgets
in the future.
Many of the students are from affluent
backgrounds so some of the options (such as
‘camping in their back garden’) were not seen
as realistic. To develop the game, it would be
interesting to ask students to complete a survey
of choices they might make about holidays, food
etc.; these could be offered as the scenarios rather
than our own. In addition, due to time constraints,
the carbon points scored by students were not
the actual total carbon dioxide emitted by each
activity: we felt this would be too complicated to
calculate and wanted to focus on the discussion
element of the game. However, it would be an
interesting homework to calculate how much
carbon their family emits.
Overall, the lesson was a huge success and
was enjoyed by students from years 5 to 11.
However, by far the most valuable element was
the discussion it prompted after the lesson. The
challenge now is for students to take their own
practical steps forward.  |  TG
In praise of local fieldwork
Learning outside the classroom plays a central
role in geography, and teachers have quite
rightly sought out places of ‘awe and wonder’
to take their students, to inspire them into
appreciating and understanding the world around
them. This literal and metaphorical widening of
students’ horizons is to be celebrated. But as we
pay increasing attention to the importance of
‘everyday geographies’ in forming our students’
geographical imaginations, we should also
recognise the crucial role that local fieldwork can
play. The pressures of the coronavirus pandemic
have also impelled us to keep much of our
fieldwork local.
This piece builds on the insights offered by Peppin
(2020) and Sloggett (2021), and it considers
some ways that local (i.e. walkable) parks and
woodland areas could be used for geography
fieldwork, and in particular how our department
has made use of such areas since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020. The ideas
could be adapted for use in secondary, primary,
and perhaps even tertiary and adult education
settings.
The impetus for change
The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges
for fieldwork, in terms of:
• group sizes (government limits)
• access to areas (landowner caution)
• transport to such areas (group size and
scheduling limitations)
• availability and access to accommodation
(ditto)
• ability to request space in the timetable
(demand for catch-up time)
• financial demands (on parents and schools)
• the relaxation of rules in terms of the
obligation to provide fieldwork days.
Despite such constraints, as Gayle Sloggett wrote
(Sloggett, 2021) ‘Meeting the challenges of
COVID-19 can provide the impetus to thinking
afresh – taking advantage of what could
otherwise be seen in an entirely negative way’
(p. 31). In Sloggett’s case, as well as ours, taking
learning outdoors provided an opportunity
for students to learn in a more COVID-safe
environment than indoors.
Taking more learning outdoors in the wake of the
pandemic might also play a role in reintegrating
students into the more social aspects of school
life, as well as modes of collaborative learning
which, apart from breakout rooms in Microsoft
Teams, have been poorly served in most
manifestations of remote learning. Remote
learning had also resulted in students losing
David Alcock
their connections to the community in which
the school sits, and we hoped that taking them David discusses the
outside would allow them to re-engage with this important role that
community. local parks can play
in providing locations
for fieldwork.
Other benefits of using local
fieldwork locations
Quite apart from the pandemic, there are other
reasons why departments might want to consider Accompanying
using nearby areas – and parks in particular – to online materials
carry out their fieldwork. These include:
• the impact of travelling on climate change
and air pollution
• the benefits of paying attention to place and
‘everyday geographies’
• fairer access to field trips, in terms of cost,
time, and mobility for students
• the ability to revisit locations at different times
of day, days of the week, and in different
weather conditions
• a lower risk of students leaving the study area,
as parks are usually well bounded.
Finally, increasing our students’ exposure to local
places may also help them to appreciate the
ways in which people co-exist and co-operate in
shared areas, and as such it could be a way to
increase awareness of the existence of a ‘public
sphere’, which David Marquand defines as ‘a
space, protected from the adjacent market and
private domains, where strangers encounter each
other as equal partners in the common life of the
society’ (2004, p. 27).
Examples of parkland and local,
walkable, field trips
To develop students’ thirst for knowledge, local
fieldwork should be ‘challenging, memorable,
relevant and applicable to their everyday lives in
the communities in which they live’ (Bye, 2016,
p. 18). These are the ways in which we have
developed our local fieldwork offerings in the
past few years to try to achieve these goals
(Figure 1).
Year 7 – quality of life study
We used to take our students to Littondale in
the Yorkshire Dales, and we considered taking
them on an urban transect walk into Bradford.
But to maintain maximum flexibility and to (re)
connect with our local community and issues
(such as traffic and access to green spaces), we
undertook a tour of the school’s locale, ending
in neighbouring Lister Park. We began with an
indoor briefing, and helped students to undertake
secondary IT-based research (using OS Digimap Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
for Schools) on the area. Then we took them 11
 N

Red Beck

Heaton Woods

Year 8 3 km
River study EDGE OF BUILT
Year 9 UP AREA
Urban task
force

Lister Park
School
Year 7
Quality of
life study

Lister
Mills
Manningham
Shops

Year 12
Regeneration walk
(via several stops) CENTRE OF
BRADFORD
2 km
0 500m approx
Figure 1: Sketch map of
locations referred to in
fieldwork activities.

on a guided walk, including environmental
quality assessments and evaluations of service
provision for different social groups. Back in the
IT rooms they presented and analysed their
data and carried out secondary research using
Datashine, prior to evaluating the study. As
well as improving their fieldwork and enquiry
skills, the understanding fostered by this study
will feed into the year 8 Sustainable Cities unit.
The day was enlivened by a local greengrocer
issuing every class with several punnets of fresh
strawberries, which delighted the students: this
was a vivid demonstration of how ties with the
local community can be strengthened by such
field trips!
Year 8 – local river study
For several years, we have walked our year 8
students to a beck in a small, wooded valley a
mile away from the school, a little further away
than the park, to carry out a range of channel
and valley studies. One of our teachers lives
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 within a mile of the school, so we also use
© Teaching Geography
12 her contacts with the Heaton Woods Trust to
facilitate discussions with students about land
use conflicts arising from differing users – dog
walkers, families, youths, allotment holders and
cyclists. This year, we will adapt this enquiry to fit
the model we tried with the year 7 study, so that
all stages of the enquiry will take place on the
same day. In this way we hope to keep the issues
and data fresh in students’ minds as they conduct
their write-up.
Year 9 – urban task force/multisensory
investigation of place
In 2016 I inaugurated an annual ‘Be BOLD’
(Bradford Outdoor Learning Day) event, when all
year 9s are released from their usual timetable
and carry out a carousel of departmental
activities in Lister Park and nearby Heaton Woods.
Of course, we felt that geography had to lead by
example, so we designed an ‘Urban Task Force’
activity, during which students use multisensory
techniques (see Figure 2), leaf quality cards and
traffic counts, to compare two places in the park,
and then come up with possible ways to manage
any challenges that they detected.

Soundscape – using a decibel meter app
(such as DbMeter) and the soundscape
wheel, inspired by the GA and FSC resource
‘Creative Fieldwork’ (Maddison, 2018)
Smellscape – using the smellscape wheel,
also inspired by ‘Creative Fieldwork’
Urban drifting – using urban drifting cards,
adapted from Field Studies Council resources
(see also Maddison and Landy, 2018)
Figure 2: Techniques to develop a multisensory sense of place.
Such a day can be beneficial for students, and it
can showcase outdoor learning to teachers of other
subjects, who are sometimes reluctant to engage
with the local area. Examples included history’s
session on memorialisation (trees and statues),
maths’ outdoor trigonometry lesson (height of
park buildings and trees), biology’s ecosystem
survey, and religious studies’ use of the woods
for a ‘walking meditation’ session based on the
Buddhist practice of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing).
Year 12/13 – study of a local place and
independent investigations
I take my students on trips to our ‘local place’
in a double period (overlapping into lunch), and
later find time to spend a day in our contrasting
place (Haworth, West Yorkshire). In both trips, I
encourage students to let questions emerge from
the phenomena and activities that they observe
on their walking tours, and I model questions
that might be of particular geographical interest.
I also use the time in these places to introduce,
and then invite students to practise, over a dozen
methods (both quantitative and qualitative and
‘traditional’ and more ‘creative’ (Maddison and
Landy, 2018)) which could be used to investigate
their locations and develop a ‘sense of place’
(Brand, 2020), and we evaluate them both on-site
and back in the classroom (Figure 3).
When it comes to the independent investigation
we allow students, within reason, to choose a
theme, location, and research question deriving
from the specification, as we believe that ‘making
students responsible for their own geographical
investigations is the key to effective fieldwork’ (Bye,
2016, p. 18). Parks have been investigated in terms
of their role in an area’s regeneration and as part
of an evaluation of the need for such regeneration.
The participation of different local interest groups
in applying for Green Flag Award status was a fertile
branch of enquiry for one of our students, and
others have looked at who uses parks, how, and why.
Parks are also often small enough to allow
students to use the evidence they have gathered
in a comparison study in their own time. Figure 4
(overleaf) contains the account of one of our
2021 A level cohort on why she chose Lister Park
as her study location, and how her study helped
the development of her geographical knowledge,
understanding and skills. As Anna’s teacher, I
found that using the park adjacent to the school
allowed her to revisit the area and therefore to
develop a keen ‘sense of place’, and it opened up
many lines of enquiry which, while occasionally
proving unwieldy, ultimately offered plenty of
scope for evaluation. Also, while her investigation
provided less scope for quantitative data collection
than others, it more than made up for it with
the richness of its qualitative evidence. Another
example of a student’s work showing a desire
line map as part of an investigation into youth
perception of engagement with Lister Park is
available to download. Lister Park and the school
are located within the ward of Manningham in
the Metropolitan District of Bradford.
Figure 3: Urban smellscape
aroma wheel, featured in
Maddison, J. (2018).
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
13
 Figure 4: A student’s
viewpoint on using parkland I investigated how women’s perceptions of their
as a fieldwork site. local park could determine its usage. Lister Park
was an ideal location. On one hand I chose Lister
Park due to its demographic factors, for instance
Manningham is ranked one of the more deprived
wards in England, ranked 2077 of 32,844 LSOAs
(Lower Layer Super Output Areas), and 35% of its
residents were born abroad. Its deprivation and
diverse population allowed me to research how
people from different groups perceive it differently
to one another, and to those living in other areas.
The park has also been liberated from its
industrial grime and replenished by the
economic regeneration and its transformation
following an influx of immigrants throughout
the 1990s. A significant factor in the choice of
Lister Park as my study location was a walking
tour of Manningham in year 12. This gave me
the opportunity to try out some data collection
techniques such as taking panoramic pictures,
questionnaires and individual surveys. It also
made me start to think about the local area
more. For instance, when we walked around
Lister Park I noticed how very few women walked
alone. I wondered if women might be less
confident leaving their private spheres due to
societal oppression, and whether the Covid-19
pandemic may have influenced this.
One limitation of researching a public place, such
as a park, is the reliability of the information
regarding overall perception, as councillors, for
example, are likely to present a more positive
view than members of Facebook groups.
Another limitation is ethical considerations to
ensure local people felt their privacy and social
distance were being respected. For instance, I
took fewer photos of people, as well as avoiding
approaching people within the park to ask them
to take part in my online survey. While this
Allowing our students to widen their
horizons
Increasing the frequency of local field trips will give
Online resources
students a grounding in enquiry and fieldwork
A student’s desire line
map of engagement techniques which should imbue them with the
with Lister Park is confidence to engage with the fieldwork process
available to download. more independently and in less familiar locations
Go to www.geography. – perhaps at field study centres. Also, while local
org.uk/Journals/ field trips should reduce the carbon footprint of
Teaching-Geography
departments’ field trip provision, most departments
and select Spring 2022.
will see the value of taking some trips further
afield to give our students a fuller sense of place
David Alcock is a and to obtain a more rounded understanding of
geography teacher at the processes operating in the wider world.
Bradford Grammar School
and an A level examiner. References
He writes on education, Brand, S. (2020) ‘Capturing a “sense of place” through fieldwork’, Teaching Geography, 45, 2, pp. 37–9.
progress, and outdoor Bye, C. (2016) ‘Breaking down barriers to successful fieldwork’, Teaching Geography, 41, 1, pp. 18–19.
learning at www.alcock. Maddison, J. (2018) Creative Fieldwork. Sheffield: GA and FSC.
blog. Maddison, J. and Landy, R. (2018) ‘Casting aside our hammers: creative fieldwork approaches and methods’, Teaching
Email: dga@bradford Geography, 43, 3, pp. 113–15.
grammar.com Marquand, D. (2004) Decline of the Public: The Hollowing Out of Citizenship. London: Wiley.
Peppin, K. (2020) ‘Getting outside! Investigating the school environment’, Teaching Geography, 44, 2, pp. 62–4.
Twitter: @DavidAlcock1
Sloggett, G. (2021) ‘COVID-19: an opportunity to review fieldwork provision’, Teaching Geography, 46, 1, pp. 29–31.
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
14
meant I respected the residents it meant my
data are less reliable, as my survey respondents
were only from Facebook groups, which means
my data are not generalisable to those who are
not on Facebook. Furthermore, trying to limit
my time in the park due to the pandemic meant
that the conclusions made did not accurately
represent all different weather types and
different times of year (e.g. Ramadan).
One way of mitigating any safety concerns
I had, as well as enhancing my data collection
technique, was through conducting my
data collection with a partner. This was very
important, as it not only provided a sense
of security (my preliminary research proved
the area to be synonymous with crime and
anti-social behaviour), it also allowed for inter-
rater reliability of my data. For instance, when
counting how many people walked past the
Botanical Gardens, we were able to confirm the
correct number, creating greater reliability for
my overall conclusion.
The research I conducted in Lister Park allowed
me to understand the significance of a park
for the local community. Some of the themes
relating to women’s perception of Lister Park
emerged, suggesting possible future lines of
enquiry. These included understanding why
women are more likely to perceive parks as
‘unsafe’, how women’s trends of usage differ
to their male counterparts, how gender has
influenced local regeneration strategies, as
well as researching the effects of tourism or
migration on the relationship between different
population groups (e.g. the ageing population)
and public spaces, such as local parks.
(Anna McCormack, A level geography student
at Bradford Grammar School, 2019–21)
While on the surface, it could be claimed that
increasing the use of local parks as fieldwork
locations might narrow the horizons of our
students, I believe that having undertaken several
local outings, students will be emboldened to
undertake extended field trips and will be able
to widen their horizons and, in doing so, enrich
their geographical imaginations.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Fran Handbury,
Head of Department, for her role in facilitating
or initiating these field trips.  |  TG
Racial capitalism and the
school geography curriculum
‘The time is ripe for a deep engagement with
racial capitalism’, geographer Laura Pulido wrote
in 2017 (p. 526). Five years on, there is scant
evidence of engagement with either the concept
or the material reality of racial capitalism in
school geography. Nevertheless, thanks in part
to the work of the global Black Lives Matter
movement, alongside continuing evidence of
the ways that racial inequities and inequalities
shape and structure our everyday geographies
at local and global scales, there is a newly-
emergent attentiveness to the place of ‘race’ in
geography education (Milner et al., 2021). This
article introduces the concept of racial capitalism
and illustrates how students can be helped to
explore these ideas in the geography classroom.
We believe that racial capitalism has significant
explanatory power, both for teachers in their
planning and for students in their understanding
of, and engagement with, the world.
What is racial capitalism?
Racial capitalism is a concept that has been used
over the past four decades to highlight how our
global capitalist economy is bound up with, and
in turn shaped by, processes of racialisation.
‘“Race”’, Dabiri writes, ‘is one of the most powerful,
seductive and enduring myths of the last four
centuries’ (2021, p. 27). Rather than being thought
of as a biologically existing ‘fact’, Dabiri insists that
‘race’ is a ‘socially engineered concept’ that ‘is not
something that exists in nature’ (ibid.). Focusing
on ‘racialisation’ as a set of social processes,
rather than on ‘race’ as a genetic characteristic,
enables us to grasp the role of powerful institutions
– states, corporations, media, even schools – in
producing and reproducing societal difference.
In the 1980s Cedric Robinson drew attention
to how ‘the development, organization, and
expansion of capitalist society pursued essentially
racial directions’ (1983, p. 2). He argues that
historically capitalism has shown a tendency ‘not
to homogenize but to differentiate’, and that
the racialisation of particular groups has been a
constitutive element in the ways that capitalism
as a system produces and extracts value. It is this
process that Robinson termed ‘racial capitalism’.
According to Robinson, racialised inequalities
are not an after-effect of social, economic and
political processes, but are part of the workings
of social, economic and political systems. It is this
insight, about how capitalism produces, through
its normal functioning, inequalities that in some
instances are heavily racialised, that we believe
has a significant role to play in the geography
curriculum. Given that capitalism shapes most
social, economic and political geography, we
believe that the insights of theorists of racial
Nona
Anderson,
Briley Habib,
Shanique
Harris, Daniel
Whittall and
capitalism, like Gargi Bhattacharyya (2018), Christine
can be a key resource for school geography. Winter
For geography teachers looking to help their
students understand and respond to the world, racial
capitalism carries great potential. We put this claim This article
to the test by highlighting how teaching common introduces the
topics such as migration and ‘natural’ hazards concept of racial
without reference to racial capitalism amounts
capitalism by
to telling ‘half a story’ (Akbar/Olusoga, 2016).
illuminating the
role of racialisation
1 Migration and the power of
In popular usage, ‘migration’ is a racialised and capital in producing
classed term. The US banker racialised as white and reproducing
living in London is unlikely to be described as a social difference,
‘migrant’ even if she is subject to immigration using the examples
restrictions, but rather is an ‘expat’. In contrast,
of migration and
her black British cleaner may be described as
a ‘second generation migrant’ even if she has
‘natural’ hazards.
never left the UK in her life (Koutonin, 2015). The
interconnection between race and class is evident
in the case of ‘migrants’ from Eastern and Central
Europe to the EU-15. They may be racialised as
white but are also concentrated in low waged
labour sectors, hence are ‘migrants’, exposing how
whiteness has its own hierarchies and becomes
visible when it is attached to working class people.
Migration is therefore a useful way into exploring
the workings of racial capitalism in practice.
Take the case of Bangladesh. Decades of
structural adjustment programmes and the
imposition of debt have reinforced dependency
on global markets that originated under
colonialism. As one of the world’s lowest carbon
emitters, Bangladesh is nevertheless on the
front line of climate changes. The country’s
already-exploitable labour force is rendered
more vulnerable by the existence of export
processing zones, spaces of free capital flow and
inadequate infrastructure. The consequences
of this were demonstrated by the Rana Plaza
catastrophe and the recent fire at Hashem
Foods in Rupganj (Walia, 2021). Despite low
wages and poor conditions, increasing numbers
of people, particularly women, are moving from
rural areas to work in export-oriented garment
factories to escape sea-level rise and land-grabs
by agribusinesses (Walia, 2021; Anderson et al.,
2021). Internal migration is here driven as much
by a racialised and gendered global division of
labour as it is by the standard, over-simplistic,
technical ‘push and pull’ factors taught in many
geography classrooms.
These processes are also evident in cross-border
mobility. Ever-tighter immigration restrictions
force migrants to make perilous journeys, for
example across the Mediterranean Sea and the
Mexican border (Jones, 2017). For those who Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
make it, their precarious immigration status can 15
 leave them highly dependent on employers,
rendering them vulnerable to forced labour
and exploitation imposed through threats
of deportation. Such patterns of migration
are shaped by racial capitalism as racialised
communities from the global South move from
areas where land and labour are appropriated
and people are disenfranchised. Walia suggests
that the term ‘migrant crisis’ portrays migrants
as threats without explaining the forced
dispossession, deprivation and displacement
caused by capitalism (2021, p. 37). Informed
by theories of racial capitalism, teachers can
convey how issues of historic, economic, and
environmental injustice intersect, creating
conditions for forced migrations of the global
poor, both internally and internationally. What’s
more, teachers can illustrate the role of borders in
criminalising and dehumanising those attempting
to move in pursuit of improved living conditions,
producing a cheap and exploitable global labour
force that facilitates capitalist accumulation
(Jones, 2017).
‘Natural’ hazards: hurricanes
Racial capitalism challenges teaching about
‘natural’ hazards like hurricanes. First, it attends
to the ‘un-natural’ nature of hazards. Kelman
(2020) and Bonilla (2020) argue that hazards
are socially produced. Bonilla (2020) explains
that they are not unexpected events, but the
outcomes of decades of structural violence and
human-induced climate change (see panel)
producing ‘vulnerability’ amongst affected
populations. This manifests via social, economic
and environmental influences, but is governed by
racio-colonial legacies involving the production of
social difference.
Keellings and Hernandez Ayala (2019) found
that Hurricane Maria produced the highest
precipitation in Puerto Rico since 1956, and
that peak precipitation return dates halved
over the same period. Although they admit
to data limitations and unpredictable rainfall
patterns, they argue that ‘long-term trends
in atmospheric and sea surface temperatures
are both linked to increased precipitation
in Puerto Rico’ (p. 2964). Kitchen et al.
(2016, p. 38) provide evidence for the links
between climate change and Cyclone Haiyan
(Philippines) in 2013.
Second, teachers often engage with knowledge
about hurricanes through technical categories
like primary and secondary causes/effects,
immediate and long-term responses, and
social, economic and environmental impacts/
consequences, that remain superficial and
incomplete. School geography constructs the
idea that, in hurricane-prone places like Haiti, the
Philippines and Puerto Rico the reason for high
death tolls, economic damage, homelessness,
lack of medical care, food supplies and disease, is
the country’s low level of development (Debens
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 et al., 2016). Absent from this analysis is the
16
© Teaching Geography production of differential value which began
with racio-colonial occupation, and continues
through lack of investment in infrastructure and
ongoing financial debt and dependency. In his
case study of the differential effect in terms
of death rates caused by lahars (mudflows of
volcanic material) affecting two settlements
on the Volcan de Fuego, Alistair Hamill referred
to the different ‘social vulnerabilities’ of their
populations (2021). While Hamill mentioned the
‘ethnic component’ of those regarded as more
‘vulnerable’, consideration of racial capitalism
in this case would shine a light on why disasters
affect some differently racialised groups of people
more severely than others (Rivera, 2020).
Third, the dependency of hurricane-prone
countries of the global South on the global
North for recovery-aid resonates through GCSE
geography textbooks. In the case of Typhoon
Haiyan in the Philippines (2013), aid came
from British charities, HMS Daring, thirty-three
countries including the UK, Australia, Japan and
the USA, and international organisations and
donators such as the Beckhams, The X-factor,
Coca-Cola and Walmart (Debens et al., 2016, p.
23; Widdowson et al., 2016, p. 33). The only non-
western aid mentioned by one of the two texts is
‘basic food aid’ delivered by the Philippine Red
Cross (Debens et al., 2016). Aid-flows signal the
continuation of economic dependencies created
by colonialism, maintaining a commitment to
Western markets through tropes of benevolence,
charity and pity. Thus, hurricane aid from the
West becomes normalised and embraced into
the global economic system unproblematically,
despite it being a constitutive feature of the
differentiation processes inherent to racial
capitalism (Pulido, 2017).
Fourth, racial capitalism provides explanatory
power for the geography of hurricanes because
it attends to the way that states, in spite of their
regulatory responsibilities, fail to monitor or take
meaningful action to address unjust profiteering
and exploitation resulting from ‘disaster
colonialism’ (Rivera, 2020). Hurricane Maria hit
Puerto Rico in 2017, laying bare the island’s severe
financial and infrastructural crisis and leaving the
island without transport, food, water, security and
other critical services. This was despite it being
an unincorporated territory of the USA. When
neither the bankrupt Puerto Rican state nor the US
responded in a timely way, self-help community
groups stepped in to fill the gap. However, the
legacy of plantation slavery in Puerto Rico,
coupled with more recent tax-breaks, enabled
US citizens to migrate to and live comfortable
lives in protected, self-contained enclaves on
Puerto Rico, separate from the hardships faced
by the local population (Bonilla, 2020).
We have used some of these insights to support
our own teaching of Hurricane Maria. The
following small sample of a larger set of resources
was used to teach AQA A level geography
specification, section 3.1.5.5 ‘Storm hazards’.
Lessons were planned and student learning
assessed on the basis of the inquiry question:
‘Was the Hurricane Maria disaster of 2017
well-managed?’(Figure 1).

These lessons deployed the concept of ‘slow
violence’ (Nixon, 2011) to understand how
histories of racialised imperialism produced
the differentiated societal vulnerabilities that
led to the island’s Hispanic, African-descended
and indigenous populations being exposed to
greater levels of risk from Hurricane Maria. Bonilla
(2020) has argued that the events of Hurricane
Maria can only be understood when Puerto Rico
is situated ‘within a broad US archipelago of
racialized neglect’. She pointedly asks (2020,
p. 4) ‘would this happen in a US state?’, and
responds with a categorical ‘Yes … abandoned
urban spaces in Detroit, poisoned water reserves
in Flint, displaced communities in New Orleans,
and Puerto Ricans left to wait on rooftops
for aid that refuses to arrive … These are the
logics of disposability at work.’(Bonilla, 2020,
p. 4). Bonilla’s argument shows how racialised
inequalities are part of the everyday functioning
of the American racio-colonial state, and that
it is in moments of ‘disaster’ that the slow
violence of differentiated vulnerability becomes
most apparent. Racialised inequalities are not
an impact of hazards like Hurricane Maria, but
are instead a crucial constitutive feature of the
systems that enabled this hazard to become a
disaster. (Figure 2).
Using these resources, students explored how
histories of colonialism, alongside more recent
political decisions such as PROMESA (Puerto
Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic
Stability Act), created differentiated experiences
of vulnerability. This slow violence resulted in
Puerto Rican islanders being more vulnerable
to negative hurricane impacts than residents
in mainland USA, receiving a poorer quality
of response from FEMA (Federal Emergency
Management Agency). Slow violence created
the conditions for an experience of vulnerability
that differentiated along the lines of class and
race. Out of this slow violence and state neglect,
post-Maria Puerto Rican ‘autogestion’ or ‘self-
reliance’ movements for self-help have emerged.
Locals established community kitchens, and
began exploring community-driven approaches to
sustainable energy production and management
in the wake of failures of statehood regarding
Figure 1: The role of empire
and colonialism in Puerto Rico.
Post-disaster responses – immediate Post-disaster responses – long term
Immediate responses were Reconstruction was delayed because many
weakened by a lack of basic aid residents, especially in poorer communities,
supplies, most of which had been were unable to prove that they owned their
given out a few weeks earlier in property.
response to Hurricane Irma. 1 year after the hurricane many schools
FEMA provided short-term food and were still unopened, many homes
water aid as well as medical supplies. unrepaired.
However, there was a shortage of A mental health crisis has unfolded on
many of these items. Puerto Rico and there has been a lack of
Studies have shown that FEMA state support for people in the aftermath
provided less aid and other support of the hurricane.
after Maria than it did for hurricanes FEMA has drastically increased stocks of
that struck mainland USA, such as aid supplies on the island ahead of future
Hurricane Harvey. hurricane seasons and has built several new
In 2021 it was revealed that the storage warehouses.
Trump administration unnecessarily It is expected that the population of the
delayed $20 billion in aid to Puerto island will have fallen by 14% as a result of
Rico in the immediate months after Hurricane Maria.
Maria.
Puerto Rico’s poorer communities have self-
Community groups and residents organised their own long-term responses
responded rapidly, providing in the absence of state support. They have
essential relief and support in the set up collectives to grow and distribute
short term for one-another. food, and have also begun to provide
their own energy and water supplied. This
self-help approach has become known as
autogestión.
Evaluative points to consider
This disaster was made significantly worse by the funding cuts and lack of
investment beforehand. This ‘slow violence’ was a major contributor to the
increased social vulnerability.
Writer Naomi Klein has argued that Puerto Rico is an example of ‘disaster
capitalism’. The electricity network and other public services have been privatised,
meaning some business people profit from them whilst most residents continue to
receive a poor service.
However, Yarima Bonilla and others argue that the situation in Puerto Rico was so
unequal because of the colonial relationship between mainland USA and Puerto
Rico. Bonilla calls this ‘the coloniality of disasters’ because she wants to emphasise
how societal vulnerability in Puerto Rico was actively produced by the slow violence
of the exploitative relationship between mainland USA and the islands.
the electricity network (Bonilla, 2020). Sou and Figure 2: Extracts from the
Hurricane Maria resource set.
Douglas’s (2019) research-informed comic After
Maria was used to explore these issues with
students.
Students engaged productively with these ideas.
The following extract is taken from a student
essay addressing the enquiry question about Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
the management of Hurricane Maria: © Teaching Geography
17

The population of Puerto Rico was largely unprepared due to the
decades-long ‘slow violence’ they had been enduring from the US
government. An example of this is the PROMESA strategy of 2016 which
cut funding for social services such as electricity and water networks,
meaning even before the hurricane 70% of the population were being
piped unsafe water to their homes and the electricity of the island was
largely underfunded. Because of this, the entire island of Puerto Rico
was without electricity following Maria, and there was no clean running
water. Even six months after the event, 60% of the population was still
without electricity and 20% without clean running water in the home,
highlighting the suffering caused as a result of the social neglect Puerto
Rico faced in earlier years from mainland USA.
As Bonilla (2020) and Pulido (2017) argue,
vulnerability to environmental hazards in the
USA is heavily racialised. The slow violence that
created differentiated experiences of vulnerability
on Puerto Rico itself, and which exposed Puerto
Ricans to higher levels of vulnerability than other
mainland USA locations struck by hurricanes in
2017, can be better understood when teachers
draw on theories of racial capitalism. Using theories
of racial capitalism to examine hurricane analysis
in school geography highlights the unequal power
relations that produce the social, economic and
environmental consequences of hurricanes.
Conclusion
Nona Anderson is a Theories of racial capitalism are now four decades
Teacher of Geography at
Chestnut Grove Academy
old, but have had little influence on geography
education. This article makes the case for theories
of racial capitalism as a valuable way for students
and teachers to consider how racialisation functions
within capitalism to differentiate populations
and extract value. What we often teach as ‘push
and pull’ factors in the context of migration,
or ‘economic, social and political impacts’ in
the context of hazards, are in fact constitutive
features of the everyday workings of an economic
and political system that has enacted slow
violence in ways that shape much of the content
taught in geography classrooms. Planning with
theories of racial capitalism in mind enables
teachers to incorporate usually-hidden processes
of racialisation into our curriculum. Mindfulness
of theories of racial capitalism helps us live up
to Katherine McKittrick’s (2021, p. 41) vision for
classrooms to become ‘surprising and generous
spaces that challenge existing political visions,
allow us to fight against inequity and racism,
work against racial violence, and collaborate’.
Acknowledgement
We wish to acknowledge: the anonymous student
whose work was used here with permission;
our colleagues in the Decolonising Geography
Educators Group, especially those who have
directly discussed the concept of racial capitalism
with us; Gargi Bhattacharyya, who generously
discussed the relationship between racial
capitalism and geography education with us; and
The British Academy/Journal of Moral Education
Trust (British Academy).  |  TG

Email: nanderson@ References

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All websites last accessed 14/11/2021.
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Akbar, A. (2016) ‘Interview: David Olusoga: There’s a dark side to British history, and we saw a flash of it this summer’.
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of Geography at the Anderson, N., Das, S. and Whittall, D. (2021) Why the word ‘slum’ should not be used in geography classrooms. Available at
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School Istanbul Bhattacharyya, G. (2018) Rethinking Racial Capitalism: Questions of Reproduction and Survival. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Email: b.habib@ Bonilla, Y. (2020) ‘The coloniality of disaster: Race, empire, and the temporal logics of emergency in Puerto Rico, USA’,
bisistanbul.org Political Geography, 78, 102181.
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Shanique Harris is a Debens, J., Parkinson, A., Payne, J. and Ross, S. (2016) Geography B: Geography for Enquiring Minds. OCR GCSE [9–1]. London:
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ac.uk
Widdowson, J., Blackshaw, R., King, M., Oakes, S., Wheeler, S. and Witherick, M. (2016) AQA GCSE (9–1) Geography. London: Hodder.

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
18
My place: Coventry
I’ll admit that for much of my life Coventry was
a city that I passed by on the M6 en route to
somewhere I needed to be, and was a place I
really only associated with the cathedral and
a ring road. But work led me to the city that
has now been my home for nearly a decade,
and I have had the opportunity to explore and
understand much more of what makes the
city what it is today. Much like any city, it has
continued to change and it’s been interesting to
see the developments take place.
Coventry was designated the UK City of Culture
for 2021, with hopes that this would bring
additional investment and visitors, as has been
the case for previous UK cities of culture. Because
of the impact of COVID-19, the start of the
City of Culture year was delayed to May 2021,
and many events could not take place exactly
as planned. Nevertheless, it has provided an
opportunity for the city to celebrate: events,
music, dance, theatre and more. The City of
Culture prompted lots of new street art, making
many areas much more vibrant. ‘In Paint We
Trust’ co-ordinated these new works, providing
an opportunity not only to produce colourful
artwork and murals, but also to celebrate local
histories and cultures, and spark conversations on
Jennifer
Ferreira
the city’s history and future. Highlights include a
giant piece on the side of New Union Street car Jennifer describes
park which celebrates Coventry’s watch making the transformation
history, with features that allude to Coventry’s of Coventry, UK City
first watchmaker, but also flames of fire to allude of Culture for 2021.
to the more recent climate crisis. Then there are
those that celebrate communities in Coventry,
such as ‘Community Love’ on the side of the
Coventry Caribbean Centre, which celebrates the
Caribbean heritage in the city. (Figure 1).
Having previously lived in a town where my home
was in an area of high flood risk, when I relocated
to Coventry I was keen to ensure I did not end up
in the same situation. Before moving to the city
I explored the course of the River Sherbourne,
including a section in the centre of the city where
it flows underground. This was highlighted in the
City of Culture launch event ‘Coventry Moves’.
Because the launch event had to ensure social
distancing, pop-up events took place all over the
city and people were encouraged to watch online.
The event was kicked-off by Pauline Black, the
lead singer of ‘The Selecter’, performing ‘River
Rushing Flow’, and the river’s presence in the city
was showcased by a group of performers called
the ‘River Runners’ who traced the route of the
underground river through the city. (Figure 2).
Figure 1: ‘At One with Cofa’s
Tree’, created by Matt Chu on
Pepper Lane. All photos: ©
Jennifer Ferreira.
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
19
 The river has continued to be a focal point of
events, being highlighted on World Rivers Day on
26 September with a guided walk along the river
as part of a digital poetry trail that ran from the
Belgrade Theatre to Spon End.
Important to Coventry’s identity and heritage
are its links to the car industry. The Coventry
Transport Museum documents the city’s role in
the industry and explores how those connections
remain today. I used to walk past the old
London Taxi Company site which has now been
demolished as the company moved to a new
location in Ansty Park (which is still in Coventry),
home of the TX5 electric taxi. The city may no
longer have as many car manufacturing sites as it
once did, but it still maintains links to the industry,
retaining the headquarters of the luxury car brand
Jaguar; it also plans for it to be the home of a new
electric car battery plant, demonstrating how the
city has sought to keep up with industrial change.
The lockdowns of 2019–20 meant that I spent
more time exploring my local area; in particular
I was keen to find more green spaces. One of the
largest green spaces in Coventry is its memorial
park, which was opened in 1921 as a tribute to
those who lost their lives in the First World War.
It has become a focal point for many activities
in the city, from park runs to the Godiva music
festival; and includes features such as the
Community Sensory Garden which really is
a treasure trove for the senses (Figure 3).
However, since this park was on the other side
of the city from where I lived, I found myself
trying to locate green spaces more locally.

Figure 2: The route of the

River Sherbourne, showcased
in the Lower Precinct
Shopping Centre.

Figure 3: Community Sensory

Garden in Memorial Park.

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
20
 Figure 4: The revived
Upper Precinct, leading
to Broadgate.

These are dotted all over the city, albeit some much larger regeneration for the south of the city
smaller than others, but recently, spending so centre, it’s likely we’ll see further transformations
much time at home, these green spaces became of Coventry in the near future.
even more important, not only for me, but clearly
Coventry is a fascinating city that is rich in
for many other local residents too. It forced me to
heritage, culture and innovation. It may be
see the city in a different way, exploring different
famous for its experiences during the Blitz in the
paths through housing estates, and finding places
Second World War and the infamous ring road,
to explore instead of walking my usual daily route
but as a city that rose from the rubble it is one
to the university. Allesley Park, Lake View Park,
which continues to transform, welcoming people
Coundon Wedge, Hearsall Common, Coundon
to contribute to its future (Figure 5).  |  TG
Hall Park and many more have now become part
of what I consider my chance for a change of
scenery. It made me appreciate the city and its Figure 5: Artwork close
to Coventry market.
spaces in a different way.
There is a lot about the built environment in
Coventry that is interesting too, much of which
has undergone, and continues to undergo,
change. During the COVID-19 lockdowns work
continued transforming the main shopping
streets, along Smithford Way and Upper Precinct
into Broadgate (Figure 4).
Dr Jennifer Ferreira is
The new spaces have an illuminated water feature a Research Fellow at
and lots of seating, which not only make the the Centre for Business
area look nicer but also clearly attract people to in Society at Coventry
University.
come and spend time in the city. In the summer
it was not unusual to find families playing around Email:
ab7614@coventry.ac.uk
the water fountains, and in the newly built
playground around the Bull Yard. With plans for Twitter: @jennywrenwatts

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
21
 Fred Martin
From the archive: Values
visions and viewpoints
Values behind decisions
Fred provides an
Ofsted’s education inspection framework
overview of key
(Ofsted, 2019) requires inspectors to consider
points from a curriculum ‘intent’ as part of the inspection
selection of Teaching process. Some teachers have responded by
Geography archive undertaking fundamental reviews that have
articles so teachers resulted in identifying the values that underpin
of geography can their teaching – for example, a core vision of
reflect on, clarify ensuring that students should be able to ‘think
and implement the geographically about the changing world,
values they believe becoming critical learners and knowledgeable,
to be important skilful and responsible citizens who care about
for their students’ the future of our planet’ (Kay, 2021, 46, 1).
education in The rationale for determining what facts to
geography. choose and how to interpret them is driven by our
values. Lambert expressed this precisely: ‘Facts do
not exist outside a values frame’ (Lambert, 2003,
28, 1). People’s decisions are based on values
shaped by their beliefs, their desires and also by
their prejudices, even though these values are not
articulated and may not even be identified. As
Binns wrote in 1979, we need to adopt ‘a critical
analysis of one’s own views and perceptions’
(Binns, 1979, 4, 4). Over the last five decades,
authors of Teaching Geography articles have
addressed many dimensions relating to values
in geographical education, some of which are
outlined in the following sections.
Values behind the politics
Since values are so important in decision-making,
a link between geography and politics would
seem to be inevitable. In 1984, Huckle provided
Teaching Geography readers with a political
analysis of unemployment based on the idea
that unemployment and many other issues were
the consequence of the ‘changing needs of the
capitalist economy’ (Huckle, 1984, 9, 3). In 1986,
Teaching Geography’s editor (Rawling, 1986, 11,
2) commented on a speech made by Sir Keith
Joseph, the Secretary of State for Education, in
which he positively endorsed the teaching of
topics such as ‘inner city decline, conservation
of resources, pollution control and economic
difficulties faced by the poorer countries’. In his
speech, he recognized that these were complex
issues that could not easily be explained and for
which solutions were often disputed. Geographers
took his words as providing endorsement for the
growing move towards studying ‘contentious
political issues’; though in the same edition,
Sandford noted that most schools were ‘failing to
deliver economic and political literacy’ (Sandford,
1986, 11, 2) because of fears of bias and the
growth of radical political literature. In the same
year, Green asked whether Sir Keith really meant
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 what he had said and whether he was prepared
© Teaching Geography
22 for its consequences – explanations, for example,
were likely to include critiques of government
policies and ‘the whole nature of capitalist
economies’ (Green, 1986, 11, 3).
There was a special focus on geography and
politics in the April 1990 (15, 2) issue of Teaching
Geography. This was a response to the promise
that political education would form part of the
National Curriculum, as a cross-curricular theme.
Graham Butt was enthusiastic about geography
playing a part in developing the students’ political
understanding (Butt, 1990, 15, 2). In the same
issue, however, Huckle and Machon expressed
disappointment: in their view, the promise to
deliver political education would not be achieved
(Huckle and Machon, 1990, 15, 2). Instead,
they claimed that the NC would serve to ‘inhibit
geographical enquiry and stifle the development
of critical and active citizenship’. In 1991, Carter
noted that the National Curriculum had adopted
a values position that ‘uncritically endorses a free
market view of the world’ (Carter, 1991, 16, 1).
Although the debate about political education
did not end in 1991, much of it was curtailed by
the focus of subsequent government ministers on
a pared-down and less values-driven agenda. As
Rawling noted in 2001, ‘enquiry-based learning,
issues-based investigation and values education
were effectively removed from the 1991
Geography Orders’ (quoted by Persaud, 2015,
40, 3). Although values are never far from many
topics of geographical interest such as economic
development, immigration and energy, direct
involvement with the values of party politics has
been and remains a difficult and sensitive area
for the teaching of geography in schools.
Values in development
Teaching about other parts of the world involves
teaching about the reasons that help explain the
wide contrasts in living standards and economic
development between and within different
countries. In an early Teaching Geography article,
Hicks asked ‘What should we be teaching? (Hicks,
1977, 3, 1). He suggested that concepts such
as ‘exportation of European culture, resource
exploitation, destruction of indigenous culture
and industry’ and other ideas were essential
ingredients of an education in development. He
also cited the creation of ‘the belief of white
superiority’ – a thinly coded phrase for racism – as
a factor to be considered. Two years later, Walker
argued that explanations needed to include an
understanding of a country’s colonial past and
how western models of economic development
were inappropriate to use in the countries of South
America where there were very different ‘social
and political structures’ (Walker, 1979, 5, 1).
In 1980, Owen argued that it was important to
consider the implications of how we teach about
‘the third world’ in a ‘multicultural society’ (Owen,
1980, 5, 3). He warned about giving ‘negative
references to black people’. He noted that some
teachers tended to avoid references to ‘race and
culture’ for fear that ‘problems would develop’;
instead, he argued for ‘an unbiased view rather
than no view at all’. Hicks returned to this theme
in 1981 when he wrote about perceptions of
‘the Third World’ as being ‘ethnocentric’ in ways
that led to judgements about other cultures that
were ‘racist, in that they imply inferiority of non-
Europeans’ (Hicks, 1981, 7, 2). He suggested that
textbooks on the topic needed to be analyzed
for ‘ethnocentric and racist bias’. In 1986, he
wrote about teaching ‘Other Worlds’ and what
was needed for students who were living in a
‘multicultural society and interdependent world’
(Hicks, 1986, 11, 4). (Since then, ‘otherness’ has
come to carry other connotations, a reminder
that keeping abreast with changes in language
can be as important as in ideas.) In a special
edition that focused on ‘development issues’,
Morris suggested a ‘multicultural approach’ in
which economic development should be studied
in countries with ‘alternative political economies’
such as in China, as well as teaching about the
‘non-growth and ecological harmony’ policies of
the ‘green parties’ (Morris, 1988, 13, 1).
In more recent years, there has been a growing
recognition that the crude and potentially divisive
categories such as ‘North and South’, ‘First
World’ and ‘Third World’, ‘LEDCs’ and ‘MEDCs’
cannot be justified. Gapminder was described by
Lang as a means of using up-to-date statistical
data to help students develop a more factually
accurate knowledge of other countries, so that
stereotyping and values based on misinformation
could be challenged (Lang, 2011, 36, 1).
Citizenship and sustainable
development
This was the focus for an edition of Teaching
Geography in April 2001 (26, 2). At the time,
government thinking appeared to regard
citizenship as a tool to create a compliant
population that shared what were referred to as
‘British values’. The idea of ‘British values’ was
directly addressed by Morgan (2005, 30, 1), who
made direct links between aspects of geography
and ‘questions of cultural and ethnic diversity,
multiculturalism, nation and identity’. Machon
and Lambert, in an article entitled ‘Geography
in the Holocaust: citizenship denied’ raised the
question whether teaching about citizenship
should mainly serve the interests of the state
or the individuals who live in it (Machon and
Lambert, 2005, 30, 3). They argued that the
example of a state that attempted to eliminate
entire racial groups serves notice of the disjuncture
of interests that can exist between individuals
and the state. They further warned that bringing
citizenship into geography can ‘emasculate’ its
ideas, quoting from Yi Fu Tuan who claimed that
geography has ‘a blind spot towards questions of
evil and the entire realm of morals and ethics’.
Other geographers, such as Storey, have
regarded an education in citizenship as a means
of combating ‘racism, disabilism, sexism and
homophobia’ (Storey, 2004, 29, 1). Ideas about
citizenship have taken on a global dimension
in several articles; Hicks, for instance, with
his idea of the ‘informed citizen’ concerned
about topics such as ‘human rights, identities,
change and global social, political, economic
and environmental issues’ (Hicks, 2001, 26,
2). Bonnett, however, has expressed the view
that while notions of global citizenship have
merit, it can have the effect of causing ‘cultural
arrogance’, being based on notions of culture and
values that allowed people in the west to ‘claim
to be cosmopolitan’ (Bonnett, 2012, 37, 3). In
exploring the idea of global citizenship, Gillman
linked choices about family size to issues relating
to world population growth and ecological
degradation, asserting, that it was a teacher’s
responsibility to ‘present children with the reality
of their own choices’ (Gillman, 2019, 44, 2).
Values associated with sustainability have been
expressed in numerous articles; Walker, for
instance, who wrote about developing an interest
in ‘intermediate technology and low energy
consumption (Walker, 1979, 5, 1). The theme
of sustainability has been taken up by many
others, including Reid who has written about
‘the values and interests that inform different
ideas’ (Reid, 1996, 21, 4). Huckle brought a
political perspective to sustainability when he
asserted that ‘sustainability literacy requires
the development of both moral autonomy and
political literacy’ (Huckle, 2021, 46, 2). In an
article about climate change, Hicks commented
that everything people do will ‘reflect the
underlying values of [their] creators’, concluding
that teachers should not be found guilty of
‘neglecting the responsibility we have for the
welfare of younger generations’ (Hicks, 2019, 44,
1). His response is to go beyond presenting values
on the topic, and instead create ‘involvement
at home, school or the community with positive
adaptation and mitigation activities’.
Human rights and inclusion
The values associated with what the UN defines
as ‘Human rights’ have long been explored
through articles in Teaching Geography. In 1988,
Serf and Hoyte used the example of segregation
in South Africa to assert that ‘racism … must
be challenged, whether it be in South Africa or
South Birmingham’ (Serf and Hoyte, 1988, 13,
1). More recently, Hesslewood cited numerous
instances of contexts and countries in which
human rights were being violated, asserting
that ‘a geographical education is to help our
students critically explore the processes that
affect their future life chances, and those of
others’ (Hesslewood, 2018, 43, 2). An article by
Minton looked at immigration and how students’
‘misconceptions, stereotypes and prejudices’
could be challenged and how ‘values of fairness
and injustice’ could be explored through this topic Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
(Minton, 2014, 39, 3). 23
 The values associated with inclusion in different
contexts have been raised in several articles.
In 1981, Sibley referred to ‘muted groups’ of
which ‘racial or ethnic minorities groups’ were
examples, when studying spatial patterns in
urban areas (Sibley, 1981, 7, 2). Storey focused
on how there can be ‘social exclusion’ for some
groups of citizens by facing ’unfair or unequal
treatment’ (Storey, 2004, 29, 1). Quoting from
Jackson, he noted that inequalities can be shown
based on ‘race and sexuality’, often in spite of
legislation. In 2013, Martin pointed to the danger
in adopting an ‘assimilationist’ approach in which
‘differences are ignored’ and what is acceptable
becomes determined by ‘the dominant group’
(Martin, 2013, 38, 1). More recently, Milner set
out to ‘tackle the whiteness in geography’ using
a variety of strategies to help students, especially
those who have been given the label BAME
(Milner, 2020, 45, 3).
There have been many articles throughout
Teaching Geography’s archives on the topic of
stereotyping. In 1979, Binns wrote about the
need to ‘dispel the myths and stereotypes’ about
countries and people in what was then referred to
as ‘the Third World’ (Binns, 1979, 4, 4). England
(2015, 40, 2) has drawn attention to the danger
that stereotyping can ‘make people suspicious of
each other’; a danger previously mentioned by
Lambert: ‘Geography taught badly can reinforce
stereotypical categories, rigid boundaries and
hurtful prejudices’ (Lambert, 2014, 39, 3). In
the Summer 2011 edition, Ajegbo (2011, 36,
2) argued for stereotypes to be challenged ‘in
a world in which many geo-cultural and geo-
conflicts are racialised’. Bowden wrote about
redressing the ‘single story’ that can be so
damaging to the attitudes that a student can
develop about people and places (Bowden, 2021,
46, 3).
Also of note are the many articles entitled
‘My place’ that have been a regular feature
of Teaching Geography. Some of these articles
have been written by people in other countries,
like Kim, writing about his home – Daegu, in
South Korea (Kim, 2014, 39, 3). This article
served to highlight the dangers of using western
language and models in different contexts,
leading to language and ideas that ‘might
hamper students in their ability to empathise
with those who are socially marginalised,
overlooked and excluded’.
As has already been evidenced, race and racism
have been addressed in numerous Teaching
Geography articles. The claim by Puttick and
Murrey (2020) that Teaching Geography has
made no mention of racism is therefore surprising.
Although the word does not appear in the title of
any Teaching Geography article several authors,
such as Hicks, have made reference to racism and
have been forthright in their comments. It can
be argued that more should have been included,
and should be included in the future. Clarity on
definitions would be helpful so that terms such as
race, ethnicity and ‘environmental racism’ could
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 be better understood. Ideas to explore Puttick and
© Teaching Geography
24 Murrey’s call for the use of ‘racial pedagogies’
would also be invaluable, identifying what they
are, together with guidance on how to use such
ideas and methods in the classroom.
The moral classroom
Abstract concepts relating to values such as
human rights, inclusion and citizenship can be
difficult to introduce in a school context. Walker
noted the limited amount of time and students’
lack of maturity to grasp ‘elementary social and
political ideas’ (Walker, 1979, 5, 1). Lambert has
written that it is ‘easy to teach controversial
issues’, but only when using didactic methods
that ‘encourage oversimplification, stereotyped
views and an egocentric outlook’ (Lambert,
1986, 11, 3). He argued that for students to
really appreciate the values involved, different
methods will be needed both between and
within schools. Classroom methods on the
topic of ethnic segregation in British cities were
presented by McEvoy, who noted in conclusion
that such lessons could ‘escalate into ill-informed
allegations of a racist nature’ but that ‘ethical
and value judgements cannot be avoided’
(McEvoy, 1983, 8, 3). On the matter of classroom
strategies, Serf and Hoyte have also noted
that complex and contentious characteristics
‘cannot be used as excuses for ignoring [them]’,
concluding that ‘geography and human rights are
complementary’ (Serf and Hoyte, 1988, 13, 1).
In spite of these problems, numerous articles
have appeared in which teachers have provided
practical techniques that can help, some of which
have been previously cited. The question of what
is moral was explored by Bustin in an article
that presented students with a scenario based
in Sudan where difficult decisions with moral
implications had to be made (Bustin, 2007, 32,
1). The same author explored how his students
could come to appreciate ideas of cultural
difference by studying ‘Thirdspace’ in a local
urban area (Bustin, 2011, 36, 2). Watts tackled
the question of ‘Britishness’ with year 8 students,
helping them to ‘explore their perceptions in
order to bring about tolerance of each other in a
multicultural society’ (Watts, 2005, 30, 1). Sutton
has demonstrated how her students had been
helped to explore the values relating to refugees
and how many had experienced racism and abuse
(Sutton, 2004, 29, 2). Her classroom activities
were designed to counter negative stereotypes
in the media and to help her students ‘relate to
them in a more empathetic way’.
Summary points
It has been challenging to select articles and
quotations on such a diverse set of value
statements from forty-five years of Teaching
Geography. Setting them in a structure has also
been difficult, as many are interconnected. Taking
quotations out of their original context may also
be problematic in some instances.
While Ofsted’s focus on intent may be new,
identifying the values involved in a geographical
education has long been a topic of Teaching
Geography articles. Suffice it to say that
irrespective of the date of authorship, much
remains as relevant now as when it was written.
Teaching Geography is only ever as relevant and
useful as the writers who offer articles. Moving
forwards, the journal welcomes more articles that
will help teachers to contribute to and understand
the subject’s complex and changing relationship
with values in the classroom. The final words can
be left to Rawling, who wrote that ‘without an
element of values enquiry, geography will become
an arid, meaningless subject divorced from the
real world’ (Rawling, 1986, p. 63).

Acknowledgement
Thanks are due to Dr Richard Bustin, who
provided valuable comments on early drafts
and helped to shape the final version of this
article.  |  TG

References
Ajegbo, K. (2011) ‘Diversity, citizenship and cohesion’, Teaching Geography, 36, 2, pp. 46–48
Binns, T. (1979) ‘How ‘We’ see ‘Them’ – Some thoughts on Third World teaching, Teaching Geography, 4, 4, pp. 176–177
Bonnett, A. (2012) ‘Geography: One of humanity’s big ideas’, Teaching Geography, 37, 3, pp. 120–121
Bowden, K. (2021) ‘Using ‘the danger of a single story’ as a curriculum artifact to challenge misconceptions about Africa’,
Teaching Geography. 46, 3, pp. 115–118
Bustin, R. (2007) ‘Whose right? – Moral issues in geography’, Teaching Geography, 32, 1, pp. 41–44
Bustin, R. (2011) ‘Thirdspace: exploring the ‘lived space’ of cultural ‘others’’, Teaching Geography, 36, 2, pp. 55–57
Butt, G. (1990) ‘Political understanding through geography teaching’, Teaching Geography, 15, 2, pp. 62–65
Carter, R. (1991) ‘A matter of values’, Teaching Geography, 16, 1, p. 30
England, R. (2015) ‘Countering stereotypes through global learning’, Teaching Geography, 40, 2, pp. 64–66
Gillman, R. (2019) ‘Questions about population growth’, Teaching Geography, 44, 2, pp. 50–51
Green, P. (1986) ‘Does Sir Keith really mean what he says?’, Teaching Geography, 11, 3, p. 126
Hesslewood, A. (2018) ‘Teaching the geographies of human rights’, Teaching Geography, 43, 2, pp. 69–72
Hicks, D. (1977) ‘The Third World. What should we be teaching?’, Teaching Geography, 3, 1, pp. 22–24
Hicks, D. (1981) ‘The contribution of geography to multicultural misunderstanding’, Teaching Geography, 7, 2, pp. 64–67
Hicks, D. (1986) ‘Other worlds: What should we be teaching?’, Teaching Geography, 11, 4, pp. 160–162
Hicks, D. (2001) ‘Envisioning a better world’, Teaching Geography, 26, 2, pp. 57–60
Hicks, D. (2019) ‘Climate change: bringing the pieces together’, Teaching Geography, 44, 1, pp. 20–23
Huckle, J. (1984) ‘Geography and political education in the National Curriculum; first you see it then you don’t!’, Teaching
Geography, 15, 2, pp. 53–57
Huckle, J. (2021) ‘Critical school geography and the post COVID–19 recovery curriculum’, Teaching Geography, 46, 2, pp. 76–78
Huckle, J. and Machon, P. (1990) ‘Geography and political education in the National Curriculum; first you see it then you
don’t!’, Teaching Geography, 15, 2, pp. 53–57
Kay, R. (2021) ‘The deep dive geography experience; intent, implementation and impact’, Teaching Geography, 46, 1, pp. 11–13
Kim, G. (2014) ‘My Place: Daegu, South Korea’, Teaching Geography, 39, 3, pp. 124–125
Lambert, D. (1986) ‘Helping pupils towards critical evaluation’, Teaching Geography, 11, 3, p. 127
Lambert, D. (2003) ‘A burden on the memory or a light in the mind?’, Teaching Geography, 28, 1, p. 4
Lambert, D. (2014) ‘Interculturalism, a sense of the global and a capabilities approach to currlculum making’, Teaching
Geography, 39, 3, pp. 106–107
Lang, B. (2011) ‘Gapminder: bringing statistics to life’, Teaching Geography, 36, 1, pp. 17–19
Machon, P. and Lambert, D. (2005) ‘Geography in the Holocaust: citizenship denied’, Teaching Geography, 30, 3, pp125–129
Martin, F. (2013) ‘The geographies of difference’, Teaching Geography, 38, 1, pp. 10–13
McEvoy (1983) ‘Asian immigrants in British cities; the study of ethnic segregation’, Teaching Geography, 8, 3, pp. 99–102
Milner, C. (2020) ‘Classroom strategies for tackling the whiteness of geography’, Teaching Geography, 45, 3, pp. 105–107
Minton, M. (2014) ‘Challenging student misconceptions of immigration in the UK’, Teaching Geography, 39, 3, pp. 108–109
Morgan, J. (2005) ‘Britishness, geography and education’, Teaching Geography, 30, 1, pp.20–23
Morris, J. (1988) ‘Teaching development issues in the inner city’, Teaching Geography, 13, 1, pp. 14–18
Owen, R. (1980) ‘Third World studies – pitfalls to be avoided’, Teaching Geography, 5, 3, pp. 116–117
Persaud, I. (2015) ‘The daring discourses of Teaching Geography’, Teaching Geography, 40, 3, pp. 121–123
Rawling, E. (1986) ‘Political issues in the classroom’, Teaching Geography, 11, 2, pp. 50–51
Reid, A. (1996) ‘Exploring values in sustainable development’, Teaching Geography, 21, 4, pp. 168–171
Sandford, M. (1986) ‘Geography’s contribution to political and economic understanding’, Teaching Geography, 11, 2, pp. 69–70
Serf, J. and Hoyte, V. (1988) ‘South Africa: geography and human rights’, Teaching Geography, 13, 1, pp. 10–13
Sibley, D. (1981) ‘Updating urban geography: hidden groups in the city’, Teaching Geography, 7, 2, pp. 51–53
Storey, D. (2004) ‘Different but equal: global citizenship post–16’, Teaching Geography, 29,1, pp. 4–10 Fred Martin is a
Sutton, A. (2004) ‘A new friend in the class’, Teaching Geography, 29, 2, pp. 74–76 Consultant to the GA.
Walker, M. (1979) ‘Third World lessons from Latin America’, Teaching Geography, 5, 1, pp. 27–30
Email: fredgeog@aol.com
Watts, S. (2005) ‘Year 8s explore Britishness’, Teaching Geography, 30, 1, pp. 24–26

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
25
 Glenn Briscoe
Generative learning in
the geography classroom:
teaching food webs
The context for this article is my recent
Glenn describes how experience of teaching year 7 students in a
he uses generative Cambridgeshire comprehensive. The key stage
learning approaches 3 curriculum included a unit of work on Africa
with key stage 3 (Figure 1), including its location in the world using
students, taking various maps, and the climate, fauna and cultural
food webs in the aspects of the continent. This article focuses on
savannah as an the teaching of conservation; it was preceded
example. by a lesson on Africa and its various cultures and
followed by lessons on the Zulu tribe and Ethiopia.
My geography department wanted to develop
more teaching pedagogies and was exploring
Accompanying generative learning. I decided to conduct
online materials small-scale practitioner research as part of my
secondary geography PGCE at the University of
Cambridge, integrating the generative learning
approach into my teaching. The research was
conducted within BERA ethical research guidelines
and agreed with the university, and it focussed
on four students and aimed to be applicable to a
whole-class setting.
What is generative learning?
Generative learning, according to Fiorella and
Mayer (2015), involves bringing together pre-
existing knowledge, insights, and experiences
with new knowledge. They recommend the SOI
framework (select, organise, and integrate) for
each learning activity. Enser and Enser (2020)
apply the core principles of generative learning
theory across a range of methods, including
mind mapping. Mind mapping is a useful way to
generate ideas and retrieve information; it can
also act to discover and create meaning between
content and its organisation. For this approach
to be successful the way connections are made
between key terms, and the appearance of this
information in one area, is important.
Generative learning suggests that mapping
enables students to learn though the spatial
arrangement of diagrams, terms and connecting
arrows. Partially completed maps facilitate
student learning, since students must complete

Topic Content Learning objective(s) Generative learning Assessment for

method learning

Africa and • Locational knowledge – Maasai Mara • Learn about Maasai culture Self-testing (true or false True/false activity
culture • Development – Kenya compared to • Appreciate the lived activity) Prior knowledge vs.
South Korea experience of the Maasai Imagining (clothes post-lesson knowledge
• Maasai tribe – the people (clothing) people and how their lives compared to their own) activity
compare to our own
• Maasai Mara – jobs and homes

Conservation • What does conservation mean? • More broadly, develop Mapping (food web – ‘Google forms’ – at
• What is a food web? A food web of detailed awareness of the dependencies) the start of the lesson,
the African savannah importance of conservation Imagining – completing which goes on to
• Understand what a food half images explain key terms (iron
• Marine conservation named example out misconceptions)
web is and its importance in
• What is an ‘endangered’ species? the context of conservation
• Terrestrial (early adoption of key
term) land conservation (named
example)

Zulu tribe and • What makes a culture? • Explore the ways in which Mapping – impacts of Mini paragraph gap
tourism • What is tourism? Zulu tribes-people are tourism (loss of identity fill – introduction of
affected by tourism – quite complex, but PEE (point, evidence,
• Exploration of the main culture and great to introduce this) explanation)
traditions of the Zulu tribe, including • How does tourism affect the
dance, language and food place where you live? Imagining – images Students mark their own
of tourism (students answers (with criteria)
• Introduce social and economic complete the image)
factors

Ethiopia • Introduction to Ethiopia – • Understand the types of
geographical location, capital city, jobs available in Ethiopia
national flag • Introduction to the key
• Food, farming and harvest in terms ‘employment’ and
Ethiopia ‘structure’
• How this compares to life in the UK • How do people earn money
in Ethiopia compared to the
UK?
Self-testing – labelling
map of Ethiopia and
identifying where the
capital city is located
Drawing – draw the
flag of Ethiopia from
memory, as well as one
statue from the capital
city
Provide students with
criteria for both self-
testing and drawing
activity (students to
mark their own work
with a green pen)

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
26 Figure 1: Sequence of lessons on aspects of Africa.
the rest (Enser and Enser, 2020). These principles
led me to examine my own teaching practice and
to question how mapping might be helpful to
differentiate student learning about food webs.
While setting out explicit learning objectives,
I was keen to explore how teaching pedagogy
could strengthen the students’ understanding.
To investigate, I focused on the work produced
by four students, two male and two female. Two
students (A and B) were from the nurture group
and had moderate learning difficulties. The
others (C and D) were from the mixed-ability
class and had no additional support. I designed
and implemented a practical teaching resource,
informed by generative learning theory, which can
be used for food webs and conservation, a topic I Figure 2: Worksheet for highlighting task.
chose for its interconnections.

Who? The Jane Goodall Institute

The lesson on conservation
The lesson began with a question: ‘What is meant
by the word “conservation”?’ It turned out that
this was an unfamiliar term to students in this
age group. As generative learning promotes
making connections, I chose a familiar example
of how the word conservation might be used
in other contexts. I told students that the word
‘conserve’ means to keep something for a long
time, for example strawberry jam is sometimes
called strawberry conserve. This idea was useful:
from their responses, it was clear that students
had in fact a very good understanding of the
term, but when placed out of the context (in the
geography classroom) it became unfamiliar. This
experience clarified that making connections to
prior experiences outside the school context is a
useful way to elicit understanding.
What? Project: protect chimpanzees from
external threats
Where? Africa (East African Rift Valley)
Why? Protect chimps from infections,
hunting, poaching, logging
Who? IFAW (International Fund for Animal
Welfare)
What? Project: Stop commercial whaling.
Reduce boat traffic and beached whales
Where: Coastal areas of Africa, e.g. South
Africa
Why? Prevent human interventions – whales
depend on navigation for food
Figure 3: Examples of
conservation projects.

Once conservation was clearly defined, students

were introduced to the tropical grassland area
known as savannah. High-quality images of the
savannah biome, sourced from the National
Geographic website (National Geographic, 2021),
made the learning visual. Students were tasked
with using highlighters on a sample of text (Figure
2). The main intention behind this activity was
to encourage students to compartmentalise the
relevant key terms and associate a specific colour
for each category. The green highlighter was used
for vegetation terms; pink highlighter for place
information; yellow highlighter for key terms.
Before they attempted this activity I modelled
an example, to ensure students knew what I was
expecting from them. At the end of this activity,
I also went through the relevant terms to check
that students’ understanding was developing.
This neatly led on to the food web image, which
included pictures, labels and arrows.
I made the link between food webs and
conservation. Examples of terrestrial and marine
conservation were shown, in the form of a Who?
What? Where? and Why? structure, offering key
details of both the Jane Goodall Institute and the
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
projects (Figure 3). This allowed me, following
generative learning principles, to explain how
real-life conservation projects make a difference:
I wanted to make the learning meaningful for
students. I explained why the study of geography
is pertinent, particularly as we work towards a
more sustainable future.
As the lesson came to a close, students were
asked to test their understanding with the use
of mapping: the purpose of this activity was to
compartmentalise the food web with marine
and terrestrial conservation all in one area. In
addition, it allowed students to select, organise
and integrate ‘pre-existing’ knowledge and
‘to-be-learnt’ knowledge (Fiorella and Mayer,
2015). As Enser and Enser (2020) suggest,
concept maps are most useful for content which
requires using processes with some logic.
This activity not only allowed students to test
their ability to assign key words to the relevant
areas of the mind map, but also allowed for
a self-assessment activity at the end, where
students could review their answers to determine
their overall understanding. From my point of
view, using a resource like this is very practical
in terms of pointing to particular aspects and
developing questions for further stretch and
challenge. Most notably, hypothetical questions
such as ‘what would happen to the antelope
population if I were to chop down (deforest) some
of these trees?’ Such questions can help students
to extend their own learning, by thinking of Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
potentialities for ecosystems. 27
 Findings
Student D (Figure 4) identified that the food web
included the lion (fauna), antelope (fauna) and
tree (flora) and correctly labelled energy transfer
and selected key terms (whaling, dolphins, boat,
navigation) associated with marine conservation.
Student A (Figure 5) used a numbering system
to successfully complete the worksheet, and
evidently knows the difference between marine
and terrestrial conservation. Jane Goodall’s
conservation efforts were explored during the
lesson: logging, chimpanzees and trees were
three key terms. This allowed students to explore
Figures 4, 5 and 6:
Examples of student
work: Students A, B and D.
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
28
the threats to the East African Rift Valley, while
learning about a new place.
While student A’s presentation is clear, it would
be preferable to write out the terms for literacy
practice. As Fox and Riconscente (2008) say,
‘Education itself thus becomes the very process of
deliberately acquiring habits of controlling one’s
behaviour in order to become free of the need to
control it’ (p. 376). Fiorella and Mayer (2015) argue
that the way we learn is as important as the
content. However, student A has used selecting and
organising skills to correctly identify the food chain,
marine conservation, and terrestrial conservation.
 Sun
En
e rg
y
Trees
Student B preferred not to use the differentiated
sheet, feeling confident enough to map the
different aspects of conservation independently
(Figure 6): a key example of how concept maps
can be used with students as a scaffold to build
confidence in creating their own map. Battersby
(2002) asserts that resources can offer leverage
for unconfident students while also serving as a
reference point for self-autonomous students.
Figure 7 shows a new proposal for the
differentiated worksheet. The arrows (energy)
add complexity for confident students: this
could be adapted and applied for learning
about specific examples, which may contrast
with another region in the savannah biome.
For example, it would be desirable to allow
students who relish the challenge to think about
whether deforestation (flora) in one region in
the savannah would have the same impact
on the antelope (fauna) population compared
to another: this would open up an enquiry
opportunity.
Conclusion
From engaging in this research I have witnessed
how generative learning can offer a pedagogical
framework for helping students to engage in
the learning of food webs. Constructing the
food web worksheet obliged me to consider the
three main principles of deeper level learning:
the selection, organisation, and integration of
References
All websites last accessed 25/11/2021.
Battersby, J. (2002) ‘Differentiation in teaching and learning geography’ in Smith, M. (ed) Teaching geography in secondary
schools: A reader. London: Routledge (pp. 113–33).
Enser, Z., and Enser, M. (2020) Fiorella & Mayer’s Generative Learning in Action. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd.
Fiorella, L., and Mayer, R. (2015) Learning as a Generative Activity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fox, E., and Riconscente, M. (2008) ‘Metacognition and self-regulation in James, Piaget and Vygotsky’, Educational
Psychology Review, 20, 4, pp. 373–89.
National Geographic (2021). ‘Grasslands, Prairies, and Savannas’. Available at www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/
article/grasslands-prairies-savannas
Lion
En
er
y
gy
e rg
En
Antelope
Figure 7: Learning by
mapping: future proposal.
material (Fiorella and Mayer, 2015). Student
responses demonstrate that generative learning
took place: students engaged with the content
and were required to make sense of the key terms,
while learning the connections that can be made
between them. The food web worksheet allows
students to compartmentalise the learning all
in one place, which is an integral principle of
generative learning. The map is not only a process
for students to engage with, but also an outcome
of the learning taking place.
The task ultimately tested students in three
different ways. Firstly, students selected the
key terms most relevant for the food web. As
an extension activity, I have adapted the task
for students to show their understanding of
the interconnections of the food web in more
detail. Secondly, the task allowed students to
bring together their understandings of marine
conservation and to select the key terms
associated with this. Finally, students learned
about the Jane Goodall Institute projects and
so integrated this understanding with terrestrial
conservation key terms. The sheet allows students
to select and organise information but offers
limited opportunity to integrate, unless the
worksheet is used in conjunction with questions
posed by the teacher. Further questions will
allow students to apply their understanding
of food webs to other ecosystems and
environments.  |  TG
Glenn Briscoe is a
geography teacher at
St Lawrence College,
Ramsgate, Kent and is
studying for an MEd at the
University of Cambridge.
Email: glenn.briscoe@
cantab.net
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
29
 Mark
Blackwell Teaching the Anthropocene
to key stage 3 students
The Anthropocene
Mark outlines a
At a meeting of the International Geosphere-
way of introducing
Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in Cuernavaca,
the concept of the Mexico, in February 2000, a group of prominent
Anthropocene to
scientists were discussing ‘global change’. The
year 9 students.
pre-eminent idea was that Earth is a complex,
but integrated, system and that the human
component was becoming an increasingly
significant part of the global system. During the
Accompanying course of the conference Nobel prize-winning
online materials scientist Paul Crutzen suggested that human
activities had caused the planet to leave the
relatively stable period of the current Holocene
Epoch and that we had entered a brand-new
epoch which was dubbed the ‘Anthropocene’.
A proposal to formally recognise the
Anthropocene is now under consideration.
The Anthropocene in schools
The Anthropocene is not yet a formally
recognised term and does not appear in any
of the DfE content documents for geography.
Only one exam specification refers to the
Anthropocene (OCR, AS and A level).
Whether it is a formal epoch or not, its use
in schools will have a significant impact.
A fundamental principle of education is to
prepare students for the future they are likely to
face. Beyond the axiomatic need for students to
comprehend anthropogenic impacts on climate
and nature, it helps them understand human
impacts on the integrated global system and
can be tied into the notion of global citizenship.
I decided to include the Anthropocene in my
teaching, given the importance of the concept
in helping every future citizen understand that
Earth’s condition is not static, permanent, nor
stable; but dynamic, transitory, and fragile.
The lesson
The Anthropocene is a complex web involving an
integrated global system, and there are many
lessons-worth of material that could be taught
within the framework of this potential new epoch.
The purpose of this article is to offer some
resources and ideas for teachers who wish to start
including the term in their schemes of work. The
lesson is aimed at students in year 9, as the nature
of the content would benefit from some familiarity
with other concepts, such as climate change and
geological timescales, but could be adapted to be
taught earlier in key stage 3 or later in key stage 4.
The PowerPoint containing the slides for the
lesson is available to download. The first slide is
a learning question that we address, and try to
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 answer, by the end of the lesson. Not only does
© Teaching Geography
30 this create a neat ‘bookend’ effect, providing
satisfying closure for the students, but a question
is also more likely to promote an intrinsically
motivated response to find an answer, even if they
do not fully understand it. I include ‘this lesson will
help you understand’ bullet points: this enables
students to see how the learning in the lesson
relates to future (or prior) learning, and make
schematic connections more readily. I also like to
explicitly teach key vocabulary at the start of the
lesson: the students find the dual coding of written
definitions together with related imagery on slide
2 helpful in grasping meaning (slides 1 and 2).
The introduction of the geological time
scale (GTS) on slide 3 is a vital component in
addressing the Anthropocene debate. The GTS
is constantly being updated – a total of 43 times
since the year 2000 – as new evidence from the
geological strata emerges. Even the Holocene
epoch did not receive official ratification until
2008. In the lesson we briefly explore the GTS
so the students have an understanding of the
way geological time is divided and subdivided. It
is worth at this point drawing attention to how
short the Holocene is compared to other epochs
on the GTS. On this scale the Anthropocene would
not even be visible.
On slide 4 we address the conditions needed
to end, and therefore create a new segment
of time, on the GTS. For the Anthropocene to
be recognised as an epoch there are several
conditions that must be met. Firstly, the Earth
system must be altered irrevocably, or at least
for several million years. This kind of change
must be on a par with past geological shifts,
which mark boundaries between geological
epochs. Secondly, the change must be captured
in the geological record in a way that can be
measured and is synchronous across the globe.
Large extinction events have been used as
boundary markers between different eras when
global changes, caused by catastrophic events,
altered the very living conditions on Earth. Many
of these boundaries are marked by what are
known as ‘golden spikes’ – chemical or elemental
signatures in the rocks, such as very high levels
of iridium from the meteorite strike fallout of 66
million years ago, when the dinosaurs became
extinct. The Holocene is, for instance, marked by
an increase in deuterium in ice cores collected
from Greenland and Antarctica. The extinction of
the dinosaurs marked the end of the Cretaceous
period and the beginning of the Palaeogene
period, so this would probably be the most
familiar ‘golden spike’ to the students.
To help them understand why we may be entering
a new epoch, we discuss the conditions that have
prevailed since the Holocene epoch started 11,700
years ago. After a tumultuous start with rapid
warming, followed by a swift rise in sea levels
as the ephemeral Younger Dryas cold spell came
to an end, the Holocene has been an epoch
characterised by a relatively stable climate. Despite
some significant shifts in the Earth system that
undoubtedly led to the demise of several
civilizations, these stable climatic conditions have
allowed humanity to flourish and evolve to a level
where we can now affect our global climate. In
slide 5, students consider how this relatively
equable epoch has aided humanity in developing
civilizations. Slide 6 provides a proforma for this
activity and slide 7 gives responses to the
question posed on slide 6. This activity can also
provide a springboard for discussions considering
what might happen if the Earth system turns on
us and our actions spiral us into the unknown.
Students can use the image in Figure 1 to gauge
when this deviation may have started. It is a
powerful and striking visual aid, and will help
students to contemplate just how unprecedented read their writing. I usually conclude the lesson Figure 1: Slide 8 from the
these past few decades have been in the history with a simple show of hands addressing the PowerPoint – this image has
been taken from https://
of the Holocene. On slide 9 the concept of an original learning question (slide 13), or a similar showyourstripes.info/s/globe
‘Anthropocene’ is introduced, with reference to activity. and helps students to consider
Paul Crutzen (2000). There are many others who whether the stable climatic
When teaching the lesson for the first time I was times of the Holocene have
have used similar terms, including Thomas Jenkyn
anxious in case the concept would be too abstruse been left behind and we have
(1854) who seems to have been the first to use
or abstract for students to grasp. Evidently not been launched into a new and
the Greek prefix ‘anthropos’: he used the term unpredictable future.
all the students in the class could give me an
‘Anthropozoic’ to classify rocks.
irreproachable definition of the Anthropocene,
In slide 10 students complete a similar task but the majority could. This has enabled them
by weighing up the various arguments for and to formulate a better understanding of Earth as
against a new epoch (see slide 11 for the task a complex, interconnected, yet ultimately fragile
template). A reminder of the conditions that must system.
be met before a new epoch is confirmed assists
Recognition of the Anthropocene, whether it is
the students in their choices. This could be taken
a formal epoch or remains as an informal term,
further by asking them to rank, or weight, the
helps students understand that being custodians
arguments for and against an ‘Anthropocene’
of the Earth system gives us great power to alter
and then reach a decision.
this ephemeral world for better, or worse. I hope
I have included an extended writing task on slide that the resources that accompany this article
12 to help students consolidate their learning. may prove useful to teachers who are keen to
Giving them time to reflect and consider their teach about the Anthropocene. Dr Cyrus Nayeri’s
responses could pay dividends later, especially if (2021) article is a valuable broader overview
a whole scheme of learning is to be based on the on how the concept of the Anthropocene can
concept of the Anthropocene. It also allows an prompt reflection on how we teach geography
opportunity to check their understanding and to in secondary schools.  |  TG
Online resources
The PowerPoint
References accompanying this
Crutzen, P.J. and Stoermer, E. (2000) ‘Anthropocene’, IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) Newsletter, 41, article is available to
pp. 17–18. download from the GA
Jenkyn, T.W. (1854) Lesson in Geology XLVI, Chapter IV: ‘On the effects of organic agents on the Earth’s crust’, Popular website. Go to www.
Educator, 4, pp. 139–41. geography.org.uk/
Nayeri, C. (2021) ‘Teaching geography in the Anthropocene’, Teaching Geography, 46, 2, pp. 50–52. Teaching-Geography
and select Spring 2022.
Weblink
https://showyourstripes.info
Mark Blackwell is a
Further reading Teacher of Geography at
Buffon, G.-L.L. de (2018) The Epochs of Nature. Edited and translated by Zalasiewicz, J., Milon, A.-S. and Zalasiewicz, M. Caedmon College, and
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. former Head of Field
Lewis, S.L. and Maslin, M.A. (2015) ‘Defining the Anthropocene’, Nature, 519, pp. 171–80. Studies at Skern Lodge
Lewis, S.L. and Maslin, M.A. (2018) ‘The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene’, Global Environment, 13, pp, in Devon, and a post-
674–80. 10.3197/ge.2020.130308. graduate researcher at the
Steffen, W. et al. (2015) ‘The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration’, Anthropocene Review, 2, pp. 81–98. University of Lancaster.
Steffen, W. et al. (2016) ‘Stratigraphic and Earth System approaches in defining the Anthropocene’, Earth’s Future, 4, pp. 324–45. Email:
Thomas, J.A., Williams, M. and Zalasiewicz, J. (2020). The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge: Polity Press. m.blackwell@ccwhitby.org
Working Group on the Anthropocene, Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (2019) ‘Results of binding vote by AWG’.
Twitter: @keepgeogingon
Available at http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene (last accessed 07/12/2021)

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
31
 Simon Oakes
and Emma What constitutes a good
Rawlings
Smith A level geography education?
At the time of writing, the number of school
Simon and Emma students and undergraduates choosing to study
discuss how far A geography was buoyant. In August 2021 281,741
level geography GCSE entries and 35,268 A level entries were
supports students recorded, with undergraduate applications up by
who go on to study almost 3% on the preceding year (Joint Council
geography at for Qualifications, 2021; Universities and Colleges
university and also Admissions Service, 2021). Such enthusiasm for
the subject rekindles debate around the purpose
what it offers for
of school geography and how best teachers can
those who go on to
prepare students for life after A levels. It can
study subjects other be a tricky transition for teachers to support,
than geography.
considering that 18% of A level geography
students do not choose university, and of those
82% who do go on to university around a fifth
study geography (Higher Education Statistics
Agency, 2021). During his presidential year at
the Geographical Association, Goudie (1993)
noted the importance of maintaining connections
between school and university geography:
For their part, universities depend on schools
for the bulk of their undergraduates; they need
to influence what is taught and examined
in schools, and they need to be aware how
methods of teaching (and what is taught)
have changed over recent years. There is
very little sense in moaning about what new
undergraduates do or do not know if one has
made no effort to influence what is done in
school. (p. 338)
Sporadic research on the school-university
transition has focused on bridging the divide,
the implications of school curriculum reform on
higher education (HE), and student perspectives
on academic skills and strategies to facilitate the
transition (Pointon, 2008; Tate and Swords, 2013;
Ferreira, 2018). Exploring the perceptions and
experiences of different stakeholders – including
students, teachers and academics – on school-
university transition can inform school-university
outreach, course design and teaching and
learning in both sectors. Teachers’ perceptions
feature infrequently in this research, with the
exception of a few studies such as Ferreira (2018).
The impact of the most recent A level reforms
(Department for Education (DfE), 2014) and
changes to assessment arrangements as a
consequence of COVID-19 revived the authors’
interest in school-university transition. We
question whether the revised A level geography
subject content, informed by the A level Content
Advisory Board (ALCAB), (2014) focused too
narrowly on knowledge and did not go far
enough in other important ways. Alongside the
acquisition of essential geographic knowledge,
it is vitally important for students to develop the
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 skills and core competences that will help them
© Teaching Geography
32 to critically engage with real-world issues, people
and places while also becoming increasingly
independent and capable members of society.
This is all the more important when we consider
what and who A level geography is for.
This article prioritises the perspectives of A
level geography teachers and explores their
understanding of the purpose of school
geography at a time when young people face
an increasingly uncertain future in terms of their
own possible employment career trajectories.
We first consider views on the purpose(s) of a
geographical education.
What and who is A level geography for?
Biesta (2015) responds to the question ‘What is
education for?’ by suggesting that qualification
is one of several key educational purposes.
Qualification, explains Biesta, ‘has to do with
the transmission and acquisition of knowledge,
skills and dispositions’ (p. 77). Thinking about
A level geography, as ALCAB did when developing
the new subject content, we ask: who is it for?
A key recommendation from ALCAB (2014, p. 2)
was that A and AS level content ‘must prepare
students who go on to study geography and
related subjects at university, and be relevant to
those who end their studies of geography at
A level’. Writing about A level geography in 2014
Rita Gardner, then President of the RGS-IBG,
recognises these two different groups comprising
the ‘who’ of A level geography:
Our view [is] that there should be a common
core of required content across all new
geography specifications at A level to prepare
A level students more effectively for further
study at university. The content proposals
also provide both rigour and interesting and
relevant topics of study for those students
who choose not to continue their geographical
studies beyond A level. (Gardner, 2014,)
We share Biesta’s (2015, p .76) view that
the point of education is that students learn
something and that ‘they learn it for a reason’.
However, we additionally acknowledge the
coexistence of the following two sub-domains
of educational purpose (in terms of the ‘who’
that in turn helps shape the ‘what’):
1. Learners who apply to read geography at
university (a minority of around 14% of all
A level geography entries); and
2. Learners who choose not to continue their
geographical studies beyond A level (the
vast majority, i.e. around 86%of all A level
geography entries).
To what extent can a single qualification optimise
outcomes for both sub-domains? Tensions become
apparent the moment we start to think in terms

‘Knowledge’
• Core topic knowledge
• Conceptual understanding
Competences / learning outcomes
‘Skills’
What is education for?
• Data skills and fieldwork
• ICT and digital skills
• Data or issues analysis
• Critical thinking/ evaluate
• Problem-solving/ assess
‘Attitudes’
• Personal development
• Teamwork and leadership
• Resilience and adaptability
• Academic integrity
• Global citizenship
of competence-based curricula. Competence models
have gained traction in the European context in
recent years (Marope et al., 2019) as an appropriate
framework for thinking about how to equip
learners with ‘competences’ for optimal personal
development and societal contribution (at varying
scales). These core competences include: creativity,
communication, critical thinking, problem solving
and metacognition; digital technology and ICT
skills; data, media, financial, scientific literacies and
numeracy; cross-cultural skills and global awareness;
and dimensions of personal development
including teamwork, initiative, perseverance,
responsibility, adaptability and academic integrity
(among others). Some of these ‘competences’
can be alternatively viewed as different types of
knowledge, skills or attitudes (KSA).
One view is that a main purpose or outcome
of A level geography should be equipping all
students with enduring competences, or KSA,
that will enable them to succeed in the future,
irrespective of whether they choose to continue
their geographical studies beyond A level or
not (Figure 1). The focus of the last review of
A level geography content in 2013–14 was
almost entirely on the nature of subject-specific
knowledge and understanding, along with
quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills
(ALCAB, 2014; DfE, 2014). While the curriculum
design process successfully built mandatory
requirements for the said skills, it did not create
any specific principles on how to embed other key
competences – such as critical thinking, problem-
solving and decision-making – in the geography
curriculum. Moreover, no systematic methodology
exists that can help us define how these might
differ in a geography curriculum when compared
with other science or social science curricula.
Whenever the next stage of the curriculum review
cycle arrives, there is an opportunity to move
towards (i) a more geographically specific mind-set
in relation to a broader set of KSA/competences/
learning outcomes, and (ii) a course that is
designed in ways that are much more clearly
mindful of the majority of the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of
A level geography’s education purpose (Figure 2).
Figure 1: What and
who is education for?
Learners who apply to read
geography at university
Qualification sub-domains
What is education for?
Learners who chose not to
continue their geographical
A-level studies beyond A Level
Geography
Figure 2: Possible issues to
• Have we become too concerned with consider at the next A level
curriculum review.
‘minding the gap’ between school and
university subject specialist geography to
the detriment of ensuring that broader
competency outcomes are optimised for
the vast majority of learners who do not
progress to HE geography?
• Should we be doing more to build a
systematic methodology which far more
clearly defines our expectations for AO2
(assessment objective 2 – analysis and
evaluation), along with attitudes, values
and other ‘soft’ competences? AO2
currently constitutes 40% the assessment
model yet past curriculum discussion
and debate has often focused mainly on
‘drilling down’ into AO1 knowledge and
AO3 skills acquisition.
The perspectives of A level geography
teachers
In July and August 2021, we conducted a small-
scale online survey of teachers that asked for
their thoughts about the purpose and desired
outcomes of A level geography. In total 39
teachers responded, all of whom held a PGCE
qualification, with 43% qualified at Masters level.
A majority of respondents (80%) had taught for
six or more years, most worked in state schools,
and almost all were based in England.
We asked which A level geography knowledge and
skills were most important for student progression
(with ‘skills’ denoting a range of competences
tagged at AO2 and AO3 in the assessments,
including critical thinking). Over two-thirds of
participants prioritised (i) independent research
skills, (ii) making synoptic links, and (iii) reasoning,
decision-making and evaluative skills (Figure 3);
these chime with the findings by ALCAB (2014).
Teachers commented that ‘students can’t get far
without these skills’, ‘these are skills that develop
independent thought and learning needed at
university’, ‘they will be needed when studying Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
33
 geography and other subjects at degree level’;
these are the ‘higher level skills needed for
successful degree completion’.
Teachers were also asked what knowledge and
skills they considered to be less important for
student progression (Figure 4). Over half of the
teachers opted for the three knowledge-based
statements offered by our survey, commenting
that ‘deep knowledge of a small number of core
topics’, ‘locational knowledge of geographical
significant places’ and ‘a wide knowledge base’
were least important for progression. A range
of arguments were put forward in support of
this view:
A narrow field of knowledge, even if detailed,
may hold students back and not open them
up to topics that might be useful.
Significant places will be a subjective choice;
need to avoid teaching students about
extreme geography i.e. the most populous
city in the world – better to know more
about their place in the world.
Knowledge will be built at university and
geography courses are so varied that deep
knowledge in a particular area/about a
particular place might not be relevant
to modules taken at university.
Teachers were also asked about activities that
helped support A level students with progression
to university. Respondents discussed activities
they could participate in themselves, along
with activities for their students, many of which
overlapped. For example, teachers valued reading
academic and popular geography literature,
connecting with university academics, listening
to outside speakers, attending RGS-IBG events,
engaging with Geography Ambassadors,
independent learning and research including the
benefits of the Extended Project Qualification
(EPQ). Several respondents valued EPQ as a
useful mechanism to support research methods.
However, as Ferreira (2018) noted, subject-specific
support is often not available for students due to
issues of staffing and timetabling, which seems to
be a missed opportunity.
Outreach activities with universities are not
a new development, yet were described as
being logistically problematic. When asked why
teachers do not always take advantage of these

Figure 3: Survey responses

on the most important
knowledge and skills for Analytical, mathematical
and digital skill 4 (10.3%)
student progression.
Deep knowledge of a small
number of core topics 2 (5.1%)
Knowledge beyond the
specification and textbooks
7 (17.9%)

Independent research skills 27 (69.2%)

Location knowledge of
geographically significant places
1 (2.6%)
Making synoptic links between
geographical topics
27 (69.2%)
Personal experience of fieldwork
6 (15.4%)
and primary data collection
Reasoning, decision-making
28 (71.8%)
and evaluation skills
Understanding and use of high-order
12 (30.8%)
geographical concepts i.e. scale
Wide knowledge base covering
7 (7.7%)
many different topics

Figure 4: Survey responses

on the least important
knowledge and skills for Analytical, mathematical
and digital skill 9 (23.7%)
student progression.
Deep knowledge of a small
number of core topics 22 (57.9%)
Knowledge beyond the
specification and textbooks
12 (31.6%)

Independent research skills 1 (2.6%)

Location knowledge of
geographically significant places
22 (57.9%)
Making synoptic links between
geographical topics
4 (10.5%)
Personal experience of fieldwork
11 (28.9%)
and primary data collection
Reasoning, decision-making
4 (10.5%)
and evaluation skills
Understanding and use of high-order
8 (21.1%)
geographical concepts i.e. scale
Wide knowledge base covering
21 (55.3%)
many different topics
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
34
opportunities, barriers such as not knowing the
right contact, administration, time and staffing
issues were all raised. Some respondents were
pleased about the recent move to online lectures
and events; yet take-up was variable, again due to
a range of logistical and technological barriers.
Needs of the few and of the many
It was striking that teachers mostly ranked
skills and competences as the most important
outcomes of an A level geography education,
ahead of the ‘mastery’ of certain bodies of
specialist subject knowledge, with several
respondents making the insightful point that
what constitutes ‘core’ knowledge is in any
case highly contestable given geography’s vast
academic breadth. This is indicative of the overlap
between the educational needs of the 14% of A
level geography students (‘the few’) who progress
to read geography at university and the 86% who
do not (‘the many’).
Indeed, if we were to begin shaping a curriculum
around the findings of our survey, it would
logically be one that is primarily concerned
with the acquisition of geographical skills and
competences – especially evaluative decision-
making and creative connective thinking –
with obvious and durable benefits for future
geographers and non-geographers alike. While
these high-order competences are a feature in
current specifications, far more might be done
to ensure they become a vital driving force in
curriculum and specification design.
The debate about what constitutes core subject
specialist knowledge for A level geography will
always be a vital one. But the findings of this
piece of small-scale research raise interesting
questions about how future rounds of A level
geography curriculum design might be conducted.
The needs of the few and the of the many
might be best catered for by a more holistic
and outward-facing model of A level geography
competences than currently exists. Perhaps
the starting point, or key principle, for any
future curriculum redesign might be an A level
curriculum that, above all else, sets out to equip
future geographers and non-geographers alike
with the life-long analytical, evaluative, decision-
making and creative competences that a good
geography education can uniquely provide.
Conclusions
With GCSE and A level examinations having been
cancelled in the summers of 2020 and 2021,
debate about the purpose of education and the
narrow focus of the current assessment system
has re-engaged more educators to re-ask the
fundamental question, ‘What is education for?’
When considering activities to support A level
geography students with school-university
transition, there are many opportunities on offer,
as described by Ferreira (2018) and the teachers
who responded to our survey. To develop fully-
rounded students to play a full part in society,
a wider debate is needed about what a good
A level geography education looks like, and the
assessments that logically accompany it.
The next A level consultation round, when it
comes, will be an opportunity for all of us to
do more than simply consider what geography
topics we want to teach and how many days
of fieldwork are needed. We should also argue
for an A level curriculum that is more explicitly
competence-based and that better equips those
who progress to university – and those who don’t
– with a broad set of life-long and value-added
competences that will help them survive, succeed
and thrive in their diverse future education and
work environments. At its best, this is surely what
a good geography education can do.  |  TG

References
All websites last accessed 31/12/2021.
ALCAB (2014) The A Level Content Advisory Board Report of the ALCAB Panel on Geography. Available at https://
alevelcontent.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/alcab-report-of-panel-on-geography-july-2014.pdf
Biesta, G. (2015) ‘What is Education For? On Good Education, Teacher Judgement, and Educational Professionalism’,
European Journal of Education, 50, 1, pp. 75–87.
DfE (2014) GCE AS and A level subject content for geography. Available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ Dr Simon Oakes is a
geography, humanities
government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/388857/GCE_AS_and_A_level_subject_content_for_geography.
and assessment
pdf Ferreira, J. (2018) ‘Facilitating the transition: doing more than bridging the gap between school and university
consultant, and a senior
geography’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 42, 3, pp. 372–83.
examiner in geography,
Gardner, R. (2014) A Consultation Response from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (Formal response to citizenship and law.
Ofqual Consultation). Available at www.rgs.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?nodeguid=8a313eae-71fe-4390-8449-
b835b06895b5&lang=en-GB Email: simonoakes1@
Goudie, A. (1993) ‘Schools and universities: The great divide’, Geography, 78, 4, pp. 338–9. btinternet.com
HESA (2021) Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2019/20 – Subjects studied. Available at www.hesa.ac.uk/news/27-01- Dr Emma Rawlings Smith
2021/sb258-higher-education-student-statistics/subjects is a lecturer and researcher
JCQ (2021) GCE and GCSE entry information. Available at www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/entries at the University
Marope, M., Griffin, P. and Gallagher, C. (2019) Future Competences and the Future of Curriculum: A Global Reference for of Bangor and is a
Curricula Transformation. International Bureau of Education-UNESCO. Available at www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ member of the Teaching
resources/future_competences_and_the_future_of_curriculum.pdf Geography Editorial Board.
Pointon, V. (2008) ‘Changes in A level geography and their implications for HE’, Planet, 19, pp. 9–11. Email: e.rawlingssmith@
Tate, S. and Swords, J. (2013) ‘Please mind the gap: students’ perspectives of the transition in academic skills between A level bangor.ac.uk
and degree-level geography’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37, 2, pp. 230–40.
Twitter: @Geography_
UCAS (2021) UCAS Undergraduate releases: 2021 Cycle Applicant Figures (July 2021). Available at www.ucas.com/data-and-
Emma
analysis/ucas-undergraduate-releases

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
35
 Matt Finn
Reading for a degree:
transitions to higher education
Encountering new academic readings can be
Matt outlines ways a transformative, and sometimes troubling,
to support A level experience for university students. Something
students in reading as seemingly simple as reading needs revisiting
around the subject in this context, and not all strategies are equally
and preparing for effective (Penn, 2020). As teachers, you can
university. help students learn these skills, preparing them
effectively ‘to read for their degree’.
Upskilling in a new context
Transitions to university have many aspects (Tate
and Hopkins, 2012; 2020), from the social to
the academic. When it comes to reading, some
significant shifts take place. Students move from
using provided textbooks, written with them
in mind, to being asked not only to navigate a
set reading list but also to explore a seemingly
endless list of academic texts. Questions emerge:
How do they choose their ‘expected wider
reading’? How much reading is ‘enough’? How
do students read academic texts, such as journal
articles, that may not have been written primarily
for them? Degree courses provide support for
students with these questions; nevertheless,
preparation and practice in school can support
a student in their transition to higher education
geography.
Why am I reading this? Reading
with purpose
As an admissions tutor, something I am meant
to say is that ‘students should be reading’, and
‘reading widely’, and ‘reading challenging texts’.
While this is true, it misses a question about
why students are reading, which has important
implications for what they read and how. In this
section I outline two broad purposes for reading
and how they affect the strategies you might
recommend. When students read with purpose,
they are being asked to really think about what
they read, more than being able to say they have
read something – for example, for a university
personal statement. Additionally, reading isn’t
simply an individual act but also a social practice,
where the perceived value and social acceptability
of reading in a student’s peer culture can be
crucial in shaping their reading identity (Sellers,
2019). As a teacher you can help to foster a
culture where reading can be part of ‘fitting in’
and ‘joining in’ by giving time and space to talk
about what students are reading. This supports
reading as a shared and valued activity.
Pleasure and perspectives
If a student is reading to be inspired or gain a
deeper, or different, perspective, then this purpose
Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022 shapes their engagement with the writing in
© Teaching Geography
36 front of them. They will be more likely to read
something from beginning to end, especially if
it’s a novel or a non-fiction book aimed at a
general reader. Whatever they are reading,
encourage them to ‘start a conversation’ in their
mind, with the book and its author. They can
pause as they go and imagine asking the author
questions about what they’re reading, seeing
if the book poses them questions in return. I
wouldn’t expect them to make detailed notes for
this kind of reading, but you might ask them to
keep a reading diary – having put the book, or
chapter away, they jot down the key ideas, new
vocabulary, thoughts or questions prompted by
what they have read.
Engaging with ideas and stories in other forms
– particularly podcasts and online resources/
courses – can also lead into further reading.
Free resources
The GA podcast – GeogPod: www.geography.
org.uk/GeogPod-The-GAs-Podcast
Various reading lists are available from the
GA, for example:
• www.geography.org.uk/Student-guidance
• www.geography.org.uk/write/
MediaUploads/Get%20involved/125_
books_for_your_A_level_students_to_
read.pdf
The GA has also produced GEO –
Geography Education Online – which
includes a range of resources, advice and
live sessions to support students studying
for GCSE and A level geography: https://
geographyeducationonline.org
Routes Journal is a journal for A level and
university students to publish work online.
It’s worth reading: both for what the articles
are about, and also how they are writing and
using referencing: https://routesjournal.org
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
‘Ask the Geographer’ podcast features
interviews with leading geographers: www.
rgs.org/schools/teaching-resources/ask-the-
expert-podcasts
There are also online courses, such as
FutureLearn: www.futurelearn.com. Created
by geography departments, among others,
FutureLearn comprises a range of mini-courses
you can dip into for free. There’s also a good
range of courses which focus on study skills
for school and preparing for university: www.
futurelearn.com/subjects/study-skills-courses.
Figure 1: Free access resources.
The Geographical Association (GA) has a great
podcast (GeogPod), with interviews on a range
of fascinating geographical topics, as does the
Royal Geographical Society (see the free access
resources in Figure 1). If it’s hard to access some
of the 100+ books suggested by the GA (the list
referred to in Figure 1), see if your local library
has a copy, or whether fundraising could allow
you to add them to the school or geography
library. Whatever way your students engage, they
should get to know how authors think and the
stories, examples, places and people, ideas and
arguments they are working with, and ‘start a
conversation’ with them.

Focused clarification and assessments

As well as reading for pleasure and new
perspectives, students might be reading with a
more focused purpose. They might be reading
for a non-examined assessment (the NEA, or
independent investigation), an Extended Project
Qualification, or to clarify something specific
they want to understand better. Perhaps they
are drawing on textbooks or a range of web
sources that might include news articles, reports
or academic journal articles. In fact, journal
articles – shorter pieces of academic writing which
have been peer-reviewed – are one of the main
sources of reading for a geography degree. It’s
increasingly possible to find versions of these
that students can access for free online through
university ‘repositories’. Next they review their notes against the text they
have been reading, thinking about what they might
You may want to refer students to resources
need to add or edit, acting on the feedback this
about information literacy (see Waller and
review has given them. This is a form of retrieval
Schultz, 2015; also Waller et al., 2016), but a
practice, or ‘self-testing’ which has been shown
starting point is that they need to know they are
to be more effective for recall and understanding
less likely to be reading something from start
(Penn, 2020). The point is that students keep
to finish (in the same way that one wouldn’t
thinking about what they are reading and assure
sit down and read a dictionary from beginning
themselves, rather than just assume, that it’s
to end). They need to learn to find what’s most
going to help achieve their purpose. If something
relevant to their search, then read that relevant
looks like a particularly useful introduction, or the
material in detail. Their reading strategies need
whole piece looks highly relevant, they might still
to be based on selective reading, since not
read it all, using one of the approaches above to
everything will be equally relevant – they can skim
orient themselves to the reading.
and scan across material and then zoom in. A
well-evidenced approach is called SQ3R (Tate and
Hopkins, 2020; Penn, 2020): A student starts by Shifts in reading and expectations
surveying the material. They skim across readings In this section I consider two key ‘shifts’ I’ve
– using the contents page, index, or search tool observed in student reading when moving from
to jump them into the most relevant parts by a school to a university setting.
using key words. They might scan the abstract
of a journal article, or perhaps the introduction From information to arguments
and conclusion, to assess its relevance. In some The first is shifting from ‘reading for information’
writing, you can read the first line of each to ‘reading for arguments’. Students might be
paragraph (‘topic sentences’) which tell you used to scanning for facts or quotations that they
what the paragraph is about. can pull out and use, and while this may have
Students then question themselves to check a place students need to be especially careful
whether the reading, and which parts, are that they don’t pull quotes out of context. The
relevant to their purpose. Having considered an shift from this kind of extractive reading is to
abstract, or the introduction/conclusion, the considering the author’s main idea, argument,
students then zoom in to read the most relevant or narrative, and noticing how they make that
parts, and slow down to consider what’s being argument and draw on evidence/examples. This
said and how it fits into the overall argument matters, because we want students to be mindful
of the piece. It’s not advisable to engage in that authors are not just ‘telling us how things
extensive highlighting or note-making (which are’ – they are making an argument about how
have been shown to be less effective: Penn, 2020). they understand the matter being considered.
Instead, they put away the reading and recite, by They are persuaded of their argument, but the Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
writing down, what they recall in their own words. reader, and other academics, might not be: they 37
 might interpret the same facts in other ways.
Reading for arguments alerts us to academic
debates. Importantly, this is rarely between
‘two sides’ with a for and against. These are
arguments as there are (potentially many)
different ways of understanding a complex
phenomenon, where the ideas might fit together,
or be in tension, or alert us to different aspects we
could be noticing.
Joining the conversation
The second shift concerns how students deal
with writing that wasn’t written primarily with
A level or undergraduate students in mind.
Textbooks have been written for a student
audience, and these are often great places to
get an introduction or an overview. But academic
books, or journal articles, are written primarily
for a different audience – other academics – who
are already conversant with the ‘backstory’ a
student might need. Let’s imagine that I start
watching a streaming TV series part-way through.
I don’t know the people or the backstory – the
characters refer to things I don’t know about,
may use jargon I don’t understand, and the
connections between events and people might
not be clear. I can see what I can pick up: but I
shouldn’t expect to understand everything or be
worried if I don’t. However, accessing resources
could help me understand more. To continue the
previous analogy, I might find a series recap,
a ‘who’s who’ overview, or talk to people who
know that backstory to help me understand.
For academic reading, that might be textbooks
or introductory/overview articles from people
who’ve been following the conversation and
can summarise and explain. University tutorials
and lectures serve a related purpose. However,
the more students read, the more they fill in
that backstory and understand what’s being
talked about, what words mean, or how people
use them differently, and how that academic
‘conversation’ has developed over time. The point
here is that students shouldn’t assume they are
unintelligent if they don’t understand something
straight away – especially where the authors have
had to assume a fair bit of prior knowledge (or
backstory) in order to focus on the argument they
are making.
Read with purpose: SQ3R
• Students survey a piece through skimming
and scanning techniques, looking for
relevant material
• Students question if the reading will assist
their purpose
• Students read with what they want to get
out of it in mind
• Students put it away and recite in writing
what they can recall in their own words
• Students then review their summary,
checking it against the original, acting
on what they notice.
Shift expectations
• Students’ shift from reading to extract
information to reading for the argument
the writer is making, and how they are
making it
• Students’ shift from trying to understand
everything on first reading, to seeing
themselves as joining an ongoing
‘conversation’ and reading to fill in
the ‘backstory’.
Figure 2: Summary of key tips.
Giving your students opportunities to practise
choosing and using appropriate strategies as
they read with purpose, and to consider shifts in
their expectations, should prepare them well for
encountering different kinds of academic texts
at university. New ideas may always trouble as
well as transform, but in following this guidance,
you will have equipped your students to adopt
effective approaches as they read for their degree.
Acknowledgements
This piece has been informed by the work of
colleagues at different universities, including Nicola
Thomas, Martina Tyrrell, Sarah Dyer and Laura
Smith at the University of Exeter, the GeogEd
Research Group of the RGS-IBG; around a decade
of teaching first-year students and reading work
on study skills and transition; and research funded
by the Exeter Education Incubator on transition
from the revised A levels to university.  |  TG

Dr Matt Finn is a
Senior Lecturer in
Human Geography and
Admissions Tutor at the
University of Exeter, and a
member of the Geography
Editorial Collective.
Email: m.d.finn@exeter.
ac.uk
Twitter: @MattMattFinn
References
All websites last accessed 16/11/2021.
Penn, P. (2020) The psychology of effective studying: how to succeed in your degree. Abingdon: Routledge.
Tate, S. and Hopkins, P. (2012) Student transitions research website, Newcastle University. Available at https://research.ncl.
ac.uk/studenttransitions
Tate, S. and Hopkins, P. (2020) Studying Geography at University: How to Succeed in the First Year of Your New Degree.
Abingdon: Routledge.
Sellers, C. (2019) ‘“Fitting in” and “standing out”: the peer group and young people’s development of reader identity’, British
Journal of Sociology of Education, 40:7, 938-952, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2019.1622407
Waller, R., Adams, C., Miller, G. and Schultz, D.M. (2016) ‘Encouraging students to read beyond the core text’, Teaching
Geography, 41, 3, pp. 103–5.
Waller, R. and Schultz, D.M. (2015) ‘How to succeed at university in GEES disciplines: Enhancing students’ information literacy
skills’. The Higher Education Academy. Available at www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/how_to_succeed_in_
gees_0.pdf

Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022

© Teaching Geography
38
Reviews
BOOK
Stories from a migrant city: Living and working
together in the shadow of Brexit
Ben Rogaly | ISBN: 978-1-5261-3173-7 |
Paperback: £19.99 Manchester: Manchester
University Press
As geography teachers it can be easy to slip
inadvertently into problematic simplifications.
One such simplification, which cuts to the heart
of much recent research into the geographies of
migration, is that of ‘local / migrant’. Ben Rogaly,
in his excellent book argues that a rethinking
of this binary ‘is long overdue’, and that such a
rethinking can help us also to ‘draw the sting from
popular nationalist renditions of ‘white British’
as the familiar norm around which other people’s
identities should be defined.’
Interrogating a dual urban experience of crisis
and optimistic contestation, Rogaly draws on
some useful conceptual resources. Following
Doreen Massey, he theorises places as ‘porous,
extroverted and always connected to other
places elsewhere, rather than being bounded
or fixed’. He shows how economic and social
systems racialise and divide some communities
by differentiating them from a supposedly non-
migrant, local norm. However, at the same time
and in the same places as these processes of
division Rogaly also finds evidence of what he
calls a ‘non-elite cosmopolitanism’, whereby
working-class communities – all too often
stereotypically characterised as homogenous
and white – negotiate, live with and embrace
difference rather than feeling threatened or
challenged by it.
What makes this book so valuable is the case
study location – Peterborough. By focusing
on this relatively small urban area in the east
of England, Rogaly highlights the everyday
importance of the processes of racialisation and
non-elite cosmopolitanism and their broader
role in shaping British urban experience. Too
often popular debates on diversity in British
society adopt a London-centric focus, as though
London is distinctively multicultural and other
towns or cities simplistically homogenous.
Rogaly shows the underlying geography of this
framing as profoundly misconceived, in which
‘a cosmopolitan orientation is portrayed as
metropolitan: more likely to be found in residents
of big cities than in those who live in small cities,
towns or rural areas’.
Rogaly’s book will be of great value to geography
teachers thinking about the relationship between
place, urban change and migration. The detailed
ethnographic work and flowing style make this
book a pleasure to read. There are also real
opportunities to integrate Rogaly’s research into
classroom teaching by using it alongside the film
Workers, produced by Rogaly in collaboration
with Jay Gearing and available online at https://
creativeinterruptions.com/commissions/workers/.
This documentary, which sees ten individuals talk Reviews
about their experiences working in warehouses
and food processing in Peterborough, makes for
an excellent and accessible way to bring Rogaly’s
theories on place and migration into geography
classrooms.
Dan Whittall is Geography Subject Lead and Head Reviews of new
of Year 13, Trinity Sixth Form Academy
geography resources.
BOOK
Colonialism and Modern Social Theory
Gurminder K Bhambra, John Holmwood | ISBN:
978-1-509-54129-4 | Paperback: £17.99 Polity
This publication is a tribute to the substantial
contributions of its authors, Gurminder Bhambra
and John Holmwood, to the subject of sociology on
the consciousness of colonialism and sociological
theory. Recent debates in geography have pointed
towards the urgency to confront the ‘deafening
silence’ of teaching about race, racism and the
understanding of space and place through their
global and historical contexts. This book answers
this call, as it will assist teachers and academics
engaging in anti-racist and decolonial curriculum
planning. Through a careful critique of theories
of liberty, democracy, and progress, shaped by
colonialism, the book brings together these missing
elements which are essential to school geography.
The structure and approach of the book allows
a discussion of issues of contemporary sociology
that can easily be related to geographical thought.
The theoretical arguments in the text support
the view that the world has a history that can be
applied to all disciplines through three particular
strands – sociology, politics, and history. This book
is successful in addressing how colonialism shaped
knowledge connected to modern social theory,
as it is understood in ‘western’ academia. The
book dedicates a chapter to each scholarly figure
central to this; including Marx, Weber, Durkheim
and Du Bois. Bhambra and Holmwood offer a
critique of the actual canon that was shaped by
colonial European social theory, along with the
scholars who surrounded its construction.
Recent debates in geography about racialised
identity and movements such as Black Lives
Matter have stimulated a deep consideration of
the need to have meaningful conversations in the
geography classroom. The authors acknowledge
geographical debates surrounding the ‘migrant
crisis’ context in Europe, and the fading concept
of multiculturalism, by arguing how these
concepts are similar for both the US and UK
contexts. They have devised a succinct argument
that will help teachers think through the ways in
which colonialism can be understood within case
studies taught about the global south.
A lot of sociological thought is heavily
synchronous with geography; particularly the
debates on anti-racism and decoloniality. The
professors who have written this book have paved
the way for teachers and educators of geography
to confidently challenge racism, and teach about Vol 47, 1, Spring 2022
© Teaching Geography
race and colonial histories in school geography. 39
With greater recognition of the gulf between
school and academic geography, there is a
growing need to take a multi-disciplinary
approach to teaching. This timely book is that
leverage, as its discussions on modern social
theory are contextualised through the history of
European colonialism and the emergence of the
United States. It is a must-have text that can be
used to transform the way we approach antiracist
and decolonial thought for British school
geography.
Iram Rehman Sammar is an experienced
geography teacher, a PhD student at the Institute
of Education, University College London and
a committee member of the GTE.
BOOK
Ice Rivers: A story of glaciers, wilderness
and people
Jemma Wadham | ISBN: 9780241467688 |
Penguin | Paperback: £9.99
Ice Rivers is an outstanding new introduction to
the study of glaciers and an intriguing account
of a glaciologist at work. Jemma Wadham is
Professor of Glaciology at the University of Bristol
and the Arctic University of Norway. Global ice
is uncovered in all its scale and variety through
accounts of fieldwork on almost every continent.
This spans the Alpine valleys which inspired
Wadham and the wildest corners of Svalbard,
Greenland and Antarctica. The writing is light
with vivid images (‘Imagine … the ice had grown,
bursting open the freezer door, and starting to
advance across the floor …’). Every reader will
find their knowledge broadened here.
If there is more to glaciers than meets the eye,
then the same is true of the eventful academic
journey. This is a personal memoir, not a textbook.
Wadham wrote Ice Rivers in recovery from brain
surgery after discovering that persistent headaches
were caused by more than just the pressures of
fieldwork. Her work has been propelled in part
by the intellectual challenge of understanding
unknown worlds, but also by an emotional
connection with remote landscapes. She conjures
the exhilarating mystery of a glacial encounter:
‘That first tantalizing smell of the ice, that sense of
being stroked by its soft, frigid, fingers is a welcome
and a warning.’ Sometimes the ancient myths and
personifications of glaciers seem very close.
The most important lesson for our students is
that glaciers are centre stage in a warming world.
Natural hazards and resource conflicts spiral from
their rapid retreat, from Peru’s outburst floods
to looming water scarcity in south Asia. On a
global scale, snow and ice dynamics are key to
our climate future. The direction is all one way for
now. Ice Rivers is a rare combination of academic
insight and the personal realities of research. It is
an ideal addition for the bookshelf of sixth form
geographers looking beyond A level – and for
their teachers. We need more books like this, to
bring cutting-edge research to vivid life into our
classrooms.
Dr Chris Pyle is Head of Lancaster Royal
Grammar School
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