2001 Index
Journal
of Geography in Higher Education Cumulative Index
ABSTRACT
This paper reflects on experience as an educator, education bureaucrat, researcher
and indigenous rights activist to frame significant challenges facing geographical
education in the contemporary university and beyond. It argues that the process
of constructing engagements between ‘students’ in diverse settings within and
beyond the confines of the tertiary classroom and addressing the intellectual
and practical consequences of ‘deep colonising’ of even quite progressive university
programmes are critically important. Drawing on the work of Freire, Levinas,
Rose and Derrida among others, the paper explores prospects for decolonising
the geographical imagination that academic geography fosters.
KEYWORDS
Indigenous rights, social justice, geographical imagination, decolonisation,
borderlands, polyphony, border pedagogy, other.
ABSTRACT
Learning journals are used to help advanced-level undergraduate students construct
a personal understanding of Gaia Theory. In this context, students like the
journal technique and consider it appropriate to the course. They also agree
that writing journals contributes to promoting subject learning, introspection
and self-awareness of their own learning processes. For the instructor, the
journals provide detailed insight into the development of student learning and
students’ interactions with the other components of the curriculum. The journals
highlight which instructional devices work, which have problems, who is affected
and what learning strategies they adopt. They provide a better perspective on
the extent of students’ reading and reflection than is obtainable from more
formal scripts. The chief problem in the use of learning journals is their bulk
and the time required for assessment and analysis. The journal technique has
also helped demonstrate how the Gaia Theory may provide an appropriate curriculum
for the practice of constructive learning. The unorthodox ideas and contradictions
of Gaia Theory successfully challenge students to think deeply, critically and
self-consciously about their prior understanding of the world.
KEYWORDS
Learning journals, physical geography teaching, Gaia, constructivism, course
evaluation, General System Theory, learning theory.
ALAN JENKINS, Oxford Brookes University, UK
ANDREW WARD, Freelance Writer
ABSTRACT
The 30-year story of the geography department at Oxford Brookes University is
presented as an oral history in the words of the experienced full-time staff.
The department has gained a reputation in the UK and beyond for innovative active-learning
methods and its story is an example of how a pedagogic culture can develop in
a geography department. The story can also be read as a case study of a workplace
in higher education, or as a contribution to the history of education. Most
importantly, though, it offers insight into the key factors concerning the development
of innovative teaching practice.
KEYWORDS
Oral history, geography, teaching, higher education, innovation, change, workplace
culture.
SARAH MAGUIRE, University of Ulster, Coleraine, UK
SALLY EDMONDSON, Liverpool Hope University College, UK
ABSTRACT
University teachers in the UK are increasingly being asked to develop skills,
such as the ability to work effectively in groups, both by government and by
employers. This paper outlines and evaluates, from a student perspective, the
use of fieldwork projects to develop group-working skills. It also considers
the use of self-assessment for summative purposes and the development of reflective
practice or ‘learning to learn’ skills in students.
KEYWORDS
Student evaluation, group work, self-assessment, reflection.
JOHN H. McKENDRICK, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper introduces the theme of ‘teaching geography to non-geographers’.
It is set against the context of learning and teaching with the ‘Other’ in geography.
At the outset a working definition of a ‘non-geographer’ is provided. The resource
and pedagogical implications arising from teaching geography to non-geographers
are then outlined. Finally, the contributions to this broader debate from the
five case studies that comprise this JGHE symposium are summarised.
KEYWORDS
Teaching geography, geographical education, benchmarking, geography departments,
geography students, Othering.
ALISON McCLEERY, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
ABSTRACT
Within the UK Higher Education system, geography is sometimes taught outside
the framework of a conventional geography degree programme. Using a case study
of the situation at Napier University, Edinburgh, this paper explores the problems
and possibilities of delivering ‘footloose’ geography within a broadly, but
not exclusively, social science context.
KEYWORDS
‘Footloose’ geography, human geography, social science, geography and ‘non-geographers
’, regional geography, geography of the commonplace.
SARAH MAGUIRE, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK
ABSTRACT
The Department of Environmental and Biological Studies at Liverpool Hope University
College recruits an above-average number of students who could be classified
as ‘non-traditional’. Many are mature and many have gained entry to higher education
via routes other than A level. In addition, and increasingly, many have selected
or been allocated to the first-year geography modules with little or no experience
of geography education. These students undertake a carefully structured programme
of small-group teaching, designed to induct and train them in the practices
of higher education and through which they are introduced to key geographical
concepts. This paper highlights some of the issues arising from teaching non-traditional
students and identifies as case studies elements of the programme, which support
the development of students’ skills and geographical understanding.
KEYWORDS
Non-traditional students, nurture, student retention.
ELEANOR ROCKSBOROUGH SMITH, University of Durham, UK
ABSTRACT
The popularity of physical geography at all levels of formal education is declining.
This paper argues that a key factor in the decline may be the disparity between
geographies studied within formal education and the popular geographies encountered
during leisure pursuit. Through the example of the Jurassic Coast Project, an
initiative for the interpretation of Dorset’s coastal landscape, approaches
towards the integration of popular and academic geographies are explored. Drawing
explicit links between popular experiences and academic knowledge may benefit
physical geography, improving its status amongst public and student audiences,
and addressing the concerns that surround its decline within higher education.
KEYWORDS
Popular geography, educational tourism, Dorset, fieldwork, recruitment to higher
education.
2001 Index
Journal
of Geography in Higher Education Cumulative IndexJOHN H. MCKENDRICK & ELIZABETH MOONEY, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the teaching of geography to ‘non-geographers ’ at Glasgow
Caledonian University (GCU). GCU is one of the so-called ‘new’ universities
in the UK and it shares with many of these institutions a mission to facilitate
access to groups that have traditionally been under-represented in higher
education. Human geography is one of the six subject area streams within the
interdisciplinary social sciences degree programme, although geographical
subject matter is taught in many other degree programmes, in each of GCU’s
three faculties. The arrangements for teaching human geography at GCU present
pedagogical challenges for staff. Means to address these problems have been
implemented. In this case study, it is argued that the experience of teaching
human geography to ‘non-geographers ’ at GCU may be of more general significance
to the discipline, to the teaching of geography in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ universities
and to those responsible for the delivery of mainstream geography degree programmes.
KEYWORDS
Teaching geography, geographical education, geography departments, Glasgow
Caledonian University, new universities.
STUART SEMPLE, Dalhousie University & Mount Allison University, Canada
ABSTRACT
This paper is concerned with epistemological and attitudinal problems encountered
in communicating geographical concepts to non-geographers . It reflects a
Canadian context and offers a case study of a group of non-geographer s whose
special needs are often overlooked: the teachers of social studies. An inductive
approach, using systematic geography only as required in order to understand
a case study, is found to be effective in building bridges for those new to
the subject. The choice of sequence should be from the empirical to the theoretical,
in which fieldwork fulfils a point of entry for non-geographers.
KEYWORDS
Geography teaching, fieldwork, inductive approach, social studies students.
2001
Index
Journal
of Geography in Higher Education Cumulative IndexJOHN H. McKENDRICK, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper reflects upon the five case studies that comprise the collection
on the theme of ‘teaching geography to non-geographers ’. Key themes are
discussed and an agenda for pedagogic research is outlined.
KEYWORDS
Teaching geography, geographical education, benchmarking, geography
departments, geography students.
Page created 22 July 2001