vi. border crossings: geographies across universities and schools.

Outline

Once upon a time … university and pre-university geography were closely connected in the British system. Indeed, as recently as the mid-1980s university geographers played a central role in determining the old O and A level syllabi (both content and assessment). However, over the last twenty years pre-university geography has lost significant points of connection with post-18 geography …

This seminar hopes to cross the borders (Castree et al, 2007) between these different spheres of geographical education, and explore the potential for collaborative ventures that seek to embed a collective vision of (public) geography futures, taking inspiration from such ventures as the ‘Juicy Geography’, and ‘Living Geography’ initiatives.

Arrangements

Date: Saturday 13th November 2010
Venue: Soar Valley College, Leicester, LE4 7GY [link]

Convenors: Kye Askins (Northumbria University), Gavin Brown (Leicester University) & Simon Renshaw (Soar Valley College)

NB One key hope was to attract a mix of teachers, academics, educators and yes even some school and university students!!

Daily Planner

9.30–10.00: REGISTRATION

10.00–11.15: LESSON ONE: View from School

• Noel Jenkins: Juicy Geography
• Young People’s Geographies project
• Soar Valley students: imagining university

11.15–11.30: MORNING BREAK

11.30–12.30: LESSON TWO: Across the divide

• John Lyon: Geographical Association
• Steve Brace: Royal Geographical Society

A conversation around enabling better conversations across the borders: 15/20mins talk from speakers on their organisations’ role and ambitions and practical projects/initiatives, then opened up again to wider questions/discussion

12.30–1.00: LESSON THREE: Going back in …

Geography Ambassador experiences (Leicester University students / school teachers of schools they went to)

1.00-2.00: LUNCH BREAK (Wet play if raining)

2.00-3.00: LESSON FOUR: Critical and creative collaborations

• Jo Norcup: Glasgow University

Jo introduced a workshop on “Experimental educational engagements: Contemporary Issues in Geography and Education” with a short talk based on her PhD research: “Tales of DiY publications, and critical and creative collaborations”.

3.00-4.00: LESSON FIVE: key experiences/themes

• Amy Buckley, Lauren Barnes, Peter Hopkins: Newcastle University
  

Amy and Lauren (students) offered reflections on their experiences as University students, regarding key issues on the journey from school to – and moving through – university; Peter offered an overview on research into these issues.

THEN broke out into small groups – to chat about what was covered and for each group to identify/highlight/suggest

• key themes emerging from their experiences/the day
• potential ways forward to continue finding/acting on points of connection

4.00–4.30: FINAL LESSON

Feedback from groups and round up of day

4.30: HOME TIME