Durban Presentation on Perspectives in Geography Teaching

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Durban Presentation on Perspectives in Geography
Teaching

• Ashley Kent
• Institute of Education, London, UK
• Lex Chalmers, and Paul Keown
• University of Waikato, New Zealand

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The Perspectives Project

• The presentation describes
• explain the context of our interest in
  perspectives
• clarify what we mean when we use the term
  perspective
• establish the perspectives that participants
  understand
• provide material on a range of geographical
  perspectives
• encourage critical feedback on the value of the
  resources
• discuss the electronic bases for professional
  development of geographers.

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• The five sections of the presentation answer
• the questions
• What context provides the platform for our
  interest in perspectives in geography?
• What are perspectives and why are they important?
• What perspectives could be used in Geography?
• How should a perspectives website be used in
  professional development?

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• 1. What context provides the platform for our
  interest in perspectives in geography?

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We suggest

• The imperial project provided a platform for
  teaching geography in schools (19th Century)
• Geographys importance increased in university
  curricula as science emerged alonside classics
  and the arts (early 20th Century)
• Subject knowledge was the prime concern in
  teacher education in the 1960s
• Significant changes occurred in the 1970s

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• The policy environment of many systems saw the
  separation of secondary and tertiary education.
• While there were some advantages for secondary
  education in a new focus on teaching and
  learning, mixed ability classrooms,
  accountability and quality assurance procedures,
  Andrew Goudies (1993) plea to address the great
  divide was inevitable.

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• If we recognise the benefits of the de-linking
  of secondary and tertiary, some universal costs
  have also been identified. Did we see
• Declining subject skills in senior teachers of
  geography?
• Less exposure to the critical geographies
  promoted in tertiary geography?
• Resources available only to centrally determined
  priorities?
• Cohort effects evident in the teaching body?
• This is the context of our project. We would like
  to provide useful material to support the
  professional development of geography teachers.

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• 2. What is a geographical
• perspective and why is
• it important?

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Perspectives

• There are benefits in understanding how knowledge
  about the world is organised and used from
  different perspectives. In geography, we are
  interested in objects, processes and
  relationships as they relate to places and to
  spaces. We can see there are different ways of
  looking, thinking and writing about these things.
  
• The way we organise our collective understanding
  of things affects what we can know of the
  geography of these things. The framework we use
  to organize our thinking is often called our
  perspective, sometimes our theoretical
  perspective.
• Part of the problem with the simple definition of
  perspective is that the word is used in different
  ways and contexts.

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Perspectives

• We use perspective to refer to a theoretical
  perspective or way of looking at the world that
  has been adopted by a significant group of
  commentators.
• For example, the perspective promoted by Karl
  Marx was that institutions, events and the nature
  of places could be understood using class
  analysis within a process called historical
  materialism (feudalism through to the crisis
  of capitalism, etc). Marx founded the historical
  materialism perspective, sometimes called
  Marxism.
• If we adopt a different perspective to Marx, we
  take a different view of places and sets of
  events. Our perspective can be equally valid and
  provide as much insight as the Marxist view.

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Perspectives

• Since 1970 academic geographers have questioned
  the dominant scientific perspective. Scientific
  analysis and social science were described as
  hegemonic (a dominance allowed by unreflective
  acquiescence of participants in the practice of
  the day). Scientific knowledge was valued, and
  considered to be the truth.
•  
• The historical preferment of science is well
  documented during the enlightenment the idea
  of scientific proof was widely accepted. The
  scientific perspective (that values information
  that has been proven by set scientific
  procedures) is labelled positivism,
  empiricism or scientific rationalism.

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Perspectives

• It helps if we are aware of the perspectives we
  use in research and teaching, but no perspective
  will ever have universal endorsement.
• Perspectives such as those described as
  post-modern, post-colonial and feminist offer
  critiques of the (social) sciences in the 1970s,
  but they have also been criticized. See Harveys
  (1990) materialist (Marxist) critique of
  perspectives that argue for the importance of
  individual lived experience outside the larger
  group.
• Positivism has an important role, but we need to
  be clear about the limits of the perspective we
  adopt, and versatile with respect to the
  perspectives we are prepared to consider.

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• 3. What perspectives could be
• used in Geography?

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Perspectives used in Geography

• We suggest the perspective most widely used in
  Geography is positivism or the scientific
  method.
• The method works with objective knowledge
  (facts), replicable measurement and hypothesis
  testing.
• Positivism has a role in geography teaching and
  research. But we will also invite you to consider
  other perspectives. What might these options be?

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Perspectives used in Geography
Our first perspectives map included the
following

• Bi/multiculturalism
• Deep ecology - environmentalism
• Feminism
• Globalisation
• Humanism

• Marxism
• Positivism
• Post-colonialism
• Post-Fordism
• Postmodernism

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• The value of the exercise lies in encouraging you
  to think about the perspectives you identify
  and use.
• Like us, you may have found that there were gaps
  in your knowledge, and the ease with which we
  adopt the positivistic perspective raises the
  questions why this happens?
• We dont want to throw out the baby with the
  bath water, but we suggest some support for
  versatility in the use of different perspectives
  would enrich our teaching and learning.

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• 4. Where do we find support
• for using a wider range of
• Perspectives in Geography?

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Published resources on perspectives

• In our work we have come across some useful books
  that deal with contemporary perspectives in
  geography. We frequently cite
• Anderson and Gale (1998) Cultural Geography.
• Johnston,Gregory, Pratt and Watts (2000) The
  Dictionary of Human Geography.
• Le Heron, Murphy, Forer and Goldstone (1999)
  Explorations in Human Geography.
• Waitt, McGuirk, Dunn, Hartrig and Burnley (2000)
  Introducing Human Geography.

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• But we think the internet provides an excellent
  platform for support for several reasons
  including
• the unlimited access (24hours, 365 days a year),
• the opportunity to access a variety of
  persepectives from one seat (provided links are
  maintained!),
• the availability of teacher-specific sites (like
  Te Kete Ipurangi) that feature educational
  resources,
• the option of taught courses featuring
  geographical perspectives on the internet.

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• In October 2001 we began development of a
  perspectives site at the Institute of Education,
  and an early version of the model was reviewed by
  a graduate geography class.
• The public web-access site was created at the
  University of Waikato.

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• The Waikato site currently has commentaries on
  five perspectives that geographers may find
  useful.
• The available perspectives are feminism, deep
  ecology-environmentalism, bi/muliculturalism,
  globalisation and post-Fordism.
• The page begins with an extended definition of
  perspectives to establish a benchmark for the use
  of subsequent commentaries.

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• The format of commentaries is universal
• A small number of attributed quotations provide
  snapshots relevant to the perspective
• The origins of the perspective are explained
• The main ideas of the perspective are discussed
• Some views of the importance of the perspective
  are provided, along with
• examples of the application of the perspective
• The relevance to wider developments in geography
  and (social) science is suggested along with
• a few web links that discuss the perspective
• References to further reading are given.

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• The perspectives site is accessed from the URL
• http//www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/subjects/geography/
  papers/504/distanceMA2.shtml
• Each of the workshop computers has been set up
  with its own userid, from train01 through to
  train10. You will have a card indicating the
  number of the userid your computer is assigned.
• At the start of the workshop your computer should
  be running two applications, Netscape (Waikato
  URL) and Microsoft Word.
• Check that the icons for both these applications
  are showing on the status bar at the bottom of
  your screen.

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• 5. How should a perspectives
• website be used in
• professional development?

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Making a website work in PSP

• In our paper we note comments on the
  conservative nature of (geography) teaching, in
  part driven by (a) concerns about critical
  perspectives, (b) the nature of the curricula,
  (c) lack of resources and (d) inertia.
• If a perspectives web-site is to have any
  influence on such conservatism, it will need to
  promote professional development in three areas
  (PSP) identified by Bell and Gilbert (1996).

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Making a website work in PSP

• Personal development about what it means to be a
  teacher, especially where new ideas go against
  the grain. Success will revolve around ways
  teachers can commit to understand different ways
  of constructing geographies
• Bell and Gilbert (1996).

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Making a website work in PSP

• Social development, including collective
  negotiations about the acceptance of new
  perspectives. Workshops and new communication
  technologies like e-mail and the internet
  facilitate such development.
• Bell and Gilbert (1996).

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Making a website work in PSP

• Professional development that involves not only
  classroom activities, but also promotion of the
  ideas in formal institutional structures.
• Bell and Gilbert (1996).
• Our written paper extends this discussion with
  reference to web sites that support some of these
  developments, although we claim some pecedence
  for our own work in this area.

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Conclusion

• We stress that this workshop is the first step to
  support the enrichment of our perspectives
  awareness.
• We welcome critical feedback much more than the
  bland indifference of the comfort zone.
• We value collegial support, and will acknowledge
  the contribution of this and future workshops in
  our project over the next 18 months.