Why geography is key to today’s big issues

Teachers will need to get pupils to think more critically and creatively about the future. Global warming, climate change, the destruction of the global environment, an ever-growing world population, energy resources, food resources, integrated transport, sustainable development and globalisation are topics that children must know about, be able to discuss openly, and understand how they might contribute to their futures.

In March, the Geography Action Plan — which originally came into existence two years ago to promote geography and allow support for geography teachers — was given further funds by the Government to allow this to be extended for another three years. With the environmental concerns of today, and the need for our children to be fully aware of the future world in which they will have to live, geography is highly relevant.

Geography is a dynamic subject which provides our students with skills, knowledge and understanding which will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

It lets all our pupils understand the environmental problems that are often headline news today — environment (both physical and human) is to geography what literacy is to English and numeracy is to maths. Environmental wellbeing encompasses the geographical notions of a sense of place, neighbourhood and community, belonging and identity, resource use and misuse and environmental exploitation and care. More specifically, the environmental impact of wealth and poverty, water access, climate change and weather shifts, transport and migration will be important to them. Geography therefore has a vital role in developing children’s understanding of environmental wellbeing.

With the introduction of the new A-Levels and the new GCSE specifications coming soon too, this is another big period of change for geography teachers in the schools we feed.

It is therefore vital that the prep schools prepare the children but also make the subject enjoyable and interesting to allow them to want to continue to GCSE.

Our curriculum also needs to include geography to ensure an environmental and sustainable framework for pupil’s futures. The teaching strategies and the Assessment for Learning ideas that are being developed will, I hope, improve and develop prep school geography in the future.

The future looks brighter for our subject as the Geography Action Plan, with Government support, and the enhanced roles of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and the Geographical Association supporting the geography teachers, allows a better resource base to be available for the teachers to use.

The IAPS and HMC will have an important role in looking at curriculum planning for prep schools and the transfer of pupils to their senior schools in the future.

So why is it essential that geography continues in the future to be one of the most important subjects for our children to study in prep schools?

Geography helps young people make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. It explains how a diverse range of economies, societies and environments are interconnected. It explains how places and landscapes are formed and how humans interact with them.

It builds on the children’s own experiences and investigates places at all scales. It allows children to experience the world beyond the classroom through fieldwork and this supports The Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto.

Geographical enquiry encourages questioning, investigation and critical thinking about issues affecting the world and people’s lives, now and in the future..

Pupils learn to think spatially and use maps, visual images and new technologies. They explore their place in the world, their values and responsibilities to other people, to the environment and the sustainability of the planet. It stimulates an interest in and a sense of wonder about places. Geography lessons allow teamwork to develop by including group work, role play, presentations and manipulations of different kinds of data for analysis and presentation. This I am sure is happening in our schools but there is a need for us to build upon it to allow everyone involved to see its importance in the curriculum.

From September 2008 the new Key Stage 3 programme of study will be taught and there will need to be a change in our prep schools in how we teach the topics and geographical skills for the Common Entrance examinations and scholarship exams. Without any radical changes in content or skills, certain key concepts have to underpin the study of geography in the future.

Pupils need to understand these concepts in order to deepen and broaden their knowledge, skills and understanding and allow them to enjoy their experience, which will allow them to continue their studies to GCSE and beyond.

The first is the concept of ‘place’ which is the understanding of questions such as: Where do I live? How does it look? How do I feel about it? How is it changing? How do I want to change it? This is vital for prep school children to look at as an element of relevant, worthwhile and enjoyable education. This links into many of the case studies required for Common Entrance and scholarship work whether it is a study of globalisation and the importance of China and Asia to the fashion industry, or as a study of changes in a local area to allow it to become sustainable.

The second concept is ‘space’, which links with ‘place’. It is the understanding of the interactions between places and networks created by flows of information, people and goods.

Knowing where places and landscapes are located, why they are there, the patterns and distributions they create, and why these are changing and the implications for people. Questions such as: Who am I? Where do I come from? Who are the people around me? have allowed children to look at the interaction of people through cultural, moral and social understanding in different places. In a world where understanding of different people is crucial, this has allowed studies of less economically developed countries and more economically developed countries to have a particular focus.

The concepts of ‘scale’ and interdependence are both centred around an appreciation of different scales from personal and local to national, international and global, whilst exploring the social, economic, environmental and political connections between places and the understanding of the significance of interdependence at all scales. Who decides on who gets what and why? What is fair? How do we handle differences of opinion? These are all questions the pupils need to consider by making links between scales and dependency issues to develop understanding of geographical ideas.

For example, the scale of water shortages and droughts linked to food shortages is particularly relevant to us today.

This leads into the concept of ‘physical and human process’ which is the understanding of how a sequence of events and activities in the physical and human worlds lead to change in places, landscapes and societies.

Questions that are used here are: What is the world made of? Why do things move? What becomes of things? The study of volcanoes and earthquakes and other natural hazards is one area in which these questions allow a child to evolve an enquiring approach. Linked very much to this is the important concept of ‘environmental interaction and sustainable development’.

This allows our pupils to understand the physical and human dimensions of the environment and how they are interrelated and together influence environmental change.

With global warming, food shortages and the energy crisis, this concept is vital for our children’s future.

Finally there is ‘cultural understanding and diversity’ which is the appreciation of the differences and similarities between people, places, environments and cultures to inform an understanding of societies and economies and to recognise how people’s values and attitudes differ and may influence social, environmental, economic and political issues.

In a world where other races appear to be far too often misunderstood, it is vital that we allow questions to be asked that can lead to a better understanding of these issues.

What I have written lays out the case for geography as one of the most important subjects for future generations. In prep schools we need to encourage children to see the importance of this ‘living geography’. Geography should never be allowed to be reduced in the curriculum if we are going to produce responsible citizens for the future. If our schools want to develop the kinds of skills which will allow young people to be valued by employers in the future, geography must play an important part.

Communications skills, the ability to work in groups and the ability to use numerical, graphical, textural and visual data to investigate issues and present reports are all found in geography.

If schools want their children to be more responsible citizens then geography has a record of studying and responding to both local and global issues and to developing an understanding of the links between the two. Geography is more than a humanities subject — it integrates not only the social, cultural and economic aspects of issues but also the environmental aspects. As Michael Palin recently wrote in the Geographical Association News: “Geography is all about the living, breathing essence of the world we live in.

It explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future.

Paul Baker is the IAPS Geography co-ordinator and chair of the Geographical Association’s Independent Schools Working Group. He has recently retired as head of geography at the Dragon School, Oxford.

This article first appeared in the autumn 2008 issue of Attain — the magazine for the parents of children attending IAPS prep schools across the UK . For more information visit the website: www.attainmagazine.co.uk