{"id":3225,"date":"2013-02-25T09:39:30","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T09:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=3225"},"modified":"2013-02-25T09:39:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T09:39:30","slug":"that-was-geography-that-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/02\/25\/that-was-geography-that-was\/","title":{"rendered":"That was geography, that was"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is how the draft national curriculum specification for geography begins:<\/p>\n<p><em>A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth\u2019s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge provides the tools and approaches that explain how the Earth\u2019s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The National Curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>develop knowledge of the location of places of global significance, their defining physical and human characteristics and how they relate to one another; this place knowledge should provide a sound context for understanding geographical processes<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>are competent in the geographical skills needed to:<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<blockquote>\n<li><em>collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps and writing at length<\/em><\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Whilst all this sounds reassuringly familiar, whatever became of geography's position in the vanguard of exploring sustainability? \u00a0Maybe it's in the subject content? \u00a0Well, no it isn't. \u00a0Maybe it will be at GCSE? \u00a0Well, let's hope so, but that's rather late, particularly for those not taking GCSE geography.<\/p>\n<p>Enthusiastic teachers will squeeze sustainability in, of course, but that's not the point. \u00a0Whither leadership from the top? \u00a0What about encouragement? \u00a0Where's the mandate to explore and empower? \u00a0Was the GA consulted at all? \u00a0GIS aside, it's not just the geography content that makes all this feel like the 1950s. \u00a0In fact it's all so timeless that it reminds me of the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2012\/11\/20\/the-sabre-tooth-curriculum\">Sabre-toothed<\/a> curriculum. \u00a0Indeed, the whole national curriculum revision looks that way, and the cynic in me has pushed his way to the fore and suggests that this is all a cunning Govian plan to push schools towards Academy status where, of course, none of this matters, as I <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/02\/15\/goves-paradox\">noted<\/a> last week. \u00a0There was a report in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/education\/education-news\/exclusive-cash-for-academies-michael-gove-bribes-schools-to-change-their-status-8492386.html\">Independent<\/a> a week or so ago suggesting that other \"incentives\" [my word] were being put in place by the DfE to ease reluctant schools into the Brave New Academy World which is, of course, good for them, if only they knew it. \u00a0Shades of false consciousness here.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst I've just about given up on the national curriculum, what the English education system is for\u00a0may well be something worth talking about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is how the draft national curriculum specification for geography begins: A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}