Young people

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Young peoples geographies

• Roger Firth
• Mary Biddulph

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Aims

• establish conversations between school students,
  professional/academic geographers, geography
  teachers and geography teacher educators that
  will inform a dynamic process of curriculum
  construction ('curriculum making') in schools
• explore ways in which geography teachers and
  students can use the lived geographies of young
  people to inform the process of curriculum
  making/construction in school geography
• develop pedagogies through which young people can
  use their lived experiences to develop their
  geographical understanding

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A brief recap

• Collaboration
• Conversation
• Participation
• Curriculum

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Why do it.

• A growing realisation that until recently
  geography had largely ignored the social, spatial
  and environmental aspects of the lives, needs and
  desires of young people who form a significant
  section of society, who are active social agents
  in their own right and who may experience the
  world in very different ways. Are these neglected
  geographies in the school curriculum?

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The big question

• The project provided the opportunity for school
  students and their geography teachers to work
  alongside academic geographers. However we have
  to ask ourselves Should young peoples
  geographies contribute to the school curriculum?
  What are some of the ethical and professional
  issues for educators?

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Some of the projects..

• Market square in Nottingham
• Perceptions of Bedford
• Darfour
• Climate change in Norfolk
• What if.

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Levels of student involvement

1. Students responsible for planning lessons and
   teaching other (younger) students on a topic they
   felt was related to their geographies. While this
   involved dramatic shifts in ownership and
   pedagogic processes, direct involvement in the
   project was limited to a small number of
   students.
2. All students in one class were involved in the
   project (though only 4 attended the project
   days).
3. Three schools decided to work together but kept
   the project activity separate from the formal
   school curriculum, using the experience of the
   project from year one to inform the development
   of a new scheme of work which will be piloted in
   year two of the project. This is now underway.

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• are about opening our eyes and seeing the
  geography potential rather than the geography
  curriculum (Hopwood, 2007 4)
• looking at what these young peoples experiences
  of what geography is, not geography the subject,
  but geography to think (ibid.).

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The role of the teacher

• Students were clear that they need geography
  teachers
• Some took the lead
• Some stood well back
• We couldnt just say anything, it had to be
• related to geography we needed someone to
• guide us and thats what the teacher did and
• that made it better.

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• The project helped some students describe and use
  geography as a tool for thinking about different
  places, while for others it seemed to help them
  see and use geography as a way of thinking about
  themselves in relation to places (Hopwood 2007)

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The Big Brother Diary Room

• Why did you become involved?
• What have been the highs and lows of the project?
• What have you learnt about geography?

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• In our experience pupils do not have much to say
  about the curriculum We could do more to help
  pupils develop a language for talking about
  learning and about themselves as learners so that
  they feel that it is legitimate for them actively
  to contribute to discussions about schoolwork
  with teachers and with each other.
• Rudduck, J Flutter, (2000) Pupil Participation
  and Pupil Perspective carving a new order of
• experience, Cambridge Journal of Education
  30(1) 75-89

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Some questions.

• How can we provide young people with the language
  and skills to contribute to their geography
  curriculum? Should we be doing this?
• Are YPG neglected geographies in the school
  curriculum? Should young peoples geographies
  contribute to the school curriculum? What are
  some of the ethical and professional issues for
  educators?
• What might be the implications for the school
  geography curriculum?

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• They built this lovely winding path with little
  stones, sticks and petals and flowers. I never
  tried this before, working in the dirt. It was
  fantastic, they built an accurate detailed plan
  of the garden. Giving children a voice often just
  means providing the right medium. When children
  are able to create such great designs, adults
  will get involved in a dialogue with them,
  whereas normally the childrens perspective would
  not be considered.
• (www.licweb.com/hpcc/v4n1/roger.html)