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Is twenty plenty? The place of “older” case studies in a Geography curriculum

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As a recent BBC News article has highlighted – and somewhat to my shock and disappointment – it is twenty years to the day that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. For a while, it felt like one of the most taught case studies in the Geography curriculum – partly because of the raw impacts on a highly prepared country, but also because of the variety of imagery, resources and outcomes that we could talk about, use and evaluate.

Since then, there have been many more hurricanes in the US, plenty of typhoons and mega storms elsewhere, and a number of innovations, iterations and examples that have replaced Katrina as a case study example de jure.

Don’t get me wrong, here. I am not advocating for the teaching of Katrina as the sole example of the impacts, prediction or preparation of a tropical revolving storm – that would be what Steve Brace described as ‘a zombie case study’.

But I don’t think they should be stricken entirely from the record, and that we should only be able to teach things from “within the students’ lifetime” or within a fixed number of years either. Here’s why I think the older case studies still have some place in our teaching:

  • Similar events haven’t occurred that recently. Here’s a challenge. Try to think of an explosive volcanic eruption that caused significant impact in a higher-income country. We’ve got effusive Iceland over the years, and a few examples from Etna which were less serious and smaller scale. We could point to the 2019 White Island eruption, but despite the impact and fatalities, that is a relatively small volcanic event. So if we want to compare, we’re going to have to go back in time to something like Mt. St. Helens…
  • There are unique or specific features of them that we want to draw out. A number of events have unique geography that doesn’t occur any other time – and perhaps this is something we want to highlight to add flair, demonstrate sophisticated response, or even just show the complexity and nuance of management challenges!
  • There’s a particular connection to our community and context. Weirdly, when I taught at an SE London school, we had a Deputy Head who was originally from Texas, and had been working in New Orleans during Katrina. Being able to hear first-hand about what it was like, and ask questions of a ‘real life case study’ was far more compelling than a video or textbook example.
  • The evolution of the case study is significant. For example, it wasn’t until 5-10 years after the Haiti earthquake that we learned the true horrors and scale of some of the abuse of power of international NGOs. That’s an important story. If we only teach the things that are within the first 6-18 months, we might miss long-term impacts, or some of the human issues that we should be thinking about and teaching about.

For me, though, I think the biggest reason to be teaching about case studies like Katrina is that they build a richness and depth to our geographical understanding and stories of place. Humans are constantly adapting and evolving their management, approaches, and strategies for the challenges that we face.

I think we owe it to our students to be able to show the way we’ve developed through time – rather than just a snapshot of a single moment. When I taught earthquake management, I’d explain the theory of what was possible, and outline the steps that highly-prepared nations had taken to get there. We’d talk about how the issues that we exposed in the Kobe case study were solved by these strategies or those investment priorities, and then we iterated that a step further in the Sendai example with this law, or adjusting the focus to defend against that secondary impact. We talked about earthquake management as an ongoing evolution of learning, adapting and building more robust systems. We’d evaluate whether countries were choosing to get better and what made it possible for them to evolve – rather than being stuck in a single moment or strategy because that was where it ranked in their domestic priorities. And we’d talk about the complexity and challenge of what “management” meant, and how we kept learning more.

Talking about Katrina, and reflecting on what’s changed in the last twenty years, may well represent an “old case study” that could be updated – but for me, the richness of the conversation and the discussion is a key part of how we do great geography, even if it makes me feel very old.

We need to invite students to be part of the palimpsest of constantly shifting and constructed conversations about what works and how we do better, and to draw on the history of times when we didn’t get it so right. And so, to me, it’s what makes a great disciplinary approach to a case study – to be able to site it in the human, physical and historical landscape that it deserves to be.

Geographical Association Conference 2024 – Some Reflections

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It’s been a while since the Conference, and I’ve been on some annual leave and playing catch up with work afterwards. But I thought I’d share some reflections and learning – and now that the session downloads are starting to come through, I’ve got time to explore some of the sessions I didn’t get to.

First, congratulations to the whole team – from President to Chief Exec and all at HQ. I think it was a pretty packed conference, and it was delivered smoothly. There were a lot of amazing sessions and speakers, and I felt that most of the timetable blocks had four or five people that I could have easily gone to see or hear. Making decisions was hard – the pathways were nice, but there’s so much going on that it’s easy to feel like you’re missing out, even when you’re there!

It felt like there were some emerging themes across a number of sessions: the concepts of power, representation and ‘whose Geography’ have now firmly established themselves at the heart of the conference conversation. It also felt like there were a lot of conversations about sustainability – embedding the curriculum, the actions and the attitudes in to schools beyond just the geography classrooms; and there were also powerful themes of inclusion in terms of literacy (oracy, perhaps, next year?) and supporting EAL learners, as well as inclusion for the financial context of many schools and learners. I’m fascinated by the dynamic of what appears at Conference – and whether it drives the conversations in schools, or is driven by it and the wider circumstances. Clearly, there’s elements of both – a dialogue between Conference and the rest of the community and wider school geography.

There was a lot to love about the venue and the conference delivery, although there’s always considerate reflections (e.g. from Salaam Geographia) on how we can include more people, and make our spaces and community more diverse and inclusive. There are definitely better and more expert voices to listen to on how we improve our attendance and inclusivity of the whole community (perhaps even above and beyond the GA’s membership!), but one of the key elements that I’d reflect on is the discussion of cost. Clearly, the rail strike didn’t help anyone’s travel to and from Conference – though I guess Alanis would be proud at how many conversations happened about transport at a Geography event. But ticket prices are high, and travel and hotels put the conference out of reach for a significant proportion of teachers – particularly in a world where neither schools nor universities are likely to be subsidising professional development in the way they perhaps used to! I’m lucky to be able to come to conference – but how do we work together to make sure that everyone can, who wants to?

Learning Highlights:

For me, conference is always a space where I get to learn lots about things from expert practitioners. This year, I was really keen to learn more about literacy and supporting students in the classroom – and was delighted to be able to hear from real experts!

Emily Chandler’s (@ChandlerGeog) work is something we’ve already incorporated in to our training programme, but her talk this year on using a range of texts in the classroom will be incorporated in to our training as soon as I can make the edits. The need to look at reading as a fundamental driver of success in assessment (GL Reports, 2020), as well as the beating heart of the lesson was a really powerful message. As well as learning from other practice (e.g. Scaffolded Reading Experiences (Graves & Graves, 2003) drawn from English pedagogies), Emily’s session was also an awesome reminder of the *use* of texts to create, inspire or reimagine geographical worlds, rather than simply to read and download information.

As a bit of an old cynic about some of the hype around generative AI and tools in education (are they cool? Yes. Are they as smart as they claim? No. Are they going to revolutionise everything? Probably not… see interactive whiteboards), the modelled use of ChatGPT and specific tools to support literacy accessibility was actually really impressive. I’ll be taking away Diffit (https://web.diffit.me/) and Wordsift (https://wordsift.org/) as tools to scale up and down text for different reading ages, and to simply and powerfully create resources that serve the learners’ needs and development of the vocabulary and structures of learning! So thank you, Emily – not just for the demo of tools, but also the reminder to challenge my own cynicism at times!

Briley Habib (@Map_Addict) & Bethany Aldridge (@msaldrgeog) followed that up with another  masterclass on supporting EAL learners in the classroom, that’s also going to be incorporated in to our training programme as quickly as I can edit it! I loved the practical examples and work, balanced against the academic and researched rigour – delighted to learn more to support some of the techniques and ideas that Emily’s session had raised earlier. The worked examples showed the full effect of breaking the link between reading comprehension and success Ricketts et al. (2014) and the balances of cognitive science thinking needed in a Cummins’ Quadrants & Matrix.

Presenting Highlights:

Although a number of expert colleagues from phase committees and special interest groups were leading sessions, my presenter involvement was relatively limited this year. I was delighted that a number of my Teach First colleagues were able to lead sessions at conference, and I’m delighted to see Jessica and Helen’s expert thinking on supporting non-specialists and Stefan’s discussion of how we support and encourage Geography candidates for university on Friday. Well earned dinner on the Friday night for the presentation team, and it’s always great to talk to colleagues about what we’re doing in Teach First’s training programme and how we can learn from others.

Rather unusually, my highlight of Conference was being hugely proud (and a tiny bit of tech support) for my wife, Marianne, who spoke as an expert in the offshore wind sector. Although I’m sort of used to hearing some explanations at home, after a day of hybrid working, to see her expertise and knowledge in a lecture theatre in a geography conference was a really unexpected Saturday experience. I think it encapsulated the Presidential theme for the year beautifully: there’s so much geography in other spaces, if only we can connect with the people doing it to see inside their worlds. Thankfully, she was willing to come and volunteer at this event – we couldn’t have afforded to pay her normal speakers’ fees and charge-out rates!

Conference is a brilliant event to bring friends together, and renew one’s love for geography and the community – but I’d love to support and see that bring more people in every year. We’re a big tent of ideas, perspectives and approaches – and the more people and experience we hear from and share, the better our community is.

I take that mission as part of how we approach our training programme too – and so if we connected at conference, or if you think you’d like to work with us, or find out more about what we’re doing in Teach First Geography, then please do get in touch with me! Look forward to seeing you next year!

Supporting Non-Specialists in the Geography Department

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With the teacher recruitment offering worrying times for schools and ITE providers alike, it’s already quite common – and likely to become more important – that HoDs and Departments have a considered approach to supporting non-specialists with teaching in Geography. It’s probably wise to focus this on supporting at KS3 in the first instance – if you are having non-specialists delivering KS4 or above, then it might be a different set of conversations! I’ve recently been introduced to these as “TWOS” – teachers with other specialisms – by Dawn Cox, and I like this a lot!

Over my time as a HoD, I had a few non-specialist teachers supporting with the curriculum in KS3. I’ve worked with Economics and Business teachers, together with RE and English teachers, all of whom have thoroughly enjoyed their time as Geographers in the classroom and on fieldwork! and I wanted to share some thoughts and see where we could go with supporting colleagues widely who are facing these issues.

I think I always started with three key principles:

  1. These teachers want to do a good job. They really do. They’re good people, and they want to do the best they can.
  2. Their priority and training will always be dominated by their ‘home’ specialism. Their focus and accountability will often be on their exam classes, and their thinking dominated by that specialism. This influences how much time they can reasonably commit to what I want from them, and gives me priorities of what I can do. It also gives insights and perspectives we might not have – so we need to maximise those things as they bring them in!
  3. If they are used to teaching in the same key stage, then you can trust them as professionals to develop and understand those relationships. If you’ve got a teacher who is “out of phase” (e.g. a Sixth Form Economics teacher, who is teaching Year 7 Geography) you may want to offer some support of “this is how we’d normally experience our classes” – but you’ll have to manage this delicately depending on the professional relationship and experience dynamics!

I think there’s a different consideration if you know this person will work with you for multiple years. Then, you may want to have longer-term conversations to support subject knowledge development, or wider curriculum planning, and hear their other specialism perspectives and voices.

But, in the short term, I’d prioritise:

Short Term:

Wide Angled Lens – what’s the story?

  • Sit down together (you, someone else, them…), and talk about the ‘story’ of the unit. What is the big picture, and what’s it all about? How does this fit with the whole year? Does it support, build, or contradict something that they’ve already taught, or will go on to teach?
  • Where does it go to, and what does ‘success look like’ for this unit? What will it feel like, and what will student conversations, work or outcomes look like? How does it get assessed, and how will they know they’re doing a great job?

Front load resources and structures where possible

  • Front loading allows people to work through things. An established Department might be able to work together week by week, but I can’t make that presumption for others. So I need, at a bare minimum, to be able to give them what I can for a unit – half term, or term – at a time.
  • Provide as much information as you can – textbooks, slide decks, as much as you can do to reduce the cognitive load, rather than “where do I find X?”. I think the aim is to make it as easy as possible to do their jobs really well, and focus on the lessons and content, not the systems and structures. It’s helpful to be able to explain the high-level, let them go away and dig in, and then come back if possible.
  • I think it’s worth recognising the relationship might be interesting: if you’re a HoD, you may want to allocate a “peer buddy” so they can ask questions that they might think are daft, or not worth bothering you with. But the relationship will always be personal and depend on how you work, so it might not be too much of a concern for you!
  • If you have common expectations of pacing of lessons, or setting of work/assessments etc. (“we should all be roughly here by Week 5, and we’ll want to be able to do this assessment for the data drop in Week 8”), then sharing that information is really helpful.

Simplify and streamline the admin as much as possible:

  • Links and access to folders, resources and existing documents, slides or shared teaching materials should be automatically shared, preferably with everything clearly labelled and obvious. If you’ve got a Department shared folder where there are eighteen versions of everything, and you have to know which one you’re using, a little bit of spring cleaning might be in order.
  • Make it as easy as possible for them to access shared mark books and admin, so they just have to do quick and easy work. If you’ve got templates for whole class feedback, or other elements
  • Look at the shared calendar experience. If you know they are a Y11 teacher in their home subject, and there’s a mock exam cycle and Parents Evening, how do you make their life as easy as possible in Geography for that time? Can you identify the pinch points where they’ll feel the tension between “home” and “away” the most, and what can you do about them?
  • If you have Department meetings, bulletins or approaches to events (e.g. Parents’ Evening), take time to include your whole team, and think about what they’ll need to know to help or make sense of it.
  • Decide in as much time as possible whether you’ll be doing supporting observations, team teaching, or giving structural support or work in that way. It lowers the stakes and makes it clear – no surprises if you can!

Supporting disciplinary thinking and concepts

  • What’s the key concept that this unit exemplifies? What does it mean to do that geographically? Lots of words have multiple meanings, and a non-specialist might not know what we mean by “globalisation” or put the same emphasis on “place” that we do, for example.
  • The GA’s Curriculum Framework is pretty helpful at giving a background to some of the big ideas in Geography, or you could have a look at the really broad themes I identified with Mary Myatt & John Tomsett in ‘Huh’. Although it’s pitched at ‘senior leaders’, the design is to unpick conversations for non-specialists, so it offers a nice way in!  
  • Supporting development of vocabulary is critical, too. Geography has a lot of Tier 2/Tier 3 words. What are they for this unit? It’s worth trying to think about whether you’ve said all of them out loud, and that they know how to say them, too. If you’re a school that is knowledge organiser/booklet focused, you can outline this very easily. If not, then it’s a valuable exercise to think about with your team too!

Include them in the positives:

  • I think it’s really important to celebrate and treat these people as part of your team, however temporary. If you send Christmas cards, or do drinks, or BBQ at the end of term – please offer to include them.
  • If you’re a school stickers fan, I’d always advise getting them their own set of resources… I used to love sharing the Lava-ly work stickers out!
  • If you run fieldwork, or you’re doing an awe and wonder trip, I think it’s important to offer to include them in that too. They have become part of Team Geography, and that’s a big motivator for us – so why wouldn’t we offer it to them?
  • Decide in advance how much you want to do formal performance management. Your school may have policies and plans in place already, but I’d try to be as positive as possible for their line manager, or your senior leadership team. Any concerns can be directly addressed (praise in public, and all that) should you need to – but I think it’s always worth being grateful and supportive of people’s time and effort!

If you have more time with the teachers, then I think there are some further medium term strategies that you might want to explore.

Medium Term:

  • Supporting development of tacit skills and resources that we are potentially more confident with as Geographers. For example:
    • If you would draw a diagram, how would you do it?
    • If you’d play a clip, or open up a website, are all of these things signposted and easy for them to know and do?
    • What are the key things you’d want to use it for, and what would you say/do?
  • Tayler (2023)’s work on visualising physical Geography offers an amazing overview of how you can use diagrams and get comfortable drawing them – if your Department has a copy, then it’s worth sharing and supporting.
  • If you need to develop skills (e.g. teaching a Y7 map work unit), how could you do that? buddy system? Support? Time and space? What would you do to build the confidence significantly in advance or preparation of the time they are teaching it?
  • If you have common expectations of presentation, or homework development, or something that is about the whole year, when and how do you introduce that to the teachers? How do you support them

Supporting time to think and make sense of this work in a low-stakes way is important. How do you set up a relationship and rhythm where this can be done? The buddy might work better than formal time in a collaboration with HoD or the whole Department, and ensuring that there’s space and time to ask questions and reflect is hugely important. The best relationships I’ve had with non-specialist teachers have been where we’ve shared proximal space – been in the same office, or been easily dropped in – and reduced the stakes and challenge of those conversations. Making time for a catch up and a cuppa can be hugely helpful in keeping these teachers feeling supported and looked after.

Longer-Term

If it looks likely that your non-specialist teacher will be working with you for more than a year at a time, then you can explore further options in terms of supporting their voice and input in your curriculum, and in supporting professional development.

For example, you could:

  • Involve them in curriculum planning, review and evaluation conversation cycles. What worked well? What would you add? What made it easier or harder to teach this? What could we change?
  • Explore ways they’d add value or input in to different topics. An RE teacher offered a great perspective on some of our Year 7 globalisation and identity work. An Economics teacher changed the way we taught certain data and the resources we used for units on development. What can they bring to the table?
  • What can you invest in that helps? Do they have good physical resources (visualiser) and skills that they’re working on? Would they benefit from going on a course, or observing teachers, or doing some mentoring programme where there’s specific work over an academic year or cycle? In a luxury world, you might be able to offer them subject association membership or benefits of subject subscriptions!

Ultimately, the aim is to bring this professional colleague with their own specialism, in to team Geography as easily as possible. They want to do a great job, and a servant leadership mindset helps you remove as many obstacles as possible.

What else haven’t I considered, or what’s great advice you’d share?