Places People Want
In Conclusion
The Landscape of Risk
'The evaluation of everything from a perspective of risk is a defining characteristic of contemporary society. Risk is the managerial paradigm and default mechanism that has embedded itself into how companies, community organisations and the public sector operate. Risk is a prism through which any activity is judged...
It subtly encourages us to constrain aspirations, act with over-caution, avoid challenges and be sceptical about innovation. It narrows our world into a defensive shell. The life of a community self-consciously concerned with risk and safety is different from one focused on discovery and exploration.'
Landry, C. (no date) 'Risk and the creation of liveable cities' in What are we scared of? The value of risk in designing public space, London: CABE.
Landry also makes his views on cars clear:
'The consequences of policies, applied over many decades, that have privileged cars and the people in them above local public transport, cyclists and people on foot, have been profound. The use of local public-transport services has declined by more than 50 per cent in the past 50 years. Cycling and walking have declined by at least as much, only partly because former cyclists and pedestrians have switched to cars. As the amount of metal in motion has increased, those with softer, more vulnerable shells have retreated before the threat.'
As does the Association of British Drivers:
'The ABD is run entirely on a voluntary basis by its members. We urgently need your help to fund our campaigning against the tide of anti-car hysteria and driver persecution sweeping Britain.'
There are 33 million driving licence holders in the UK
That's a majority in any maths book. Why then does our democratically elected government harang drivers with a never ending stream of taxes, legislation, restrictions and threats? Why don't more drivers stand up for their rights?
Answer: Because drivers are also bombarded with a never ending stream of propaganda which seeks to convince them that cars are bad for them, for everybody else, and for the planet, and that anyone who dares to say cars are good is in fact a nasty child-killing, planet-destroying ogre.
If you have had enough of government bullying, and are capable of seeing past all this propaganda, read on... '
Source: www.abd.org.uk/itp.htm (accessed July 2007)
Now do Activity 8
In conclusion Summary
The move towards learners' active involvement in assessment can be seen in parallel with communities engaged in and responsible for change and improvement. Neither can be seen as a detached and top-down approach. Gone are the assumptions that there are processes done to you. Learning and place-making both require activities and outcomes with and for the participants.
Unit Review
In Activity 1 you imagined how you could move the spokes of the wheel to demonstrate the importance given to each component in the conventional teaching of the geography of settlement. Now adjust the spokes to how you might expect to them to appear with the teaching of geography about communities.
You might not have completely revised your scheme of work at this time but it would be useful to record some action points for a specified later date. Curriculum making is not meant to be a solitary task so, if you have followed this unit independently, you could take your ideas and plans to a department or cluster group meeting. You could suggest it as a focus for a Living Geography group in your learners' community.
As a stimulus, it was claimed that this unit would place the learner's experience at the heart of their geographical education and the reward would be putting geography at the heart of their lifelong learning. It is a 'big ask' but imagine all these geographers making 'places people want'.
References
Assessment Reform Group (1999) Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box, Cambridge: University of Cambridge School of Education.
Landry, C. (no date) 'Risk and the creation of liveable cities' in What are we scared of? The value of risk in designing public space, London: CABE.
QCA (2008) GCSE Geography subject criteria.
Further Reading
If you want to read more about risk and street and park design see this 88-page report: CABE (2007) Living with risk: promoting better public space design, London: CABE. A briefing and the full report may be downloaded without charge here.
Roberts, M. (2003) Learning through enquiry: making sense of geography in the key stage 3 classroom, Sheffield: Geographical Association. This remains an essential source of inspiration.
Weeden, P. and Hopkin, J. (2006) 'Assessment for learning in geography' in Balderstone, D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook, Sheffield: Geographical Association. Essential chapter in this essential handbook.
Roberts, A. (2008) KS3 Geography Teachers' Toolkit: Faster, Higher, Stronger: Is the Olympics the best way to regenerate East London?, Sheffield: Geographical Association.
Now go to Developing your thinking