Places People Want
Stimulus
Through this unit we highlight:
- Characteristics of sustainable communities
- Skills for sustainable communities
- A futures approach
- Everyday geographical experiences
- Surrogate and authentic fieldwork
This unit is about placing the learners' experiences at the heart of their geographical education. This is then linked with significant, worthwhile and relevant geographical understanding. The rewards of such an approach include not only a rich and engaging sequence of lessons, but also learners are supported in using their geography at the heart of their life-long learning.
This CPD unit is for individual or group reflection. It provides a sound preparation for the consideration of a new scheme of work for Key Stage 3 or GCSE. It would be useful to have to hand your previous scheme of work and the appropriate programme of study and GCSE specification. The associated reading suggested in this unit is either self-contained or can be accessed from downloaded documents. It does include quotations from some key texts, such as the Secondary Geography Handbook, and you are encouraged to read the full chapter concerned.
It makes connections with whole-school initiatives and concerns particularly relevant to geographical education such as sustainable schools and careers education and guidance.
"Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated"
From 'Burnt Norton' by TS Eliot (1935): a no-longer fashionable poet, but surely a geographer of the mind!
"One of the overarching purposes of practising geography is the exploration of sustainable development and developing the knowledge, understanding and skills for building sustainable communities. In this way, geography can contribute powerfully to a critical, active and informed citizenship."
Balderstone, D. and Lambert, D. (2006) 'Sustaining school geography' in Balderstone, D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook, Sheffield: Geographical Association.
Now do Activity 1
Stimulus Summary
We have looked at the characteristics of sustainable communities and noted that we would re-visit the notion of 'place-making'. This made connections to real world and work place situations. The curriculum making context of the SEF, sustainable schools, Learning Outside the Classroom and fieldwork has been established. You have been asked to relate these twin aspects to you own schemes of work about 'settlement' or communities.
Further Reading
Maggie Smith (Open University) has written this Think Piece on ESD for geography teacher-educators.
See online CPD unit on KS3 Geography and ESD.
Holmes, D. and Walker, M. (2006) 'Planning geography fieldwork' in Balderstone, D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook, Sheffield: Geographical Association. Valuable support for building your own case for fieldwork.
References
Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC)
ASC (2006) Making Places: creating sustainable communities. A teachers guide to sustainable communities, Leeds: Academy for Sustainable Communities. CD-ROM included. Request free from the ASC website.
Balderstone, D. and Lambert, D. (2006) 'Sustaining school geography' in Balderstone, D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook, Sheffield: Geographical Association.
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
Eliot, T. S. (1935) 'Burnt Norton' in (1969) The complete poems and plays of TS Eliot, London: Faber.
Every Child Matters
Ofsted - school inspections and the self-evaluation form (SEF)
TeacherNet
Widdowson, J. (2006) This is geography 1, London: Hodder Murray.
Now go to Taking it further