Geography Teaching Today

Valuing Places

This unit began by focusing on how we could start with our own stories to begin to conceptualise citizenship with a geographical lens, and then focused on active fieldwork and participation in local communities, empowering pupils to take control of their learning. This last section refocuses on making wider links between the local and the global - the interdependence between people, places and environments. A good starting point for developing our thinking about this is the Valuing Places project.

We hope that Valuing Places is enabling both teachers and pupils to think about what it means to live in an interconnected world, and how geography has much to offer in developing informed global citizens.
(Swift, 2005)

The Valuing Places project, run by Di Swift with more than 100 teachers around the country, focused on place, scale and interconnectedness through geographical imaginations and personal geographies. Read this article and consider:

• What do we mean by geographical imagination?
• What do we mean by personal geographies?
• How can a Valuing Places approach help us to link the local and the global?

More information on this innovative project can be found at www.geography.org.uk/valuingplaces

In developing our thinking about citizenship at all scales, we need to consider what actions we can take in our daily lives to make positive differences for a better future and how the school ethos can underpin and support this kind of thinking. Consider:

• To what extent do your pupils have a real voice in school and community life?
• To what extent do your pupils have a real voice in global issues?
• To what extent does your school ethos support and extend autonomous thinking and responsibility?

Look at Figure 1 from Elaine Jackson's chapter on citizenship and primary geography in the Primary Geography Handbook to understand the breadth of issues relevant to citizenship and geography and consider whether your school covers any of these and how well. In evaluating how your school might support citizenship through geography, consider if any of these indicators are present and how they are evidenced:

• Active school councils
• Enquiry approaches to lessons
• Self-assessment and review opportunities
• Local issues-based fieldwork
• Confident and critical pupils
• Ample opportunity for speaking and listening activities
• A clear and supportive school ethos.
  
  
• Are there other indicators which you think should be included and why?

A clear guide to help you evaluate thinking about geography in your school can be found in the criteria for the Primary Geography Quality Mark.

• What strengths have you identified in your school?
• What might be areas for development?
• Who will act?

Think again about Hart's ladder of participation.

Remember - teaching geography can be made purposeful by using the trump card of participation.

References

Jackson, E. (2005) 'Citizenship, PSHE and Primary Geography', in Scoffham, S. (Ed) Primary Geography Handbook Sheffield, GA. Pp.288-299.

Swift, D. (2005) 'Valuing Places: Thinking geographically', in Primary Geographer, 58, Sheffield: Geographical Association.

Swift, D. (2006) Using Key Concepts and Big Ideas to Plan Curriculum Sequences for the Where Will I Live Project, (September), Sheffield: Geographical Association.

Now do Activity 8