GTE Conference Presentation by Dr. Mel Norman from 2015 Looking back at Teaching Geography

1. Dr Melanie Norman
University of Brighton
m.j.norman@brighton.ac.uk
Editor Teaching Geography
The changing landscape of
Teaching Geography

2. From the archive
2015
• 40th year of publication of
TG
• Revamped format
• Digitisation of the whole
back catalogue of TG from
1975
• New feature ‘From the
archive’ related to the focus
of the journal or a topical
issue:
Spring: Assessment
Summer: Global Learning
Autumn: Fieldwork
Volume 40 | Number 1 | Spring 2015 Celebrating our 40th Anniversary this year
Focus on resources

3. Spring 2016 focus
Changing Landscapes (cover photo Aguas Calientes, Peru)
• My remit for the archive
piece.
• How we had taught about
landscapes in the
classroom over the 40 years
• Themes emerged indicating
changes in the journal
itself.
• Sparked an interest.
• Much more than could be
captured in 750 words.
• This presentation is a
summary of what I have
had the time to explore.

4. Gender balance
• One of the first things I
noticed – how few of the
early contributors were
female.
• Counted only full names
that were clearly male or
female (some contributors
in the early days only used
first name initials)
• Only counted full article
not reviews

5. Percentage of male/female
contributors to TG since 1975
Volume/Date Male Female
Vol. 1-5 (75-79) 82% 18%
Vol. 6-10 (80-85) 87% 13%
Vol. 11-15 (86-90) 83% 17%
Vol.16-20 (91-95) 78% 22%
Vol. 21-25 (96-00) 70% 30%
Vol. 26-30 (01-05) 59% 41%
Vol. 31-35 (06-10) 52% 48%
Vol. 36-40 (11-15) 51% 49%

6. Editors 1975-2015
1975-1985 Patrick Bailey 39 editions
1985-1988 Eleanor Rawling 12 editions
1988-1990 Jan Kelly 8 editions
1990-1996 David Boardman 25 editions
1997-2005 Elisabeth Barratt Hacking 35 editions
2006-2008 Margaret Roberts 9 editions
2008-2011 Mary Biddulph 12 editions
2012-? Mel Norman 12 editions (ongoing!)

7. The daring discourses of Teaching
Geography?
• Indra Persaud (Autumn
2015) analysed 134 TG
editorials
‘to understand who and
what wields influence
in geography education’.

8. Regular contributors (1)
• Eleanor Rawling had an
article in the very first
edition of TG. Her latest
contribution will appear in
the Spring 2016 edition.
• Charles Rawding’s first
article appeared in 1982
and he too has an article in
the Spring 2016 edition.

9. Regular contributors (2)
Frequent contributions also
from:
-Fred Martin (still on the TG
Ed Board)
-Dave Hicks (wrote his final
article for the Autumn 2015
issue)
-David Lambert (first article
1978)
-Ian Selmes (still on the TG
Ed Board)
-Simon Catling - primary
geography.

10. Evolving language (1)
• 1970’s & 1980’s Third
World frequently used.
• Last reference to the Third
World October 1992
• See Fred Martin’s archive
piece on global learning (TG
Summer 2015)
• What terms should be
used?
• GLP uses ‘developing
world’.

11. Evolving language (2)
GCSE 2016 terminology:
• AQA: HICs,LICs NEEs
(higher income countries; lower income
countries; newly emerging economies)
• Edexcel: developing,
emerging and developed
countries.
• Eduquas: HICs, LICs,
NICs (newly industrialised
countries)
• OCR: ACs, EDCs,LIDCs
(advanced countries, emerging and
developing countries. low-income
developing countries)

12. Evolving language (3)
• 1970’s and 1980’s articles
refer to ‘remedial pupils’
• Lots of gendered language:
-Man’s perception of his
natural environment (Oct 83)
-Man-land relationships (Jan 84)
-Man’s acceleration of coastal
zone erosion (April 85)

13. Quantitative vs Qualitative
• August 1976
The poetry of place by
John A.Williams:
“To give insight into
reality, to know what an
area or place ‘feels’ like,
a poem can be most
useful, if not the best
starting point”.

14. Poetry, music and literature
Picture slide, poem and sketch;
how do 14-year old pupils ‘see’
desert landscapes? (July 1982)
‘Memoirs of a Snowflake’
‘The Geography of novels (June
1985)
Teaching Geography through
Music and Sound (January 1991)
Sand sea and Haikus; linking
geography with art and English
(January 1992)
The Severn was brown, and the
Severn was blue-a place for poetry
in school geography? (Autumn 2010)

15. Design (1)
• Colour image on cover from
1975 with dense text in
black and white in the rest
of the journal.
• Volume 3 onwards
different background colour
to the satellite image on
the cover for each volume
• Volume 13 No 4 colour
photos inside front & back
cover
• Volume 16 No 1 January
1991 change to cover
design after 16 years

16. Design (2)
• Jan1995 new cover and
colour printing throughout
the journal .
• ‘A serif typeface which is
easier to read’.
• Vol 11 No 1 journal
contents began to be
ordered into subsections
• Assessment became a
regular feature from Vol 17
No 4 Oct 1992 through
until Vol 32 No 1 Spring
2007
• From 2004 only 3 issues
per year!

17. Design (3)
• Bullet points an
overwhelming feature
of many articles from
1995-2009 (example from April
2000)
• Spring 2005 authors
photos appeared.
Disappeared by
Summer 2005!

18. Design (4)
• Spring 2010 saw another
re-design. Sadly the cover
often masked important
aspects of the featured
photograph.
• Each issue has a ‘Focus’
from this date onwards.
• ‘Would you like to write for
Teaching Geography’ -
inside front cover. Five
categories of articles
explained for potential
contributors.

19. Recurring issues over 40 years
• Managing curriculum
change
• Assessment
• Discrete or integrated
subject teaching
• Mixed
ability/setted/streamed
• Subject specialist teaching
• Volume of paperwork from
government departments
• Plus ça change, plus
c’est la même chose!
• NB all references to TG journals are
within the text of the PPt