Skip to main content

Citizenship Through Geography


I think teaching about 'Citizenship' (still don't like that word) is vital. However, I don't believe that it should be a discrete subject. Geography is ideally placed to explore controversial issues and the develop the confidence to successfully engage in our democratic society.

Took delivery of these rather nice purple books this week. The project is aimed at teachers of geography and suggests 5 'blot-on' units to existing popular topics. I hope that the book will help teachers to make simple changes to teaching in order to help young people take informed action. Informed participation is in the National Curriculum Geography orders and mentioned in the Curriculum for Excellence.

I will be talking about some of the principles and ideas behind Citizenship THROUGH Geography at the SAGT conference this weekend and at the GA Conference next year.

Themes covered:
1. What makes it so complicated to decide what's British?
2. Is food really glorious?
3. Everyone has rights, right? How can our actions as consumers influence other people's human rights?
4. Am I an eco-saint or an eco-sinner?
5. Do the people really have power in a democracy? The case of Heathrow

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus theyā€™d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I canā€™t think of a time where deep learning hasnā€™t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-Iā€™m-about-to die.  How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment i...

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words...

Year 10 need your help! Can we get Twitter and Facebook in to a GCSE project?

Iā€™ve been told that social media has no place in the classroom.  Now, this post is not to battle that argument head on.  Letā€™s smash it. This week, Year 10 are visiting Hengistbury Head .  They are investigating whether this piece of coastline should be protected.  They are wondering what you think? You may know the location well, you may not know it at all.  But weā€™d like to hear from you all the same.  This will either result in some usable data and comments, or not.  Either way, we'll know and Iā€™m sure that your comments will help spark discussion in class! What would Year 10 like me to do? Just simply comment on this post or tweet me, with an answer to this question: ā€˜Should Hengistubury Head be protected from the Sea? Just answer Yes or No and give a brief reason.  It would also be useful if you could tell us whether you know the area or not. Many thanks in anticipationā€¦ā€¦   Image ā€“ my own.