The problem of ‘Outstanding’ Geography

What I’ve learnt is that the word outstanding, often associated to OFSTED, is a misnomer; and unobtainable expectation which constantly demands perfection, often to the detriment of the individual teacher (and his/her family)! The paradox is that to be ‘the best’ requires constant reflection and an acceptance that there is no such thing as a perfect lesson...there is something always to be done, refined or improved. Teaching is not the profession for perfectionists, especially those who strive to be outstanding.

I want to put forward the idea that to be outstanding is not something to strive for.  OFSTED ‘Outstanding’ is not an accolade, as ‘outstanding’ often results in a one-off lesson which create a false sense of learning and cannot sustainably be delivered day in day out.  As the government does away with ASTs, in my opinion it should also do away with the term 'Outstanding', and instead encourage teachers to be great by simplifying the criteria for judging lessons.  

I wrote a post a number of months ago which was laden with outstanding lexicon: hinge questions, objectives, outcomes, progress checkers – all the bells and whistles of the ‘learning fetish’, which purports that students are learners; skills over knowledge; themes over subjects...blah blah blah!  However, since attending the GA conference, the Berkhamsted Teaching and Learning Conference and my first TeachMeet, I would like to get back to basics to what I think are the fundamental building blocks of what makes a great lesson (and teacher).

Simply put a great Geography lesson/teacher will: MAKE TEACHING THE FOCUS by...

i)                    Considering the pace of learning, so that it gives time for discussion/extended writing.

ii)                  Considering the type of task set, so that it is challenging & geographical.

iii)                Being flexible

iv)                Being Personal (through feedback, relation to local place, sharing pupil best practice)

Therefore, great Geography teachers put ‘Geography to work’ (Digby, 2013) through great teaching, by focusing on place, space, changes over time and interconnectedness (Lambert, 2013). Of course, skills such as critical thinking, map work, source interpretation will be drip-fed into the teaching as appropriate (and as needed!). 

Furthermore, teachers no longer have to reinvent the wheel and be great all on their own.  Encouragingly, the teaching practice is finally starting to catch up with business by sharing best practice online through an creative commons approach – nings, googledocs, blogs, twitter, teachmeets – are all mediums through which teachers, new and experienced, can reflect and improve their pedagogical practice in order to be great. PLNs (Personalised Learning Networks) or self-organised communities of practice (Rogers) are becoming crucial in helping teachers adjust to new specifications and share ideas about teaching content and exam technique.  It is unsurprising that Geography teachers are arguably the most connected or have the most extensive PLNs due to the inter-disciplinary nature of our subject – if you’re not connected have a look online for a ning for your subject specification and start sharing.

So, as the summer officially starts I wonder how practical and true the above will be when I start to teach 35minute lessons in September!

A template for outstanding teaching - lessons from cross-curricular observations

This term, more than any other, I have had a wide range of colleagues observe me to help me reflect upon my teaching and learning.  The generic idea was to have an open approach to teaching which would force me to push myself and re-examine how I teach; importantly assessing what works well and what could be improved. I believe that one of the best things about being observed and observing other people is that best practice and new ideas (and mistakes) are shared.

One colleague in particular, a chemist, was keen to swap/share observations. We met up and discussed what we wanted from the process during the Autumn term:

1. The ability to test new ideas with classes and experiment new techniques
2. To focus on independent learning & assessment
3. To work on getting the kids to do more

The outcome is a provisional framework (for all subjects) for consistently ensuring your lessons are outstanding. 

To some extent the latter has been inspired by @TeacherToolkit 5 minute lesson plan, which many teachers (who use Twitter) across both sectors have been using (See @specialsciteach's photograph below.



Source - For Blog CLICK HERE

*Please note this is not a prescriptive list - the template below provides flexibility for teaching and pacing the lesson according to the pace of learning (a more "see how it goes" approach to teaching as opposed to timings being based upon amount of activities)

**Simply the idea based on LESS IS MORE - QUALITY NOT QUANTITY!

1.  Every lesson should have ONE PRIMARY FOCUSED OUTCOME- what is the key thing every student should leave the lesson knowing/understanding/being able to apply to the real world.  Too many objectives can be confusing and often the lesson can be rushed to cover the content as opposed to exploring the core idea in depth & through discussion.

2. Every lesson should be have ONE MAIN LEARNING LOOP  plus a series of smaller bolt-on loops (a.k.a progress checkers / hinge activities or questions / additional content / minor outcomes etc) which can be flexibly added to the lesson, if needed! (See CTT lesson  below for best practice)

3. Every lesson's PACE MUST MATCH THE PACE OF THE LEARNING (& IDEALLY TRY AND FIT THE CLASS PROFILE).  The engine and key in my opinion to achieving an outstanding lesson is appropriate pacing.  However, PACE can be a fickle beast and too much can mean the students do not have time to process the information sufficiently, whilst too little means the lesson content is not covered quickly enough and is often lethargic. The key point is to pace the lesson according to the PACE of learning rather than the PACE of the activities you have to get through in the time! It is a tricky balance to strike as PACE needs to vary for each year group, for each day and stage in the year - to get the PACE right takes time and only comes with experience.

4. Every lesson's MAIN ACTIVITY SHOULD BUILD FROM CLOSED/SIMPLE TO OPEN/COMPLEX; ideally aspiring towards higher order & critical thinking skills wherever possible, if appropriate.

5. Every lesson should have a range of FLEXIBLE BOLT-ONS or HINGE ACTIVITIES to support the primary outcome, if needed. Note that the, if needed, is a key idea as too often continuous and in my opinion unnecessary 'reviewing' occurs, wasting valuable independent learning time.

5. Every lesson at the end spends at least 10 minutes ASSESSING THE MAIN OUTCOME. This could be done by a ticket to leave exit slip, an exam question or any other plenary assessment tool. The key question to ask is - How do I know every student has learnt something/made progress & achieved the primary outcome?

6. Every now and again, when near the end of a topic or unit, give the class a FERMI PROBLEM  - in this context a problem designed to teach/encourage approximation, critical thinking, problem solving & synoptic links both within and between subjects. Often they are Oxbridge type questions e.g. For Geography, 'What is the population of Croydn?' or 'Is nature natural?' 

Furthermore, there are some additional best practice techniques I have picked up from colleagues. One of my favourites is using named wooden lollipop sticks (example 1*) to ensure all members in the class are asked questions & assessed.

*Example 1: At the start of term (or at the start of a lesson) get every pupil in the class to write their name on a wooden lollipop stick. These are then collected in and the teacher uses them to record who has answered a question and who has not - a quick, easy and effective record to ensure equality of assessment and differentiation when needed. I have personally taken this idea but instead use paper numbers , from one to twenty-four. Each chair/desk has a number and during the class, i hot seat students by pulling out a random number to assess and gauge progress.

*Example 2 - Hinge questions - 80%

Here is a rough outstanding lesson template format based upon our conversations so far:

STARTER
Reviews previous learning or introduces topic. Must be focused, engaging/stimulating, provide a basis for assessment either through progressive Socratic questioning or written assessment e.g. exam question.

LOOP 1
Assesses the learning from the starter activity - key to identifying strong/weak areas of subject knowledge and acts as a basis to progress onto the main task or take stock and go another direction e.g. reviewing last lesson.

OUTCOME OF LESSON INTRODUCED
Key primary outcome explained - the focus of the lesson!

MAIN TASK  - should aim to build up from closed and simple to open and complex, liking to critical thinking and independent learning as appropriate.

(ADDITIONAL BOLT ON LOOPS/HINGE ACTIVITIES AS REQUIRED/IF NEEDED)

PLENARY ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 

Many thanks - Please leave your won comments below and hopefully using this template we will no longer feel like the image below:

Further Reading/Blogs:

http://teachertoolkit.me/2012/10/22/ttkitthunks-johnsayers/

http://specialsciteach.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/observations-and-5-minute-lesson-plan.html?spref=tw

http://back2thewhiteboard.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/11-how-can-questioning-unlock-learning/

CTT Lesson - keeping it simple and focused - The one question lesson (from the teacher)

N.B The topic is the environmental consequences of rapid urbanisation for AQA Geog GCSE

 - Teacher puts question on board and on A4 student sheet (n.b. prior knowledge of topic is vital!)
 - Each student writes down one question on the sheet which can be answered Yes/No.
 - After 3 rounds of this reflect on progress so far
 - Next round is questions with a one word answer
 - Next a numbers answer
 - Finally rounds with open ended questions
 - Now, each student or group answers the question on the sheet using the information gleamed form the questions.
 - Video of Bhopal is shown and prep is to add any missing content to notes using textbook & independent research

Question : How could this be improved?

The Geographer & the Chemist: An update on targets for next term...

UPDATE - The Geographer & The Chemist


So, the chemist and I met up today not only to review this term's observations and teaching and learning in general, but also to set ourselves new targets for the coming Spring Term.

The challenges we have both set ourselves are to explore & evaluate:


1. A variety of main tasks (inc. advs & disadvs of each method) - reflecting on what went well & how we would change it, if we had to deliver it again.

2. Assessment for learning strategies/techniques - Investigating what they are, how they work and how best to apply them and to what situations and classes.

3. To make key skills and key terms a core part of our etaching across all of the curriculum levels.

Chemist's top tip of the day:

Pose 3 differentiated questions/equations/problems/phrases on the board and hand out every member a post it note. Students then chose one option and come up and put their answer up. One member of the class is then chosen to sort the correct answers out and explain why.

BRILLIANT!

Teaching quality Geography: reflections on Iwaskow's Status of Geography paper

No matter what sector you teach in, the good news is that Geography, has never been a more topical subject.  In the maintained sector, the new EBacc qualification has meant Geography's status has had a bit of a resurgence - its been 'rebranded' to some extent - and numbers taking up at the subject at GCSE are rising with 187,022 candidates taking it at GCSE in 2012 (up 3.48% compared to 2011 - outperforming History and English!).  It is even estimated that 36% of GCSE pupils will take the subject in the summer of 2014...

However, the challenge facing all Geography departments across the nation will now be this:  how to encourage GCSE geographers to take the subject as an AS-Level/A2 option or IB module?  Furthermore, is the quality of teaching Geography, as an academic subject, improving - are standards rising? For instance, I have noticed at GCSE and beyond, map work skills and general geographic knowledge i.e. where places are located, are particularly poor.

Interestingly a recent report entitled 'Quality Geography - Learning to make a difference' by Leszek Iwaskow, the National Adviser for Geography touched upon many of the teaching & learning themes to do with geography I have been exploring this term. Please click the link below to access the report.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/our-expert-knowledge/geography

Below are some of my thoughts on his paper and the wider context of geography teaching in schools:

The traditional model for departments it seems is to put the specialist teaching at the top end of the pyramid (Sixth Form) and any non-specialist teaching at the bottom end (Year 7 & 8 Lower School Geography). However, is the best long term approach?

Surely, some of our most skilled geographers need to teach the core skills to students at the bottom end of the school so as to inspire them and equip them with a good set of core geographic skills? What tends to happen with the current approach is that students have to often wait to be inspired at GCSE and even till A-Level before they receive quality geography teaching from a specialist - is this not the wrong way round? The flip side to this, of course, is that specialist teachers are needed at A2, which I do not dispute, but GCSE and even AS specifications, (take Edexcel's for instance), are biased to some extent to covering 'popular geography' and 'popular science' themes, which any good teacher could teach maybe?

Furthermore, in my latest blog entitled, 'a template for outstanding teaching' I discuss the need to shift away from prescriptive outcomes and instead focus on one primary outcome, with a series of learning loops built in, offering a flexible approach and quite organic approach to classroom teaching.  Leaving room for the lesson to progress naturally as opposed to a pre-conceived prescriptive format MUST BE A GOOD THING?!

In relation to Geography teaching, I have been focusing on actually teaching about the geography of case study topics much more e.g looking at the physical geographic aspects which make the city or tourist attraction what it is.  I have used GIS and maps much more to build in the core skills, which are lacking, and have then built in the critical Socratic questioning and higher order thinking skills needed to excel and gain top marks. I find the latter approaches to have been much more rewarding in comparison to trying to speed through a lesson, purely focused on ensuring all the assessment boxes for HMI are ticked or all of the exam spec content is touched upon, however briefly.  Furthermore, more time in lessons has been handed over to the pupils to work independently, the misnomer known as 'lazy teaching.' By only having a single outcome and focusing on the core geographic issues at hand, I have been able to simplify and gut the often wordy syllabus waffle into a series of clearly focused lessons that focus on the GEOGRAPHY & INTERCONNECTIONS between particular spaces and places.

Consequently, my teaching and learning targets for next term are to explore & evaluate:


1. A variety of main tasks (inc. advs & disadvs of each method) - reflecting on what went well & how we would change it, if we had to deliver it again.

2. Assessment for learning strategies/techniques - Investigating what they are, how they work and how best to apply them and to what situations and classes.

3. To make key skills and key terms a core part of our teaching across all of the curriculum levels.

Changing Educational paradigms & the role of Geography

Many of you will have seen this though provoking video which has been making it rounds on the web. I am just posting it to remind us all of what can be achieved and changed!


Thoughts and comments welcome.

Non cognito, ergo sum -the power of unthinking

Sometimes thinking is a bad idea, especially for teachers. I am sure we have all been there, a colleague, possibly HOD or even Ofsted inform you of an impending and of course necessary lesson observation. Consequently over the course of the next few days, despite your 'years of experience' or the fact that you are used to being observed (often as an outstanding teacher, of course!) you spend countless hours planning and re-planning, trying to create the perfect lesson. But of course, there is no such thing when one works with children of any age, even in one of the best schools in the country where behaviour management is of no concern at all.

Of course my point is that sometimes thinking or 'over-thinking' can be bad and counter-productive - thus there is case for unthinking! 


Unthinking is "the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation" (I.Lesile, Intelligent Life, June 2012). A fundamental paradox of human psychology is that thinking too much (over-analysing) can be a bad thing - one loses their spontaneity & natural flair. Lesile's analogy to illustrate his point is the following:

If a rat is faced with a puzzle in which food is placed on the left 60% of the time and on the right 40% of the time, it will quickly deduce that the left side is more rewarding. Young children adopt the same strategy. When Yale undergraduates play the game, they try to figure out some underlying pattern (over-thinking) and end up doing worse than the rat of the child.

Thus as teachers, I am sure, like me, some of your best lessons have been the ones in which you had a rough idea but no real definitive plan or set outcome. Currently i am experimenting in the classroom with what i call 'collaborative'  or 'pupil-led teaching': an image is shown on the board and the pupils decide upon the investigative questions they want to explore - i think this is a great exercise to 'show off' the very essence of what Geography is all about - a subject of enquiry.

Coming back to the original purpose of my article the question which still needs to be addressed is: "How do you learn to unthink?"

In my opinion for what it's worth I think that in an age of microblogging, instant communication and access to vasts amounts of information within a few clicks, we can tend to over-analyse and think too much e.g. books on what makes us happy and how to teach the best lessons can, sometimes at least, heighten the problem - in short we need to put thinking in its place and remember that as teaching practitioners some of the best lessons are those that occur when we simply do and don't think!

Original article posting is here: 
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/ian-leslie/non-cogito-ergo-sum

Game based learning

My most popular blog post to date was on Sim City and Rostow's model of development and the similarities between the two. The video below, focused on 'game based learning' reminded me of how important games can be in teaching and learning. Risk is a fantastic game to teach pupils about geopolitics, strategy, warfare, resource allocation, team work etc etc and likewise the inspirational teacher (John Hunter) who set up this phenomenal 4-tiered political science board game just shows a) how engaged pupils (even very young) can get and b) how they can grasp, comprehend and discuss big ideas and have a refreshing take in their common aim of achieving world peace.

My challenge to all the teaching practitioners out there is how could one replicate this in the classroom - could it be done on a smaller scale? There is plenty of opportunity for debate here and cross-collaboration between schools both within the UK and further afield.

Let me know your thoughts...

How to learn from mistakes and take risks...

Geography is all about asking questions, learning to enquire and investigate the world around us but importantly (and often forgotten) it is a subject which is based upon students making mistakes and challenges their pre-conceived ideas.

I feel this is a great (no, inspiring) video to make educators/teachers think outside the box - please post your thoughts on the content of this video and how as geographers we could implement the ideas in our day-day teaching! I would be interested in any ideas posted on class based examples.

The importance of the RGS Monday Night Lectures

Dear all,

If you live in the vicinity of London - do please get down and attend one of these fantastic lectures, especially if you are a student or in academia. They are absolutely brilliant!

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/London+Lectures/Monday+night+Lectures.htm

Gapminder

The amount of data available to geographers is expanding rapidly. The gap minder website makes sense of what is happening in a dynamic and eye-catching fashion.  Very useful for Development Geography, Population studies and Medical Geography to name a few areas in which this information can be applied with gusto.

http://www.gapminder.org/

The accompanying TED lecture are also a treat for those who want to expand their minds....

Geography: The silent human science

Along the corridors of our school the walls are festooned with images and words relating to the different subjects taught at the school. As i was walking along RE's corridor i was caught by the display of 'RE in the news'. The images and words all directly related to the subject and many news headlines had the subject word in their headline - how fitting i smirked - for it reminded me of my year 7 prep of 'What is Geography?' in which pupils have to research and produce a collage of news headlines linked to geography. Of course if you have not worked it out already the difference between the 2 displays was that the word 'geography', unlike 'RE', was not used by the media in their headlines.

The anecdote above for me encapsulates the problem the subject has at school and the discipline has at university and beyond. Quite simply, geography is everywhere but not talked about publicly - it is not common parlance among the media - thus it is the silent human science!

This was further emphasised by no other than Professor A.C. Grayling - Master of the New College of the Humanities (http://www.nchum.org/). He came to the school to talk about the importance of the Humanities as well as his new 'private' university, NCHUM. As i sat in the lecture and heard Grayling in a rather pompous and ebullient mood ramble on about disciplines like Literature, Philosophy, History and even Sociology it became clear that Geography was not going to feature; despite being labelled a 'Humanities subject' in virtually all state schools and being a social science that offers a holistic overview of the big picture! Surely if there was ever a 'Human Science' Geography would be right up there contending for the top place. It is geographers who ask the big questions (philosophy) and propose solutions (albeit in varying guises as oceanographers, environmental scientists, geologists etc); it is geographers who tell stories of the landscape and of past conflicts within nature and between nature and humans (History); it is geographers who have the unique ability to carry out primary research through fieldwork, interpret and analyse data, look at things through a spatial medium and link  'objective' Science to the more 'subjective' disciplines.

In short Geography matters (even Google support us; see link below) - it is in my opinion the silent human science. Our work covers a wide range of scales and we look at a variety of time periods in order to understand the landscape. I hope that in time the discipline evolve into being recognised more as the holistic discipline which is unique it it's ability to provide an overview in helping answers the global problems that society faces today.

It is said that Einstein took up Physics because he found geography too difficult!

Further reading/links:

http://www.fpri.org/orbis/4702/mcdougall.geographymatters.html

Geography: a different sort of discipline

I remember when, as a 14 year old student, I was faced with my first academic dilemma in deciding what option subject to take at GCSE: Geography or Spanish.  I plumped for Geography (I already had decided upon History and Latin). Why did I decide to do Geography? Why was History an obvious choice? And how could Latin help me read Law at university? – questions I still struggle to answer. 


Nevertheless, Geography became my favourite subject over the A-level course and I soon found myself writing my personal statement; discussing the merits of the multi–faceted discipline in relation to the working world. Over the course of my school career, notably when I was older, I distinctly remember being asked the following questions:


“Why Geography…where is that going to get you?”  


“What is the point of Geography, it is just colouring in maps?” 


And so a number of years down the line, as a Geography teacher who has taught in both sectors, I feel it is the right time to try and explain (albeit briefly) why Geography matters and why it is indeed a different sort of discipline. N.B. This is not a scholarly article; more of a layman’s guide to why I think Geography is important. I hope it makes you think, and re-consider Geography as a discipline in a new light.

The problem with Geography - Perception

In my opinion and the in the opinion of my contemporaries Geography has always had a bit of an image problem, and in the mind-set of many parents that I teach, and have taught, it is a subject with no definedm purpose or outcome; rooted in river studies, oxbow lakes and China’s One Child Policy – oh and of course, colouring in maps!  In schools over the past 40 years to some extent it has seen its’ status as an academically rigorous subject decline; out-competed by History, the hard Sciences, and increasingly the more work orientated subjects such as Economics.   Within Higher Education too, Geography has eternally struggled to place itself between the Sciences and the Arts - often finely balancing itself in the grey area of the Social Sciences. Therefore, the very nature of geography as a discipline in it's own right has (and will) always been contested e.g. are geographers explorers or academics; are geographers either human or physical geographers (or both?) etc.  Furthermore, in a post-modernist age, disciplines as broad and all-encompassing as Geography have become increasingly specialised and re-defined/re-branded: Oceanographers, Geologists, Cartographers, Environmental Scientists, Geomorphologists (the list is endless) –all with their own society ti signify and justify to some degree their status as a unique discipline. It would appear then that the word Geography has been removed, erased and become unfamiliar – the discipline has lost it' way - I mean when was the last time you saw a news report speaking to a geographer?

Geography it would appear has lost out as the grand experiment to keep nature and culture under one conceptual umbrella appears to have run it's course (Livingstone, 1992: 177).

If the latter is the case then: What is the point of Geography?

Firstly, it is important to understand that no one definition of Geography is sufficient (and here possibly lies one of the biggest problems - but that is another article!).  Intrinsically, Geography is a discipline which is subjective by its’ very nature and each geographer will have their own philosophical background guiding their opinion and ultimately influence how they define the subject. However, for the purposes of this non-scholarly article I will use the following definition from the RGS as a starting point for further discussion:

“Geography is the study of the earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and environments…it is unique in bridging the social sciences (human geography) with the natural sciences (physical geography). Geography provides an ideal framework for relating to other fields of knowledge” (RGS website, 2011).

As Linda McDowell, a prominent academic at Oxford University, talks about in her introductory talk to prospective students geographers are unique in their ability to look at the connections and flows between space and place. She argues that Geography is a synthetic discipline – synthesising the human, physical, social and economic worlds – which makes it a different discipline when compared to the more object/outcome focused disciplines of Mathematics and Economics.

Secondly, geographic knowledge is not one-dimensional – there is no one type of knowledge as there is no one singular answer. For instance Taylor (1986) argues that geographic knowledge can be broken down into 4 distinct areas:

• Geography a necessary knowledge (daily life, local geography).
• Geography as professional knowledge (academic geography). 
• Geography as popular knowledge (traveler/explorer tales).
• Geography as gainful knowledge (knowledge useful for commerce and business)

The synthetic nature of the discipline provides geographers with not only a unique set of transferable skills including: the ability to collect and analyse information and identify spatial trends and patterns; the ability to write concise, clearly argued essays; the ability to focus on global to local issues and assess priorities and the ability to assess work output critically.  But in my opinion, what truly defines a geographer is their unique perspective and outlook on the world, which can then relate to other disciplines – it is the latter (the synthesising) that makes geographers so special and employable in today’s modern world.  In addition Professor Viles of Oxford University emphasises a skill that is often forgotten, but one which defines us as geographers: “one of our greatest skills is to get into the environment and get to the bottom of what is going on” - in other words, we like getting our hands dirty.

Another over-looked aspect of Geography is how it encourages one to travel and explore the world.  My passion for Geography was first catalysed by a trip to the Mathare Valley slums in Nairobi, Kenya at the tender age of 16. Since this seminal moment my study of Geography both as student, researcher and teacher has enabled me to: live in a rainforest studying local communities in Honduras; walk China’s Great wall; and study the stunning glaciated valley of Yosemite National Park in California. Therefore, I believe that geographers have a genuine interest in the world around them and an enquiring mind that is willing to ask questions.

A different discipline – YES indeed!

In a time-space compressed world that is increasingly becoming over-populated and hazardous it seems that Geography (quintessentially the study of place and space) has never been more relevant. Geographers not only are well-equipped to understand the causes of the problem(s) but also have the ability to find solutions; recently seen in the area of Biodiversity and conservation management. 

Also, Geography over recent years has indeed seen an increase in popularity and credibility – the Geography Matters campaign, the new curriculum from the Geographical Association and the plethora of TV programmes on geographic topics such as the centre of the earth, megacities, the Blue Planet and the Human Planet all touch upon key geographic themes explored in more depth at GCSE and A-level. It is also clear that without knowing most of us use one (if not more) of Taylor’s types of geographic knowledge in our daily lives – and for all those parents whose children want to study Geography at university – do not worry as it would appear that geography as gainful knowledge within the major city firms is highly valued and very employable!

Most importantly Geography has the ability to build the bridge over the abyss and link the two bodies of the physical and human world, which have (and will always) come into conflict. The discipline provides us with an overview of the local, regional, national and global spatial processes that define and govern the world we live in.  It is a contested discipline, but one which is constantly evolving as there is always something new to research: new nation states being created or a new natural disaster affecting a vulnerable population. As geographers we aim to synthesise and explore the connections and flows between space and place and this is what makes it a different sort of discipline, well-placed to make a difference as we move towards the new paradigm of sustainability science.


Further reading/links:
http://www.fpri.org/orbis/4702/mcdougall.geographymatters.html

Alternative career pathways (other than a weatherman or teacher!):

http://www.geographical.co.uk/Magazine/Education_supplement.html


Transport logistics manager
Land use planner
CEO of Green Economics Institute 
Policeman
GIS Industry manager
Work for Google
Water resources engineer
Founder of a renewable energy company
Environmental consultant in Africa