Monday 12 January 2015

A Balanced Increase?


 Is Geography the preserve of the select high ability? My old school prevented lower ability kids from opting for the subject, and whilst there has to be a need to balance what they need at the time, for example additional English, do I really just want to be teaching people who are going to get a A*-B grade, or does everyone deserve to understand our world?

This week saw the news that GCSE Geography is continually becoming more and more popular, receiving the 5th highest percentage increase in uptake of subjects despite a 4% drop in overall uptake, making it the 8th most popular subject (just behind history in 7th).
Similar results have been seen over the last 3 years (coincidentally when I began teaching…no correlation!) however Geography was not always in such a good position. For my dissertation (submitted May 2012) “The Geography of Geography Education” I researched the impact of the RGS’s Geography Ambassador Project within inner city schools in Portsmouth on raising GCSE Geography uptake. This was born out of 3 things:

1)      My volunteering as a RGS Ambassador during my 2nd year of Uni
2)      My desire to become a teacher and do a dissertation focused around education
3)      A worrying trend at the time which was showing that GCSE Geography uptake was declining (so really an investigation into how secure my future career was!)

During the time leading up to 2012 Geography GCSE had been having a pretty rough time, falling dramatically by 30% between 1996 and 2004, and then again 15% to 2009, leading for The GA and the Royal Geographical Society to create the Geography Action Plan with the Department for Education.

Now I do not want to re-write my entire dissertation here, (though feel free to email or comment for a copy) but it showed that by demonstrating how useful and relevant Geography was both in terms of employment and practical reality, was one of the main drivers to help encourage uptake of the subject at GCSE.

Whilst I believe that the Action Plan and Ambassador Project has done incredibly well and had an impact, I would query how much of the recent increases have actually been down to the EBAC, and pupils being forced into the option? I know from my previous school that top ability and attaining pupils were forced into an EBAC pathway, and had the study either Geography or History. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m always keen for Geography to spread further and for me to have a bigger audience in which to share my passion for maps, but there’s some key questions I would like to ask:

1)      How much of the increase is down to the EBAC / schools encouraging or even pushing pupils into specific options?
2)      How geographically distributed is this? I came into teaching with a passion of teaching disadvantaged inner city kids from ethnic minorities – are these picking Geography? Or, as I saw during my dissertation is it still a majority of middle class, often rural, white British kids? Kids who have been to a beach before, or have been to a river and the countryside? And if so, how do we change that?
3)      Is forcing kids into a subject they don’t want, maybe don’t like or have an interest in the best for them? Whilst I was forced to do English and Maths at GCSE I did hate them, and whilst I now see the value, had I been forced to do a language over one of my preferred options I would probably have failed and hated those lessons for 2 years (I still can’t speak any other languages!)
5)      How do we increase female uptake? Surprisingly Geography is male dominated, how can we encourage more females to get muddy in a river?
6)      If the political gimmick of the EBAC changes with successive governments, how will this impact on Geography GCSE uptake? Is the increase a real demonstration of improvements in the subject, or is it just results due to politics and head teachers meeting targets?


I don’t know the answers to these, and would be interested to research (maybe with some others?) to try and find out because I believe that without knowing the answers to some of these key questions risks Geography’s future. It equally serves as a warning to us who teach Geography not to become content with bulging departments and increased budgets. 

4 comments:

  1. Hi Nick,

    This certainly made for an interesting read! I am currently a PGCE student (started my first placement a few weeks ago!) and I am currently planning for my second assignment which involves a piece of action research. I have actually chosen to research into the recent increase in the uptake at GCSE and what influences students to study Geog at GCSE. I bet your dissertation would make for a great read!
    p.s I also graduated in 2012 and was an Ambassador!

    Thanks Rebecca

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    1. Hi Rebecca, sounds great. I can email you a copy of my dissertation if you let me know an email address to send it to. One bit of advice I might give following me posting this blog and discussions after it, was how influential the Ebac and Progress 8 is will very much depend on which schools you investigate, for example both schools I've worked in, inner city schools, progress can be difficult and is a key issue, Geography is now being limited to higher ability pupils at GCSE

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    2. Hi Nick,

      I hope you don't mind emailing over a copy of your dissertation if you have a spare minute (scarce I know as a teacher!!). Email is becky-little@hotmail.co.uk

      Many thanks - would be great to act as background reading for my research.

      Regards
      Rebecca

      p.s happy half term!!!

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  2. Thanks Nick - email is becky-little@hotmail.co.uk
    I look forward to reading it! My research is based on a small rural school in north devon so will be interesting to see....

    Thanks

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