Geography in Secondary Schools: Researching Pupils' Classroom Experiences

Description

Gaining a better sense of how pupils conceive school geography is crucial if we are to understand the ways in which their ideas and values mediate learning processes. Geography in Secondary Schools explores how pupils experience geography lessons, what they think geography as a school subject is about, and what it means to them. School geography aims to help young people think about the world and their place in it in a distinctive - geographical - way. However very little is known about the kinds of thinking and values they associate with the subject. Researchers are increasingly taking young people's ideas seriously as important and worthy of investigation in their own right. In this book, Nick Hopwood takes such an approach to explore the relationships between pupils and geography as a school subject. He follows six pupils through their geography lessons for a period of three months, discussing their learning experiences in depth with them. Their participation in class, written work, and comments made in interviews form the basis for a detailed investigation of their ideas.

Nick Hopwood is Chancellor's Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He is also a Research Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, UK.

A brilliant concept. Through the perceptions of Bart, Lisa, Matt, Sara, Jenie, and Ryan, we learn about geography as a school subject. Hopwood takes us into the minds of students - a special place seldom visited by educational researchers. * Richard G. Boehm, Director, Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education, Texas State University, USA * Nick Hopwood has managed to produce something very different, and in many ways so much more valuable than the conventional research monologue. As he explains in the introduction to Geography in Secondary Schools, this book tells a story about how six pupils experience their geography lessons and develop their ideas about geography as a school subject. The chapters that follow are fascinating, full of the insights gained from a detailed focus on individuals rather than on class groups. Lisa, Bart, Sara, Matt, Ryan and Jenie are real young people (although the names are made up to protect the participants) whose families, social lives, characters and opinions influence and interact with their understanding of geography and of the world around them. Teachers, researchers and geography educators have much to gain from this well written account, but Hopwood's conclusions are also refreshing. He refuses to be drawn into making 'pat' statements about key findings or pedagogical implications, arguing instead that it is enough if we who read this book are moved 'to think beyond ourselves, to pause and take pupils' ideas seriously and as worthy of our attention.' In an age of political meddling with the curriculum, when the teachers' professional role is often undervalued, such encouragement to use our professional skills is both welcome and sound advice. * Eleanor Rawling, Research Fellow, Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK * Nick Hopwood has creatively reversed usual research methodology. He talks with students about their geographic learning. His research builds a compelling case for deep, meaningful discussions with students as a means to both analyse the content of the curriculum, the lessons, and student learning. Readers, and especially teachers, are presented a unique challenge: that being to view the science and art of teaching geography as seen through the eyes of students. * Joseph P. Stoltman, Professor of Geography, Western Michigan University, USA *