Knowledge Bases for Effective Teaching: Beginning Teachers ...

Knowledge Bases for Effective Teaching: Beginning Teachers’ Development As Teachers of Primary Geography Fran Martin School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK This paper reports the findings of a research project into beginning teacher development conducted in the United Kingdom. A model for beginning teacher development in the field of primary geography is proposed which looks at the relative knowledge bases needed for effective geography teaching. The model is used to aid analysis of data gathered from a series of lessons observed for two beginning teachers, providing an overview of their development over an eighteen-month period. Personal Construct Theory, specifically Mair’s (1971) ‘Community of Self’, provides a framework for theorising about the similarities and differences between the two. This leads to the generation of a number of ideas about beginning teacher development in primary geography, including the possible need to develop a new paradigm for geography suited to the primary context, that of ethnogeography.

doi: 10.2167/irgee226.0 Keywords: ethnogeography, primary geography, teacher development, subject knowledge

Background to the Project At a generic level, research into teacher development and the process of learning to teach has focused on the relative importance of different types of professional knowledge (Shulman, 1987; Smyth, 1987; Turner-Bisset, 2001) and some have suggested that enhancing primary teachers’ subject content knowledge is a key factor in the drive towards increased teacher effectiveness and higher standards (Alexander et al., 1992). Bennett & Carré (1993) focused on the role of primary student teachers’ subject knowledge within different subject areas and concluded that good subject knowledge is not necessarily the most influential factor in effective subject teaching. They identified the need to be aware of the ‘strong ideas’ about subjects, teaching and the role of the teacher that students bring with them as they embark on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) course, and that these can affect what is learnt and accepted as valid knowledge. In the field of secondary geographical education it was noted (Barratt Hacking, 1996; Leat, 1996) that while good subject knowledge is a factor in teacher effectiveness, the way in which the subject knowledge is known, understood and acted upon is more important. In other words, the beliefs held about a subject, the assumptions made about how it operates as a means of understanding the 1038-2046/08/01 013-27 $20.00/0 International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

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C 2008 F. Martin Vol. 17, No. 1, 2008

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International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

world, and the extent to which this is explicit are important considerations. In primary geography, this is further complicated by the fact that the majority of primary school teachers are non-geographers. It has been demonstrated by Lewis and Cowie (1993) that there is a relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their professional development, but the nature of this relationship remains unclear; one of the difficulties being that beliefs are usually implicit and therefore hard to articulate. However, research has shown that where practitioners are enabled to become aware of, and criticise, their tacit frameworks, this has been a critical part of the process of professional development (Beyerbach, 1988; Ghaye & Lillyman, 1997). From a research perspective this implies the use of methods that enable students teachers’ ideas and beliefs to be elicited in some way. Such methods were used in an earlier research project (Martin, 2000), the findings of which suggested that, while the majority of primary students are non-geographers, even those who held a geography degree seemed to have difficulties putting their conception of geography into practice. The conclusion at the time was that students’ conceptions of, and beliefs about, pedagogy and the way in which pedagogy and subject knowledge inter-relate [pedagogical content knowledge, (Shulman, 1987)] were also key factors. These considerations all led to the formulation of a piece of doctoral research which aimed to: (1) Identify student teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about geography, pedagogy and knowledge in ways that allow them to be appropriately represented, understood and consciously reflected upon. (2) Explore the relationship between student teachers’ conceptions and beliefs and their development as teachers of primary geography (primary = schooling from 5–11 years). (3) Consider the implications of the findings for Initial Teacher Education. The sample for the study was 79 primary student teachers on a one-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course in a UK university.

Methodology and Research Design In the previous project (Martin, 2000) the methodology used was drawn from Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) and, whilst there were drawbacks with some of the tools used, it was considered that the overall approach was suited to the aim of identifying students’ ideas and beliefs about geography. The theory of PCP, developed by George Kelly (1955), is one of constructive alternativism. That is, there is a reality and therefore there are such things as ‘facts’, but all facts are subject to alternative constructions. Each person puts their own interpretation on reality as they experience it and these interpretations are anchored in ‘antecedents and consequents’ (Kelly, 1970). PCP techniques (Denicolo & Pope, 2001) are used to enable people, through a process of increasing awareness of how they and others construe the world, to be active agents in their own change. Another aspect of PCP that has informed this research is the work of Mair (1971) who has developed the notion of ‘community of self’ as a metaphor for the various roles we all play.

Knowledge Bases for Teaching Primary Geography

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‘Self’ is not an ‘object’ of our attention but a ‘base’ from which we experience other events. Further, in this way each person can be considered as having as many ‘selves’ as he has vantage points from which to act. (Mair, 1971, p. 146) The use of ‘self’ ensures that the person (not the construct system) is central to the focus. It is this outward looking perspective that is also helpful – the idea that not only can a ‘role’ provide a filter through which to view the world but that each role is unique to the individual. As McQualter (1985) states, ‘a construct is a discrimination, a stance’ (p. 182) and as such can reveal points of view that can then be compared with others’ viewpoints with the aim of analysing one’s own in the light of alternatives and considering the possibility of change. Mair’s ‘community of self’ seems to relate to what Gerber (1996) refers to when discussing one of the criticisms often levelled at the subjective element of phenomenological research. He notes that the challenge for researchers is to remember that people have variations in experiences of a phenomenon and that ‘reality is context-based’. The ‘base’ from which a student teacher conceptualises a subject can have a profound effect on how they teach it. When students begin an ITE course the majority appear to conceptualise the subject from the base of learner. One of the key aims of the geography component of the PGCE course was to enable the students to move from the base of learner to that of teacher – more specifically teacher of primary geography. To enable this to happen it was necessary to (1) raise students awareness of their own conceptions of geography, (2) relate these to a variety of others’ conceptions, (3) relate all these conceptions to a range of organising frameworks and (4) consider the efficacy of these alternative conceptions and organising frameworks for effective teaching of primary geography. Mair’s metaphor for the different selves, or bases, from which we act provides a useful framework for exploring the differences in two particular student teachers’ development as will be highlighted later in the paper.

Research sample There are a number of routes into primary teaching in England, the most popular of which are a three- or four-year degree in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) (formerly called a Bachelor of Education, or B.Ed) and a three-year degree course in any education-related subject, followed by a one-year PGCE Initial Teacher Education course which results in the attainment of QTS. In line with the emphasis on English, mathematics and Science in English primary schools, the PGCE course devotes the majority of its taught time to these subjects and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), leaving little time for the remaining six subjects of Art, Design and Technology, History, Geography, Music and Physical Education. The PGCE course that provided the context for this research allocated 14 hours to the geography component. These 14 hours took the form of a two-hour session per week over the first seven weeks of the 38-week course. Data were gathered from the whole cohort at the outset of the course, including biographical details (Figure 1).

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Figure 1 Biographical details of PGCE Primary Cohort 1999–2000

Research methods In brief the research tools used for gathering data were: (1) Concept mapping (Ghaye & Robinson, 1989; Novak, 1995, 1998) before and after the geography component of the course, to track potential changes in conception. (2) Semi-structured stimulated recall interviews (Calderhead, 1987), using the concept maps as the basis for recall. (3) Observations of teaching, lesson plans and longer-term planning. (4) Semi-structured post-observation interviews, using the observation data as the basis for discussion. Figure 2 shows how the key tool – the PCP technique of concept mapping – provided a broad base of contextual data against which to analyse data gathered from the smaller samples. Concept maps were the key tool used for eliciting the student teachers’ conceptions about geography. Students were given eight key terms (drawn from a pilot study, Martin, 2004) and invited to use as many of these as they wished, plus terms of their own choosing, to construct a concept map that represented their ideas in relation to the question ‘What is Geography?’ All students were given some training in how to construct a concept map beforehand, using a non-geography related concept, so that ideas about nodes and relationships between nodes (Novak, 1995) could be discussed. They were also asked to select two or three concepts from their map and to outline how they might teach such a concept to primary aged pupils and why they might choose such teaching


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Figure 2 Pyramid representing research samples

approaches. These two sets of data formed the basis of the stimulated recall interviews. A grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) approach was taken to the analysis of the data. Important aspects of grounded theory are that the theories are always traceable to the data that give rise to them; the theories are fluid because they embrace the interaction of multiple actors and emphasise temporality and process; and each new situation is evaluated to see if it fits, how it might fit, and how it might not fit (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). In addition, grounded theory strives for verification of hypotheses (statements of relationships between concepts) throughout the course of the project and, as such, is an iterative process. In this instance, analysis of the concept maps generated codes that influenced the questions asked in the stimulated recall interviews, and initial analysis of stimulated recall interviews influenced the focus of the data gathering during the school-based phase of the project.

Conceptions of Geography Revealed Through Concept Maps and Stimulated Recall Interviews Following the advice of Ghaye and Robinson (1989) the concept maps were scored against the following elements: structure, concept terms and relationships shown along links. The tool below was developed following initial analysis by the researcher and refined following subsequent analysis by two geography colleagues – one secondary and one primary geography teacher educator.

Structure of concept map (1) Does the map have an apparent ordered structure? (2) Is there a linear relationship between nodes? (3) Is there a more complex system of links within and between different ‘levels’ in the map?

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(4) Have some general geographical concepts been added in the nodes (e.g. key concepts such as processes, location, global warming)? (5) Have some specific concepts been added (e.g. places might be divided into countries, cities, rural/urban etc)? (6) Are there descriptive statements along the links? (7) Are there statements along the links that are explanatory?

Types of concepts/relationships between nodes (1) Does the map have a spatial/locational element? (2) Does the map have a time/changes element? (perhaps related to geographical processes) (3) Does the map focus on causes/effects, influences? (4) Are complex inter-relationships (e.g. human – physical, physical – human, human – human interactions etc) represented on the map? (5) Is there a sense of active geography? (through investigations, enquiry etc?) (6) Are such things as mapwork/fieldwork shown as geographical tools? There was no differentiation between extent to which each element was present or not, thus the total score for any concept map was 13. It was acknowledged that the scoring system itself and its use for making judgements about the concept maps was open to interpretation and tended to fragment the conception rather than viewing it holistically. The decision was therefore taken to develop a set of four level descriptors and to allocate each concept map to one of four categories. Category One: Maps in this category all indicate a clear structure, complexity of relationships between nodes, and explanatory links that go beyond cause and effect to incorporate inter-relationships/interactions. The students in this category were more likely to select only those concepts from the provided list of eight that they wished to use while adding other broad concepts of their own. Cyclical and sequential structures were used in addition to the more traditional hierarchical one. Category Two: The majority of concept maps in this group are structured, and have some emphasis on conceptual links, although statements along links are more often descriptive than explanatory. Where links are explanatory, they tend to use single words (causes/effects) rather than explain the type of cause/effect. Geography is generally portrayed as a hierarchy of categories. Category Three: The concept maps in this category are quite varied – some having an apparent structure while others do not. However, the majority do not score well for the types of concepts/relationships evident in their maps. Very often the only type of conceptual relationship between nodes is that of cause and effect. These maps tend not to have nodes added to the original set provided, and some of the links between nodes do not make sense, geographically. Category Four: The concept maps in this category are all without an apparent structure and, if links are made they are often not labelled to indicate the relationship between nodes. Beyond sticking down the labels provided very little was added to the map suggesting a lack of understanding of the nature of geography and/or a possible lack of confidence in portraying their conception.


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Eight concept maps were judged to be in category one; only two (out of a possible 13) of those students with a geography degree were in this category. As might be expected, the majority of the concept maps were judged to be in categories two (35) and three (24), including those of students who had a geography degree. Typical of these conceptions was a hierarchical structure which focused on geographical content, but a narrow understanding of the conceptual framework within which geography operates. Specifically, few students’ concept maps indicated that spatial understanding is central to geographical study and only showed awareness of the process of geographical enquiry. The stimulated recall interviews were designed to enable the participants to articulate their own interpretations and perspectives on their concept map. In addition, a heuristic device was used during the interview to support further exploration of students’ conceptions of geography. These were the geographical persuasions of scientific/descriptive rich, humanistic-welfare and environmental (adapted from Barratt Hacking, 1996, Appendix 1). Finally, students were asked to discuss any changes shown in their conception through their annotations of their concept map after the taught component and to offer explanations for those changes. Analysis and interpretation of the data led to the identification of four key themes, which will now be discussed. For ethical reasons the students’ names have been changed. Students’ conceptions and their ability to represent them as a concept map Overall those interviewed said they were able to represent their conception adequately in the form of a concept map, although many expressed dissatisfaction with a hierarchical structure (suggested by Novak, 1995) as a means of portraying their conception. The majority did use such a structure, but said that they saw the elements of geography, as represented in the nodes, as being far more interlinked and difficult to separate. Two alternative structures used were cyclical (David – reported in detail below) and sequential (Lesley, Figure 3). Both these students had a geography degree and, as confirmed in interview, were confident enough to create their own structure and to be selective about which of the terms provided to use or not. Lesley’s concept map (as for others) showed fewer nodes than some and she put this down to her desire to ‘keep things simple’, but she recognised that this could be misleading to someone else as too many things were implicit in her representation. When I put that down [node of people] I didn’t just see the word people, I knew what that meant. (Lesley, line 58) This highlights a potential drawback of concept mapping – that aspects of the conception may well be implicitly rather than explicitly shown, confirming the importance of conducting a follow-up interview as a means of probing participants’ ideas more deeply and increasing the validity of interpretations made.

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Figure 3 Lesley’s concept map September 1999

The influence of prior experiences Those students interviewed overwhelmingly drew on their formal geographical experiences at school when constructing their map. In the following example one student said: I was trying to think back on what I’d done as a student [at school]. I hadn’t had any other experiences of geography. So that was about it. (Non-geographer, category 3, lines 22–24) Two of the three geographers interviewed drew on their geography degree, and these were the two who structured their concept maps cyclically and sequentially. However the third still relied on her school experiences: I was trying to think back to how I learnt geography at school . . . it brought back all memories of geography being taught in the third year in high school. (Geographer, category 2, lines 35, 280) That this was the case is evident in the fact that although she did a degree in human geography and town planning, her concept map portrayed geography as a subject that is descriptive-rich and uses scientific processes as a means of study. It also adds weight to the notion that the knowledge of subjects and teaching gained through their apprenticeship as pupils is very powerful and needs to be explicitly identified and acknowledged if students are to be enabled to expand on their prior conceptions.


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Underlying attitudes and beliefs Not surprisingly, those students in categories three and four were much less confident and more likely to have a negative attitude towards geography than those in categories one and two. One student remarked in interview I didn’t feel comfortable with doing it at all [the concept map]. . . . I didn’t feel as though I had any real knowledge . . . just wasn’t very confident . . . I just didn’t like being asked. (Non-geographer, category 3, lines 121, 126–7) The influence of school geography might explain her perception that she had no ‘real’ knowledge – possibly meaning that she could not remember any of the geography she studied at school. On the other hand, all those interviewed from categories one and two said they enjoyed the elicitation exercise. I enjoyed it. It brings back how much I enjoy geography. I enjoyed it, writing it down. (Geographer, category 2, line 278) The beliefs that underpin students’ conceptions of geography are, in part, shown in their preferences (i.e. what they chose to emphasise in their maps), but also in their geographical persuasions (Barratt Hacking, 1996). As reported above, the majority of the concept maps showed a predominantly scientific/descriptive rich geographical persuasion (66), with seven also showing elements of a humanistic/welfare persuasion and 15 elements of an environmental persuasion, while seven concept maps showed no discernable persuasion at all. Students’ own judgements about their persuasion in interview were in stark contrast with only two agreeing that their conception was scientific, and the remainder stating that they also believed that aspects of either the environmental or humanistic/welfare persuasions were also part of their conception. Students’ explanations for this apparent discrepancy tended to be that they had not thought of the elements shown in the persuasions when they had been constructing their concept maps, but that now they were able to read these definitions (Appendix 1) they were able to say whether they were part of their conception or not. A further explanation is that they were less aware of was that the concept map task caused them to draw on their school geography experiences. In this respect it was also causing them to discount their geographical life experiences and, as such, unnecessarily limiting. Changes in conception As one might expect, the annotations students made on their concept maps after the taught component showed that their conceptions had become broader. For some the change was shown as an accumulation of knowledge; however, in some instances the change was expressed as a change in perception about the subject. For example, one student said that he had never considered focusing on values as part of geographical study and that this was quite a revelation to him. Another said she had not realised that geography could focus so much on people:

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I think, just from doing the geography course with you, it [my persuasion] would be more humanistic because we focused a lot on people and cultures, and I found that . . . quite interesting because I didn’t know that geography actually looked at things like that. (Non-geographer, category 3, lines 290–293) This realisation led to greater confidence. On the first occasion she had felt quite negative about her ability to show her conception. When asked how she felt about doing the annotations she said Immediately I knew that I wanted to add lots of things, and I knew I was going to have a more inter-linking relationship between them. . . . I felt more confident, definitely, the second time round. (Non-geographer, category 3, lines 376–37) Another student (category three) said her conception had changed in that, although the content and structure remained relatively the same, she now perceived geography as ‘being everywhere’ rather than confined to what she had studied at school. This mirrored some annotations where comments such as ‘my perspective of how to teach geography is now using children’s present knowledge and experience in geography and building on it’ (Non-geographer, category two) were added. In other words, the geography component had enabled them to begin to see ‘life’ experiences as being valid, geographically.

A Model of Knowledge Bases for Primary Geography Teaching A model has been developed which shows the possible influences on students’ geographical and pedagogical knowledge bases (Shulman, 1987; Turner-Bisset, 2001) before they begin their ITE course (see Figure 4). The evidence from the concept maps and stimulated recall interviews suggests that, at the beginning of an ITE course, students conceptualise subjects from the perspective of learner

Figure 4 Model to show the influences on geographical and pedagogical knowledge which in turn influence pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)


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and that this limits their accessible knowledge base to that experienced as a pupil in school. It is proposed that for many students these knowledge bases, represented by the circles, start by being separate because subjects and pedagogy from a pupil/learner perspective would not be seen as overlapping. My understanding, developed from experience in teaching and research, in conjunction with the literature (e.g. Medwell et al., 1998; Turner-Bisset, 1999) is that if ITE focuses on the dual roles of subject and pedagogical knowledge, then conceptualising a subject from the base of teacher happens when the two elements are brought together. This is represented by the circles overlapping to create an area of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK, Shulman, 1987), which becomes a viable knowledge base from which it is possible to start working as teacher of primary geography. In order to shift from the perspective of learner to teacher, students therefore need to become explicitly aware of these different perspectives. This model seems to have potential as a framework that can be applied to school the data gathered for the sample of four participants who were observed once while still students teachers and twice as newly qualified teachers during their first year of teaching. For each school visit a lesson observation was conducted, followed by a post-observation interview. Lesson plans and medium term plans were also collected. These data were analysed using the model and the results for two of the participants are given below. In each case the circles represented in the model are not intended to be statistically accurate. Data to enable this sort of representation has not been gathered. The size of the circles is therefore broadly representational of the balance between the two knowledge bases.

David’s Development As a Teacher of Primary Geography Using the scoring system developed from initial analysis of all concept maps, David’s concept map (Figure 5) scored highly for both structure and geographical relationships expressed between nodes. Although his concept map did not reflect the active enquiry element it did represent complex geographical relationships within a clear structure and accordingly falls into category one – the most sophisticated conceptions of geography. While the basic structure of David’s concept map did not change after the taught course, he has added more inter-relationships between nodes and introduced the issue of power. David’s conceptions in action June 2000 Figure 6 represents how, as one might expect at this early stage of his development, David’s geographical knowledge was greater than his pedagogical knowledge. This was evident in his post-observation interview where he was much more able to articulate a rationale for the geography than for the pedagogical element of his lesson. He had a limited understanding of teaching and learning and a narrow range of strategies to draw on. Although David had good intentions about taking an enquiry approach to the lesson, the reality was very different because the evidence (pupils’ notebooks, photographs, posters) was neither available, nor explicitly referred to so the pupils worked from memory. The activity sequence also jumped from identification of a problem to asking

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Figure 5 David’s concept map

the pupils to design a way of communicating a solution, thus missing out the skills of identifying a range of solutions, evaluating them and deciding which was the most suitable alternative. David did not seem to be utilising his geographical knowledge base as effectively as he might. He has good knowledge in terms of facts and concepts, but he is not yet able to transform his geographical knowledge into a form that is understandable to pupils, in the act of teaching. As far as teaching is concerned, David’s geography degree appears to be of little advantage at this early stage of his development, mirroring secondary students’ comments that their degree was not helpful to them as teachers (Barratt Hacking, 1996; Leat, 1996). His PCK is therefore relatively small because his conception of teaching and learning does not help him to utilise his geography content knowledge base effectively, and he does not consciously ‘know’ his subject in a way that helps him to teach it. It is therefore possible to hypothesise that David is working from the base of learner. The key experiences David falls back on when planning and teaching a lesson are those he had as a learner of geography, confirmed during his stimulated recall interview when he acknowledged that he was only using his formal (school) education experiences to inform his lesson. For this reason the influence of life experiences is shown as a hatched line in Figure 5.


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Figure 6 David’s lesson June 2000: Working from the base of learner

David’s conceptions in action March 2001 After successfully completing the PGCE course David secured his first post as a Year one (5–6 year olds) class teacher. After seven months in post he was observed for a second time. The lesson observed was on the local area and focused on land use and the types of employment associated with this. Analysis of the data indicated that David’s knowledge of teaching and learning strategies was growing and that this was beginning to have a positive effect on the level of the children’s engagement in the activities. He was improving in his ability to judge things such as pace: I certainly felt at the end that we had . . . they’d sat there for too long. Although they’d sat there for the whole time the focus was, that was too long for a whole class discussion. He had also organised the children into small groups, each of which had a set of photographs that they had taken themselves on an earlier field visit. David’s first instructions to the class were: Now give yourself about two minutes to remind yourself what we took on the photos. He was using maps and photos as a way of representing the local environment in a concrete way for young children. In this way, consciously or not, the activity automatically became more enquiry based and child centred, as the children’s cognitive processes were more focused on ‘making sense of’ than ‘remembering’. The children were also being encouraged to develop their own meanings, rather than gaining received knowledge from David. It could be hypothesised that the growing pedagogical knowledge enabled him to utilise more of his geographical


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Figure 7 David’s lesson March 2001: Working from the base of teacher

knowledge because he could see better how to transform it into forms that are helpful to children – in other words, his pedagogical content knowledge had increased (Figure 7). However, after an interesting mixture of group and class interaction for the first part of the lesson, the remainder (35 minutes) was still a teacher-led, question and answer discussion. During the post observation interview, David’s thoughts indicate that while he is beginning to be better able to draw on his geographical base, his substantive knowledge in terms of conceptual frameworks that might help scaffold children’s learning is still limited. David: Interviewer: David:

Yes, I’d come marching in with my agenda of ‘let’s develop some thinking’ without having . . . The framework for that thinking. Yes, and that’s been hard for me, it’s been hard for me to work out how to get the framework and I still don’t think I’ve got it right.

None-the-less he is beginning to organise the children’s thoughts in a way that indicates he is drawing much more successfully on his educational ideal, that of developing children who are able to think for themselves and question things around them. David was also asked if he was explicit with the children about when they were doing geography, or being geographers. Reflecting on this he said, So I need to put my geography hat on and say right, I’ve got to think, for this session I’ve got to think like a geographer, haven’t I? This could be interpreted as David reaching a stage in his development where he has moved from the base of learner to teacher, but this has not yet incorporated


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in his geographical base. However, the comments above indicate that he is becoming aware of how he might incorporate the base of geographer within his teaching. For these reasons it is possible to hypothesise that the eight months he has had in school, have contributed to his pedagogical knowledge and his geographical syntactic knowledge and that these experiences are replacing those he had as a pupil in school himself. This syntactic knowledge seems to have enabled him to break down his degree level knowledge in such a way that this is beginning to become part of his PCK. Finally, it seemed as if David was beginning to recognise the importance of life experiences as a valid geographical knowledge base. This was evident in the way in which he explicitly used children’s own knowledge of their local area and then provided activities that helped them to think about these experiences in a more structured way. David’s conceptions in action June 2001 Just three months later, analysis of the data indicates that David’s area of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has grown considerably (see Figure 8). From the outset he made it quite explicit that it was a geography lesson and, as for the lesson observed in March, the children worked in groups and had photographs of various people (or in some cases artefacts that represent people – such as the milk crate) to work from – a recognition task. The whole approach was then, through a careful interchange of collaborative group and teacherled/whole class activities, to enable the children to develop their own set of criteria that would help them to add depth to their understanding of the concept ‘visitor’ in the context of the school. The activity enabled them to do this by sorting the photos into sets of their own choosing and this was because David had an understanding that they would be more likely to remember a definition they had created than one provided by someone else.

Figure 8 David’s lesson June 2001: Working from the base of geography teacher

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They would have to have it sorted out I their minds if they had to tell me. If I’d just told them it would have been more passive wouldn’t it? This growing pedagogical base has helped him create a clearer focus for both his planning and teaching (his talk during the activity phases is predominantly about teaching/scaffolding rather than monitoring/managing as it was June 2000). The growing PCK also means that he is better able to identify what are more appropriate ways of representing geographical knowledge, I had that dilemma – should I chop them up, the little pictures . . . obviously was more of a literacy skill so I chose not to do that . . . cutting and sticking wouldn’t have been appropriate. It also seemed to be helping him create a clearer conceptual framework for his planning, Following today’s session . . . we’re going to look at – well, if these people come every day as visitors what are the implications of that? Where do they stop? Do they all use a car? . . . What are the implications for the school . . . which is going to lead on to the issue. On several occasions, during the post observation interview, David mentioned sources he had used to develop his pedagogical knowledge, such as reading books, talking to other members of staff, and some INSET courses he attended. The key elements he appears to be drawing on to inform his PCK are his degree in geography, his and the children’s geographical life experiences, his growing experiences as a teacher and accompanying broader theoretical base (personal and established theory). It could be hypothesised that this growing pedagogical knowledge has enabled him to utilise more of his geographical knowledge; geographical and pedagogical knowledge therefore begin to blend together creating a larger area of PCK and his geographical knowledge begins to be embedded in his practice. In effect, David is becoming a geography teacher, rather than teacher of primary geography, because he has a geography degree and, combined with his increased use of life experiences, his substantive base is effectively that of a subject specialist.

Carrie’s Development As a Teacher of Primary Geography Using the scoring system Carrie’s concept map (Figure 9) scored low for both structure and geographical relationships between nodes. The map does not appear to have any discernable structure. It is not hierarchical; although ‘geography’ is placed at the top, there is no indication from the way in which the other eight nodes are placed that any one is seen to be more important than another. The links between nodes are all unidirectional, indicating that the inter-relationship that exists between geographical phenomena is not part of Carrie’s conception. Whilst all the links are labelled, the majority of the labels are descriptive rather than explanatory. Geographical skills are implicit in mapping, which is represented as a tool for recording how things are grouped together – weather charts, people in areas and settlements of different sizes. This hints at an understanding of patterns in location and spatial distribution, but


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Figure 9 Carrie’s concept map

there is not enough explicit reference to this to score it. Her concept map was therefore placed in category three. The changes Carrie made to her map after the taught course, shown in bold on the concept map, suggest that she was beginning to conceptualise geography in a more hierarchical way, for example by expanding on the terms global and climate. Beyond this there is very little change in the conception as a whole. During the stimulated recall interview it was clear that Carrie’s conception was broader and more complex than that shown in her concept map. Carrie’s explanation for this was that while she felt able to represent her conception of geography successfully, on reflection she had drawn on her memory of school geography more than other experiences, and that this had affected the conception portrayed quite significantly. I relied very much on memory of geography taught at school – the sort of topics covered. I preferred physical geography to human, although we covered both. For physical geography I did an independent project looking at the local stream and the processes there, then we moved on to more global things such as volcanoes and glaciers.

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Figure 10 Carrie’s lesson June 2000: Working from the base of learner

Carrie’s conceptions in action June 2000 The first lesson observed, with a year two (6–7 year olds) class, is characterised, from a geographical perspective, as working from the base of learner (Figure 10), because the conception shown in action was similar to that elicited at the beginning of the course. It was relatively narrow and she did not use clear geographical frameworks for organising her teaching or the children’s thinking. The majority of the teacher talk recorded during the observation focused on organising and managing the children’s behaviour, on offering praise of a general nature, or on aspects of literacy for written work. The pedagogical circle is represented as larger than the geographical one because of the evidence in her lesson and post-observation interview. She emphasised the importance of enjoyment in children’s learning and made an attempt to plan activities that are interactive and have some sense of purpose (writing a guide book, using ICT software to build a town), something which was mentioned as part of her personal theory, developed as a result of classroom experience and her psychology degree. The post-observation interview also shows that she was able to reflect on the efficacy of her approaches and had begun to identify ways in which she could improve. In this respect, Carrie was operating from the base of teacher, however the evidence also suggests that at this stage in her development she equated doing with learning, and the majority of the teacher talk during the activity phase of the lesson was monitoring and organising rather than teaching. Overall, therefore, she appeared to be working from the base of learner. Carrie’s conceptions in action December 2000 Carrie’s first post was with a reception (4–5 years old) class. Evidence from the second observation, six months later, suggests Carrie’s teaching has developed


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Figure 11 Carrie’s lesson December 2000: Working from the base of transition from learner to teacher

considerably and both her geographical and pedagogical knowledge bases seem to have grown (Figure 11). The geographical focus for the lesson was much clearer on this occasion and, although it continued to reflect the scientific persuasion she held of geography as a learner, there were indications that she was beginning to utilise her syntactic knowledge more successfully. She was developing children’s mapping skills because they would be necessary for a later stage in the unit when the children were going to conduct some fieldwork in the local area. Her teaching emphasised substantive geographical knowledge to the extent that she was keen to develop appropriate subject specific vocabulary, and she was beginning to be selective about the resources she used to support her geography teaching, for example, she chose the story ‘Katie Morag Delivers the Mail’ rather than ‘Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers’ (the latter of which is suggested in the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority unit of work (QCA, 1998) because that one was more geographical because ‘you’ve got her going over, you see where she’s going on the map’. A further factor that seems to be affecting Carrie’s substantive knowledge base is the holistic approach to learning that she is developing in her early years classroom – an approach supported by the school. For example, during the introduction she was asked why she got the children to read the stimulus story with her instead of her reading it to them. Probably just because, um, that’s what we do in the literacy hour and I think it’s nice for them to get, if they can read the words, again just bring in, now I’m trying to bring in more literacy and numeracy in everything.

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And this was providing more of a focus than the geographical content of the book. If there’s a big book I’ll use the pointer that we’ve got, and try and get them to read it, and what’s the title, who’s the author you know, Even when I read a story book they’ll always ask me ‘who is the author, who is the illustrator’. . . They’re constantly asking me that so I just try and bring in as much as I can if there’s a link. On the basis of the lesson observed, the learning was very much skills-based and focused on syntactic knowledge. Children were working in pairs to direct each other around the classroom using a map, and groups were working out how to get Roamer, a programmable floor toy, to move from one place to another themselves, using a problem-solving enquiry-based approach. Teacher talk during group work was therefore centred on asking questions and modelling skills for the children to try out for themselves. On this evidence it is possible to suggest that while her pedagogical and syntactic knowledge are developing, Carrie’s substantive knowledge remains similar to what as it was at the beginning of the course. Evidence of a growth in PCK can be seen in the ways she has chosen to represent the subject matter through the planned activities. Her knowledge of the need to make learning as concrete and practical as possible for this age group was being applied in a geographical context and leading to the selection of representations appropriate to the learning objectives identified for the lesson. Overall it seems as though the growth in pedagogical and syntactic knowledge has helped her make more effective use of the substantive base she has and enabled her to begin making the transition of working from the base of learner to that of teacher, but not yet teacher of primary geography. Carrie’s conceptions in action June 2001 In the final lesson observed (Figure 12), while Carrie’s pedagogical base appears to have grown, her PCK does not seem to have been extended over the last six months. That her pedagogical knowledge base has grown is evident in the approaches she uses such as drawing on the children’s own knowledge, using contexts that are meaningful to them, and making use of play-based, collaborative learning activities. Carrie has also developed her knowledge of, and rapport with, the learners in her class and this has combined with her pedagogical knowledge to create a sound base for working as a teacher. However, Carrie’s substantive geographical base does not appear to have developed much since the last lesson observation. In some respects there is progress – for example, during the introduction Carrie explicitly stated (about a display the children were going to make for the school corridor): we’re going to do a map – we’d like to give information to people walking past about what the buildings are and what jobs people do. . . . so if anyone walks past they can look at the photos, they can look at the paintings and the label and know what it is. (Observation notes, 14/06/01).


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Figure 12 Carrie’s lesson June 2001: Working from the base of teacher

However, the activities planned for the children to do in groups did not then match the learning objectives. Pedagogically the activities were sound, but the stated geographical focus was looking at how the locality is used and activities did not support this understanding. The children had taken photos and created paintings of their locality but these were not used as a resource for the activities, which seemed to have disparate objectives making it difficult for Carrie to build on their learning (e.g. through the use of a cognitive framework) in a cohesive way in the plenary. The town baseboard with people and street furniture had potential as a means of representing their environment and then talking about it, but no such structure was given. If anything, from a geographical perspective, this lesson was poorer than one observed six months previously and the conception of geography being put into practice is still the descriptive-rich, scientific view of geography she held as a learner. In one respect there is evidence that Carrie’s conception of geography is changing and this is in the way she is drawing on children’s life experiences. On several occasions during the interview she mentioned using the children’s knowledge of their local area to make geography relevant to their lives – and it is possible that this has enabled her to extend what she might now identify as geography beyond the narrower view formed from her experiences as a pupil herself. To sum up, Carrie is working from the base of teacher, but has not developed her substantive geographical base sufficiently for this to be a base of teacher of primary geography. One of the key factors affecting this could be the strong school ethos, which has continued to influence Carrie’s work significantly. Geography is valued in Carrie’s classroom, and her perception is that geography has a central role in her planning and teaching, but this central role focuses on

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content rather than enabling the children to think as geographers. Although she is drawing on a relevant knowledge base (the children’s own everyday knowledge) the substantive knowledge needed for her to be able to plan for, and extend, children’s geographical understanding within a more academic geographical framework is not in evidence.

Factors Affecting Students’ Development As Teachers of Primary Geography Towards the beginning of this paper it was suggested that the aim of a PGCE course might be to enable a student to move from the base of learner to the base of teacher and, ultimately, teacher of primary geography. How this might be achieved was not clearly understood. The school-based data has provided ‘thick description’ of specific examples from which it is now possible to offer a more complex explanation of the factors that appear to most affect these students’ development. For the purposes of this paper, and because it seems to be such a crucial stage in development, I will now focus on the apparent influences on students in their early development – in other words, their PGCE course – and what seems to be most helpful in theorising about these factors is the ‘community of self’ aspect of PCP (Mair, 1971). If the community of self is applied then the relevant ‘selves’ that appear to be most active are self as student teacher and self as learner. Until the descriptiverich school-based data had been analysed in depth I had not distinguished between different selves as learner. However, the data seem to point to the idea that a distinction between formal, school learning and informal, everyday learning might be helpful. As far back as 1983, Feiman-Nemser was identifying a need for those in teacher education to be more aware of the influences of informal learning on the process of learning to teach. Feiman-Nemser’s report is longitudinal in its scope, but within this she notes the particular importance of the pre-training phase, when prospective teachers are unconsciously already learning things that will shape their teaching, and that what is learnt often has ‘miseducative’ effects. In the context of a student teacher’s early stage of development Figure 13 shows that, in the act of teaching and planning for teaching, the base of self as student teacher has two other selves to draw upon – pupil self and everyday self – both of which provide a learner perspective on the world. In terms of the influence on the development of a geographical knowledge base both have potential to inform the student teacher self. However, it is possible to argue that the pupil self acts as a barrier preventing the everyday self from being recognised as a useful base to include. This may be because: • education culture in England privileges formal learning experiences over informal ones; • the learner self will construe ‘teacher’ from the pupil base; • consequently the informal geographical experiences from which the student has learnt will be discounted. Therefore, the line of influence on the self as student teacher is limited to the pupil self base. The pupil self will have learnt things about the geography and


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Figure 13 A diagrammatic representation of the influences on students teachers of primary geography at an early stage in their development

teaching and learning, but even if the teaching experience was of exceptionally high quality, what is learnt is profoundly affected by the learner perspective. This has been noted in research into learning to teach where the apprenticeship model has been criticised because of the student’s inability, at an early stage of development, to adequately interpret what a teacher says and does (Calderhead & Shorrock, 1997). I noted this phenomenon in my own research when one student observed what he interpreted as an experienced teacher’s ‘clever questioning’: With the class teacher I’ve seen that through her questioning techniques they [pupils] do . . . the thinking is prompted so they do get there. She hasn’t sort of given them the answers but through clever questioning they get there. When he applied this to his own practice he transformed it into a teacher-led, question and answer session in which he was clear what answers he was looking for but the pupils were not. The subtleties and complexities of the experienced teacher’s techniques were lost to him. If this is the case for a student teacher, it will be even more so for a pupil which in turn provides yet another layer of influence on what is learnt and transferred from the pupil base to the student teacher base. In terms of subject knowledge, what is explicitly remembered tends to be substantive (we studied rivers) rather than syntactic knowledge (we asked lots of questions about rivers and then tried to find the answers through fieldwork); in terms of pedagogic knowledge, what pupils tend to remember is whether they liked a teacher or not, rather than the pedagogical knowledge and skills that teacher might have used. The conclusions I have drawn from this are that the ‘selves’ that are being utilised to inform the base of student teacher are unhelpfully limiting and that it is the teacher educator’s responsibility to find ways of removing the barrier

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that currently appears to prevent students from utilising the everyday self as learner base. How this might be achieved will now be discussed.

A New Paradigm for Primary Geography Primary beginning teachers are geographers; that is, they have already built a body of knowledge about the world geographically but many do not recognise this. During the process of my research it also became evident that geographical paradigms as defined by the academic community (scientific, humanistic, radical/welfare) meant little to non-specialist primary student teachers. It therefore seems necessary to develop a way of conceptualising geography that (1) enables students to recognise the value of their everyday experiences and that they are already thinking geographically in their everyday lives, and (2) is suited to the context that the students are working in – that of the primary school, and this is a paradigm I am referring to as ‘everyday’ or ‘ethnogeography’ (Martin, 2005, 2006a). Ethnogeography reflects the view that all primary student teachers (and their pupils) are geographers because they all live in the world. As a result of their daily interactions and decisions they will have built up a wide knowledge base about the world, near and far, through a range of direct and indirect experiences. What they don’t perhaps recognise is that this knowledge is useful geographical knowledge and a point from which deeper conceptual understanding can be developed. There is a distinction to be made between academic geography, the discipline, and being a geographer in the everyday sense described above. Student teachers’ everyday, or ethno, geographies could provide a suitable starting point from which to develop as teachers of primary geography. However, it is recognised that everyday geographies are considered ‘na¨ıve’ (Golledge, 2006) as well as limiting in the sense of their being restricted to the student teachers’ world views. For this reason it is proposed that teacher education enables student teachers to make connections between their everyday experiences and the ways in which geographers make sense of the world, and that this is done in such a way that they become aware of how restricting their own conceptions might be. This is the type of connection that David, with his geography degree, was able to make but that Carrie was not. In her case the initial training needed to focus more explicitly on the conceptual frameworks of academic geographers. Here the concept of a geographical imagination (Geographical Association, 2005; Massey, 2005) is useful. A geographical imagination can be conceptualised as a lens through which to make sense of the world using the ‘big ideas’ of geography such as place, connectedness, scale, process, and skills (Geographical Association, 2006). Using key geographical concepts is the type of understanding that would be missing if geography was not in the curriculum. However, it is also recognised that there is no single academic voice and that each geographical paradigm (e.g. scientific, humanist/welfare or environmental) will bring its own particular imagination to bear. It is proposed that where the ethnogeographies and academic voices intersect – ethnogeographical imaginations? – the area of overlap will provide the most effective base from which to act as an effective teacher of primary geography. A primary geography teacher would therefore be one who was aware of the distinctions between everyday and academic


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geographies, understood how to teach in such a way that they (and therefore their pupils) made connections between the two, and recognised that both geographies are dynamic in nature and can therefore be responsive to the changing world around us as well as preparing us for an uncertain future. Acknowledgement This article is based on a paper presented at an international conference, Research on Learning and Teaching in Primary Geography, held in Karlsruhe, Germany in July 2006. My thanks to Dr Daniella Schmeinck and conference participants for their comments on the earlier paper (Martin, 2006b), which led to the revised version presented here. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Fran Martin, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK (fran.martin@ exeter.ac.uk). References Alexander, R., Rose, J. and Woodhead, C. (1992) Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools. London: HMSO. Barratt Hacking, E. (1996) Novice teachers and their geographical persuasions. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 5 (1), 77–86. Bennett, N. and Carré, C. (eds) (1993) Learning to Teach. London: Routledge. Beyerbach, B. (1988) Developing a technical vocabulary on teacher planning: Preservice teachers’ concepts maps. Teaching and Teacher Education 4 (4), 339–347. Calderhead, J. (1987) The quality of reflection in student teachers’ professional learning. European Journal of Teacher Education 10 (3), 269–78. Calderhead, J. and Shorrock, S. (1997) Understanding Teacher Education. London: Falmer Press. Denicolo, P. and Pope, M. (2001) Transformative Professional Ppractice: Personal Construct Approaches to Educational Research. London: Whurr. Feiman-Nemser, S. (1983) Learning to teach unpublished paper. Institute for Research on Teaching, College of Education, Michigan State University. Geographical Association (2005) On WWW at http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/ valuingplaces/cpdunits/geographicalimaginations/. Accessed on 13.05.05. Geographical Association (2006) Geography in Action 2006–2008: The Action Plan for Geography. Sheffield: Geographical Association in association with the RGS/IBG and DfES. Gerber, R. (1996) Interpretive approaches to geographical and environmental education research. In M. Williams (ed.) Understanding Geographical and Environmental Education: The Role of Research (pp. 12–25). London: Cassell. Ghaye, A.L. and Robinson, E.G. (1989) Concept maps and children’s thinking: A constructivist approach. In F. Slater (ed.) Language and Learning in the Teaching of Geography (pp. 115–130). London: Routledge. Ghaye, A.L. and Lillyman, S. (1997) Learning Journals and Critical Incidents: Reflective Practice for Health Care Professional. Dinton: Quay. Golledge, R. (2006) Geography and everyday life (again!). Directions Magazine. On WWW at http://www.directionsmag.com. Accessed on 24.10.06. Kelly, G.A. (1955). The Psychology of Personal Constructs. New York: Norton. (Reprinted by Routledge, London, 1991). Kelly, G. (1970) A brief introduction to personal construct theory. In D. Bannister (ed.) Perspectives in Personal Construct Theory. London and New York: Academic Press.

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Leat, D. (1996) Geography student teachers and their images of teaching. Journal of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 5 (1), 63–68. Lewis, H. and Cowie, P. (1993) Cooperative group work: Promises and limitations – a study of teachers’ values. Education Section Review 17 (2), 77–84. Mair, J.M.M. (1971) The community of self. In D. Bannister (ed.) New Perspectives in Personal Construct Theory (pp. 1–29). New York and London: Academic Press. Martin, F. (2000) Postgraduate primary education students’ images of geography and how these affect the types of teachers they become. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 9 (3), 223–244. Martin, F. (2004) Knowledge bases for effective teaching: A case study of one beginning teacher’s development as a teacher of primary geography. In S. Catling and F. Martin (eds) Researching Primary Geography. London: Register of Research in Primary Geography. Martin, F. (2005) Ethnogeography: A future for primary geography and primary geography research? International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 14 (4), 364–371. Martin, F. (2006a) Everyday geography: Re-visioning primary geography for the 21st century. Geographical Education. Martin, F. (2006b) Knowledge bases for effective teaching: beginning teachers’ development as a teacher of primary geography. In D. Schmeink (ed.) Research on Learning and Teaching in Primary Geography (pp. 149–184). Pädgogische Hochschule Karlsruher. Massey, D. (2005) For Space. London: Sage Publications. McQualter, J.W. (1985) Becoming a teacher: Preservice education using personal construct theory. Journal of Education for Teaching 11(2), 177–186. Medwell, J., Wray, D., Poulson, L. and Fox, R. (1998) Effective Teachers of Literacy: A Report of a Research Project Commissioned by the Teacher Training Agency. UK: University of Exeter. Novak, J. (1995) Concept mapping to facilitate teaching and learning. Prospects XXV(1), 79–86. Novak, J. (1998) Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations. US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (1998) A Scheme of Work for Geography at Key Stages One and Two. London: QCA. Shulman, L. (1987) Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Education Review 57 (1), 1–22. Smyth, J. (ed.) (1987) Educating Teachers: Changing the Nature of Pedagogical Knowledge. London: Falmer Press. Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1998) Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds) Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry (pp. 158–183). London: Sage. Turner-Bissett, R. (1999) The knowledge bases of the expert teacher. British Educational Research Journal 25 (1), 39–55. Turner-Bisset, R. (2001) Expert Teaching: Knowledge and Pedagogy to Lead the Profession. London: David Fulton Publishers.

Appendix 1: Geographical Persuasions (adapted from Barratt-Hacking, 1996) Scientific/descriptive-rich persuasion Geography is a discipline which focuses on knowledge and understanding of the world with a particular emphasis on spatial patterns. It builds up a wide range of knowledge, which is hierarchical. Much of this knowledge can be measured, quantified and used to test hypotheses. It allows for the physical and human elements to be studied separately. Humanistic/welfare persuasion Geography is a discipline which focuses on people – their concerns, ways of life, cultures and social organisation. It considers issues such as ‘who gets what


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and why?’ It looks at the opportunities and constraints acting on individuals and society and how these affect ways of life. It allows for the subjective experience of place. It is often about challenging stereotypes, and detecting bias and attitudes in the way information is presented. Environmental persuasion Geography is a discipline which is concerned with people/environment interactions and relationships. It focuses on issues such as pollution, global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer. It is concerned with how and why different environments are managed, who makes decisions and issues surrounding the concept of sustainability.