Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

Persistent weaknesses Alongside the positive changes, however, some weaknesses have persisted – one being the study of place. This is central to the discipline, yet it remains a big challenge for geography teachers. Inspection reports have regularly commented on how some pupils are given insufficient opportunities to study places in depth, with a tendency to focus more on bite-sized vignettes. This risks producing a fragmented and partial awareness of places that might see China studied only through the frame of its one-child policy, India in the context of its informal housing; or Brazil through the prism of it being home to large tracts of rainforest. The result can be to reduce complex places to a single process or issue, leading to students developing simplistic or stereotypical misconceptions. Another ongoing issue relates to fieldwork. This too is a fundamental component of geography education, and has, at times, been recognised by some schools as one of the subject’s strengths. The COVID-19 lockdowns may well have dramatically restricted opportunities for conducting fieldwork, but a downward trend could already be seen well before COVID of diminishing opportunities in schools to engage with fieldwork. By 2023, fieldwork was reported to be weak in almost all schools. Despite being a statutory requirement, there were even some schools that didn’t undertake any KS3 fieldwork at all. The final area of concern relates to geographical skills, with inspections noting inconsistent and undemanding teaching of geographical skills and limited planning for their development. One area that was specifically highlighted was schools’ use (or rather non-use) of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). In 2007, GIS was introduced as a requirement at KS3, and in subsequent GCSE and A Level specifications. However, in part due to gaps in teachers’ knowledge, by 2023 GIS still didn’t feature onmost geography curriculums. Taken together, the ‘Standards in Schools Geography 1991-2023’ report can help to inform subject leaders and geography teachers’ practice, and provides some useful lessons around how standards in school geography have been relevant at different times to the subject community and more broadly. Geography teachers should take pride in the notable advances we’ve witnessed, and in the positive improvements their subject has achieved over the past several decades. However, the report also highlights where further attention is needed, so that higher standards in KS3/4 geography can be more firmly established across all schools in future. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Brace is chief executive of the Geographical Association; for more information, visit geography.org.uk WHERE ARE THE SUBJECT SPECIALISTS? Ofsted reports have frequently identified a recurring issue of how educational standards and quality are, to some considerable degree, dependent on teachers’ geographical expertise. Where standards in the quality of teachers’ geographical knowledge and pedagogy are weaker – either through limited opportunities for CPD, and/ or the use of non-subject specialist teachers to teach the subject – there tends to be a link with lower standards. The challenge of recruiting enough subject specialist geography teachers continues, especially since 2010, given the growth in size of the GCSE geography cohort. In 2023, Ofsted observed that, “ In most secondary schools, at least some lessons are taught by non-specialists. ” The Geographical Association has recently launched a Subject Knowledge Scholar Programme, specifically designed support non- subject specialist geography teachers, further details of which can be found via tinyurl.com/ ts148-G6 77 teachwire.net/secondary G E O G R A P H Y