Ethnogeography

A future for primary geography?

Everyday geography

School geography

A new paradigm for primary geography?

• That enables learners to recognise the value of their everyday experiences and that they are already thinking geographically in their everyday lives

• That is suited to the context that they are living (and working) in

• Ethnogeography (geography of people, culture)

Ethnomathematics

• A key assumption in this field … is that, through interacting in a myriad of daily-life activities, people already think and, more specifically, they think mathematically Frankenstein and Powell (1994:74)

A dichotomy in education

• Subjectivity and objectivity

• Action and reflection

• Teaching and learning

• Knowledge and its applications

• Practical, everyday knowledge and abstract, theoretical knowledge

The place of geography in education

• What is it for?• Why is it in the

curriculum?• To make the world a

better place?• To learn to live ‘well’ in

the world?• To work towards a just

and sustainable society?

Freirian concept of education

The dominant discourse is that of the powerful and does nothing to reflect the lived experiences or culture of the oppressed

- Students (ITE)- Pupils (primary schools)- Teachers (National Curriculum)

Linking practical and academic

• Within a liberatory paradigm the voice of the academic or specialist should not be ignored

• To replace the privileging of one group with that of another would be just a questionable

Geographical Imagination

• Place• Scale• Location• Function • Social, economic,

environmental and political dimensions

• Sustainable development

Geographical Imagination

• Where are the people?

• Where am I in this?• What has it to do

with me?• Why should I care

about this place?

Geographical Imagination

• Tourism• Local-global links• Culture and social

injustice• Scale• Awe and wonder• Fragility of

environments• Sustainable

development

Linking practical and academic

• How can we enable learners to see the link between everyday experiences and the ways in which geographers make sense of the world?

Ethnogeographical Imagination

Ethnogeography GeographicalImagination

K/S/U/V ???

Everyday geography

School geography

Ethnogeography - whose voices?

• Pupils - Simon Catling, Arthur Kelly, Susan Pike, Nicola Ross and Chris Spencer (IRGEE 2005 in press)

• Students - Simon Catling (2004), Fran Martin (2000, 2004, 2005)

• Teachers - ???? • People in place and space, being-in-the-world:

phenomenological origins of geography, personal geographies