2 WHAT 15. GEOGRAPHY?
As with previous activities in the course, their purpose is to encourage
students:
to experience geographical study at their own level, using a variety of
resources;
to consider how the activities reflect national curriculum geography
requirements in both the programmes of study and the attainment
target;
to ascertain how the activities can be adapted for use with children.
There are activities for each key stage, reflecting the continuity and
development in geographical experience. It is up to students to relate
each activity to their own key stage focus. The activities include both core
and extension activities. All students must undertake the core activities;
extension activities can be used to develop aspects of geography further.
While using this Module, you should refer to the relevant national
curriculum geography requirements (DFE, 1995a; Northern Ireland
Department of Education, 1991; Scottish Office Education Department,
1993; Welsh Office, 1995).
What is geography?
The report of the geography national curriculum working group for
England and Wales provided a useful definition of geography:
Geography explores the relationship between the Earth and its peoples
through the study of place, space and environment.
(DES, 1990, p. 6)
'Place', 'space' and 'environment', they argued, are the key ideas at the
core of geographical studies.
2.1 The study of place
There are two important aspects to the idea of 'place':
1 how places come to be as they are;
2
what places mean to us (Wiegand, 1993).
Through the study of place, geographers attempt to describe and explain
why human and physical features, such as lakes and towns, are located
where they are. Place studies focus on what the features are like, how
they came to be as they are and what continues to influence their
development.
Geographers ask questions such as:
where is this place?
what is this place like?
why is it like this?
how is it changing?
how is this place connected to other places?
5
GEOGRAPHY
The focus of study here is the human and physical processes that create
and change places. Places are considered to be dynamic, whether
developments in them take place relatively quickly, such as the building
of a new housing estate or hypermarket, or over many millennia, such as
the 'evolution' of a mountain like the Matterhorn. Change may be
dramatic, as was the volcanic eruption which blew the top off Mount St
Helens, or it may be rather commonplace, such as the change of a high
street shop from selling one commodity to selling another.
The study of place is also about how localities have meaning for people
(Davies and Herbert, 1993). We all have a 'sense of place', that is, feelings
about places with which we associate particularly, places we feel at home
in, places we love returning to, places we feel are 'our' places.
Geographers stucly people's relationships to places.
They ask questions like:
e what is it like to live in this place?
cp what do you :feel about this place?
o what use do you make of this place?
e how involved do you feel with this place?
8 what is your reaction to change here?
The interest here is in how people see themselves in the places in which
they live and work and to which they make visits, whether for shopping
or on holiday. The concern is with our perceived use and with our likes
and dislikes about places. It examines our knowledge of places and our
emotional attachments or antipathy to them.
The study of place helps children to understand the nature and character
of places. It gives them insight into how places work, what they mean to
them and what it can or may be like to be in them.
2.2 The study of spatial patterns and relationships
Geographers study the spatial relationships between places, such as the
road, rail and air networks that connect places across continents, or the
places children use for leisure activities in a community. They are
interested in explaining the patterns they find in human and physical
activities; for example, the reasons why there seems to be a relationship
between pick-your-own farms, road access and urban areas, or why
volcanoes and earthquakes occur where they do over the surface of the
Earth. In essence, geographers study the spatial aspects of the Earth's
surface (and the areas immediately above and below it) and are interested
in developing theories to explain the patterns and the relationships they
find. These theories attempt to identlfy the processes at work in the
environment, such as 'plate-tectonic theory' to explain the movement of
continental landmasses and the incidence of earthquakes and volcanoes,
or 'location theory' to explain why activities and developments, such as
schooling or shopping centres, appear where they do (Gould, 1985).
2 WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY?
The purpose of this study is twofold: on the one hand, to understand the
'systems' that are at work in the physical and human environment; and on
the other, to enable predictions and proposals to be made about natural
events and human activities.
Geographers ask questions like:
where do these features or events occur?
is there a relationship between these features or events?
can patterns be discerned and if so what are they?
how can such patterns be explained?
what processes are at work to cause or create the relationships and
patterns?
what are the reasons for and consequences of these processes,
beneficial or otherwise?
what should be looked for to see whether particular patterns are
repeated?
can the events in the processes be predicted or replicated?
The interest in spatial relationships and patterns lies both in how we can
foresee events - for example, how the study of weather patterns can
enable us to forecast the weather - and in ways we might develop places,
such as researching the best location for a new hypermarket in order to
give best access to the most people with least disturbance to the area in
which it is sited.
For children this is important, because the concern is with developing
their awareness, understanding and knowledge of how the world around
them works, so that as members of their communities, from the local to
the global, they appreciate the physical and social processes at work.
2.3 The study of resources in the environment
The study of the 'environment' examines the resource base which the
Earth provides. This has two foci:
1
2
on the resources themselves, access to and the development of them;
on the impact of using the resources, and relevant action that needs to
be taken.
Geographers are interested in the nature, location, extent, accessibility,
use and impact of resources which people need to use. These resources
include 'non-renewable' resources such as oil to supply energy for heat or
transport, and 'regenerative' resources such as fish from rivers, lakes and
oceans for food. The whole environment of the Earth is the resource base.
Hence, the range of resources includes the 'natural' resources of solar and
wind energy, land, water and air, metallic and non-metallic minerals, soils,
forests and plants, animals and fish, as well as the 'social' resource of
people.
7
Geographers are interested also in the effects of people's use of resources
on the environment, for example the impact of the burning of fossil fuels
on the atmosphere and on the places to which the winds transport acid
rain pollution, as well as in action that might be taken to change the way
people use resources or even the type of resources they use, for example
in conserving fish stocks and in the development of fish farming
techniques. The environmental dimension in geography examines the
activities and the resulting issues that affect people and the planet, such as
scarcity, misuse, access, control and the impact on the natural systems and
cycles of the Earth. Equally, it includes consideration of the protection of
attractive and heritage environments and ways in which this can be
achieved. The management and sustaining of environments is one
important aspect of geographical study (Penning-Rowsell, 1987; Rees,
1989).
Geographers ask questions like:
e what resources are needed?
e what resources are there and where are they?
e how might they be obtained?
e how are the resources processed and used?
e what is the impact of using these resources on the natural
environment and on people?
e what decisions about resource use should be made, by whom and in
whose interest?
e, what can be done to manage the positive impact of their use?
what can be done to repair damage in places from which they have
been extracted or where they have been used?
e, what are appropriate ways to sustain environments?
e what alternatives can be developed that will be in balance with both
the natural and social environment?
e how can decision makers be encouraged to adopt environmentallyfriendly strategies?
The concern for ernvironmental issues arises because it is recognised that
the quality and very nature of human existence depends on our
understanding of the inter-relationship between human activities and the
available resources. Thus, geographers look at the use and impact of
technologies in the environment, cultural and social attitudes towards the
environment, and t.he political and economic decisions made which affect
the environment, with a view not just to explaining what is being done
but also to giving advice on what could be done.
For children this is important, because it is to them that the Earth will
pass. If they are to act responsibly in their stewardship of it for coming
generations, children need to develop their understanding both of how to
live in harmony with the planet and of how to come to decisions which
are in harmony with the Earth. Geography plays a vital role in developing
children's environmental awareness so that they may act as responsible
citizens of the Earth.