Young People's Geographies Starter Document November 2006

1. Everyday Geographies - Young People’s Geographies:
Young people participate in their own lived geographies. On a day to day basis they are
part of different social groups, they interact simultaneously with others at both a local
level (friends, family) and at a global level (via the internet), they navigate very complex
networks of participation from informal social groups (friends, school groups, shared
social activities) to more organised social activities ( such as clubs, sport and music)
and formalised group activities especially in school. In addition their access to spaces
and places are enabled and/ or hindered by a range of factors and influences such as
parents, financial considerations, age group, feelings of safety, identification with
different groups, personal interests etc..
The aim of this project is to begin to consider how to utilise pupils’ lived geographies to
give them access to a relevant and more ‘owned’ experience in school geography. We
want to consider:
1. What do we mean by pupils’ geographies within the context of secondary
schools?
2. How can such geographies form part of the school geography curriculum?
3. What might be the pedagogies that support pupils’ understanding of their own
geographies?
4. In what ways might such an understanding shape and influence pupils
understanding of other geography discourses?
5. How can teachers access such discourses to inform their geography teaching in
secondary schools?
Through exploring such issues we hope to work towards the development of an
appropriate pedagogy that will enable us to close this perceived gap between pupils’
lived geographies, school geography and academic geography.
The Strategy:
Part of the current debate about the state of secondary school geography is the notion
that there is an ever-increasing divide between school geography, as embodied in the
GNC and the many geographies that occupy academic researchers. Youth geographies,
young peoples’ geographies and children’s geographies are not new to academic
research yet mainly feature within the school context as part of a constructivist pedagogy
where building on pupils existing frameworks of knowledge and understanding is used to
support pupils’ access to the school curriculum, however that may be interpreted.
Bridging the divide between school geography, academic geography and pupils lived
geographies is likely to require conversation between each of the ‘interest group’ in order
to better understand each others’ perspectives. In this respect, pupils’ voices, those of
their teachers and those of researchers in the field of young peoples geographies have a
unique contribution to make to the development of this project
In order to achieve the aim of the project and address the questions identified above it is
expected that, in some way, the voices of each will be available and will be used to
shape and inform any developments that take place along the way