About Me

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Leicester, United Kingdom
Thank you for viewing this blog. My name is Joshua, a recent BSc Geography graduate from Coventry University, now starting on a Geography PGCE at the University of Leicester. My main area of expertise is within the domain of physical geography, with particular interests in Geomorphology, Quaternary Climates and Environments, and weather, climate and climate change. An area that I am not so familiar to is biogeography, but this is an additional area I am keen to develop and engage with.

Purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to aid mine as well as others (teachers, students and the public) understanding and knowledge in the subject field of Geography, with particular emphasis on the human domain; specifically cultural geography. This is an area I know limited about, in comparison to my specialism, and an area that I have come to find neglected in school education (*explained below). Firstly, this blog will introduce the concepts of GEOGRAPHY, to give details to those with limited understanding and experience; to outline the complexity of this ever changing subject and field. Secondly, and introduction to cultural geography and its branches will be outlined, with some sub-division examine in more detail than others. This is based on what I feel is lacked in education and the curriculum. Finally, a list of resources and references will be presented, which can be used for KS3 and used for all exam boards at GCSE level.

It needs to be noted that cultural geography is multidisciplinary and multifaceted within the geographical field, so overlaps into other geographical disciplines. I have tried to keep it purely separated for the sake of this blog, but it can be used for addition disciplines.

*This statement is based on my interpretation of the National Curriculum (NC) and GCSE specifications, where some of the branches within cultural geography e.g. sexuality and space, children's geography, music and behavioural geography are not fully acknowledged or identified within the NC for geography or in GCSE/A-Level specifications. In all honesty, cultural geography seems to be side-lined and/or integrated within economic, development and population geography. I feel for people (teachers, students and the public) to fully understand the scale and magnitude of geography, they need to be informed of the different branches and sub division within geography/cultural geography; highlighting individual branches of geography, whilst at the same time, explain and identifying how the different branches connection and are in relation to one another. For example, a number of schools in Leicestershire in year 9 look at music festivals and there locations, but they fail to highlight the key concepts of geography within that topic. For example, that topic would include cultural geography in the form of musical, behavioural, sexuality and tourism geography, but these are not identified and explained, leading to narrow-minded approaches within society. No wonder people assume geography is just colouring in, volcanoes and rocks.

The different branches and sub-branches of cultural geography will be explain in due course.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

The Introduction to Geography as a concept.... its more than coloring in!
As highlighted above, the start of this blog will outline the key concepts of geography; concepts that make the subject complex and hard to fully grasp, but interesting to study.
Geography is the study of the earth; its processes; its landscapes; its phenomena, its inhabitancy, and how they interact together over time, over space and over different scales. Refer to Figure 1 and 2. Geography is split into two main areas, the physical side and the human side, as outlined in Figure 3. A well rounded Geographer and an outstanding teacher will be able to teach and grasp all the areas outlined within both geographical fields. This blog is the start of a journey, for me to become a well-rounded Geographer and an outstanding teacher, and to do this I need to develop my understanding of Human Geography, as well as help others to develop along the way.
 




Figure 1: The key Concepts of Geography; a rubix cube of confusion (Grossmont.edu, 2013).
The ‘view point’ outlines the 3 main concepts that need to be applied to all geography, as everything in geography has developed and has/will change over time, over space as well as varying in scale and magnitude.  The ‘synthesis’ illustrates the 2 areas of geography, with the middle section overlapping, allowing the 2 components to be studied as an integrated discipline. For example coastal environments will encompass coastal management and human response.  The ‘representation’ face of the cube, identifies the ways in which geographical information can be represented. 

Figure 2: Additional concepts and understandings in Geography (Esri, 2013).
Concepts and processes take many forms, with geography manifesting different human and physical patterns, events, circulation, changes, etc over time and space. These concepts, processes, theories, etc can be in the form of flows, convection, circulation, direction, movement, etc all interlinking in one earth/geo system.   



Figure 3: Geography; a Holistic Approach (Geopolicraticus, 2013).
The two domains of Geography (physical blue, human pink).  A holistic approach in geography is incorporating all geography from all disciplines, an aim all should seek to do in all ones work, to bring balance and critical evaluation.


A nice youtube clip to get students engaged in human geography and to make them feel  part of a bigger picture. 



Blog post 1: References
Esri (2013) Speaking the Language of Geography—GIS [online] available from <http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall04articles/speaking-the-language1of2.html > [26/06/13]
Geopolicraticus (2013) Cultural Geography [online] available from <http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/ecological-succession-in-cultural-geography/ > [26/06/13]
Grossmont.edu (2013) Cultural Geography; Lecture 1 [online] available from <http://www.grossmont.edu/scotttherkalsen/cultural/lectures/1/lecture_topics.htm > [26/06/13]

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