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 18 September 2013

Summary of the 20 Blog Posts so far:

I hope this blog so far has been interesting to read and has allowed you and others to develop and learn new things about geography. I would like to think that it has inspired new learning and career choices for people who did not like nor understand geography, and I would like to think that the resources and advice posted will be used.

From the start of this blog in June, I can reflect and say I have learnt and developed new knowledge regarding this discipline of geography. The blogs posted are not at university level, but I have developed enough to understand and teach GCSE and A-level with critical appraisal (so I hope!).

As posted at the start, I feel there is a clear lack of cultural geography in the national curriculum. I still feel this is true, with the topics/sub branches posted given little accreditation in any key stage. Again, I still feel that even where some topics are taught, they are not highlighted as a geographical discipline. I think that all teachers should emphasis what topics are being taught and how they are related to geography as a whole, explaining the wider picture where possible. Example of topic include sexuality and space, region and geography and musical geography.


I have tried to keep the blogs posted related to the context of geography, but I understand that some may have slightly branched off. 

This is blog is an on-going commitment, and as I develop and learn new things I will add them to this blog; passing on information to support a sustainable education practice that’s ever changing and needing global support and cooperation. 
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