Global Outdoors

Background to the Project

This is a 3-year project to build on aspects of the work of the Geographical Association (GA). Valuing Places will bring together members of the the International Committee, GeoVisions Working Group, Multiculturalism Working Group and the GA's regional co-ordinators.  All these Groups have members who both professionally and as volunteers are strongly involved with development education both through DECs and national projects involving the global dimension.

January 2003-December 2003

Create a steering group consisting of 10 members of the wider geographical community to consider how the project can develop pedagogic approaches to global interconnectedness. The group has planned five web based stimulus units that develop the poverty reduction agenda in a geography context. These are:

·         Place and Identity

·         Connections and Interconnections

·         Geographical Imaginations and Place

·         The Concept of Place

·         Children's Geographies

All UK schools, both primary and secondary, were send a postcard highlighting the project and its web address (www.geography.org.uk/VP).  The Valuing Places area is updated regularly with ways for schools and teachers to become involved in the project. 

September 2003-March 2005

We are using a regional structure to involve groups of local teachers in creative and critical cross-phase work considering the implications of the images and the ideas shared via web based units for their locality.  Each region (10 in total) will be supported by a co-ordinator who has been interviewed and appointed by the GA.  Each local group will be made up of approximately 4 primary and 4 secondary teachers.  The project will be promoted by the GA, LEAs and appropriate linking with the Enabling Effective Support initiative and the work of local DECS.  Each regional group will consider the images and ideas presented by the web stimulus units and will consider critically how these can be interpreted for their pupils in their area.  The discussions and images relevant to their region will be informed by the poverty reduction and environmental debates outlined in the project aims and objectives.

March 2005-October 2005

The materials created by the teacher researchers will be used to create web activities for wider dissemination. The project, process and outcomes will also form the basis of a GA publication.

October 2005 - December 2005

Each region to hold in-service training events to which all schools within the region will be invited to attend.  This will be to launch the materials.  These sessions will be run by teachers involved in the regional Valuing Places groups, thus facilitating professional development for the participants.  Details about the web based units will be sent to all local schools with information about the units and stimulus ideas produced by the project.