Fawcett Fellowship Research Questionnaire 2023
Hi. I'm Alan Parkinson, one of the Fawcett Fellows this year at UCL / Institute of Education. The Fawcett Fellowship provides an opportunity to get a research grant and spend time researching an issue in geography education. 

This questionnaire is aimed at teachers who teach GEOGRAPHY, and refers to these lessons specifically. You don't have to be a full time Geography teacher to get involved. All responses are anonymous and may be referenced in a chapter for a forthcoming publication on curriculum thinking in geography. 

The aim of my Fawcett Fellowship is to research the impact of "everyday geographies" and how these are unpicked and taught by individual schools. My GA Presidential theme for 2021-22 was Everyday Geographies, and an exploration of the quotidian. 
As significant local / national / global news stories and related content (such as images and videos on social media accounts) appear, I'm keen to discover  how  you, as geography  teachers, react  to them and make time for them. 
This is particularly aimed at KS3 Geography teachers, but KS2 teachers would also be welcome to respond.

At  what point might these news stories prove weighty enough to displace other content in your curriculum and earn a place in your curriculum for the next few years, and what thought is given to the longevity of these stories placed against topics which form a stronger foundation for GCSE courses as they appear in the specification?  How are these stories combined with existing curriculum content, or used to displace previous case studies? Is thought given to how this might create an imbalance in the parts of the world covered, or the extent to which this reinforces partial views of the world?

Is there a tendency for these topics to skew curriculum offerings away from ‘physical geography’ or what might be considered important disciplinary knowledge because of their nature? Are more news stories likely to be what might be termed 'human' or 'environmental geography'?

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the questions below. 
Please provide as much detail as you are happy to provide. Please take your time, as brief responses will not be as useful to me as thoughtful ones - I appreciate the extra effort that will take, but hope you can see this as a pause for (professional) thought.

Please contact me on a.parkinson@gmail.com if you have questions before taking part. There is no obligation for you to complete this survey and you can close it at any point before submission. If you'd like to let me know about the work in your department because you feel it might be helpful for other teachers, please contact me separately.

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I understand that my participation is voluntary, that my anonymity will be maintained and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason. I agree to participate in this research.

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Without identifying yourself, please tell me your school context e.g. key stages taught, type of school, rural/urban etc. and any other pertinent information. *
How many years have you been teaching geography for? *
How much of a say (or personal interest) do you have in changing the content of the curriculum in the geography department where you teach? e.g. adding in a new unit or changing an established sequence of topics *
Since the start of the current academic year, have you added details of contemporary news events into your curriculum e.g. Heatwave events over the summer, 1953 East Coast Floods, Turkey/Syria earthquake etc. If so, which ones, and in what way? Please answer NO if there has been no change to your curriculum this year. *
If a major global event of geographical signficance happened in a typical week, would you find / have the curriculum time to look at it in your geography lessons? Please provide any further thoughts on this. *
Which of the following reasons do you think you might have for NOT covering a major world event with your students? *
Required
Do you think that it might be helpful for the subject community to consider more ways to combine new stories with existing material? Would this be of interest if included in a journal such as 'Teaching Geography'? Have you already written on this topic?

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What do you think might be the benefits of teaching using the contemporary news events that I have suggested? How can you maintain the epistemic quality of these new additions which might be added without a lot of thought over the consequences of teaching them?  *
Do you think that adding news stories is likely to skew your curriculum away from physical geography topics towards human geography topics over time, or vice versa? *
Which topics would you consider to be so important that they would always have a place in your KS2 / 3 curriculum matter what other changes you might make: an irreducible core at the heart of what you teach? *
Do you have any other thoughts on the importance of keeping your curriculum up to date, and suggestions for how best to achieve this, or reading / research you are aware of in this area? *
Thanks very much for taking part in the research. If you are ready, please send the answers. They will be kept for the duration of the follow-up work, which will be shared on the LivingGeography blog. Feel free to contact me if you want to be sent a copy of the final outcome.
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