Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics: the selected works of Ivor F. Goodson
Becoming a School Subject
So by the mid-1950s geography had achieved Layton's third stage in the acceptance of a subject. The selection of subject matter being 'determined in large measure by the judgments and practices of the specialist scholars who lead inquiries in the field'; the definition of the subject was increasingly in the hands of specialist scholars. The context in which these scholars operated was substantially divorced from schools; their activities and personal motivations, their status and career concerns were situated within the university context. The concerns of school pupils, thereby unrepresented, were of less and less account in the definition of this well established academic discipline. The situation within the schools themselves soon became clear. In 1967 the report on Society and the Young School Leaver noted that its young subject felt 'at best apathetic, at worst resentful and rebellious to geography... which seems to him to have nothing to do with the adult world he is soon to join'. The report adds:
A frequent cause of failure seems to be that the course is often based on the traditional belief that there is a body of content for each separate subject which every school leaver should know. In the least successful courses this body of knowledge is written into the curriculum without any real consideration of the needs of the boys and girls and without any question of its relevance.
The threat to geography began to be appreciated at the highest level. A member of the Executive and Honorary Secretary of the Geographical Association recalls: 'Things had gone too far and geography became a too locally based regional thing... at the same time the subject began to lose touch with reality... geography got a bad name'. A college lecturer, David Gowing, saw the same problem facing the subject and argued: 'One must recognize the need to take a fresh look at our objectives and to re-examine the role and nature of geography in school. It is not difficult to identify the causes of increasing dissatisfaction. Pupils feel that present curricula have little relevance to their needs and so their level of motivation and understanding is low. Teachers are concerned that the raising of the school leaving age and some forms of comprehensive reorganization may exacerbate the problems'.
The increasing definition of geography by the university specialists plainly posed problems for the subject in schools. To recapture the sense of utility and relevance of earlier days the subject would have needed to focus more on the needs of the average and below average school student. However, geography still faced problems of academic status within some universities and also among the high status sections of the secondary sector.
- HMSO. (1967) Society and the Young School Leaver, Working Paper No. 11, London, p. 3.
- Interview (30.6.76).
- Gowing, D. (1973) 'A fresh look at objectives' in R. Watford (Ed) New Directions in Geography Teaching, London: Longmans, p. 153.
