When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, geography departments suffered an unexpected blow: the loss of fieldwork.
Three years on from the first national lockdown, the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) (with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG)) wanted to understand whether student geographers were returning to the field, and so commissioned Teacher Tapp to include this question in its daily ask of 9,000 teachers: “Since Covid, is your geography department doing more or less fieldwork?”
Forty per cent of respondents said that their school was now offering less fieldwork.
There are many reasons for this - the pandemic being just one of them. Others include unsupportive senior leadership teams, rising costs (particularly for coach transport), administrative demands and teacher workload.
There is some evidence that the rising cost of living may also be particularly limiting fieldwork opportunities for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is a real concern, as research shows that individuals from low-income households - as well as those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds - are already least likely to visit national parks.
Geography departments are clearly facing significant challenges in getting fieldwork back to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s certainly not time to pack away the clipboards and waterproofs just yet.
Reviving geography fieldwork in schools
Fieldwork remains an important part of geography learning. So what can teachers and school leaders do to recover it?
1. Run targeted CPD
The first step is to enhance teachers’ skills so they feel confident leading their own fieldwork. This will be especially important for those who trained during lockdown and only had virtual fieldwork training. The RGS (with IBG), the Geographical Association (GA) and the Field Studies Council all offer free resources to help with this.
2. Rethink costs
Post-pandemic, teachers and department heads may need to reiterate the case for fieldwork to senior leaders and headteachers, to secure dedicated time and funding.
If costs are a significant problem at your school, one option is to keep fieldwork local. With no or low-cost transport, most schools have access to a high street, green space, woods or a river. These settings can be used for fieldwork on urban change, ecosystems, infiltration rates, carbon budgets or managing flood risk.
Schools can also apply for funding for fieldwork through the RGS’ Frederick Soddy Schools Awards.
3. Make fieldwork a staple, across stages
Current specifications demand that exam classes cover a lot of content, and, in many cases, this has squeezed fieldwork’s place in the curriculum.
Making more time for fieldwork is important at both GCSE and A level, but we should also look earlier and consider how fieldwork in key stage 3 geography can provide the bedrock for how students then move on to GCSE and beyond.
Secondary schools should aim to undertake more work with primary schools, too, as this is where pupils take their first fieldwork steps. For example, this Year 1 class used an ordnance survey map to survey the types of housing in Northampton.
4. Make fieldwork more inclusive
Following a panel discussion at the 2021 Geographical Association annual conference, geography teacher Catherine Owen blogged about the fact that the subject is still dogged by outdated assumptions, such as the expectation that students need to “tough [fieldwork] out” by “peeing in bushes and yomping across the landscape”.
Such stereotypes, she points out, don’t make allowances for the needs of different genders or for students with special educational needs and disabilities. We need to actively challenge such stereotypes through making our fieldwork provision as inclusive as possible.
5. Celebrate fieldwork
Connecting fieldwork to key initiatives is a great way to raise its visibility throughout your school. For example, National Fieldwork Fortnight runs from 26 June to 7 July.
You can also link your fieldwork to the Department for Education-supported National Education Nature Park (NENP) initiative, which aims to help schools map, manage and enhance land across the education estate, creating one vast nature park.
Fieldwork is recognised as an essential component of studying geography. Getting out into the environment to investigate geographical concepts in a “hands on” way helps young people to truly think like geographers.
When a pupil says “look, the riverbank is undercut” or “this place has been gentrified”, it shows they have connected a geographical concept to the real world.
If we are to respond positively to the challenge of climate change and consider the fate of our high streets or where future generations will live, we need to become curious and informed about our built, managed and natural environments - and geographical fieldwork in schools is a foundational part of this.
Steve Brace is head of education at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
