Contact

Chair: Vicki Pountney

BlueSky: GA TEPC

Our aims

The purpose of the Teacher Education Phase Committee (TEPC) is to support GA members and others by reviewing the educational landscape as it affects teacher education, looking for patterns, connections, issues and implications and by initiating actions in response. This will involve:

• monitoring the impact of changes to teacher education affecting initial teacher education and continuous professional development for teachers of geography for the 3-19 age range
• initiating discussions, surveys and other activities
• disseminating outcomes through conference presentations and publications
• representing the Geographical Association in matters related to teacher education.

What we do

Much of our recent work has been related to developing an area on the GA website devoted to Initial Teacher Education. These web pages aim to provide support and guidance for those applying to become geography teachers, for trainees and early career teachers and for teacher trainers and mentors.

Download this leaflet about the ITE resources available here.

Browse the ITE section here.

The TEPC is committed to providing advice and guidance on effective mentoring for school based mentors. There is an array of support and guidance available on the GA website and updates are posted on BlueSky.

We meet each term and our membership represents as wide a range of ITE and ECT interest as possible. This enables us to receive information on developments affecting ITE and ECT provision from a number of directions and to bring varied experience to focus on them. Reponses have included surveys, articles, published materials, conferences and contributions to the GA’s Annual Conference, joint working with other organisations and representations to official bodies.

We provide guidance and support in relation to curriculum change by delivering workshops and lectures at the GA’s Annual conference, contributing sessions to the ITE/ECT event at conference.

Recent activities

2025

• Publication in Primary Geography: Mackintosh, J. (2025) Getting personal during initial teacher education, Primary Geography, Vol 117 (2), pp. 32.
• Publication in Teaching Geography: Powell, C. Pountney, V. & Dodd, A. (2025) ‘Planning for behaviour, Teaching Geography, Vol 50 (2), pp. 64-66.
• Publication in Teaching Geography: Rawlings Smith, E. & Kitchen, R. (2025) Making the case for high quality, subject specific professional learning, Teaching Geography, Vol 50 (2), pp. 56-59.
• Contribution to GA Blog ‘The challenges and rewards of being a school-based geography mentor’ (May 25).
• Emma Rawling Smith – delivery of Rex Walford lecture ‘What constitutes a good geography education in a rapidly changing world? GA Conference
• TEPC ran a workshop at the GA Annual Conference titled ‘Making connections through co-planning conversations’ with additional conference contributions to sessions by TEPC members.
• Advisory support for GA Scholar programme content development.
• Development of bespoke primary ITE resources to support mentors.

2024

• Contributions to and co-authoring of GA National Research report ‘The professional needs and views of teachers of geography’.
• TEPC ran a workshop at the GA Annual Conference titled ‘Mentoring conversations as professional development for everyone’.

2023

• TEPC sent out a ITE recruitment survey and the results were published in a GA Blog titled: Recruitment in geography education: a crisis landscape?
• TEPC ran a workshop at the GA Annual Conference titled ‘Where are the opportunities for disciplinary thinking and geographical dialogue in the Early Career Framework?’

If you would like information about TEPC’s past projects going back to 2015 please email info@geography.org.uk.

TEPC members

• Vicki Pountney (Chair), Senior Lecturer Secondary Education, Sheffield Hallam University.
• Julia Mackintosh (Vice Chair), Senior Lecturer in Primary ITE, University of Hertfordshire.
• Andrea Tapsfield (Secretary), formerly HMI.
• David Preece, Head of Geography, Teach First.
• Chris Powell, Principal Lecturer in Education (Geography), University of Hertfordshire.
• Amy Dodd, Lecturer in Geography Education, King’s College London.
• Anthony Barlow, Principal Lecturer and Subject Leader for Geography Education, University of Roehampton.
• Corresponding members: Jessica Burger, Rachael Dubas, Rachel Hawke, Grace Healy, Aidan Hesslewood, David Leat, Lizzie Long, Joe Perry, Charles Rawding, Emma Rawlings Smith, Margaret Roberts, Celia Tidmarsh, Rachael Butcher and Sarah Whitehouse.