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Despite growing diversity in the GCSE geography cohort, at A level and at university geography is one of the least diverse of all subjects.
The subject, and its institutions, are not serving all geography teachers nor all young people who could benefit from studying geography. Change is needed.
The Geographical Association (GA) recognises the need for change and invited feedback from a wide range of participants on its work and governance.
The Geography for everyone? report, and the research on which it is based, was commissioned by the GA’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, established in response to the GA’s ‘listening exercise’. This spoke of the need to ‘drive forward initiatives for greater diversity in the Association and support for anti-racist teaching in geography’.
While the research sets out to explore diversity and inclusion from a range of perspectives, the themes of ‘race’ and ethnicity were strongly emphasised in interviews with participants and are central to the report, perhaps reflecting wider societal concerns and movements like Black Lives Matter. The report’s co-authors Elaine Anderson, Nona Anderson, Peter Jackson, Alastair Owens, Hina Robinson, Iram Sammar and Christine Winter commented:
‘Working together on this report has opened our eyes to some of the challenges that the Geographical Association faces in becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation.
But we are also optimistic that the GA can use the insights and recommendations in our report to drive change so that it supports the needs of all geography educators and helps to build a discipline that values the experiences and perspectives of everyone.’
The GA welcomes this report and its recommendations. These will help bring positive change to the Association and the subject.
The GA is currently preparing its new 2025 -30 strategic plan and ‘Geography for everyone’ will be one of its guiding principles.
