Never mind the kudos,join the dialogue

Abstract

This paper reports on the redevelopment of medical geography courses taught to both undergraduate and graduate students in a US university. The author participated in a curriculum development seminar that focused explicitly on the creation of new courses that incorporate perspectives from current research on women and other marginalised, ignored or forgotten groups. The experience and feedback from this seminar led to changes in undergraduate courses in medical geography and to the creation of a new and specific graduate seminar course that critiques medical geography for its gender and colour blindness. The paper includes a commentary on the institutional context that allowed such changes to occur and discussion of issues relating to introducing perspectives on women into the curriculum. Spin‐offs from course redevelopment included the creation of resource materials (a bibliographic database) and a reformulation of teaching strategies.     

Engaging Students in the Learning Process: The learning journal

This paper explores the usefulness of the learning journal as a means of actively engaging students in the learning process, based on a case study of a third-year undergraduate geography course. After briefly reviewing the literature on journal writing in different contexts, the paper outlines the approach adopted in the new geography course, in which students were given guidelines on how to write a journal that would be assessed as part of the course. Extracts from students' journals for this course are used to illustrate how they approached the task, and how they viewed the experience. It is concluded that the learning journal has good potential to increase student interest in and engagement with course material, to encourage and empower students to take more responsibility for their own learning, to be more reflective in their study, and to allow them to have a voice and provide valuable feedback to the teacher.     

Wasserstoff als Energieträger. Herstellung,Lagerung, Transport

Abstract

This essay, written to accompany a lecture to new students on the course of Economic Analytics, at the Institute of Econometrics of the University of Lodz in Poland, provides a broad historical account of the development of econometrics. The context enables students to locate various aspects of econometric analysis. The origin of regression analysis is described and an account of cointegration analysis is presented. This essay is concerned primarily with the propagation of the ideas as distinct from the manner and the circumstances in which they have originated.     

The politics of saving Muslim women in India: Gendered geolegality,security, and territorialization

In this paper, we critically approach the idea of “saving Muslim women” by examining two prominent judgments by the Supreme Court of India and their attendant debates: Mohammad Ahmed Khan vs. Shah Bano Begum and Others 1985 AIR 945, popularly known as the Shah Bano judgment and Shayara Bano vs. Union of India And Others WP(C) No.118 of 2016, popularly known as the Triple Talaq (divorce) judgment. Using the frameworks of feminist geopolitics, femonationalism, and feminist geolegality, we analyze the debates around the Shah Bano and Triple Talaq judgments, looking at how the state employs and often usurps the narrative of gender equality and women's rights for its own purposes. We highlight how laws ostensibly for the protection of Muslim women (and the discourses that surround them) have the effect of strengthening the Hindu nationalist state, and furthering masculinist state building and territory making. By focusing debates on the categories of Muslim men and women, the law becomes a means to resolve the “problem” of Muslims in India.     

'Nothing Can Ever Be the Case of 'Us' and 'Them' Again': Exploring the politics of difference through border pedagogy and student journal writing

Linda McDowell (1994) has called for styles of teaching which put into practice arguments about the 'politics of difference', which has become an increasingly central part of human geographical research. This paper draws on a number of years' experience of teaching an undergraduate course on multicultural historical geography, in which this was attempted. Here students were encouraged to get more involved in these debates, to take them more personally, and to develop 'situated knowledges' about the UK as a multicultural society. The approach to teaching, learning and assessment which made this possible was based on the principles of 'border pedagogy' and on students writing journals throughout the course which charted the development of their understandings of the materials they encountered.     

Two modes of peer teaching in introductory college geography

Abstract

Two modes of using undergraduate students as peer teachers in introductory courses have been developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Peer teachers are small group leaders in a human geography course built around role playing simulations; in two physical geography courses they are tutors in a self‐paced system. A separate course provides peer teacher guidance—a course‐within‐a‐course model. Socio‐psychological, pedagogical, economic, and political implications of peer teaching are interpreted after ten years' experience with the programme.     

ODE to a geography teacher: Sexuality and the classroom

Abstract

This paper explores some of the ways that sexuality is an issue in the course of teaching. It includes discussions of crushes between students and staff, consensual personal relationships between staff and students, sexual harassment and how to create an atmosphere in the classroom/institution that enables lesbian, gay and bisexual students and staff to ‘come out’.     

Searching for good practice in postgraduate education

Regional geography courses have declined in status and number at many North American universities. Yet it is regional courses which students with limited geographical education at the high school level may identify as typical geography, and thus regional courses may play a significant role in recruitment of geography majors. Regional courses on the students' country or state/province offer an excellent opportunity to showcase how geographic perspectives can enrich our understanding of the familiar, both in terms of place and discipline. This paper discusses the pivotal role a regional geography course has been given in a new university's geography curriculum, and the innovative structuring of the course so as to avoid some of the deficiencies of common instructional patterns which may deter some students from pursuing further geographic education.     

Dancers in the Dark: Scientific Careers According to a Gender-Blind Model of Promotion

Abstract

The disparity between men and women in science is a hot topic in gender studies and a relevant target of scientific policies. The leaky pipeline metaphor illustrates the decreasing number of women along senior positions in academia; however many questions remain unanswered. What factors progressively diminish the number of women in scientific careers and why do they appear to be less successful than their male colleagues? In order to discover new insight, this work compares men’s and women’s career paths by taking into account academic and family milestones achieved throughout the life course. An innovative and interdisciplinary methodology (from bibliometrics, statistics, and sociology) has been constructed to examine men’s and women’s trajectories. Findings display gender differences in scientists’ trajectories. The evolution of scientists’ careers reveals linear careers for males, whilst women develop non-linear careers. Motherhood emerges as a problem for developing linear careers. And collegiate decisions of gatekeepers seem to systematically disfavour women scientists’ careers.     

Cultivating the Common Good at the Margins of the Commons: An Ethnographic Portrait of Transformative Pluralism in a High-Security Prison

ABSTRACT

Arising from an ongoing research project, this article presents an approach to religious and societal pluralism through ethnography. During a course convened inside a high-security prison, with a combined group of students currently resident in the prison and students currently studying in the University of Cambridge, participants and lecturers from diverse faiths and no faith explored concepts of citizenship and the common good. Bringing Rowan Williams’s proposals for “interactive pluralism” together with the transformative pedagogical framework of the course and its resonance with liberative theologies, I describe how the course participants co-created a space in which we were able to enact a transformative approach to the societal pluralism of which our gathering was a microcosm.     

Predictable Achievement Patterns for Student Journals in Introductory Earth Science Courses

Student journals encourage more frequent thinking about course topics, foster development of writing skills, provide feedback about course content and administration, and mitigate exam anxiety. Measures of academic 'ability' and other student characteristics were found to correlate with journal grades. This was unexpected. For example, grades correlated positively with exam scores and GPA, and correlations varied widely among the disciplines represented by the students. Females consistently earned higher journal grades than males. Segmentation modelling (SPSS) identified important subgroups involving gender, age, exam scores and major subject. The journal assignment is, therefore, not equally beneficial for all students.     

Beginning geography: a human and technical perspective

Abstract

A first course in human geography has been designed for majors and students from the more technical fields at university. It is built around five computer exercises, none of which require any programming or computer skills. Problems and exercises are designed to enhance carry‐over skills and humane awareness.     

Towards better cooperative learning in urban planning education

ABSTRACT

Urban planning is a practical multifarious discipline and thus teamwork competence is important for urban planners. Cooperative learning is a possible method of obtaining this competence in the education process. Our aim is to investigate the cooperative learning method on the Urban Planning undergraduate course at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. Our paper focuses on the influence of student-directed assessment on free-riding problem, and students´ dealing with teachers´ dissensus. We present student perspectives based on a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews with all students in the final year of the course. The results are discussed considering cultural differences based on aspects of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Our main findings support the importance of a student-driven approach in collaborative learning as prevention against the free-riding problem, and multiple teacher lessons as prevention against the conformist approach, and to promote critical thinking.     

Internationalisation of the Curriculum: Designing inclusive education for a small world

Responding to the globalisation of commerce and communication and driven by competition in the multi-billion dollar international market for higher education, many universities are seeking to market their educational provision internationally. Feedback from some disappointed 'customers' has created pressure for change in the way that instruction is designed and delivered. This pressure is beginning to affect teachers in subjects perceived as international in perspective. This paper reviews the strategies suggested by Western universities to achieve internationalisation of the curriculum. Internationalisation is a major project that affects all aspects of a university's provision, including its priorities for staff development and career rewards. The challenge for course developers is to design a curriculum that serves global rather than national priorities, which does not rely on prior knowledge of local provenance, where students from all sources share equal opportunities for advancement in an inclusive learning environment, and which serves to introduce stay-at-home students to the demands of an increasingly multinational world of work.     

The limits of library user education: arguments for a lecturer‐led,student‐centred approach

Abstract

The author discusses some of the thinking behind programmes of library instruction in higher education. The shortcomings of such courses are examined, with particular reference to a course for first‐year students at Portsmouth Polytechnic. The author argues that library instruction can only succeed when fully integrated with the teaching of the subject. This requires greater consideration by geography teachers of the relationship between bibliographic knowledge and substantive knowledge.     

Virtual Development and Virtual Geographies: Using the Internet to teach interactive distance courses in the global South

This paper evaluates the delivery and learning outcomes of an interactive postgraduate geography and development MSc programme taught partially over the Internet, to students living in some of the most connectivity-poor regions of the world. It focuses particularly on the experiences of course developers, tutors and students, with the distance strand of a Master's Programme pioneered by Royal Holloway, University of London, and IW:LEARN (International Waters Learning Exchange and Resource Network), a UNDP-implemented project of the Global Environment Facility. Issues of design and implementation are discussed, with particular reference to pedagogical and financial questions and the considerable technical and personnel difficulties encountered. Comparability of experience between distance and residential students forms a central concern.     

“This is what it is like”. An interview with the writer Geoffrey Moorhouse

Abstract

Observational fieldwork enables the completion of a qualitative research project despite the tight constraints of a research methods course. At the same time, the project enables the illustration of more general features of qualitative research. This paper considers the need to deconstruct the ‘folk myth’ surrounding observational work and provides clear, practical guidance on completing a piece of research. Completion of the project helps to uncover the role of students as analysts. The paper concludes with a discussion of student's reactions to their introduction to qualitative work and the constraints upon its wider adoption.     

El exilio interior y sus máscaras: Voaxa e Carmín de Esther F. Carrodeguas

Abstract

In Santiago de Compostela, La Alameda is a place frequented by students and tourists. The passerby discerns within the crowd a statue of two small women, arm in arm, dressed in bright colors and wearing extravagant make up. “As dúas Marías,” Maruxa and Coralia Fandiño, were two sisters who were brought up in a family of anarchist leaders of the CNT. With the arrival of the civil war and the dictatorship, the illusion created by the government of the Republic and the drafting of the Statute of Autonomy was soon transformed into silence and reprisals. The Fandiño men managed to flee, but the women remained in the house and were victims of torture and rape. Their only defensive mechanism was the solidarity between them and the embracing of madness. Thus it became a daily event in Santiago: at two o’clock in the afternoon, Maruxa and Coralia went out for a walk, dressed in bright colors and flamboyantly make up to compliment the students. Voaxa e Carmín by Esther F. Carrodeguas recreates one of those walks. This article will focus on how the inner exile of the protagonists is revealed, that is, their loneliness, their fear, their isolation, through the strategies of the theater of the absurd, and the metatheater. These resources include the use of the mask, the exchange of roles and the repetitive language.