Development Reconsidered; New Directions in Development Thinking

This paper offers broad and critical perspectives on current development thinking. A brief summary of different meanings of development and a thumbnail sketch of broad trends over the past twenty to thirty years in relation to major development indicators is followed by a discussion of reasons for the emergence of fundamental critiques of conventional development and developmentalism from perspectives known variously as post-structuralist, post-development and anti-development. Connections are made between these and the literatures on post-modernism, postcolonialism and post-traditionalism. Finally, the implications of these rapid paradigm shifts and changing realities for future research, teaching and action across the South/North divide are considered.     

Not nearly enough geography! University provision for England’s pre-service primary teachers

Research into geography provision in primary initial teacher education [ITE] courses in the United Kingdom and worldwide is very limited. England educates pre-service primary teachers of 5–11 year olds to be “generalists” who teach the full range of curriculum subjects, including geography. This article identifies that the provision of teaching time for geography is low and declining in England’s primary ITE courses. It presents a picture which may not seem dissimilar in other parts of the world. With only about half of pre-service primary teachers in England having studied geography after age 14, their subject knowledge appears weak. University-based ITE subject sessions rarely extend beyond introducing them to England’s primary geography requirements and to some approaches to teaching geography. Prospective primary teachers observe and teach limited, if any, geography in primary schools. Developing their geographical understanding and teaching capability is highly challenging for tutors. There are concerns that the current situation may well decline further. Encouragement exists to develop geography provision in primary ITE but the opportunities to achieve this appear increasingly constrained as the pre-service environment moves from university-led to school-led provision. International comparative research is essential to understand better pre-service primary teachers’ learning to teach geography.     

The ‘Feast of the Liberation of Jerusalem’: remembering and reconstructing the First Crusade in the Holy City, 1099–1187

Every year on 15 July the Latin inhabitants of twelfth-century Jerusalem celebrated a feast in remembrance of the capture of the Holy City by the forces of the First Crusade on that day in 1099. This article explores how the inhabitants of Jerusalem interpreted that day – the culminating events of the crusade – in the context of celebrating this 15 July feast. It examines the events which took place in Jerusalem as the city fell on 15 July 1099 and traces the establishment of the feast, showing that it was founded within a few years of 1099. It then considers the development of the feast over the course of the twelfth century and examines the ritual processions prescribed in one liturgical programme used in Latin Jerusalem. It argues that the route of these processions had two functions: firstly, it mirrored the actions of the First Crusaders in Jerusalem on 15 July 1099; and, secondly, it visibly aligned Latin Jerusalem with sites which were associated with the Old and New Testaments. The route of these processions in Jerusalem was intended to convey an interpretation of the First Crusade as the continuation of biblical history.