Addressing the new agenda for fieldwork in higher education

Abstract

Recent changes in higher education in the UK effectively make the traditional mode of fieldwork delivery unsustainable. This, coupled with criticisms of past fieldwork practices, suggests the need for a thorough re‐evaluation of the role and delivery of fieldwork programmes in contemporary higher education. A prudent place to start addressing this new agenda is an evaluation of some basic educational theory and the objectives of fieldwork. From such basic considerations, some of the contemporary problems with teaching fieldwork can be more effectively tackled and strategies for designing field exercises devised.     

Classroom Active Learning Complemented by an Online Discussion Forum to Teach Sustainability

This paper identifies some of the pedagogical benefits of an active learning course delivery complemented by an online discussion forum to teach sustainability by evaluating the case of a geography master's course. The potential benefits and some challenges of an active learning course delivery to teach sustainability in geography and related disciplines are considered. This case study further supports past research that suggests e-learning as a complement to the classroom (1) increases the opportunities for student participation; and (2) enhances the participation of students who may feel more inhibited to engage in discussions in a traditional classroom setting.     

Student-led Presentations in situ: The Challenges to Presenting on the Edge of a Volcano

Student-led seminars are commonplace within higher education but few are allowed the opportunity of being delivered in situ. Presentations in situ widen the experience of students and develop a range of transferable skills, encouraging a greater sense of place and facilitating reflective learning. This case study describes the experiences of a group of undergraduate tourism management students who embark on a field course to southern Italy and take responsibility for leading the delivery of tutor-assessed student presentations at a variety of selected sites, including the Mount Vesuvius National Park. Students reflect on their own experiences through written comments in an assessed field course notebook that reveals the positive aspects and challenges to presenting in situ.     

The Problems of Utilizing ‘Direct Experience’ in Geography Education

In response to the various calls for sustainable development, a range of activities has been initiated by central and local government, business, NGOs and other institutions. In this paper, the authors focus on the important learning context of higher education. They review the agenda established at Rio and, through a critical examination of developments within the UK, comment on issues and challenges facing the sector.     

How are non-geography majors motivated in a large introductory world geography course?

University students who do not declare geography as their major are at risk of poor motivation to learn in an introductory geography class. However, research exploring the role of non-majors' motivation is lacking. This study examines motivational factors impacting non-geography students' engagement and performance. The findings suggest that non-geography majors demonstrate deep engagement when they focus on mastering the content and value geography. Also, when students feel confident of learning geography, they are more likely to demonstrate a high level of achievement. The paper concludes with practical suggestions for enhancing non-geography students' motivation and engagement in an introductory geography class.     

CIRCULAR MIGRATION AND LIFE COURSE OF FEMALE DOMESTIC WORKERS IN BEIJING

This study examines the migration experiences of 24 female domestic workers in Beijing through in-depth interviews. Most of these women were involved in a circular pattern of movement between their home villages and cities. The pattern of reverse and circular migration was closely related to the life-course transitions of Chinese rural women and their socially-assigned gender roles such as marriage, childbirth, childrearing and caregiving for family members. For individual domestic workers, working in Beijing is a bittersweet experience. The women were subjected to unfavourable work conditions and pervasive forms of exploitation. Nevertheless, they benefited from the experience through increased access to income, knowledge and other resources unavailable in rural areas. Although these women challenged, through migration, the traditional social roles imposed on Chinese rural women, their own limitations and institutional barriers left them with few options for improving their social statuses in cities.     

Effect of AAC Infill Walls on Structural System Dynamics of a Concrete Building

The effect of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) infill walls on the structural system dynamics of a two-story reinforced concrete building is investigated using its finite element structural model, which is calibrated to simulate the acceleration-frequency response curves from its forced vibration test. The model incorporating the AAC infill walls by equivalent diagonal struts captures the increase in lateral stiffness of the building and the torsional motions induced due to the asymmetrically placed AAC infill walls. A higher strut width coefficient than in ASCE/SEI 41-06 is recommended to model the stiffness of the AAC infill walls in the elastic range.     

潮湿环境下古象牙的现场提取与保护——以三星堆遗址三号坑出土象牙为例

2020年10月,三星堆遗址新发现祭祀坑正式启动考古发掘工作。随着发掘工作的推进,大量象牙相继出土。由于长期埋藏于潮湿的地下环境,象牙基本处于饱水状态,保存状况较差。为了使象牙保持相对稳定的状态,在考古发掘现场针对不同象牙的发掘情况,采用高分子绷带进行固形处理,然后整体提取回实验室清理。清理完成的象牙,经过保湿杀菌处理后存放至低温高湿专用库房。三星堆遗址三号祭祀坑出土象牙的成功提取与保护,表明医用高分子绷带具有超越石膏提取法的应用优势,对类似出土遗物的现场保护工作有一定的借鉴作用。     

‘Mɔn’ (to marry/to cook): negotiating becoming a wife and woman in the kitchens of a northern Ghanaian Konkomba community

In this article, I consider the kitchen as domestic space that is at once gendered and gendering in its construction and use by women as they negotiate their social position across the life course. Deeply rooted patriarchal values structure Konkomba society in northern Ghana, and a woman's role is to be a wife, to prepare food in support of her husband's family and community. Although the normative definition of woman's role in society stems from a clear-cut division of labor between women and men, a woman must negotiate her social position and ability to fulfill these labor obligations; she becomes a woman and wife by working to gain access to and control over resources and labor. I explore the shifting dynamics of women's work and social position across the life course, emphasizing the transition from young woman to woman-as-wife-as-cook in her husband's community. These negotiations take place in the kitchen – a fiercely feminine space in which a woman becomes a wife when she earns the right to place hearth stones and prepare a ceremonial ‘first meal’ for her husband and his community.     

Narratives and counter-narratives of climate change: North Atlantic glaciology and meteorology,c.1930–1955

This paper seeks to uncover narratives of climate change shaped within two distinct but related research communities in glaciology and meteorology, both institutionally located at the Stockholm Högskola, later Stockholm University, and with widespread collaborative networks in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States. During the 1930s, Stockholm glaciology under Hans W:son Ahlmann provided an early theory of ‘polar warming’, based on solid field data from the North Atlantic and Arctic realm, but remained resistant to ideas of human climate forcing and thus lost a lot of its emerging policy influence. Stockholm meteorology under Carl-Gustaf Rossby followed a different trajectory. Based on geophysical theory and computer science experimentation funded by military sources on both sides of the Atlantic, the Rossby school established an early institutional acceptance of greenhouse explanations of climate change with strong links to policy. This account of divergent research agendas, differential extra-scientific conditions, and contradictory representations of the direction and causes of climate change should caution against viewing the history of climate science and policy as a cumulative affair based on ever more precise and better knowledge. The narratives presented here highlight, on the contrary, the importance of broad science politics as well as local and disciplinary methods, traditions, and institutional trajectories in shaping attitudes among scientists to climate change.