Geography - Summer 2014

Next up was Geography journal. I was interested in an article contributed by Alex Standish on the idea of distinctions, which draws on a presentation that I saw at the Geography Teacher Educators' Conference at the end of 2013.

Standish makes an important point about the need to be clear what we mean we use particular concepts or vocabulary with students:

Take the concepts ‘urban’ and ‘rural’. On the edge of a town or city, the line between urban and rural areas is often indistinct, yet this does not change the importance of a clear understanding of the meaning of each concept. If we were to conflate
urban and rural they would lose their distinctive meaning. We must also recognise that meaning is
contextualised and, thus, will vary in time and space. 

Comments