Today, a book titled ‘Developing Quality PSHE in Secondary Schools and Colleges‘ was released. Within this book, I contributed a chapter on ‘Diversity and Discrimination’ through my work with Diverse Educators. The book also covers topics such as engaging parents/carers, sex education, and media literacy. My co-writers and I went through many drafts and rewrites of our chapter, and my part in particular about global citizenship and so-called ‘British Values’ had to be cut down quite substantially to fit in. So, to both celebrate the release of the book and to share my thoughts and findings tha ..read more

Before I begin, I wish to pay my respect to the Peoples of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) Indigenous groups. The colonial township of Hayward, Wisconsin and Lake Hayward (‘Long Pond’) is located within their unceded lands. I acknowledge that I am but a guest, and my enjoyment of these lands comes with thoughts of their rightful stewardship. My family is American-British. And since we live in the UK, we don’t get to see the American side of our family as often as we like. But when we do, we certainly make the most of it! Pretty much the entirety of my partner’s maternal ..read more

I am delighted to have been invited by Norwich Theatre to contribute to their Creative Matters: Climate Stories programme. My story, titled ‘How to talk to children about the climate crisis’ will be take place on Wednesday 20th September at 19:00, and will be a session combining performance poetry, prose and an informative talk. There will be time for Q&A at the end. Blurb from the Norwich Theatre: Engaging in conversations with our children around the climate crisis can feel challenging – especially when we don’t have all the answers. How can we talk to our children about the climate cr ..read more

Given the recent news about the calls from scientists to officially recognise that we’ve moved into a new geological epoch, the ‘Anthropocene’, it seemed like a fitting time to repost this blog and video that I wrote for US-based Odd Salon. It’s quirky, silly, but definitely gives you food for thought! Watch out for the giant zepellinoid, everyone! Geogramblings On Thursday 8th October (early hours of Friday 9th for us in the UK!) I had the honour and the privledge of finally, finally, giving a Odd Salon talk! Before I get to my talk… What’s ‘Odd Salon’, you say? “Odd Salon has been br ..read more

A piece of poetry performed at the Geographical Association Annual Conference 2023 TeachMeet titled ‘#NothingAboutUsWithoutUs (The Power of Geography Voice)’. The full TeachMeet recording with a range of teaching ideas and thoughts for the Geography teacher can be found on YouTube here.   With thanks to the Geographical Association (https://www.geography.org.uk) and the media team at Sheffield Hallam University. The lyrics are below, and some parts are linked so you can explore the context. Words and phrases that are marked with an asterisk (*) refer to parts that I constructed on th ..read more

Each year since 2021, the Decolonising Geography group put together a pick of sessions at the Geographical Association Annual Conference, which have the potential to progress the geography teaching profession the most, with a healthy focus on decolonising education. If you are attending this year’s conference (GAConf23) either online or in person, download this shortlist of sessions. It is not exhaustive, so please ensure you check out the full GAConf23 programme for yourself via the GA website. DOWNLOAD THE PDF In addition to the shortlist, GAConf23 delegates can download a ‘log sheet’ to re ..read more

I’m a football fan. I’m an England fan. I’m an intersectional feminist. I’ve been dubbed a ‘social justice warrior’ (that’s a badge of honour). I’m a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Needless to say… I’m conflicted. But I’m also a geographer, so that gives a hook and lens to tackle this (excuse the pun!). I cannot hope to cover the myriad of issues in any detail with any justice, so this post is going to be a mixture of personal opinion (mostly as a member of the LGBTQ+ community), some things to for educators to think about, and some signposting to various articles and opinions. Stick with it ..read more

Geogramblings Since that publication is now no longer available, it has been made available in full here (December 2022). Why does an individual become a teacher, and what is their number one priority? Is it to pass on knowledge of something that they are passionate about? Is it to give youngsters the best possible opportunities to fulfil their potential? I can’t speak for every single teacher. However, from my own experience, is that while passion and aspiration-raising are significant parts of a teacher’s identity, nurturing and protecting young people is fundamental. This loco-parentis as ..read more

This article was co-authored with Catherine Walker and Nerida Jolley. You can read the introduction here, and then continue with the rest of the article, for free, via the University of Manchester’s website here. One of Maisy Summer’s beautiful images for the YPAC creative book How can climate change education address rather than exacerbate eco-anxiety, whilst also valuing and learning from diverse perspectives? Following a strong collective youth voice at COP26, climate and sustainability education have become more prominent on governments’ agendas. Soon after COP26, the Scottish Government a ..read more

I don’t know why I put myself through it! A love for performing, geography and educating – all rolled into one, I guess! Almost every Geographical Association Conference Teachmeet I get lyrical. This year, I decided to honour the epic efforts and achievements of the team behind developing the Slow Ways. We’ll get back to that in a mo… Go have a look at their amazing website! But before you do, enjoy a few things below. First, listen to me talk to Dan Raven-Ellison about Slow Ways on the Coffee & Geography podcast (skip to 22:37). Geogramblings · Coffee & Geography S01E23 Dan Raven-E ..read more