Above: Royal Geographical Society with IBG

Geography helps young people explore and understand the connections between people, places and the environment.  This might be in their local area, nationally or internationally and it is such geographical perspectives which can help pupils answer the question Who do we think we are?

Clearly the 30 pupils in a class are an important starting point for understanding who might live in the local area, what brought them here and what their locality might be like.   However, we should also explore how representative one classes' make up or one school's intake might be of the wider community.  To help with this comparison, schools can draw on many freely available geographical materials.  For example, via http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ they can use up-to-date information about their local area, which includes population data, ethnicity, religion, country of birth, crime rates, health care or housing types.  And added to this there can be no better way for pupils to develop their visual understanding of a locality than through using their local Ordnance Survey map (see http://freemaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/), aerial photographs or a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) package (see www.rgs.org/gis).   

Indeed, the key concepts in the new KS3 geography curriculum provide different and complementary ‘entry points' that can help pupils explore citizenship, identity and diversity within their local areas, nationally and internationally; the concepts being:

• place
• space,
• scale,
• interdependence,
• physical and human processes,
• environmental interaction and sustainable development,
• cultural understanding and diversity

When we discuss our identity one aspect may include a geographical location, being for example a Scouser, Cornish or Londoner.  For me it was growing up in the Fens of East Anglia and it was this experience which, in part, gave me a sense of who I am, where I'm from, as well as connecting me with others. 

So if young people are to better understand their own and others identity, what it means to be a citizen at the local, British and global scales and the diverse nature of British society - in short exploring their "place in the world" - geography has an important contribution to make.  Indeed, as Michael Palin recently said "Geography is all about the living, breathing essence of the world we live in. It helps explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?" 

Written by:
Dr Rita Gardner
Director, Royal Geographical Society with IBG
Website: http://www.rgs.org

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