This seminar will provide an assessment of the development of research in subject-based education, and of its future prospects. Using geography education as an exemplar, it will offer a challenging critique of this field of research.
The intention of the seminar is to help us further understand the unsteady, sporadic and increasingly insecure development of subject-based education research. However, despite the obvious challenges, the aim is to outline realistic ways forward for geography education, and other subject-based, researchers. Importantly, in a period of radical change for all education research and researchers, the seminar represents a timely appraisal of possible ways forward for subject research in the field.
About the speaker:
Graham Butt was, until recently, a Professor in Education, Director of Research and Post Graduate Research Tutor at Oxford Brookes University. He is a founding member of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo). Graham’s research is predominantly in the field of geography education, although he has also published on assessment, teacher workload, and modernisation of the teaching workforce. His books include Modernising Schools (2007, with Helen Gunter), Lesson Planning (3rd edition) (2008), Making Assessment Matter (2010) and, as editor, Geography, Education and the Future (2011), MasterClass in Geography Education (2015) and The Power of Geographical Thinking (2017) (with Clare Brooks and Mary Fargher). Graham is an invited member of the UK Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU).