An international collaborative writing retreat for

Geographers in Higher Education

Friday 10th August – Sunday 12th August 2018

This event immediately follows the IGU Regional Congress at Laval University, Quebec and will take place in university facilities.

Mission:

The International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (INLT) writing retreat is a structured workshop to facilitate international collaboration on topics of significance in geography higher education. The outputs from the workshop will be a series of papers for submission to a symposium volume in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education. The journal and its publisher, Taylor and Francis, have sponsored the workshop.

Topics and outline:

The topics for focus in this INLT workshop have been chosen by the JGHE Editorial Board as some of the most critical issues facing geography higher education, but also as topics that will help build citations for the journal given their broader relevance. Depending on the number and nature of expressions of interest, all or some of these topics will be supported. The key topics are:

  • Embedding student as partners in geography higher education (Topic lead: Dr Ruth Healey)

Student as partners explores the process of staff and students “learning and working together to foster engaged student learning and engaging learning and teaching enhancement” (Healey, M. et al. 2014:7). This topic will focus on how students as partners might be embedded within mainstream geography higher education.

  • Exploring mobile learning opportunities in geography higher education (Topic lead: Prof Derek France)

Mobile learning is the “exploitation of ubiquitous handheld hardware, wireless networking and mobile telephony to facilitate, support, enhance and extend the reach of teaching and learning" (JISC. 2015:2). This topic will critically assess the skills, opportunities and challenges offered by mobile learning, as well as the range of learning and teaching practices employed by faculty and students to incorporate mobile learning within the diverse learning landscape of geography higher education.

  • Preparing students for transition (Topic lead: Prof David Higgitt)

Student pathways through higher education feature a number of transitions (e.g. school to university; undergraduate to postgraduate; university to workplace; transnational programmes). As the characteristics of the student body entering HE become more diverse, strategic approaches to supporting students through transition are increasingly important. Difficult transitions can impact adversely on student outcomes, retention rates and student satisfaction, potentially impacting reputation. While most attention has been focused on school-university transition, this topic will focus on commonalities and distinctiveness of transitions through student pathways in the context of geography and related programmes.

  • Teaching for social justice: Towards an anti-racism pedagogy (Topic lead: Prof Derek Alderman)

Social justice, particularly anti-racism, is making important inroads into social science pedagogical discussions and debates, especially with the ongoing resurgence of white nationalism inside and outside the United States. Despite the mainstream status of social justice studies within geographic research and the growing intellectual and advocacy importance of black geographies within the discipline, education journals in geography—compared to other social sciences—contain a relatively limited number of articles focused on these issues. This INLT group will produce a publication with the hope of providing educators the conceptual and practical guidance to assist them in developing and implementing an anti-racism geography pedagogy and negotiating the inherent institutional and broader political obstacles of teaching for social justice and inclusion rather than simply about justice and mere diversity.

  • Indigenous Educations (Topic lead: Dr Lynn Moorman)

An increased appreciation of the value and importance of Indigenous knowledge has led to initiatives to indigenize curricula, including bringing awareness of content, practices and indigenous perspectives to Western-style education. Given the expanding audience and interest in notions of indigenous epistemology including place-based and active learning, environmental sustainability, and holistic thinking, geography education is more relevant than ever before. This topic will explore the agency and role of Indigenous educations in democratizing geography beyond its traditional western scope and audience.

  • Graduate Futures(Topic lead: Dr Michael Solem)

Many university geography departments are renaming courses and rebranding themselves to modernize the discipline's image and potentially capture new audiences, in some cases dropping the word "geography" altogether (Frazier & Wikle, 2016). This INLT group will critically debate the long-term implications of these developments for the geography discipline and graduate futures.

How can I participate?

Prospective participants are required to complete the attached expression of interest form and email to on or before 9th February 2018. Please complete the form in full.

Should the workshop be over-subscribed, we will select participants based on the information provided having regard to our desire to ensure a mix of participants from: different countries/geographical settings; study/career stages; sub-disciplines of geography; gender and institution. For info on previous INLT workshops, see

Payment for the workshop

Successful participants will be notified in early February and you will be required to complete a non-refundable online payment by the end of February to secure your place. There is an expectation that all participants will attend in person the Quebec meeting.

Workshop registration fee:

The workshop has kindly been sponsored by the Journal of Geography in Higher Education and its publisher, Taylor and Francis. This has allowed is to keep costs low.

The registration fee for participation is €110 per person, based on a shared room. Should you wish to have a single room, the cost will be €140 per person. This fee includes: 2 nights B&B accommodation in university residences, 2 lunches, morning and afternoon coffee/tea breaks, and dinner on one evening. Delegates must bring their own laptop computers.

A small number of postgraduate bursaries may be available to defray the registration fee for the workshop and make a small contribution towards transport costs

Timelines:

Pre-workshop
24th January 2018 / Call for Expressions of Interest circulated
9th February 2018 / Expressions of interest deadline
16th February 2018 / Notification of acceptance to participants and introduction to group
28th February 2018 / Payment of non-refundable fee to secure place – details will be provided with your notification of acceptance.
30th April 2018 / 300-word abstract to be submitted to INLT coordinator
7th May 2018 / Feedback on Abstract to group
1st July 2018 / First draft of paper submitted to INLT coordinator
INLT workshop
Friday 10th August 5pm / Introduction/presentation by groups of their draft paper
Saturday 11th ALL DAY / Structured workshop
Sunday 12th August / Presentation of 2nd draft of paper. Workshop concludes at 3pm
Post-workshop
31st October 2018 / Deadline for submission of paper to JGHE

Organising committee:

Niamh Moore-Cherry (University College, Dublin, Ireland) is lead organiser with support from James Boxall (Dalhousie, Canada), Derek France (University of Chester, UK), and Michael Solem (National Centre for Geographic Education).

An international collaborative writing retreat for

Geographers in Higher Education

Friday 10th August – Sunday 12th August 2018

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM

Full Name including title:

Affiliation:

Address:

Email Address:

Choice of topics – Please select your first, second and third choices from the following list by placing an “x” in the appropriate box:

Writing Topics / 1st choice / 2nd choice / 3rd choice
Embedding students as partners
Exploring mobile learning opportunities
Preparing students for transition
Teaching for social justice
Indigenous educations
Graduate Futures

Why do you wish to participate in this workshop? What are the anticipated benefits to your professional development? (no more than 250 words)

Limited support is available for students. Please indicate whether you are an undergraduate, graduate student or post-doctoral researcher and would like to be considered for a fee reduction:

Career stage / Yes / No / If yes, what year of study?
Undergraduate student
Postgraduate student
Post-doctoral researcher
None of the above

Please return this form to Niamh Moore-Cherry [E-mail: ]

by 9th February 2018.