"new viewpoints in geography": a teachers' conference

"New Viewpoints In Geography": A Teachers' ConferenceAuthor(s): BARRY FLOYDSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3 (September 1967), pp. 30-37Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40653025 .

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"New Viewpoints In Geography ": Δ Teachers' Conference

IN AUGUST 1967 a week-long Conference for school and training college teachers of geography was held at the University of the West Indies, Mona: the first of its kind to be run for geography teachers from the West Indian islands of British expression.

The Conference was sjponsored jointly by the Geography Sub- Department at U.W.I., the Extra-Mural Department, and the Jamaican Geographical Society. The latter organization has as its main ob- jective the professional advancement of geography in Jamaica and the Caribbean; it aims to achieve this goal in a number of ways, the most tangible being through the sponsorship of .periodic meetings, lectures, field excursions, conferences and other group activities, also the mounting of a publications programme. It was only natural that the Society should choose to mark the first anniversary of its foundation through a Conference devoted to familiarizing both veteran and fledgling geographers with some of the contemporary developments in their subject.

The purpose and objectives of the Conference were, indeed, exiplicit. It is no exaggeration to say that, beyond the Caribbean, the science of geography is in the midst of an intellectual and pedagogical renaissance. Prom the great centres of learning in North America and Western Europe, a veritable flood-wave of new concepts and viewpoints in geography is advancing over the academic scene. It is of great interest and importance to West Indian geographers to be aware of these fundamental reforms and intellectual thrusts in their discipline. And beyond being aware of them, they should attempt to learn something about these rigorous new analytical approaches, and to gauge to what extent they may introduce them into their own schemes of geographical teaching and research in the Caribbean area, particularly for re-structuring and up-grading the content of geography courses in the High Schools and Teacher Training Colleges.

To be sure, much of the literature of the revisionists in geography makes formidable, even frightening, reading to the traditionalist scholars in the field, ι There is, for example, a whole new vocabulary or jargon used by the "in" group or "cognoscenti" in this methodological reformation. How many school teachers of geography in Jamaica are familiar with (or can explain) the following concepts and terms: spatial systems analysis; temporal dynamics of spatial structure; location theory cluster; central place hierarchy; normative models; density threshold; flow linkages; accessibility connectivity; earth ecosystem and sub-systems; energy, moisture and momentum fluxes; the steady- state concept of climate?

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As much as the more humanistic and literary-minded geographers may deplore these abstract concepts, and urge a return to the canons of a pure and wholesome English, with its refreshing simplicity of descriptive words and phrases, the fact remains that the application of rigorous, theoretical-deductive methods in geographical studies demands the use of such analytical and conceptual tools. If geography is to keep abreast of the astounding progress in the other earth sciences as well as the social sciences, and if geography is ever to achieve an academic esteem which most of its practitioners feel is long overdue, then these techniques must be utilised, and substantive research, teaching and publications undertaken and produced in consequence.

It would be foolish then for West Indian geographers to act like King Canute on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, and attempt to stem or to throw back the flood-wave of statistical and theoretical methodology in their subject. This is not to say, of course, that Caribbean geographers can embrace all these new concepts over-night (or over- week). Neither can they effect their own revolution in West Indian geographic thought without major effort on the part of many people in the profession. It will require a careful and probably lengthy re- educational, or further educational, process for most teachers of geography in the Caribbean lands. Then there are the hard realities of the school curriculum and the conservative framework of the G.C.E. examinations to contend with, not to mention the virtual complete absence of "new-look" books and personnel trained in the new school of geography.

In the immediate future, West Indian geographers must try to develop strategies for achieving their objectives, once they are agreed on the direction in which their subject should move- and the speed with which innovations should be introduced - into the Caribbean area. Certain reservations have been made concerning the premature introduction of advanced geographical concepts into the developing areas, particularly in those countries where there is not even a hard core of traditional literature and emperical-inductive materials upon which to base the more sophisticated treatment of earth-man rela- tionships. Since these reservations have been recorded at length else- where2 they are not pursued further at this time.

Clearly if methodological and pedagogical changes are to be initi- ated they should begin in the schools, at the Secondary or High School level It is from this source that the more promising students for engaging in advanced studies at the "growing" or "cutting" edge of geography will be recruited by the Universities and Teacher Train- ing Colleges This is why particular interest is being focused on the US effort to introduce new viewpoints into geography within the schools sytem, and this is why two American geographers were especially invited to the Conference, to present papers on the High School Project.

The Planning Committee for the Conference was fully aware that a steady diet of "new-look" geography for five days might well produce

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indigestion as well as mental exhaustion, and might even seem irrele- vant to some of the more pressing and practical problems which face today's Caribbean teachers of geography within the present structure of the schools and syllabuses. This is why sessions were also included on such immediate issues as field studies, methods of surveying, air photo interpretation, teaching aids and equipment for the geography room, contemporary text books, the uses of radio and TV in geographic education, and so forth. In consequence, the Conference hight better have been entitled: "Continuing and New Viewpoints in Geography."

The keynote speaker for the Conference was Dr. Leslie Oummings, head of the Geography Department at the University of Guyana, and one of the leading proponents of geographical innovation in Middle America. Guyanese by birth, Dr. Cummings received his undergraduate training at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, along strictly traditional lines. He then went to the University of Iowa, USA, for further studies. Under the intellectual influence of Professor H. McCarthy, he quickly became converted to the "Iowa" approach in the geographical renaissance and, apart from his doctoral thesis, he engaged in a number of academic exercises, noteably the writing of an introductory course for university-level geography studies in- incorporating new concepts in spatial analysis. He also conducted significant experiments in the use of computers »for solving geographic problems.

Dr. Cummings has already done much through his teaching and publications to encourage a more rigorous and theoretical approach to geographical studies in the Caribbean area. His impact upon the discipline may be expected to grow appreciably over the years ahead. In his opening address, Dr. Cummings acknowledged that the task of discerning new directions in a field is fraught with dangers, especially when one is somewhat immersed in the stream. "One is conscious of movement, but you are never quite sure whether you are in the main stream or just in the vicinity of some particularly vigorous tributary." This is one reason why, in the historical development of the discipline, some scholars have paused, looked at geography, and provided overviews. James and Jones in their American Geography: Inventory and Prospect, Hartshorne in his monumental Nature of Geography, are examples from the recent past while Bunge's Theoretical Geography, and Haggett's Locational Analysis in Human Geography are landmarks pointing to new and exciting directions which geography is taking.

Dr. Cummings then commented on the background to educational change. He claimed that there is a perpetual need for innovation in teaching, since society always tends to find out more than it knows how to teach. If one may borrow from the terminology of Malthus, knowledge seems to develop in geometric progression, while methods of organizing and imparting this knowledge seem to grow in arith- metic progression. It is a trait of most societies that educational systems are among the ones most zealously protected from the winds of change. And change is the hallmark of the content of geography,

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a hallmark which is often not reflected in teaching method and content. "Despite this built-in resistance factor, it is to be hoped that the establishment of Geography at Mona and at Georgetown will provide the stimulus for the spread of new ideas, new directions. Indeed, the fact that we have gathered here from all over the Carib- bean to discuss our discipline is, in itself, a new direction.'

The major components for educational change are well known. There must first of all be a realization of future needs by a society. That society must be able to discern the new kinds of adjustment and new kinds of skills it will need. Secondly, there must be the techno- logical basis to spread the accumulated knowledge: inexpensive books, radio, television and so on. The socio-economic climate must also be conducive to the idea of using resources (especially money) for innovation, training and reorganization. Also there must be continued advance, on the research frontier, «adding to what is already known. And lastly, there must be a willingness on the part of practitioners to accept change and the need for change. This is perhaps the hardest to accomplish. The teacher can be an impediment to change or a prime mover .for change.

Dr. Cummings proceeded to discuss the methodological background to current developments in geography. He recognized that the content of what is taught is partly a function of what has been« discovered through research or exploration. What is in the forefront of knowledge in one generation becomes the content of classroom material in the next. This "filtering process" makes it important for one to look at current research in geography before new directions in teaching in terms of content, techniques and equipment can be identified and encouraged. Reading current articles in the geographic literature one meets with such concepts and expressions as significance tests, K-3 network, first regional nearest neighbour, intervening-opportunity models, linear trend surfaces: "terms and ideas we will be teaching our students here in the Caribbean in a short time, if some are not doing so already. Since we are taking part in the information ex- plosion, and since the "facts" with which we deal in Geography are in a state of change, the trend is towards the teaching of concepts and more efficient methods of organizing those concepts. For example, if we want to teach students about world trade, we will want to do so within the framework of spatial interaction. If we want to understand population density distribution in urban areas we will want to approach this topic deductively, building a model of the situation and then ex- amining the corresponence of this model to a scientifically-selected sample of cities."

Much has been heard of the enormous sums of money poured into the American Space Programme and the enormous shiit of resources into this prestige area. The social sciences in the U.S., including geography, are having to react to this challenge by a re-examination of methodology, objectives, techniques and the content of material especially at the research level. Geographers are becoming more prag- matic. Social scientists are being pushed from narrow and strictly- defined areas toward increasingly extensive involvements in practical matters. The growing involvement of the geographer in society is being

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paralleled by a growing involvement of the teacher and student in classroom problems. This awareness of responsibility, this involvement has resulted in a "feedback", which has caused re-evaluation of the content of geography teaching at all rungs of the educational ladder.

The current trend towards "qualification" is a response to many factors: the great leap forward the physical sciences have been making; the machines (especially computers) that have become widespread; the large amounts of raw data which have been amassed and which are available by new methods of information storage and retrieval." The United States, building upon a base laid down in Britain, Germany and Sweden, has generated the front line troops carrying the flag into unchartered areas of geographical exploration." The philosophical basis of this revolution was provided by Schaefer in 1954. He recognized that one of the central problems in geographical research was tue search for more efficient ordering of facts, so as better to discern the regularities which underlie phenomena we study and the laws governing the spatial distribution of phenomena.

The quest for regularity, for generalisations, has been aided by the use of theoretical-deductive systems, by the exploitation of sophisticated mathematical-statistical techniques and the use of analogous situations and theories. For a discipline, as it advances, is no longer content to make simple generalizations from observable facts; it tries to "explain" those lowest-level generalizations by deducing them from more general hypotheses at a higher level. "As the hierarchy of hypotheses of increasing generality rises, the concepts with which the hypotheses are concerned cease to be properties of things which are directly observable and instead become 'theoretical concepts': isomorphism, completely-connected graph, population potential, which are related to trie original observations by logic or analogy."

In addition to presenting the keynote address, Dr. Cummings also introduced Conference participants to the potential use of computers in geographical study. He led them through an exercise in population distribution analysis, involving map measurements, computer program- ming, card .punching, also a visit to the U.W.I, computer centre and an opportunity to observe the IBM 1620 machine in action.

In his prefatory remarks to the computer session, the Confer- ence chairman commented: "It is perhaps trite to observe that we are all members of the Cybernated Generation. The Age of Cybernetics- of mechanical-electrical communications and computer systems- is clearly upon us. Over the last ten to twenty years, electronic computers have been making dramatic inroads into the fabric of human society, inducing both wonder but also widespread apprehension. Is the computer a friend or an enemy of man? Will it devalue the human brain, or happily free it from drudgery? Will it ever learn to think for itself? Will it cause widespread unemployment by speeding the processes of automation in industry, in commerce, even in education?"

The answers to these questions are by no means clear at the moment but one thing is very obvious. Swept forward by a great wave of technology of which the computer is the ultimate expression, human

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society is heading for profound and far-reaching changes. According to the Vice-President of the General Electric Company in the UBA.: "The electronic computer may have a more beneficial potential for the human race than any other invention in history." These words are echoed by the head of one of Britain's electronic companies: "The computer and automation will bring the greatest change in the whole history of mankind."

Certainly computers are the most sophisticated and powerful of the tools devised by man to-date, and computers have already affected whole areas of society, opening up vast new possibilities by their ex- traordinary feats of memory and calculation. Computers have given new horizons to the fields of science and medicine, changed the techniques of research in many other areas of man's intellectual en- deavours, even improved the efficiency of governments. Man's entire space-age efforts could not have been mounted without the aid of computers, both on the ground and taken aloft into orbit.

Someone has likened the difference between a human being armed with pencil and paper and another with an electronic computer, to the difference between a Norman archer armed with a cross bow and a pilot carrying in his aircraft a hydrogen bomb. "Or put it another way. You could fill our entire National Stadium in Kingston with scientists equipped with sliderules and notebooks and set them to work on a problem which it would take the rest of their active lives to solve. Yet a modern IBM computer could solve the same problem within a few minutes, perhaps even within a few seconds.

Coming closer to home, it is apparent that computers may be utilized to resolve many geometrical problems of concern to geographers, problems of spatial location, geographical spread, density and accessibility, circulation patterns, linkages, flows and so forth. "Not all of us can hope to master the considerable skills required to programme the computers correctly to do these calculations for us, but at least we should be aware of and informed as to the sorts of geographical work and problems which computers can undertake, and what their output means in terms of geographical realities in the world around us."

As recorded earlier, two American geographers were invited to brief Conference participants on the High School Geography Project of the Association of American Geographers. The aims of the project were well described by Professor James Anderson, Chairman of the Geography Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville; practical work on sample units from the High School Project was undertaken in a workshop session under the supervision of Professor Anderson and Dr. Stanley Brunn, also of the Department of Geography, University of Florida. Geography teachers in the Caribbean and other interested persons who would like to know more about the American High School Geography Project may write to its director, Dr. Nicholas Helburn, P.O. Box 1095, Boulder, Colorado 80302, U.S.A.

A panel discussion on the role of field studies in geography was moderated by Mr. John Macpherson, author of Caribbean Lands and

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experienced geographer in West Indian matters (now Publications Officer, Institute of Education, U.W.I.). Members of the panel were Mr. David Smith, Miss Ann Norton and Mr. Edward Douglas, all members of the Geography Department, U.W.I.; practical advice was offered in the organizing of field trips and the preparation of questionaires in the areas of physical geography, population and settlement, and land use. Conference participants had an opportunity to test the recom- mendations of the panelists through an afternoon field excursion to Lluidas Vale via Spanish Town, Bog Walk and Linstead.

A well-informed and entertaining contributor to the Conference programme was Dr. Bruce Ogilvie, geographer on the staff of the largest commercial map publisher in the U.S.A.: Rand McNally and Company of Chicago. Dr. Ogilvie took a lively interest in the problems of teaching geography in the Caribbean, spoke formally on the prospects for improving the physical facilities through teaching aids and equipment for the geography room, and informally on mapping and related topics. His presence added expertise and professional competence in the commercial sphere to the Conference programme.

Among other items on the programme which deserve special mention in this record was a most worthwhile exercise in text book appraisal, undertaken by groups of teachers, utilizing books on display at the Conference and donated by publishers, and supervised by John Macpherson. His four-page, multiple choice evaluation sheet: "Criteria for Selecting Geography Textbooks" is an invaluable guide to the sorts of questions teachers should be raising on school books for geography. Copies of the evaluation sheet may be obtained by writing to the Secretary, Jamaica Geographical Society, c/o Geography De- partment, U.W.I.

The second evening of exceptional interest comprised a viewing of superb serial photos of Jamaican physical and cultural landscapes via 35 m.m. slides. The pictures were taken and shown by Mr. J. Tyndale-Biscoe, noted freelance aviator and air photographer; selected from a wide collection of air views of the island, the pictures were supported by the well-informed commentary and aerial experience of their originator. Through a special arrangement with the Jamaican Geographical Society, Mr. Tyndale-Biscoe has agreed to supply sets of 32 duplicate slides, at a cost of £4. 1. Od. per set, for use in schools and other academic institutions in the Caribbean. Further information on this offer may be obtained from the Secretary of the Jamaican Geographical Society.

Since atlases are among the more familiar and time-honoured tools of geographers, a symposium on resource atlases was included in the Conference programme; the chairman for this general session was an applied geographer on the staff of the Town Planning De- partment in Kingston, Mr. Nicholas Pennington. Professor Anderson reviewed the history and production problems of the Florida State Atlas and also reported on the progress being achieved in the creation of an ambitious National Atlas for the United States. Dr. Floyd out- lined the research proposal of the Geography Department, U.W.I, for the production of a descriptive resource atlas of the Caribbean, to be

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used as a 6th. Form and University-level educational device, also for promoting a fuller national and international appreciation of the physical and socio-economic endowment of West Indian countries.

Afternoon workshops sessions offering practical instruction in air photo reading and interpretation, compass travelling, plane tabling and the representation of cartographic data on maps were held on the final ay of the Conference, which officially ended with a poolside party and dance at the Senior Common Room, U.W.I.

The full proceedings of the Conference are to be edited and published with the support of the Scientific Research Council, Kingston, Jamaica.

BARRY FLOYD

REFERENCES. 1. National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, The Science of Geography. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Geography, Earth Science Division, National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. Publication 1277 (Washington, D.C., 1965).

Association of American Geographers, Geography in Undergraduate Liberal Ed j cat ion Commission on College Geography, Publication No. 1 (Washington, DC; 1965). Association of American Geographers, New Approaches in Introductory College Geography Courses. Commission on College Gecgrcphy. Publication No. 4 (Washington, D.C., 1967). Association of American Geographers, Introductory Geography. Viewpoints and Themes Commission on College Geography, Publication No. 5 (Washington, D.C., 1967).

2. Β. Ν. Floyd, "Some Comments on the Scope and Objectives of Geography in the Developing Areas," Journal of the Geographical Association of Nigeria, Vol. 9, No. 1 (June, 1966), 11-23.

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"new viewpoints in geography": a teachers' conference

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