Children’s voices, school

partnerships and geography.

Fran Martin, University of Exeter

GTE annual conference, Southport, Jan 30th – Feb 1st
2009.
 Mexico (1)
• Y1 and 2 class
• Studying Tocuaro, a village in Mexico
• Predominantly affluent, white, middle class
school
• Pupils asked to do drawings, and had
group and individual conversations with
teacher
 Mexico (2)
• Pictures children drew included:
• Drawings of the desert (clearly
thinking back to what they had learnt
about Egypt)
• A wise man (from a pupil basing his
ideas on his knowledge of the
nativity)
• Drawings of volcanoes and dinosaurs
 Mexico (3)
T: Has anyone heard of Mexico?
• It’s a place
• It’s a place, a country
• There’s all wooden houses and all forest and
mountains and a river which goes through all
rocks and goes down a river and then I think
went to an old shop where its just no doors and
its just, you just go in and just pay and just go to
another shop and just go.
 Mexico (3 cont…)
T: Has anyone got a picture in their head of what
Mexico is like?

• It’s got mountains

• It’s got like skyscrapers
• It’s for like flower necklaces
• It’s very hot
Scoffham (Primary Geographer Spring, 2007)
• ‘Many of the pupils used ideas about the past to
inform their images of modern Mexico. For
example, there were references to cave life,
dinosaurs and Egyptian style pyramids in both
the drawing and the discussion’
• ‘These historical references are likely to be
reinforced if pupils learn about the bloody rituals
and warfare associated with Aztec, Maya, and
Tula civilisations’
 Kaptalamwa (1)
• Y1/2 class
• Geography unit of 6 weeks
• Kaptalamwa, a village in Kenya
• UK school, rural village in West Midlands
• Pupils asked to draw a picture of what
they thought the village might be like
• Pupils had a discussion with teacher
 Kaptalamwa (2)
Tim’s picture before
 Kaptalamwa (3)
Ben’s picture before
Tim’s picture after
Ben’s picture after
 Kaptalamwa (4)
T: What do you think homes might be like in
Kenya?
• Tim: Mud houses, or caves with little doors on
• Ben: Yes, mud and straw
T: What do you think the people might be like?
• Tim: They don’t speak English, they speak
African
• Ben: They have brown, black skin
Martin (Primary Geographer Spring 2005)
• Developing a language for lack of certainty
(maybe, might, could, possibly) is crucial to
understanding that photographs do not tell us
the whole story.
• The knowledge in a photograph is subject to the
purposes the photographer had for taking it, to
the selection made by the teacher, as well as the
ways in which it might be interpreted.
• Developing a language of uncertainty is the first
step in helping pupils to begin to recognise that
ideas can change once new information comes
along.
Goa (1) Within a school link context
• School link between primary schools in
Northamptonshire and Goa
• Curriculum activity at beginning of
partnership
• Y5 children in England asked what they
thought their partner school locality might
be like
• Standard 6 children in India asked similar
question
 Goa (2)
English pupils’ perceptions of
Indian locality
• Stereotypical, traditional, rural Indian village
straw and mud ‘huts’, people carrying baskets
on their heads, wells
• Complex flat roof houses, markets, palm trees,
bicycles
• The exotic domed buildings, snake charmers, in
keeping with stories from Arabian Nights
• Undifferentiated could have been of England
 Goa (3)
Indian pupils’ perceptions of
English locality
• Snowy scenes rural & urban scenes dominated
by snow
• Skateboarding children skateboarding and roller-
skating
• Urban scenes cars, buses, traffic lights, shops,
Houses of Parliament, Prime Ministers house,
schools. BUT mostly depicted in the traditional
Goan Portuguese architectural style
• Rural scenes hills, rivers, flowers and trees
 Goa (4)
After 2 years of partnership activities: data from
English pupils show …
• Some stereotypical images remain
• Majority depicted elements of the real locality,
especially school environment
• Widespread reference to modern technology
• Wider range of buildings, people in Western and
traditional clothes
• Pictures more diverse and informed by
knowledge
 Disney (in Catling & Martin 2004, p145)

There is some indication … that the children’s

estimation of the worth of their peers in the
partner school is affected by the extent to
which they possess modern consumer items.
… Teachers may also latch onto this, as it is a
much more comfortable image with which to
work. … We cannot afford to dismantle some
stereotypes and replace them with others .
 The Gambia (1)
Within a school link context

• School link between rural school in West

Midlands and rural school in The Gambia
• English pupils (Y1/2) images of life in The
Gambia after school link established for a
number of years
• Tape-recorded conversation with teacher
 The Gambia (2)

T: What do you mean?

P: Because we’ve got

clothes and houses

P: Why are we so
Lucky?

P2: Gross things

like flies go on
their mouths
 The Gambia (3)
T: What about the children in The Gambia, what
do you think the children are like?
• Hmm. Well, not that happy because they don’t
have many toys to play with so they have to
make them
• Operation Christmas!
• Yes! We gave them toys. I sent a Noddy car
• For Christmas, every single Christmas, we get
boxes and put paper on it and then put toys in it
and send to Gambia.
 School context (Wood, 2006)
• Prior to the activity days, much of the information that the
children received came from the media and from the
school link.
• The maintenance of this link, however, appeared to be
providing inaccurate information. Animals such as
zebras, lions and elephants were displayed around
school. None of these are native to The Gambia.
• There was traditional craftwork scattered around the
school. This was typically tourist souvenirs of crude
workmanship.
• Visitors to the school concentrated on ways that the
school could ‘help’ people in The Gambia. All this
appeared to lead to an environment where the children
saw themselves in a position of superiority.
 School context cont… (Wood, 2006)
• The school link environment can be a major factor in
influencing attitudes either way. Teachers need to be
aware of the messages they are giving to children.
Teaching about other cultures does not necessarily
address negative attitudes.

• The children recognised that charitable work had taken

place in their school to raise funds for the school in The
Gambia. This appeared to give them a sense that they
were in a superior and privileged position to the children
in The Gambian school. There was also a sense that the
Gambian children’s needs were much more basic in
comparison with their own.
 Influences on linking & children’s
learning
• Teacher dispositions, knowledge &
understanding
• School context
• Educational context
• Political Context
• Western cultural & historical contexts and
conceptions of the ‘other’.
Sameness-difference: dichotomy
Sameness-difference: related
A philosophy of difference
 Implications
• A focus on difference within as a
starting point
• Acknowledging that issues are complex
• Pedagogy that is critical / questioning
• Exploration of assumptions
• Recognition that tacit categories of
sameness and difference could be re-
made differently
• Access to a range of ‘voices’
 Geography teaching
• Teaching about distant place - when (year group, time of
year, in-depth study, long unit)
• Recognition of children’s voices – both in North and
South
• Selection of resources – how to gain access to a range
of voices, recognition of the impact of our own ‘baggage’
on our choices (what is ‘authentic’?)
• Teaching about otherness - difference within/difference
without
• Recognition of dynamic nature of places, societies,
cultures and the relationships between them (frozen
narratives)
• Partnership activities and learning in geography -
compatible aims or not?
 Further reading

• Burbules, T (1997), ‘A Grammar of Difference: Some Ways of

Rethinking Difference and Diversity as Educational Topics’.
Australian Educational Researcher, 24(10) 97-116.
• GA (2007) Primary Geographer: Focus on School Partnerships and
Global Dimension Geographical Association.
• Leonard, A (2008) ‘Global school relationships: school linking and
modern challenges’ in Bourn, (ed) Development Education: Debates
and dialogues. London: Institute of Education
• Martin, F (2008) Mutual Learning: the impact of a study visit course
on UK teachers’ knowledge and understanding of global
Partnerships Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices Vol 2:1 60-75
• Wood, S (2006) Learning from Linking’ in Tide~ Talk
http://www.tidec.org/Tide~talk/network%20arts/distant-places.html
• www.osdemethodology.org.uk/primaryeducation.html
• www.throughothereyes.org.uk/