Thinking geographically: Making connections between school geography and future careers in the United Kingdom
Thinking geographically: Making connections between school geography and future careers in the United Kingdom
This chapter describes the United Kingdom contribution to an international project which aims to better connect school geography with future careers in geography-related professions. We first provide a summary of student interests and career aspirations collected via an online survey (n = 128), before identifying a professional who uses geography knowledge and skills in their work. As survey data indicated that geography students were concerned about the environment and sustainability and were interested in associated jobs such as those in the renewable energy sector, the professional we selected was the Head of Onshore Wind and Solar Development (Wales and England) at a multi-national company. During interview, the professional provided their education background, role and responsibilities and discussed aspects of the geography knowledge, skills, data, perspectives, and technology used in their work. Drawing on this information, a career-orientated school geography lesson was developed and is outlined here. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why it is important to make links between professional and school geographers and how career-orientated lessons can support students to make informed decisions about future career paths.
powerful knowledge, geography careers, geography knowledge and skills
217-232
Rawlings Smith, Emma
587730f7-d234-4421-8dc9-48e1705b5a92
Collins, Gemma
4068a16e-6f73-4b7c-ad9d-7832931b0fe2
26 March 2024
Rawlings Smith, Emma
587730f7-d234-4421-8dc9-48e1705b5a92
Collins, Gemma
4068a16e-6f73-4b7c-ad9d-7832931b0fe2
Rawlings Smith, Emma and Collins, Gemma
(2024)
Thinking geographically: Making connections between school geography and future careers in the United Kingdom.
In,
Solem, Michael, Boehm, Richard G. and Zadrozny, Joann
(eds.)
Powerful Geography: International Perspectives and Applications.
Switzerland.
Springer Cham, .
(doi:10.1007/978-3-031-54845-1_12).
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Abstract
This chapter describes the United Kingdom contribution to an international project which aims to better connect school geography with future careers in geography-related professions. We first provide a summary of student interests and career aspirations collected via an online survey (n = 128), before identifying a professional who uses geography knowledge and skills in their work. As survey data indicated that geography students were concerned about the environment and sustainability and were interested in associated jobs such as those in the renewable energy sector, the professional we selected was the Head of Onshore Wind and Solar Development (Wales and England) at a multi-national company. During interview, the professional provided their education background, role and responsibilities and discussed aspects of the geography knowledge, skills, data, perspectives, and technology used in their work. Drawing on this information, a career-orientated school geography lesson was developed and is outlined here. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why it is important to make links between professional and school geographers and how career-orientated lessons can support students to make informed decisions about future career paths.
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 October 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 March 2024
Published date: 26 March 2024
Keywords:
powerful knowledge, geography careers, geography knowledge and skills
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 488782
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488782
PURE UUID: 9ce98f73-3a50-47ce-812a-1e15152a8154
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Date deposited: 05 Apr 2024 16:40
Last modified: 25 Jul 2024 02:07
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Contributors
Author:
Emma Rawlings Smith
Author:
Gemma Collins
Editor:
Michael Solem
Editor:
Richard G. Boehm
Editor:
Joann Zadrozny
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