Examination of Witness (Questions 616-619)
19 JANUARY 2005
DR DAVID
LAMBERT
Q616 Chairman: Mr Lambert, thank you
for coming to give evidence and help us with this inquiry. We
are interested from the perspective of the Geographical Association.
I think you sat in and listened. Is there anything you wish to
say to us at the very outset, having sat through most of this
morning's proceedings, just very briefly?
Mr Lambert: Yes, just briefly.
Point one: it is hard to imagine that there is a more important
educational aim than Education for Sustainable Development and,
talking about priorities, I would have thought it is the priority.
I come to this from the point of view of the school curriculum,
the day-to-day experience of teachers and pupils. In getting ESD
embedded in schools, I would say that teachers have a prime role.
I think subjects have a key role. It has got to be long term and
I would say there is a lack of strategic development at the moment.
It has to involve a bottom-up element, and I will talk more about
that if you wish, and it does need to be embedded. I would agree
with all of that. The only other thing I would like to say, to
begin with, is something about my Association and geography, and,
I promise you, for only 30 seconds, or so. It is a national Association
and its membership hovers around 10,000 teachers, mostly teachers
but some academic geographers as well, and a large proportion
are in primary school. Geography is an outstanding educational
resource, which contributes to civil society in a number of ways,
but I would say principally it is the knowledge and understanding
of how people occupy the planet and their relationship with it.
That involves moral and ethical issues, and of course pupils'
lives are central to that, and very often in good geography that
is the starting-point. As we heard from the last person, pupils
bring the future dimension to their learning, which is healthy.
Geography is not the only contributor to sustainable development,
of course, other subjects have a role, but geography has a key
role, I think, because of its commitment to connected knowledge.
The physical and the human worlds are connected and, where it
is successful, geography understands that and tries to get pupils
to understand that as well. Geography is not well understood out
there, however, even in schools, and I would say that even within
the geography community there is a lack of clarity about the educational
potential of the subject, in particular in relation to sustainable
development, and I think my evidence did suggest that.
Q617 Chairman: It is very helpful to
have that on the record in that way, and I thank you for your
contribution there. Can I start by asking you about the needs
analysis report, which I believe you wrote in July of last year
and I gather was funded by the DfES. Was it published by the DfES?
Mr Lambert: No.
Q618 Chairman: Is there any reason why
not?
Mr Lambert: I have no understanding
of the reason why not.
Q619 Chairman: Have you discussed the
report's findings with either DfES or Ofsted?
Mr Lambert: Yes.
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