Recontextualising knowledge for

school geography

Steve Putticksteven.puttick@bishopg.ac.uk

@StevePuttick

‘geographical knowledge…has been marginalised by the exigencies of everyday practice and the imperatives of policy.’

(Firth, 2011, p.312)

‘thinking skills, learning to learn and the emotional dimensions of learning [have] assumed more immediate or urgent attention than a critical gaze on the material content of lessons.’

(Morgan and Lambert, 2011, p.281)

Degrees of recontextualisation: a model to describe, analyse, and stimulate critical discussion of knowledge

Teachers’ knowledge work

Dewey – ‘psychologising’Schwab – ‘translation’Bruner – ‘translation’Bernstein – ‘recontextualisation’

Less Recontextualisation

More Recontextualisation

One degree

Teachers described taking, copying, stealing, and robbing material used at one degree: ‘actually, it’s the selection that is as relevant as anything else’ (Claire, interview 2:36).

Two degrees: complementing

‘the fact that…the two sources don’t contradict each other again adds credence to what they’re saying’ (Richard, interview

2:104).

Two degrees: contradicting

Which one is real? Which is fake?

Three degrees

Teachers described this as manipulating, arranging, taking out [the data], getting [the information], and cutting and pasting.

Four degrees

Described by teachers in terms of summarising, simplifying, reducing, and making text accessible.

Five degrees

Teachers described absorbing knowledge; sources and experiences which have developed strongly held beliefs underneath.

Disciplined judgement:‘publicly explaining reasons for belief and then scrutinizing those reasons.’

(Stemhagen et al., 2013, p.59)

LESS RECONTEXTUALISATION

MORE RECONTEXTUALISATION

(1) Authority (primarily) with/from the resource

(5) Authority (primarily) with/from the teacher

Testimony, perception &

deductive reason

•Where was this knowledge found?• To what degree has it been

recontextualised?• Through what processes has it been

recontextualised?•What modes of legitimation are

appealed to? (reasons for beliefs)

What are the implications of recontextualisingknowledge to different degrees?

In what ways do students engage with different degrees of recontextualised knowledge?

Are there shifts in degrees of recontextualisation across topics? Key stages?

What ‘reasons for beliefs’ should we be seeking to ‘publicly explain’?