Reflecting on resources

Journal of Geography in Higher Education celebrated its 40^th volume in 2016. One of the things that has sustained it over these four decades (and beyond) is the breadth of its appeal. As well as mainstream pedagogic and higher education research papers it also publishes those aimed at, and sometimes written by, geography students, in the “Directions” section, those discussing pedagogic research issues, methods and techniques in geography in higher education, in the “Pedagogic Research” section and those aimed at geography educators looking for short guides that might inform and enhance their own practice, in the “Resources” section. This section of the journal defines resources very broadly. As well as critical reviews and guides to commercially produced resources, hardware, software, textbooks, websites, etc., that geography educators might employ in their practice, the section also produces guides to pedagogic practices with particular relevance to geography in higher education, bodies of literature that might inform teaching, and opportunities open to geography staff and students, such as the ERASMUS exchange programme that operates between universities in Europe (Deakin, 2013), or writing (successfully) for Journal of Geography in Higher Education (Haigh, 2013). These articles highlight the ways in which these resources might be incorporated into the education of geography students at university and/or the pedagogic and learning and teaching practices of their teachers. As the introduction to the very first issue of Journal of Geography in Higher Education put it: “RESOURCES will feature teaching and learning resources of all kinds, including literature on the teaching of certain geographic specialisms, and on teaching itself” (Editorial Board, 1977, p. 4). The aim of this editorial is to celebrate the Resources section of the journal, to reflect on its history and contributions and to, hopefully, stimulate interest both in readers of and potential writers for Resources.

The Resources section was initially edited by Ifan Shepherd and a Resources article, E. M. Bridges “Soil geography, its content and literature”, graced the very first edition of Journal of Geography in Higher Education in 1977. Resources articles were ubiquitous features of the early volumes of the journal featuring at least once in each issue. Often issues included multiple Resources articles. The second issue, for example, contained a collection (titled “Resources in view”) which opened with a couple of provocative quotes from Ivan Illich and Derek Rowntree, a notice from the British Universities Film Council about their termly newsletter, an eight-page discussion of human geography course materials from the Open University (King, 1977), a cartoon (Figure 1) about the tensions between traditional teaching technologies (chalk) and those emergent in the late 1970s (audiotapes, videotapes, stereo records!), a short discussion of films for teaching fluvial geomorphology, a discussion of “Computerteach: printed resources for the computer assisted geography curriculum” by Shepherd, (1977b, p. 52) that he opened with an anecdote from an Isaac Asimov novel (pure Ifan that) and a note about the potentials of satellite photography for geography education entitled “The god’s eye view” (EROS Data Center, 1977). A truly eclectic collection. The freedom with which it combined multiple formats, article lengths and types says much about the ways in which academic publishing has become more standardized, and less exciting, in the intervening decades.

Figure 1. From Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol 1, issue 2.

The pedagogic or practical value of these and other early Resources interventions has long since passed. However, in reviewing these early articles I was struck by the ways in which they represent an archive reflective of the external contexts within which geography was reproduced in the 1970s and 1980s. Many early discussions of computers, for example, (Webster's, (1980) “Buying a micro computer” is well worth checking out for evidence of a time when computer technology retained an air of sci-fi mystery, far removed from the everyday), and initiatives such as CATMOG, a series of booklets from the Study Group in Quantitative Methods of the Institute of British Geographers (Norcliffe, 1983), speak of the influence of the quantitative revolution on the geography curriculum and connect these short articles to a wider context of disciplinary evolution. The discussions of resources and developments from the Open University (established in 1969) in the early years of the journal, speak of a British education system in which less than 15% of young people went to University in the mid-1970s. The proportion in 2017 was 50%. Open University students, frequently mature, in full-time work, a high proportion of which were women, accessed their education through black and white television programmes broadcast late at night or early in the morning and through packages of teaching materials that arrived in the post. The Open University’s contribution to the geography higher education curriculum in the UK, its contents and pedagogy, has been huge and it is right that it is marked in these early Resources contributions. There are discussions here also of the use of travelogues, documentaries and feature films in the teaching of geography (see Jenkins, 1983; Well, 1985) indicative of a nascent new cultural geography that became influential within the discipline from the late 1980s. These Resources articles, then, remind us of the changing materialities, pedagogies, technologies and initiatives of geography teaching in higher education. They would repay the further attention of historians of late twentieth-century geography.

Into the 1990s, each issue of Journal of Geography of Higher Education typically contained two or more Resources articles. The flavour had changed somewhat though. The editorial hand was less apparent than had been the case earlier and there was more emphasis on the classroom and the provision of tips or ideas for effective teaching. Whilst this reflected the growing centrality of teaching quality and pedagogic innovation, in part the product of the influence of the Journal of Geography in Higher Education itself, these contributions also marked the changing nature of higher education, as student numbers began to expand and students, in the UK at least, began to fund their own tuition. We have, for example, the multi-authored (Jenkins et al., 1993) “Teaching large classes in geography: some practical suggestions”.

From the mid-1990s, the frequency of Resources articles dropped noticeably to around one or two per volume. This coincided with the appearance of the Directions section and the publication of a number of “Arena” symposia in the journal, some of which overlapped with the concerns of the Resources section. However, whilst the frequency of Resources articles into the 2000s might be lower than in the past, their impact, through the availability of the journal electronically, became very clear. The new millennium has seen the publication of some Resources “classics” which have been extensively accessed by the journal’s electronic readership. Leading the field here are Cousin’s (2005) “Case study research” (4408 article views by 18 December 2018) and Breen’s (2006) “A practical guide to focus group research”, which has received an extraordinary 37,659 article views to date.

Despite the currency of the Resources section to its readers, the volume of submissions slumped further into the late 2000s. There was a concern expressed amongst the editorial board in 2010–2011 that the numbers of submissions to the section had dropped to the point where they appeared only infrequently in the journal. There was debate amongst the board about the merit of continuing with the Resources section. The decision was taken to attempt to revitalize the section and encourage a greater volume of submissions. I took over responsibility for Resources in 2011 and the section was promoted to potential writers through a call for papers on the Journal of Geography in Higher Education website and through a number of email lists.

Thirty Resources articles have been published since 2012, including a Resources symposium in 2013 (Table 1). This represents an upswing in the number of published articles from the previous period. Published Resources here have come predominantly from the Anglophone world, broadly reflecting the distribution of Journal of Geography in Higher Education authors generally (Table 2).

Table 1. Resources articles since 2012 by year of publication.

2018	0
2017	3
2016	0
2015	6
2014	6
2013	12
2012	3

Table 2. Resources articles since 2012 by country of authors.

Argentina	1
Australia	1
Canada	2
Denmark	2
Hong Kong	1
Ireland	1
New Zealand	2
South Africa	1
UK	13
USA	6

The Resources articles published since 2012 have generated a significant audience. Collectively they have received 23,221 article views (by 5 December 2018), an average of 774 views per article. This compares to an average view per mainline research article of 465 (sample n = 15). The most viewed Resources article from this period is “Researching the hidden curriculum” (Cotton, Winter, & Bailey, 2013) which has been viewed 5948 times since publication. The contents of these articles is electic and broad covering undergraduate, taught postgraduate and postgraduate research teaching and looking at topics including a range of techniques, technologies, specific pedagogic practices, innovative programme delivery, developing student attributes, specific resources, internationalization, research ethics and writing for Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

It is clear the section remains an important resource for the journal’s readers, judged purely by the number of views these articles receive. Indeed, it is likely that specific articles published under the Resources banner have drawn new audiences, perhaps from beyond geography, to the journal. However, this review also suggests three issues. First, there is a clear drop off in submissions in recent years. Sustaining submissions to Resources remains challenging. Second, there are a relatively low number of Resources articles with a physical geography focus. Third, there are a relatively low number of articles published in the Resources section from beyond the Anglophone world. These are all issues that we would like to see addressed by future submissions to Resources.

Sustaining the impact of the Resources section into the future will depend on the readers of this journal being willing to write for it. For this reason, the Journal of Geography in Higher Education editorial board invites submissions to the “Resources” section. Although we would not expect the articles to be as rigorously evidenced and referenced as a mainline research paper we would look for a high standard of critical scholarship in reviewing and discussing resources. Resources articles should aim to include a critical discussion of resources and ideas about how they might be employed within teaching, if appropriate drawing on examples from authors’ own practice. This, the editorial board feel, would be a good opportunity for early career teachers or international scholars to publish in the journal. For example, if you are an early career academic who is, or has just, completed a post-graduate teaching in higher education qualification with a geography focus and have undertaken a small piece of pedagogic research as part of this, Resources might be an appropriate outlet for a paper based on that work. We also welcome ideas for themed Resources symposia.

We do not wish to be prescriptive about the contents of these submissions, but there are a number of current issues and practices that seem particularly suited to Resources articles. We have seen nothing, for example, in the section to date about social media, particularly Twitter, as a resource for geographers. Many cities such as Barcelona, New York and San Francisco are common destinations for undergraduate field trips from geography departments across many institutions. Submissions that explored these cities as resources for field teaching would be most welcome, perhaps written collectively across institutions. The internet has made available a flood of potential resources for teaching contemporary issues such as migration, climate change, Brexit, the rise of nationalism, flooding, drought, air pollution, inequality, planetary urbanization, sustainable mobilities, borders, natural disasters and many more that geographical knowledge is central to the understanding of. Articles that helped geography educators negotiate this abundance would be most welcome by the journal’s readers. Potential writers might want to go back to the rich early years of Resources and see if there are article types published there that might be revived and reimagined for the twenty-first century. Perhaps there are updates of some of these early Resources articles that are waiting to be written? The editorial board is all ears.

Finally, in the editor’s note to the Resources section from the second issue of the journal in 1977, Ifan Shepherd offers some advice to potential Resources writers which still holds true today: “Write from personal experience… Concentrate on the educational implications. How does it help the teacher? … Deal with contemporary resources only… Be brief and readable” (Shepherd, 1977a, p. 41).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.