ABSTRACT
Each year, alongside the more formal teaching that I do in lectures and seminars, I work with a small group of first years. We meet weekly to discuss essays and assignments, and other issues arising from the courses that they are doing. In the last session before Christmas, we look back on the first term’s work. Often this discussion concentrates on practicalities, perhaps about the differences between learning at school and university, or about moving to a British university from abroad, or about the challenges of balancing study and other commitments. But we also talk about their early impressions of ‘doing geography’. Two reactions are very common – reactions that are two sides to the same coin. Some students enthuse about the diversity of what they have been doing, and about the range of subjects and approaches addressed in the first few weeks. This variety (as Philip Crang points out in Chapter 3) is often a strong motivation for taking a course in geography. But for others, this is a source of anxiety. As one (rather insightful) student put it, ‘other people here at university are in disciplines, but we seem to be in an indiscipline’.
