ABSTRACT
In 2006, the UK government published a manifesto for Learning Outside the Classroom (DfES 2006). It is an enthusiastic document, promoting many advantages and benefits for students for work done outside the classroom. It is liberal in its definition of ‘outside’, including anything from work done in the school grounds to formal trips and visits that may last minutes or weeks. It adds to a range of actions and policies that together form part of a family of initiatives known as ‘Every Child Matters’, whereby the Government’s intent is for every child, irrespective of background or circumstances, to be given the support they need to be healthy, stay safe, to enjoy and achieve, to make a positive contribution, and to achieve economic well-being. Learning outside is seen as integral to this. Learning outside the classroom is hardly new to geographers in schools. Fieldwork in the subject has a rich history, from the days of the school excursion and visits to classic locations in the early days of compulsory education, through to its status as a compulsory requirement in every GCSE specification since 1986 and most post-16 specifications in Curriculum 2000. However, the kind of fieldwork being experienced by students varies widely, created as it is by teachers and examination boards whose paradigms and pedagogies may give very different messages. Now that coursework is no longer present in post-16 specifications, the kinds of fieldwork that many students experience could change; certainly, there is a rich seam of experience to be researched about changing fieldwork across the curriculum in the post-2008 curriculum changes. The aims of this chapter are:
• to explore the shifting paradigms and pedagogies and their influence upon geographical fieldwork.
