Geographical Association

The Geographical Association is a Sheffield, United Kingdom-based organisation that aims to further the teaching of geography and to communicate the value of learning geography for all.

It has nearly 10,000 members including teachers in primary and secondary schools as well as further education, academic geographers and teacher educators and trainers.

The current Chief Executive of the Geographical Association is Professor David Lambert.

Origins

The Geographical Association was formed by five interested educationalists, including Halford John Mackinder, in 1893 and is wholly independent of state aid.

Present day

A small professional staff and officers run the GA in conjunction with its members in local groups, who are generally educationalists.

The original purpose of the GA remains its core business: sharing ideas and learning from each other. In the beginning, a group of teachers wanted to get together and exchange "lantern slides" and ideas on how such technology could support teaching. Today, new technology allows the GA to make a range of material including, e.g. teaching and learning resources, available to a wider audience.

The GA is consciously taking steps to be inclusive and serve the needs of all teachers of geography, whatever the individual's particular enthusiasms. Its purpose is "to seek out, nurture and support excellence in geography teaching and ensure the education service understands the power of geography to serve educational goals. It aims to achieve this through a range of activities, details of which can be found here."

ee also

*Royal Geographical Society

External links

* [http://www.geography.org.uk Geographical Association home page]
* [http://www.els.salford.ac.uk/ga Geographical Association in Manchester]