Associate members

Here you can read more about our associate collective members.

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Clare Brooks

Clare Brooks is Professor of Education and Pro-Director, Education at UCL Institute of Education in London. Her background is in geography education: as a former geography teacher in East London, then as a geography educator developing both initial and continuing teacher education programmes at UCL Institute of Education. Her research has been in the area of geography teacher subject identity and subject expertise and more recently on high quality teacher education at scale. Until recently she was Co-Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission for Geography Education, and editor of their book series, and Chair for the UK-based Geography Education Research Collective.

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Emma Till

Emma is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Winchester, UK. Before joining the university, she worked as a classroom teacher and senior leader in a range of primary schools across South-East England and spent time teaching in South-East Asia. Emma’s research interests are primary teacher identity, geography education and phenomenology. She was awarded her PhD in March 2018 for her thesis entitled ‘Being a geographer: Towards an understanding of Primary Teachers’ Constructs of Subject Specific Identity.’ Emma has worked as a member of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCO) and the UK Sub-Committee of the International Geographical Union- Commission for Geography Education (IGU-CGE),to promote geography education both across the UK and internationally. She reviews papers for IRGEE and helped organise the 2015 and 2019 IGU Symposiums in London. She has previously attended and presented her work at IGU conferences in London, Freiburg, Cologne, Singapore, China, Lisbon and Quebec City.

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Graham Butt

Grahamis Emeritus Professor in Education, and previously Director of Research, at the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University. He is a founding member of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo). Graham’s research is predominantly in the field of geography education, although he has also published on assessment, teacher workload, and modernisation of the teaching workforce. His books include Modernising Schools (2007, with Helen Gunter), Lesson Planning (3^rd edition) (2008), Making Assessment Matter (2010) and, as editor, Geography, Education and the Future (2011), MasterClass in Geography Education (2015) and The Power of Geographical Thinking (2017) (with Clare Brooks and Mary Fargher). His latest monograph, published in 2020, is: Geography Education Research in the UK: retrospect and prospect. The UK Case, Within the Global Context.

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Margaret Roberts

Before working as a geography PGCE tutor at the University of Sheffield from 1982-2006, I taught in comprehensive schools in London, Leicestershire and Sheffield and was a member of the Nuffield Foundation Resources for Learning Project. My research interests and publications have focused on the geography curriculum, classroom practice and learning through enquiry. I have been interested in how academic and school geography are influenced by the nature of the questions asked, by the data used to investigate them and in how geographical understanding can be developed through the critical and reflective study of data as evidence. I have explored ways in which students can, with teacher guidance, take an active part in investigating geographical questions and issues, through challenging activities and the use of classroom talk including small group work. I have also examined the extent to which policy documents have influenced classroom practice or could promote enquiry-based learning.  Since my retirement in 2006 I have run courses for geography teachers on ‘Inquiry’ in Singapore, in Hong Kong and in the Netherlands and have been involved in courses in the UK for Eduqas, the Princes Trust, Teach First and a MAT. I have presented my work at conferences in the UK and at International Conferences in Africa, Asia, Australia and many countries in Europe. I have chapters published in German and Italian in handbooks for geography teachers. 

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Eleanor Rawling

Eleanor Rawling, MBE, is a former GA President and currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Education. Her recent work focuses on curriculum policy and curriculum change, particularly in relation to geography, and includes acting as lead researcher and writer for the Geographical Association’s initiative A Curriculum Framework for School Geography 2020-22.

She was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Back Medal in 2005 for contributions to geographical education and education policy, particularly because of her Leverhulme funded research study (Changing the Subject; the impact of national policy on school geography 1980-2000, Geographical Association, 2001). Since 2012, Eleanor has undertaken consultancy work for the Department for Education (England), working on National Curriculum, GCSE and A level geography, and also for the Welsh Assembly on the Donaldson Review of the Curriculum. Eleanor has also extended her research and writing into the study of place and landscape, authoring a publication about poetry and place (2011) and several recent articles and chapters about place in school geography.

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Mary Fargher

Mary is a Lecturer in Geography Education and MA Education (Geography) Programme Route Leader at the Institute of Education, University College London. Before joining the university, she worked as a geography teacher and middle leader in a range of secondary schools and sixth form colleges. Mary’s main research interest is the role of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and other geospatial technologies in constructing knowledge in geography education. She is currently working with web-based GIS applications to design geography curriculum artefacts.

Mary is an Associate Member of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCO)/UK IGU-CGE where her contributions have focused in leading the organisation of  the ‘London Conferences’  in 2015 with Clare Brooks on ‘The Power of Geographical Thinking’ and in 2019 on ‘Recontextualising Geography in Education’. Mary reviews papers for IRGEE. Most recently she has presented papers at the International Cartographic Conference in Tokyo in 2019, the International Society of Digital Earth Conference in Florence in 2019 and at IGU CGE in Quebec in 2018.

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