J reading 2 2015 by AIIG

Associate Editors: Cristiano Giorda (Italy), Cristiano Pesaresi (Italy), Joseph Stoltman (USA), Sirpa Tani (Finland)

J - READING JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN GEOGRAPHY

Scientific Committee: Eyüp Artvinli (Turkey), Caterina Barilaro (Italy), Giuliano Bellezza (Italy), Tine Béneker (Netherlands), Andrea Bissanti (Italy), Gabriel Bladh (Sweden), Carlo Blasi (Italy), Laura Cassi (Italy), Raffaele Cattedra (Italy), Claudio Cerreti (Italy), Giorgio Chiosso (Italy), Sergio Conti (Italy), Egidio Dansero (Italy), Martin R. Degg (UK), Giuseppe Dematteis (Italy), Karl Donert (UK), Pierpaolo Faggi (Italy), Franco Farinelli (Italy), Maurizio Fea (Italy), Maria Fiori (Italy), Hartwig Haubrich (Germany), Vladimir Kolosov (Russian Federation), John Lidstone (Australia), Svetlana Malkhazova (Russian Federation), Jerry Mitchell (USA), Josè Enrique Novoa-Jerez (Chile), Daniela Pasquinelli d’Allegra (Italy), Petros Petsimeris (France), Bruno Ratti (Italy), Roberto Scandone (Italy), Giuseppe Scanu (Italy), Lidia Scarpelli (Italy), Rana P.B. Singh (India), Claudio Smiraglia (Italy), Michael Solem (USA), Hiroshi Tanabe (Japan), Angelo Turco (Italy), Joop van der Schee (Netherlands), Isa Varraso (Italy), Bruno Vecchio (Italy), Tanga Pierre Zoungrana (Burkina Faso). Secretary of coordination: Marco Maggioli (Italy) and Massimiliano Tabusi (Italy) Editorial Board: Riccardo Morri (Chief), Sandra Leonardi (Assistant Chief), Miriam Marta (Assistant Chief), Victoria Bailes, Daniela De Vecchis, Assunta Giglio, Daniele Ietri, Matteo Puttilli

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico - filologiche e geografiche

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

GEOGRAPHY

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2015

GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

Vol. 2, Year 4, December 2015

Editor in Chief: Gino De Vecchis (Italy)

9788868126063_120_LM_3

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ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS (ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA INSEGNANTI DI GEOGRAFIA)

ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), Vol. 2, Year 4, December, 2015

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Contents Gino De Vecchis

Unequal Geographies Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

Didactic Applications of Social Networks – Essays in the 1st cycle in Geography at the University of Porto (UP) Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

GIS4RISKS: Geographic Information System for Risk Image – Safety Key. A methodological contribution to optimise the first geodynamic post-event phases and to face emergencies Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

Geographies of escape. A fact-finding and didactic survey on asylum seekers at the CARA of Castelnuovo di Porto – Rome Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

Story Maps at school: teaching and learning stories with maps Andrea Corsale

The changing relations between school, food and agriculture. The case of the educational farms in Sardinia Alan Kinder

English lessons: the changing nature of geography curriculum and assessment in England Renata Allegri

Geography and disability: a reflection on opportunities offered by teaching geography to dyslexic students THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGES (Edited by Elisa Bignante and Marco Maggioli) Géraud de Ville, Grace Albert, Abigail Buckley, Kenneth Butler, Lakeram Haynes

Pantanî Blog: Using ICT for Safeguarding and Sharing Indigenous Social Memory GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS Benno Werlen

105

International Year of Global Understanding. An Interview with Benno Werlen Massimiliano Tabusi

EUGEO Commitment to Geographical Education: from the “Rome Declaration” to the “New International Charter on Geography Education”

115

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 5-8 DOI: 10.4458/6063-01

Unequal Geographies Gino De Vecchisa a

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico-filologiche e geografiche, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Email: gino.devecchis@uniroma1.it

Three documents with international distribution – and very different in their origin, dimensions, features and spatial and temporal implications – have recently been published. These documents are listed here below in chronological order: - 23 May 2015: Encyclical letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home [Encyc.]. - 25 September 2015: Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [2030 Ag.]. - 18 October 2015 (on the occasion of EXPO 2015, the day of the handing over of the Milan Charter to Ban Ki-Moon on the World Food Day): The Milan Charter [Milan Ch.]. However, in all their diversity they do have a number of converging elements; for this reason it is interesting to reflect on what they have in common. A first common element is represented by the spatial scale that is planetary in all three documents, even though with specific evaluations aimed at the different regional structures. This is the Common Home that is found in the very title of the Encyclical and which we must have proper care of; this same concern is reiterated in the

Agenda: “We reaffirm that planet Earth and its ecosystems are our common home and that ‘Mother Earth’ is a common expression in a number of countries and regions” [2030 Ag., 59]. And as follows in the Milan Charter: “We are all inter-related and all responsible as guardians of the Earth, for protecting territory and its environmental value” [Milan Ch., We are aware that]. Even though differently developed, the guiding thread at the basis of the documents is constituted by the denouncing of the planetary imbalance existing in terms of accessibility to and economic exploitation of resources. Such imbalance is produced by the profound sociospatial inequalities generated in levels of quality of life which are becoming more and more serious and continuously changing owing to the acceleration of mobility – material and virtual – which highlights them in a relentless comparison. The planetary imbalance – marked by the classical distinction between the North and South of the world – is economic, demographic, sanitary, alimentary, culturalscholastic etc. Inequalities regarding death and birth, illness or food, education and the use of free time in the relationship existing between the persisting income disparities are recurrent in geography studies that analyse them in their many possible combinations, which can vary in

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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a very short space of time indeed since the factors at stake are many. Furthermore, making the scenarios more complex is the changing role of the different countries in the big geographical areas on the international arena, including the wealthier ones which constitute the engines of globalisation. The full understanding of the causes and the events generating similar inequalities therefore becomes a geographic goal of social as well as economic interest. The equality/inequality dialectic – comparable with many other concepts, among which undoubtedly the fundamental ones of freedom and equity – takes on explosive strength when placed side by side with the situations deriving from the societies and cultures hinged on the dangerous throwaway/rubbish binomial, two sides of the same coin, which have become integrated in a terrible vicious circle. In fact, waste concerns refusal, as the result of a choice, that considers something or someone as poor quality, of low value or of inferior quality. The culture of waste can also lead to the refusal of diversity, which on the contrary can be translated into a great value of differences and varieties. Society – in particular the new generations and those who are in charge of their education – should have the instruments necessary to demolish the risk of absolutist, generalising and eventually short-sighted definitions, which hinder the recognition of the specificities and peculiarities of single groups and individuals in their preciously different existence. Many “problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish” [Encyc., 22]. Waste derives from a consumption made in an excessive quantity or which is unsuited to the aims attainable; in any case it is based on an improper if not immoral use of resources. In a perspective of environmental justice to communities, the right to control over resources should be recognised. “We all know that it is not possible to sustain the present level of consumption in developed countries and wealthier sectors of society, where the habit of wasting and discarding has reached unprecedented levels” [Encyc., 27]. And on the other hand “each year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human Copyright© Nuova Cultura

consumption is wasted or lost in the food supply chain” [Milan Ch., We consider it unacceptable that]. The hope for the future (2030 for the Agenda) is an ecologically correct management which aims at the reduction of waste, recycling and reuse. This is a hope that goes in the opposite direction of the mainstream goals dictated by the consumer society. The 2030 Agenda recognises that in order to achieve sustainable development, advances in three areas are needed: economic, social and environmental, tackled in a simultaneous and integrated way. Goal 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) states that: “12.3 By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. - 12.4 By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment. - 12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse” [2030 Ag.]. In this strategic context is the use of the planet’s resources which “should be managed in an equitable, rational and efficient manner, so that they are not excessively exploited or used to benefit some people at the expense of others [Milan Ch., We consider it unacceptable that]. Another important element consists in the fact that the three documents focus on present day issues (examined also in a future intergenerational perspective), which are of great interest for research and geography didactics. As well as the economic and sociocultural aspects produced by the Humanity-Earth relationships, the rightly concerned attention is turned to the environmental consequences of the ongoing anthropisation processes. The Encyclical of the Holy Father Francis has been labelled by the mass media as green, ecological, environmental… This is undoubtedly true, but perhaps the adjective geographical would be more suitable and, in any case, would better Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Gino De Vecchis

embrace the many and varied contents present in the Encyclical. Stephanie Kirchgaessner and John Hooper write in The Guardian of 16 June 2015: “The Argentinean pope will align himself with the environmental movement and its objectives. While accepting that there may be some natural causes of global warming, the pope will also state that climate change is mostly a man-made problem”. The powerful denunciation made in Chapter I Pollution and climate change spans the great areas of general geography, highlighting the extremely serious situations that the poorer populations above all have to face: “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day. Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades. Many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters, and their access to social services and protection is very limited. For example, changes in climate, to which animals and plants cannot adapt, lead them to migrate; this in turn affects the livelihood of the poor, who are then forced to leave their homes, with great uncertainty for their future and that of their children. There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever. Sadly, there is widespread indifference to such suffering, which is even now taking place throughout our world. Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded” [Encyc., 25].

With a different approach – as is obvious owing to the very different kind of document – the problem of climate change is dealt with by the 2030 Agenda, which in the search for a political solution too does not underestimate its seriousness either. The subject is set out above all in Goal 13 (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts): “13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries - 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning - 13.3 Improve education, awarenessraising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning - 13.a Implement the commitment undertaken by developedcountry parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible 13.b Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities” [2030 Ag., 13]. In realtà tutti i 17 Goal dell’Agenda 2030 riguardano le tematiche geografiche. Once again with regard to the huge and very difficult challenges to which humanity on a global scale should address, it must be remembered that on 13 September 2015 the three international councils of the natural, social and human sciences (ICSU, ISSC and CIPSH) proclaimed at the World Social Science Forum at Durban, South Africa, 2016 as the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU - Executive Director Benno Werlen). The Program foresees that the IYGU - connects local actions and global challenges. - focuses on the global sustainability of local action. - recognizes culturally different paths to global sustainability. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Gino De Vecchis

A last short reflection concerns the educational aspects to be found either directly or indirectly in the three documents which, moreover, involve the strategic dialogue between research and education. With regard to this, it would be of great interest to analyse and look in greater detail at the International Declaration on Research in Geography Education drawn up by the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Education, and which begins as follows: “Geography in education is the study of the Earth, its natural and physical environments, human activities and social changes, the interrelationships and interactions of these and their effects, from local to global scales; and, among many skills, it uses mapping and fieldwork. When taught well geography makes a fundamental contribution to the education of all children and young people, promoting the development of citizenship. Ensuring the quality of geography education is, consequently, of great significance to policy makers and education leaders internationally”.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 9-24 DOI: 10.4458/6063-02

Didactic Applications of Social Networks – Essays in the 1st cycle in Geography at the University of Porto (UP) Elsa Pachecoa, Laura Soaresb, António Costac, Cristiana Martinhad a

CITCEM, Department of Geography, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal Department of Geography, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal c University of Porto, Porto, Portugal d University of Porto, Porto, Portugal Email: elsap@letras.up.pt b

Received: October 2015 – Accepted: November 2015

Abstract The trivialization of the access to and use of new information and communication technology requires changes in the teaching-learning strategies in all education cycles, although running the risk of hindering the purposes of education. This is the starting idea of the didactic essay presented herein, which is in line with the learning theory of Connectivism, aiming to illustrate how social networks can be used as a means of communication, development of teaching resources and evaluation, providing enhanced motivation and learning The lab of this work focuses on the space of university education, and, in particular, the Curricular Unit of “Land, Transport and Mobility”, within the 1st cycle in Geography of the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto. The methodological design is based, in a first step, on the literature review and the collection of data on the students’ habits regarding the use of social networks. After recognizing the most popular social hub – Facebook – this platform was used, through the creation of a secret group, as a privileged means of communication between students and teacher, sharing ideas, didactic resources and providing the assessment of this strategy. Upon comparison with the “face-to-face” teaching methodologies, it was concluded that the use of this network was an important site to get closer to the daily lives of students, namely through the reinforcement of the significant elements of contents, motivation, participation, and school achievement. Keywords: Teaching, Geography, ICT, Social Networks, Facebook

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

1. Learning and teaching process: adapting to new challenges In the report “New modes of learning and teaching in higher education”, prepared for the European Commission in 2014 by the High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, the potential of digital technologies in the development of the education processes and methodologies is explicit, emphasizing the need to adapt traditional education to the countless tools that enable the articulation between physical classroom and online learning methods. Indeed, in 2004, Web 2.0 already appeared as a platform that provided new applications making it possible to create and share content (O’Reilly, 2005). So, in less than a decade, it spread from the professional and business domain to the common user domain (Anderson, 2007). The impact of Web 2.0 in education was such that the term Learning 2.0 emerged associated with the new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, which enabled new challenges following the strong acceptance of young people of the digital world. The generations of last century’s early 80s are already identified as the “New Millennium Learners” (Howe and Strauss, 2000), “Net Generation”, “Digital Natives” (Prensky, 2001; Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005; Wankel, 2009) or “homo zappiens”, because they grew up surrounded by the digital and social media (Redecker et al., 2009) in a world of mobile, interactive and dynamic tools and devices, which are full of information and which they can control (Veen and Vrakking, 2008). As mentioned by Pedró (2006, p. 13), “it can be reasonably expected that NML are more willing to use ICT in learning activities than schools allow them to do”. While the use of ICT as a didactic resource is currently a matter of extensive scientific publication (Henessy, Ruthven and Brindley, 2005; Hew and Brush (2007); Angeli and Valanides (2009); Sang et al., 2010), it is a reality that, although being a part of the daily lives of students and teachers, not always does ICT suit the context of formal education. Considering that the great change occurred in the last decades in information and communication systems, which are characterized by instantaneous access, there are various Copyright© Nuova Cultura

reasons that justify some resistance to the use of ICT as a resource in tertiary education (university) or in other education cycles (Mumtaz, 2000; Becta, 2004; Hew and Brush, 2007; Grosseck, 2009; Player-Koro, 2012). In this context, Bingimlas (2009) approaches the “barriers” that could hamper the integration of ICT into the teaching-learning process, by emphasizing the lack of confidence, skills and the difficulty in the access to resources at the teacher level – reasons often aggravated by the resistance to change motivated in part by the generational difference (Afshari et al., 2009). In the meantime, it is vital to change this position in a society that is focused on information and knowledge, a “learning” society in the perspective of Hargreaves (2003, p. 3), in which success is dictated by the capacity to adapt to change: “knowledge society is really a learning society (…) knowledge societies process information and knowledge in ways that maximize learning, stimulate ingenuity and invention, and develop the capacity to initiate and cope with change”. It is important to bear in mind that the current teaching process is aimed at young people that live in a society anchored in the new digital technologies, so “educating” could become a task as difficult as it is risky (Petarnella and Garcia, 2010). In fact, according to Lejla, Bexheti and Betim (2014, p. 90), “skills needed to succeed in the knowledge society today and into the future are different in kind from those that were required earlier. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to familiarize themselves with the contemporary social tools or they will simply not be prepared to serve the learning needs of their students”. This means that if information and knowledge are moving so fast via the web in the present society, then school must integrate these resources, which are more stimulating and motivating.

2. Connectivism and Neogeography: approaching learning practice to new geographic tools and interfaces Siemens (2005) proposes a new pedagogic theory that designates “Connectivism”, considering that the existing paradigms are no Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

longer adequate to a world in which “technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn”, which requires the definition of a new model of teaching-learning for the “digital era”. According to the author, Connectivism considers that technology has a crucial role in the way individuals grasp information and communicate. This “learning” is a process in permanent construction, which is fed by an interactive network involving contents and individuals whose connections allow developing knowledge through the net. We would then be facing a new form of learning that mainly focuses on the “subject”, but it is the “net” that takes a central position as the means of dissemination and development of “learning”. This pedagogic “focus” on new web technologies lines up with the principles of NeoGeography, as defined by Eisnor in 2006 (Rana and Joliveau, 2009), establishing the “reemergence of the importance of geography within Web 2.0 technologies” (Hudson-Smith et al., 2009, p. 119). This “neo-approach” stands the use and communication of geographic information over the Web, involving a set of techniques and tools that allow nonprofessional geographers to create “their own maps, on their own terms and by combining elements of an existing toolset” (Turner, 2006, p. 3). In this sense, NeoGeography seems “more related to some technical and “fun” aspect of (geographical) data acquisition and manipulation”, but cannot be ignored by expertise (Borruso, 2013, p. 45). In fact, within an interconnected world, geographers can assume a leading and supervising role in the field of these “new” forms of producing and exchange spatial knowledge. Introducing in the teaching-learning process the latest information and communication tools, we can “create” more informed people that will be able to better understand, explore and communicate geographical issues with and through the web (Goodchild, 2009; Borruso, 2010; Liu and Palen, 2010). The indications to urgently adapt teaching methodologies and practices to ICT are vast, whether within school or curriculum development. Whalley et al. (2011), draw attention to the need to develop geographers capable of adjusting to the rapid changes taking place at the local and global scale, which they consider to be Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the era of “supercomplexity”, so this aim can only be reached by using the ICT resources. Likewise, Lynch et al. (2008) advocate that the current pedagogic practices can no longer ignore the technologically mediated relational spaces, but above all consider the use and application of new technologies as an intrinsic part of geographical education, in particular when using teaching methodologies that are problem-based and cooperative/collaborative (Dochy et al., 2003; Barkley, Cross and Major, 2014). In the context of technologies provided by Web 2.0, the social networks have been assuming a major role by consisting of “applications that support a common space in terms of interests, needs and common goals for the collaboration, sharing of knowledge, interaction and communication” (Patrício e Gonçalves, 2010, p. 5). As such, there are several authors that advocate their use as a didactic resource in the domain of formal education, especially at the tertiary level, considering that it makes it possible to develop interactive and collaborative ways among students and teachers, using a tool which they are familiar with (Almeida et al., 2012). Indeed, in a study that involved several universities from South Eastern Europe, Lejla et al. (2014, p. 90) mention that “social media can be used as an effective teaching tool in higher education because of its ease of use, ready availability, and individual affordability and network effects”, highlighting four dimensions in which social networks can promote innovation in the teaching-learning process, namely: the access to a great content variety; new content creation and publication by teachers and students, encouraging a more active and proactive learning; greater connection among students and teachers through the sharing of knowledge; promotion of the collaboration between students and teachers in view of specific tasks, projects or common goals. Within this domain, Facebook has been the target of a number of studies focused on its application to higher education, taking advantage of the fact that it is currently the most used social network at global level. Various authors recommend its use in the context of the teaching-learning process, highlighting it as a Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

tool that encourages the collaboration, communication and interaction of students towards contents, teachers and colleagues through the sharing and creation of information, increasing their interest, as well as their participation in terms of reflection and analytical mind, in an “apparently informal” way (Mason, 2006; Patrício and Gonçalves, 2010; Wang et al., 2011; Singh, 2013). Among the positive factors of Facebook that are more frequently quoted, we highlight: - its collaborative and interactive dimension associated with an informal style of communication (Ventura and Quero, 2013; Donlan, 2014). These aspects promote the inquiry facilitated by the “freedom of expression” (Sturges, 2012), encouraging a more active participation on the part of students (Maloney, 2007; Huijser, 2008) as they feel more comfortable in sharing information and opinions in an interaction space that is intuitive (Saikaew et al., 2011); - the positive effect in the relationship between students and teachers, namely due to the fact that teachers provide a faster feedback on the content lectured in the classroom: based on students’ comments, teachers become aware of the contents in which students are experiencing more difficulties and those they are enjoying the most (Mazer, Murphy and Simonds, 2007). On the other hand, the teacher participation in a social network tends to reduce the communication barriers between students and teachers (Juliani et al., 2012), encouraging a better atmosphere in the classroom and a more motivated and effective learning; - in connection with these two factors, it is worth underlining the increased motivation to share ideas, links and contents, elements that have a positive impact on learning (Baran, 2010), since they will lead to the building of knowledge (Gunawardena et al., 2009); - the promotion of an analytical mind through the expression of opinions on other contents rather than just “academic” ones is another positive aspect of Facebook, allowing students to develop a greater spirit of Copyright© Nuova Cultura

citizenship based on the analysis and discussion of political and social issues, which arise from different points of view (Patrício and Gonçalves, 2010; Sturges, 2012). In this sense, Browers-Campbell (2008) consider the possibility to promote self-learning through the building of information and knowledge based on an analytical and reflective consciousness (Fernandes, 2011). - the “widening” of the classroom and facilitated time management, due to the fact that it is possible to “work at home”, makes the teaching-learning process a more flexible and lasting one, as the “resources” remain available even after the teaching period is finished (Juliani et al., 2012; Sturges, 2012; Ventura and Quero, 2013). In this context, as Saikaew et al. mention (2011, p. 1), “Facebook has an excellent potential to serve as a lifelong learning channel for teachers and students”. - finally, we underline the fact that Facebook contributes to the reduction of the anxiety associated with problem solving, in other words, “the achieved learning by every individual of the group increases the group learning, and their members achieve greater levels of academic success” (Patrício and Gonçalves, 2010, p. 12).

3. Objectives Considering the previous conceptual framework, the present work envisages illustrating , through a case study focused on the Curricular Unit (CU) of “Land, Transport and Mobility” (TTMOB) – within the 1st cycle in Geography of the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto (FLUP) – the way the most popular digital platform among students – Facebook – can be used as a means of communication, development of didactic resources and assessment, as a reinforcement element towards motivation and learning in Geography. This objective stems from three key observations: (1) the strong and easy connection of students to mobile devices and internet, resulting, during the academic period, in some lack of attention; (2) the student behavior Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

towards groups of closer proximity and teachers through social networks, detecting spontaneity in terms of research and participation in discussions on the themes taught in class; the scarce number of curricular units that, in the context of Geography graduation uses Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), which students do not seem to be attracted to. These aspects are confirmed by statistical data at the national level: around 98% of young Portuguese people between the age of 16 and 24 use a computer and the internet (Pordata, 2014); among these, 86.9% have daily access to various websites, with emphasis on social networks (91.9%) (Lobo, Ferreira and Rowland, 2015); Facebook is the most used application, reaching 98% of the users with created profiles. Regarding Moodle, and although Morais et al. (2014, p. 168) highlight that learning management platforms are, in higher education, “one of the most used technologies by students and teachers, with Moodle being the platform most referred”, at the University of Porto (UP) and, specifically, within Geography graduation, such observation does not apply. In fact, from the 18 curricular units and 14 optional units of the 2014/2015 academic year, only 12 (37.5% of the total) have a registered profile on this platform. In this sense, the use of systems with low connection by teachers and students may hinder communication, so, the vast range of proven resources with strong adherence by the participants, such as Facebook, are consequently being wasted. We could therefore assume that it is necessary to adjust the “language” in view of ICT in the teaching-learning process, so as not to deviate (mainly teachers) from the communication channels between teachers and students, and, as a consequence, from the educational outcome. Nonetheless, it is important to say that the choice of Facebook for this case study does not invalidate the efforts made by the University of Porto (UP) in the last years towards the promotion and facilitation of the use of digital media in the access to information and knowledge. Additionally to Moodle, importance has been given to the development of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and Copyright© Nuova Cultura

training courses for teachers, a great part of which consists in e-learning and b-learning. In addition, it provides an internet wireless network (Eduroam), to which everyone can have access in the inner and surrounding spaces of the different faculties. However, if Moodle has more than 71 million users throughout the world (Moodle Statistics, 2015), the reduced adherence to this platform in the UP could be explained by its complexity in getting started and the poor intuitive access, an opinion shared by other users from different universities (Cancela, Freitas and Abreu, 2011). The progressive “ageing” of the university teaching staff in Portugal should also be considered, as they express a lower adaptation capacity and adherence to new communication strategies. For the reasons given above, which are associated with the growing use of social networks to communicate, configuring a strong alternative to e-mail due to the speed and immediacy of response, we justify our objective to use Facebook as an interactive tool, a way of producing and sharing didactic material, with the aim to assess the levels of participation, followup, collaboration and success within an optional curricular unit at the end of the study cycle. As Bishop states (2006, p. 1881), “online communities are increasingly becoming an accepted part of the lives of Internet users, serving to fulfil their desires to interact with and help others”.

4. Methodology 4.1 Curricular Unit Features TTMOB curricular unit (CU) integrates the Official Study Plan of the 1st cycle in Geography since the 2012academic year, which is optional within the second semester with 6 ECTS and 56 contact hours, and can be attended by students of the 2nd and 3rd years. Additionally to items that are more directly connected to the programme contents, which are available on Sigarra (2015), the goals and learning results include the development of an analytical approach, that is geographically sustained, for the observation and analysis of transport networks, Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

hoping that students are able to discuss and propose solutions, in a sustainable way, to problems related to spatial accessibility in today’s society. In addition to work based on exhibitions under teacher responsibility, as well as extended discussions on the scientific papers that allow a reflection on concepts, notions, relationships and explanatory schemes (lectures and practical lessons), the teaching methodologies involve individual and group research guided by the teacher (tutorial lessons, supplemented by field trips) in order to develop practical works that are discussed in class.

contents, exchange text or picture messages in order to encourage discussion and photo sharing usually associated with the CU events. With no restrictions to the type of posts, students could also comment and insert files/pictures, as well as raise questions. However, all major files, namely the compulsory bibliography, have been inserted in Sigarra as an attachment to CU summaries.

Due to the high number of students enrolled, the assessment includes a final exam, and the calculation of the classification is the weighted average of the results attained in the exam (30%), participation in class (30%) and written work (40%). 4.2 Methodological design To achieve the objective of the present study, the working methodology was structured in 3 main stages. The first stage involved the use of an online survey prepared on Google Forms, which was targeted at the CU students, with the aim to collect information on: (i) how they had access to the Internet and since when, (ii) how often they checked the personal and institutional emails, (iii) which social network(s) they used and how often, and finally (iv) their opinion on the interest in using Facebook as a supporting platform to the CU teaching-learning process. The second stage corresponded to the creation of a secret group on Facebook designated TTMOB2015 – Meeting Point (Figure 1), to which students adhered through invitation by the administrators (teachers). In total, the group was composed of 49 students enrolled in the 20142015 academic year, as well as 4 CU former students who participated as speakers in activities promoted during the semester. Facebook was used by the “administrators” to disseminate/appoint activities to develop within the subject (e.g. study visits, workshops, analytical comments on texts and pictures), insert files and links related to the programme Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Figure 1. Homepage of the secret group on Facebook, created for the CU.

We chose to create a specific group with restricted access, considering several studies showing that students face “their page” as a space of “freedom” where they like to share their social activities with friends, but not with teachers (Connell, 2009; Hughes, 2009; Gray, Annabell and Kennedy, 2010). On the other hand, the eventual access to the teacher profile on Facebook can have positive and negative aspects. Mazer, Murphy and Simonds (2007, p. 5) consider that this can optimize the relationship between teacher and students and make learning more “effective” and “affective”, “through the use of humor, stories, enthusiasm, and selfdisclosure”, but it can also affect the credibility of the teachers in the face of what students consider to be “appropriate behavior”, once they show great concern “with how the teacher would be perceived as a professional” (ob. cit. p. 14). In the third working stage, we conducted a comparative analysis of the teacher-student interactions, starting from identical challenges launched in class (face-to-face) and on FaceItalian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

book, but also considering the two types of expected responses (Figure 2): the voluntary or spontaneous responses (optional and evaluative of the final classification) triggered by the

exploration of didactic moments with the use of various resources, and the compulsory responses, the breach of which would penalize the final classification of students.

Figure 2. Methodological scheme to collect elements for the behavior observation of responses by the students.

The comparative analysis of the responses obtained in physical and virtual space was conducted by using a student behavior observation matrix, with the help of “social network” structure representation through graphs, based on the NodeXL application.

5. Presentation and discussion of results 5.1 Using internet and social networks Based on the answers to the survey launched to TTMOB 2014/15 students on the use of internet and social networks, it was possible to observe that: • 90% own a laptop computer with internet connection and 89% own Smartphones; • all have used email for more than 5 years; • 58% check the institutional email on a daily basis, but 75% check their personal email every day; • 94% use social media platforms, all use Facebook, to which 67% associate Instagram; Copyright© Nuova Cultura

• 25% declare they stay permanently connected to these platforms, 36% access the platforms more than 5 times per day, and 30% access these between once to five times per day; • 100% declare that the average time of receiving an answer to questions put to teachers via personal email is less than one day, when compared to the use of institutional electronic communication channels (also unanimous): always more than 24 hours. The results obtained clearly demonstrate a student preference towards Facebook, although they usually use it combined with other social networks, mainly Instagram, due to the easy sharing of photos and videos. We should also highlight that 86% access the Internet from Smartphones, which facilitates the immediate dissemination of pictures on Instagram, from where they directly connect to/share on Facebook. Google+ and Twitter follow with a much lower percentage (22% and 19%, respectively), but what is most relevant is the fact that only 2 students state that they do not use social networks. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

Also in this context, we should underline the time spent when accessing social networks, considering that 92% access these platforms on a daily basis, 36% of which more than five times per day and 25% stay permanently connected. This indicates that today’s students dedicate more time to electronic resources that facilitate the personal and group interaction to the detriment of email checking. In this domain, we see that they privilege the personal email (75% check it daily; from these, 16.7% highlight that they are in permanent contact and the same percentage state that they check it more than five times per day) in comparison to the institutional email. Although the majority checks it every day, only 36.1% say that they check it 1 to 2 times per week.

given to the fact that some students see Facebook as a useful tool to exchange information and post questions directly to teachers (obtaining a faster answer), but they do not always see it as a “real” resource for the teaching-learning process, considering it instead as a more important tool “for social reasons, not for formal teaching purposes”. In order to justify this position, they give reasons such as being “an appeal to distraction”, the preference for a faceto-face interaction “and concerns over how seriously material on Facebook is taken in comparison to other channels for academic work” (Donlan, 2014, p. 578).

As such, despite 86% having the Eduroam system installed in their mobile devices this serves mainly the purpose of the relational activities through social networks. Similarly, although most of the teachers consider that communication among teachers-students should use the institutional channels, if this is not compulsory students tend to communicate more openly with teachers and the rest of the class through the preferred personal emails, because they receive an answer faster than via the institutional emails.

The adherence of students towards the creation of a secret group on Facebook was extremely fast. In effect, in less than one week all those enrolled in the CU had accepted the participation invitation, although we could detect a slight difference at the level of total players at a later stage.

With regard to the second part of the questionnaire (filled in after the first experiences), the aim was to find out the opinion of students on the use of Facebook as a supporting platform to the teaching-learning process: 80.6% considered it to be a positive experience and of greater impact compared to Moodle (75%) and even Sigarra (64%), because the disclosure of information is faster (83.4%), it promotes class content discussion (72%), and enhances the interest in the subject (61.1%). Yet it is important to mention that institutional platforms are still believed to be apparently more “secure”, with 25% of the students agreeing with the fact that nothing replaces the disclosure of contents on Sigarra, and 16.7% disagreeing with the opinion that Facebook has more impact than Moodle. These results closely follow some published studies, namely Conole et al. (2008), Madge et al. (2009) or Saikaew et al. (2011), where the stress is Copyright© Nuova Cultura

5.2 Face-to-face interaction versus Facebook

In this context, the total network is composed of 50 “nodes” (actors), of whom 46 are students, 3 correspond to external elements (ex-students) and 1 teacher, and all are interconnected by “lines” or “communication/information flows”. After a first analysis of the 516 posted “messages”, they were classified into five typologies considering: the participation reaction/content, the compulsory/ optional character and the issuer (Figure 3). As we can observe, the responses of a compulsory nature stand out within the context of “induced” challenges (70.6%), with these also assuming a higher rate (31%) within the total of posts. However, this rate is not significantly higher when compared to the “collaborative” messages (26.7%), and it is worth underlining students’ participation (55.8%) in comparison with the teacher’s (44.2%) in this domain. As for the value commonly attributed to Facebook within the “informative” messages, these consist of 25.6% of the total, while “spontaneous” posts and those considered as “icebreakers” do not reach 10%. The low adherence to these informal messages (7.6%), with little difference between students and teacher, seems to show that although being an “area of freedom”, the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

creation of a private group with well-defined goals mainly targeted at the teaching-learning

Typology Induced Spontaneous

Informative Collaborative Icebreaker

process was internalized and accepted by students.

Description Response, mandatory or voluntary, triggered by comment/challenge by the professor Students’ Posts, linked directly to issues of Course Publications related to logistical aspects of the course (i.e. deadlines, educational materials, information on field trips) Student or teacher response to a post published by another member of the group Informal posts related to the course (i.e. comics, study tours photos)

Total 160

Mandatory 31%

47 9.10% Total

Optional

113 70.60% 47 29.40% Professor

Students

132 26.50%

138 26.70%

61 44.20% 77 55.80%

7.60%

59% 54

41%

18 46.20% 21 53.80%

Figure 3. Configuration of the total network of TTMOB Group and Interactions estimated according to the type of participation.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

Even though the total number of messages is significant compared to the class dimension, it is necessary to assess whether this way of sharing knowledge allowed the “creation” of a true community, i.e. whether the sharing and interactivity involved all the members of the network, and whether students did actually adhere to the proposed challenge in a clear way. If we observe the network that is only composed by students, the difference regarding the total network is apparently not different, so they are both polycentric networks (Recuero, 2009) and present similar metrics (Figure 4). However, we can see that the number of unique connections reduces (from 353 to 306), and the same happens to the total of connections (from 3449 to 2345). This demonstrates that the student network could exist only by itself, but it gains another dynamic with the presence of the professor, illustrated by a betweenness centrality (bc) of 311.5 – which is the highest among the total network, greatly contrasting with the highest bc within the students’ group (94.79) –, also stressing the increase of the maximum geodesic distance. In this context, the professor emerges as a network aggregator, mediator and booster, and in spite of being able to work without the professor, it would result more fragile/ fragmented, i.e. with less solid connections. With regard to the type of student participation on Facebook, two types of interaction have been distinguished: in writing (through a comment or post) or simply clicking “like”. The generated networks are indeed substantially different (Figure 4), so we observe that the simple action of “liking” elevates the interactions to 2493 compared to the one of comments, in which the need to write a text reduces the connections to 956. It is worth noticing that in these networks the professor once again emerges as the structuring node for having the highest values of bc (1048.46 in the “comment” network and 336.78 in the “like” network). Considering now that the majority of the activities developed on Facebook have been repeated in classroom sessions or in study trips, we recognize through this comparison exercise between the students’ behaviors in the social network and in the face-to-face situation, that the participation results are significantly different. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Considering that at the beginning of the academic year students were encouraged to present different materials and documents both in the physical environment (the classroom) and on Facebook, under exactly the same participation and assessment rules, the only difference reported was associated with the time and space for that to happen. In the classroom, time and space would be confined to the 4 hours per week established on the schedule. On Facebook, this could only be limited by internet accessibility. Going back to the type of actions previously considered and the outcomes of the activities on Facebook, with regard to the responses in the classroom, i.e. the “face-to-face” situation, we recorded the following. - The total absence of “spontaneous” reactions in the classroom environment compared to what happened on Facebook. Throughout the semester no student took any material regarding the academic contents to the classroom on their own initiative. - The “collaborative” actions in discussions never took place when first asked for by the professor, so the silence was kept among students, and only when the professor asked for the second or third time would they respond somewhat shyly. On the contrary, when they were asked to write their comment/answer, all responded. - In this context, the scarce participation, which was not spontaneous or significantly colla-borative, only occurred when induced by the professor. - On the contrary, “icebreaker” actions deserved a global participation here, often by means of the unusual exploration of resources of indirect interpretation of the classroom contents, as elements connected to the graphic arts (paintings, cartoons, etc.) or cinematography (e.g. video clips) and music, but always requiring interpretation, once the reading su-bjectivity would result in different readings. - Finally, the “informative” actions were always the subject of feedback upon request, due to the fact that they referred to issues related with delivery dates of work under assessment and/or event scheduling. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, Ant贸nio Costa, Cristiana Martinha

Total

Students

Comments

Likes

Total Vertices

Students

Comments

Likes

353

306

358

Edges With Duplicates

3096

2039

859

2135

Total Edges

3449

2345

956

2493

Self-Loops

225

132

222

Reciprocated Vertex Pair Ratio

0.530017

0.520958

0.878788

0.482206

Reciprocated Edge Ratio

0.692825

0.685039

0.935484

0.65066

Connected Components

Single-Vertex Connected Components Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component Maximum Edges in a Connected Component Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter)

3447

2342

953

2493

Average Geodesic Distance

1.472939

1.44582

1.772817

1.500208

Graph Density

0.364082

0.368116

0.15122

0.354167

Modularity

0.061286

0.070685

0.055755

0.061584

Unique Edges

Figure 4. Network representation and metrics of the total students, comments and likes.

Copyright漏 Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

6. Conclusions With regard to the intersection of outcomes among the academic practices on Facebook and “Face-to-Face”, in addition to the improvement of the direct contact with students, this solution extended the classroom and the CU contents to the everyday life of students. The obvious success of student participation on Facebook when compared to their participation in the classroom allows us to present some ideas by way of conclusion: - it was possible, with Facebook, to expand space and time for the discussion of ideas, concepts and news, often initiated by the students themselves outside the academic environments, allowing the arbitration by the teacher; - the “informal” model of the platform facilitates the establishment of bonds between teacher and students, making it possible to maintain almost real-time contact between students and teachers. Students see Facebook as an informal and collective space to share knowledge, even though the fundamental role of the teacher as an aggregating element, mediating and enforcing the network; - the possibility to publish (post) something because they just saw, heard or remembered, and which is related to the CU, or because they just could not stop thinking about the contents and therefore searched for further information to share, make social networks an excellent channel to establish bonds with their colleagues (their peers) and with the teacher. As such, they become more mindful and dedicated to the CU, as well as more sensitive to its application within their space of life and the society’s to which they belong; - because manifestation on Facebook is individual, the possibility to enrich the traditional quantification and qualification of each one’s level of participation constitutes an asset to facilitate and introduce more accuracy in the ongoing evaluation. We therefore come to the conclusion that the professor’s role is indispensable regardless the way of contact, whether in person or virtually. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Within their educational methodology, the approach to new communication channels is growing in importance. These channels are informal at the beginning, but they can and should be enhanced and integrated into the teaching-learning processes, due to the fact that they not only expand the academic spaces, but also allow the transfer of knowledge to everyday life, offering a sense of utility and realism to what students are supposed to learn as responsible citizens. Similarly, we could go farther and explain in a more general way this difference in behavior when responding to activities and didactic resources used on Facebook and in a Face-toFace situation. It is probable that in the virtual space, the individual participation (i.e. isolated and with more time to research and reflect, among other conditional factors that reduce intimidation, responsibility and even disapproval) may constitute the background for an environment that offers more freedom, promotes spontaneity, creativity, participation and success. However, the use of social networks in education should never forget some concerns that several authors have focused on (i.e. Conole et al., 2008; Madge et al., 2009; Donlan, 2014). Among the issues that arise, there is the fact that often the students have doubts about the legitimacy and value of knowledge and information conveyed through platforms that they normally use as leisure, questioning it as an appropriate resource of the teaching-learning process. The “social” character of these networks leads them to sometimes prefer more common and established platforms (i.e. Moodle), also considering that social ones call for distraction, because “there is so much to click on”. Moreover, many have social networks as a personal space which is not to be invaded by the teacher, whereby the use of a secret group is absolutely necessary to ensure an effective separation between “learning space” and the “space of private life”. Anyway, there is no doubt that our experience achieved highly positive results from the point of view of increasing knowledge on the use of social networks as a pedagogic and didactic tool in education, in this case within the first cycle of the university degree in GeograItalian Association of Geography Teachers

Elsa Pacheco, Laura Soares, António Costa, Cristiana Martinha

phy. Therefore, there is the need to amplify the research on the power of the use of social networks in the teaching-learning process in all study cycles, since it is inevitable that they constitute the emerging forms of privileged communication within the society, particularly among today’s young people, and more intensely in the future.

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Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2, 1, 2005, pp. 3-10. Singh A., “Potential of Facebook in Teacher Education: A Comparative Study of Student Teachers and Teacher Educators”, International Journal of Information and Computation Technology, 3, 3, 2013, pp. 111-118. Sturges M., “Using Facebook as a Teaching Tool in Higher Education Settings: Examining Potentials and Possibilities”, 2012, http://conference.pixel-online.net/edu _future2012/common/download/Paper_pdf/ 182-EL10-FP-Sturges-FOE2012.pdf. Turner A., “Introduction to Neogeography”, 2006, http://highearthorbit.com/neogeography/book.pdf2006. UNESCO, “World education report – Teachers and teaching in a changing World”, 1998, http://www.unesco.org/education/information/wer/PDFeng/wholewer98 .PDF.

67. Veen W. and Vrakking B., Homo Zappiens – Educando na Era Digital. Artmed, 2009. 68. Ventura R. and Quero M., “Using Facebook in University Teaching: A Practical Case Study”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 83, 2013, pp. 1032-1038. 69. Wang Q., Woo H., Quek C. and Yang Y., “Use of Facebook for Teaching and Learning: A Review of the Research”, International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long Learning, 21, 1, 2011, pp. 72-86. 70. Wankel C., “Management education using social media”, Organization Management Journal, 6, 4, 2009, pp. 251-262. 71. Whalley W., Saunders A., Robin A., Buenemann M. and Sutton P., “Curriculum Development: Producing Geographers for the 21st Century”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35, 3, 2011, pp. 379-393.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 25-37 DOI: 10.4458/6063-03

Dipartimento di Ingegneria civile, edile ed ambientale, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico-filologiche e geografiche, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Email: cristiano.pesaresi@uniroma1.it b

Received: September 2015 – Accepted: October 2015

Abstract In this paper we provide a methodological and operative contribution aimed at optimising the first post-event phases in case of seismic and volcanic events, as an advancement of the research conducted for the GIS4RISKS project. Particularly, we underline the importance of setting up a performant GIS platform able to synergistically use and manage data and images deriving from multiple sources to promote a system where refined methodologies and procedures converge for the development of digital representations, calculation models, spatial and multi-temporal analysis, through an integration of geomatic, engineering and geographic approaches. A synthesis of the characteristics of this platform, useful for increasing savability during the emergency phases and to better tackle situations of crisis due to geodynamic events is provided and particular attention is also given to the added value that can be derived from a coordinated use of drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAVs), permitting a rapid recovery of detailed information in hostile areas and a rigorous monitoring of the evolution of the situation, avoiding risks for operators on the field. Keywords: Drones, GIS Platform, Post Event, Risk Emergency Management, Savability, Seismic and Volcanic Events, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Vulnerability

1. The importance of a performant GIS platform to optimise the first postevent phases In a previous paper, the main aims, the possible progress in knowledge from the geographical and engineering points of view, the various application hypotheses regarding the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

GIS4RISKS project1 and its educational purposes were highlighted (Pesaresi and Lombardi, 1

The name GIS4RISKS has been thought to perform the need to consider seismic and volcanic risks defining a strict reference framework useful both in the pre and post event phases. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

2014)2. In this contribution, some operative aspects and proposals aimed at specifically developing an integrated Risk Emergency Management system with high level technological innovation in a GIS platform are outlined, in order to move towards an efficient and timely management of emergencies in the immediate post-event in areas with high anthropic density and particularly vulnerable conditions. The present approach has been devised in order to meet the needs concerning seismic events, but also of volcanic eruptions, above all in the case of any partial failure of preventive measures and evacuation plans, and related urgencies. A suitable management of the rescue phases calls for in-depth studies and tested systems for the application of analytical models aimed at the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of risk and connected damage, based on objective and reproducible estimates. The planning of an optimised management system can guarantee a considerable reduction in the number of victims in the hours and first days following the event, since a considerable decrease in the savability of the subjects involved in natural disasters can be seen with the increase in delayed rescue time. Notable results can be, therefore, achieved by predisposing an articulate, interactive and advanced GIS platform able to create a dynamic and dialoguing system among the different structures and institutions involved in the early post-event phases, as highlighted more than a decade ago in the case of seismic events (Soddu et al., 2002; Pesaresi, 2004, pp. 249-252)3. So, it becomes possible to define a powerful system able to minimise the gap between the expected and the real scenarios, providing a large set of 2

In fact, there is a growing need to foster a widespread and appropriate sense of risk awareness in the population by means of a didactic-educational process that should be considered a fundamental factor to valorise and diffuse the scientific-applicative progress on a wide scale, with decisive developments in order to deal with any potential dangers (Scandone and Giacomelli, 2015, p. 11). 3 Natural “disasters are characterized by short reaction/response times, overwhelming devastation to infrastructure, and a strain on the tangible and intangible resources of the affected community” (Ware, 2007, p. 37). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

essential inputs and information to intervene quickly and efficiently, having detailed knowledge of the different geomorphological, socio-demographic, settlement and infrastructural characters (i.e. the shortest routes in terms of distance and time, also in relation to the damage) of the areas mainly affected by the event which must be included, weighed up and evaluated in specific geo-statistical models. An integrated approach of geomatics, geographic and engineering systems can lead to the development of an “intelligent” and performance model able to plan and support the automatic management of the emergency phases in the immediate post-event, with suitably calibrated procedures that are geared to reference standards. The streamlining of the operations with the adoption of dedicated systems can in fact generate the twofold advantage of increasing the number of survivors rescued and of reducing the emergency costs. The importance of an interdisciplinary approach is quite evident that avails of specific techniques to acquire sets of metrically correct, selected, verified and validated data from geographical research, which allow the reconstruction of logico-information schemes for the memorisation and representation of quantitative and qualitative data, producing dynamic digital mapping and combined spatial analyses. The objective is thus to define a digital model – based on geophysical-engineering and geographic-statistical parameters – which, by means of selective thematic queries, acquire new input data by implementing a virtuous iterative process of parameters estimated and calibrated by calculations and evaluations of vulnerability. Such process presupposes the setting up of a performing server to manage: • geological and geomorphological cartogramphies, for indispensable information of a pedological nature, on potential fragility, possible exposure to strong quakes and landslide phenomena, and technical and historical cartographies, relative to the evolutions recorded over time, the main expansion directions and the areas that have progresssively reached highly critical levels (Figures 1-4);

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• sensitive, official georeferenced data (demographic, social, settlement, economicproductive, land use) and data from direct surveys (single buildings and time of construction, results of conformity to standards of previous events etc.); • satellite, aerial and light vehicle images and, when available, images from close-up surveys with cameras and thermal imaging cameras mounted on drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAVs) or recordings on the ground using GPS, for a multifaceted set of crucial data. The proposed procedure starts performing “the logical progression of data in a GIS project: (i) capture; (ii) transfer; (iii) validate and edit; (iv) store and structure; (v) restructure; (vi) generalize; (vii) transform; (viii) query; (ix) analyse; and (x) present” data in digital maps in 2D and 3D visualisations (Maguire and Dangermond, 1991, p. 324). In this way, it is possible to promote a “cartographic modelling” intended as a specific methodology and a refined system for the representation, interdisciplinary analysis and synthesis of the data recorded (Tomlin, 1991, p. 361). Moreover, the aim can be achieved of working in a “data integration” perspective which makes it possible to make different data sets compatible and overlapping, so that they become displayed on a series of connected maps and their relationships become easier to analyse in a synoptic and multi-temporal framework (Rhind et al., 1984; Flowerdew, 1991). Starting from these consolidated “bricks”, as the foundation of the general framework, the return of easily updatable and implementable models in a GIS context, with a user friendly interface and data networking, can considerably facilitate the exchange of fundamental information among research bodies, civil protection and operators on the field, who come to make up the “key players”, in a network which moves towards strictly related interaction and integration mechanisms inspired by the principles of disaster management. In fact, the capacity to effectively respond to the first phases of an emergency is connected to the availability of a large amount of data and information obtained from a great variety of sources. These data must be gathered, well organised and displayed to determine, with a high level of accuracy, the size, the steps and the urgencies of Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the emergency management programmes. A performant GIS platform can support a virtuous mechanism to centralise, visually display in dynamic maps and analyse-interpret, with a rigorous approach, critical and combined information in the first and neuralgic post-event phases (Johnson, 2000, p. 3). Therefore, the identification of the stricken areas, a reliable estimation of the number of people involved and an organic system of georeferenced data represent essential information and some studies have shown the importance of “developing a low cost mini UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) devoted to the early impact analyses. The aim of the UAV project is to develop a low cost aerial platform capable of autonomous flight and equipped with a photogrammetric payload for rapid mapping purposes” (Bendea et al., 2008, p. 1373)4. In this way it is possible to have data collected near-real time post-disaster which open a whole range of perspectives to optimise the emergency first aid and some examples of valueadded application in the emergency mapping domain have been recently highlighted (Boccardo et al., 2015). As stated in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of Horizon 2020, in one of the topics regarding Crisis management, in the pillar “Societal Challenges”, very relevant expected impacts, for the development of knowledge and the obtaining of concrete results, concern i.e. the necessity to increase the “capacity to anticipate, prepare and respond to disasters”, enhancing the “capability to deploy disaster and crisis management assets”, improving the “prevention, preparedness, response” for a concrete disaster risk reduction, improving aspects regarding the decision-making aspects, the communication and coordination of response actions, the sharing of information5. 4

By means of UAV systems it possible to produce rendering and DEM and compact pieces of high resolution orthophotos prior to the processing of precision digital cartography and the monitoring of particular phenomena of sensitive areas. 5 See http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/ desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/21053-drs-032015.html (Crisis management topic 3: Demonstration activity on large scale disasters and crisis management and resilience of EU external assets against major identified threats or causes of crisis). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

Figures 1 and 2. Above, a part of Sheet 9 of the “Carta Topografica ed Idrografica dei contorni di Napoli levata per ordine di S.M. Ferdinando I Re del regno delle Due Sicilie dagli uffiziali dello Stato Maggiore e dall’ingegneri topografi negli anni 1817-1818-1819” (updated to the 1862 Vesuvius crater). Below, the same image with an actual overlaying Basemap obtained by ArcGIS 10.3 with a transparency of 80% making it possible to observe and analyse the impressive differences recorded over a long period. Georeferenced and elaborated by D. Pavia and C. Pesaresi. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

Figures 3 and 4. Above, a zoom on a part of Sheet 9, with the municipality of Torre del Greco highlighted, of the “Carta Topografica ed Idrografica dei contorni di Napoli levata per ordine di S.M. Ferdinando I Re del regno delle Due Sicilie dagli uffiziali dello Stato Maggiore e dall’ingegneri topografi negli anni 1817-1818-1819” (updated to the 1862 Vesuvius crater). Below, the same image with an actual overlaying Basemap obtained by ArcGIS 10.3 with a transparency of 80% permitting a highly detailed geographical analysis. Georeferenced and elaborated by D. Pavia and C. Pesaresi.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

For example, in the preparedness and response phases, a powerful GIS platform, with which to combine, streamline, spread and share integrated sets of data and specific information on the local realities, structures and infrastructures involved, can play a central role in formulating and carrying out timely, well-coordinated and rigorously planned emergency steps, which are always characterised by urgent and critical decisionmaking activities, “in order to minimise further loss and effectively deploy relief” (Cova, 1999, p. 850). Moreover, again in the pillar “Societal Challenges”, another topic referred to Crisis management underlines the importance of “an orchestrated set of actions, including standardisation. […]. Such standardisation activities could e.g. significantly improve the technical, procedural, operational and semantic interoperability of command, control and communication systems for crisis and disaster management, or the interoperability of detection equipment and tools”6. A sophisticated GIS platform able to profitably connect in a synergic way the benefits deriving from a large sample of geotechnologies and telecommunications, aimed at emergency management and field decision support, therefore becomes strategic also in terms of rescue operations, resource allocation, most suitable road networks and transport systems, survival time for entrapped occupants and consequent reduction of the fatalities (Béquignon and Soddu, 2005; Rasekh and Vafaeinezhad, 2012).

2. Some evidence and the new challenge Different studies, for example the ones conducted in Japan, have underlined the added value that can be obtained by creating specific GIS portals, which can recover “great significance because it gathered various organizations from the national, local, educational, and private domains together and built a framework in which geographic information could be shared in real time to support disaster 6

See http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal /desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/21054-drs-062015.html (Crisis management topic 6: Addressing standardisation opportunities in support of increasing disaster resilience).

response activities”, also permitting a rapid uploading and downloading of crucial data and avoiding – by the development of automatic, dialoguing and rigorous configurations – the risk of errors and miscalculation associated with manual data entry in dramatic and urgent situations (VV.AA., 2007a, p. 6). At the same time, in the United States, the importance was highlighted of having “a GISbased software program that estimates and maps the regional damage and losses resulting from an earthquake of a given location and intensity”, since the “results support planning for natural hazards mitigation and response by state, regional, and local governments”. In fact, “GIS is the ideal environment for earthquake loss modeling because it has the ability to analyse spatially distributed data such as demographics, the built environment, and infrastructure with a vast number of different attributes including quake magnitude, geological conditions, and structure type” thanks to a lot of spatial analysis functions and to the possibilities of converging in the different applications refined calculation models based on parameters and aspects selected together with the geographical provision (Corbley, 2007, pp. 16-17). Similar GIS environments, opportunely calibrated according to rigorous methodologies, are able to “provide estimates of hazard-related damage before a disaster occurs”, taking into account physical damage “to residential and commercial buildings, schools, critical facilities, and infrastructure”, economic loss, i.e. “lost jobs, business interruptions, and repair and reconstruction costs”, social impacts “such as requirements for shelters and medical aid”. In this perspective, the system – where apposite earthquake models are previously defined – “can quantify the risk for a study area of any size, whether for a region, state, community, or neighborhood”, providing “estimates of damage and loss to buildings, essential facilities, transportation and utility lifelines, and population based on scenario or probabilistic earthquakes” (VV.AA., 2007b, pp. 34-36). So, “the challenge is to quickly gather data and accurately fuse it together to support emergency planners”, creating a virtuous and “powerful mechanism available to emergency Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Valerio Baiocchi, Cristiano Pesaresi

planners for collecting, storing, analyzing, and sharing the geospatial information needed by agencies to effectively support operations and restore disaster-affected communities in a relatively efficient manner”, also with the aim to support critical decision-making both “before a disaster strikes and in the crucial early stages of disaster relief operations”. Geospatial technologies can provide “vital” information such as locations of critical facilities and less resistant buildings, transportation routes and major areas affected by the catastrophic event and they can be very useful in every stage of the relief operations, as well cartographic bases and datasets where detailed and accurate, the models and methodology used are rigorous and the analyst well-trained and with interdisciplinary competences (Ware, 2007, p. 38). The big bet is to predispose an “intelligent” system, a meticulously calibrated GIS platform from the geophysical and engineering point of view, streamlined with the geographic-humanistic and geomatics-statistical components, so as to perform in a number of points of absolute importance, which can be organised in a coordinated system among the various figures and bodies in charge of safety, risk management, emergency planning and civil protection operations. The first point is to set up a dynamic reference database, not made up of excessive disorganised series of data, difficult to manage analytically and use in a concrete manner at short notice, but made up of concurring sets of accurate and vitally important data coming from multiple interfaceable sources. This database will contain selected uploaded data for digital cartographical processing and spatial multi-layer geostatistical analyses of varying complexity, aimed at preevent simulation operations and the management of rescue operations and post-event phases. A second point is to process and apply models and methodologies that are not characterised by mere automatic calculation processes, which at times for example lead to the spreading of data without taking due consideration of local factors, but in which the various algorithms, scenarios, simulations are the outcome of rigorous applications that take into account the real time parameters, the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

specific elements attaining to the area that has been hit, and the suitable recalibrations to be applied along the way. A third point is to create a connection system among all the players and technologies used, from the central servers and dedicated software to the “mobile” devices given to the rescue teams and installed on the drones, which – should they be distributed in suitable focal points over the national territory, so as to reach the epicentres or the crater zones as soon as possible – would take the shape of crucial equipment to “photograph” the state of the overall damage, rapidly create a ranking of the intervention priorities on the basis of actual needs, detect the damage and impracticality of infrastructural networks necessary to reach more heavily hit zones, identify situations that could evolve and degenerate, reaching more critical levels in a short space of time. Noteworthy must be the use of the drones, an essential element of the third point and a potential relevant innovative factor in the first phases post event, which can generate remarkable positive implications, permitting a very rapid recovery of detailed data and information in critical areas since strongly affected and difficult to reach (Thamm, Ludwig and Reuter, 2013). The use of remotely controlled drones makes it possible to avoid both the risks for the operators on the field and the clogging of roads, with an accurate and fast data collection, in wide zones, and – when the drones are well equipped – this holds true also during the night and in cases with scarce visibility too. The drones – actually tested and used for scientific research able to study topography and show the geomorphological and physical characteristics which could be predisposed to future earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in virtual reconstruction 3D compacted by dedicated software7 – can therefore acquire a role of 7

These studies, which involve a team of Italian and British researchers for specific reconstructions and analysis above all in exposed areas of Iceland and Greece, are coordinated by Alessandro Tibaldi (see for example http://www.geo-social.net/?p=829; http: //www.unimib.it/open/news/Prevenire-i-terre-moticon-i-droni-anti-sisma/4665975302505251605; http:// www.rivistageomedia.it/en/tag/gps/feed/Page-3.html). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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primary importance also in the first hours and days after the occurrence of a geodynamic event, with the aim of increasing human savability.

3. The characteristics of the geolocalised integrated platform… towards the future

After all, there is a great amount of evidence which shows the importance of using UAVs, also in combination with satellite imagery and ground robots for collaborative mapping of an earthquake-damaged building (Michael et al., 2012) and on the basis of specific technical parameters for acquiring an increased level of autonomy allowing some phases of the process to be made automatic (How et al., 2009); and for the future the new added value may be related to the maximisation of the first-aid operations. Therefore, a stable and organic reference system, wherever it is possible to make detailed recordings and to upload data and documentation of different kinds, can be particularly important both as an immediate support and during the phases of decision-making and reconnaissance post event, aimed at damage relief, in turn preparatory for the restraint, consolidation and reconstruction of the ruined buildings and infrastructures in heavily stricken areas.

With its synergic development of last generation integrated geomatics techniques, engineering models based on probabilisticstatistical analysis techniques on available data and specifically derived implementing them in highly detailed geographic applications, the project aims to identify models of vulnerability and to make them directly useable, interrogable and interactive for the rescue teams in real time.

At the same time, the use of drones – as well as satellite-based methods and interferometric synthetic aperture radar – can be strategic before a volcanic event, for the measurements and analysis of volcanic gases (McGonigle et al., 2008), and during the eruption which, differently from an earthquake, is characterised by a slower temporal development. In similar situations, the use of drones, and also ground robots, can be fundamental to monitor the evolution of the eruption and the modification and advancement of the different phenomenology, overcoming the problems related to the conditions which foreclose the access to the crisis zones and near to the crater or the secondary mouths of the volcano. So, they can make it possible to acquire crucial information for the emergency management, representing “the future of costeffective precision remote sensing” (Amici et al., 2013, p. 9) and a similar GIS platform, successfully dialoguing with each of its components, is highly functional also for the planning of operative phases, giving support in progress and defining synoptic frameworks.

The forecast models of risk evaluation will represent the project support instrument for the ex-ante phase, becoming the exchange platform during the ex-post phase for immediately readable information. In fact the system should be organised like a real time geolocalised and geolocalisable database which makes it possible to coordinate the incoming information from the different aerial and land sensors and redistribute it to the single rescue teams, furthermore answering their progressive requests for more detailed information. At present the studies of the research group are directed at the formulation and validation of integrated geomatic models that return useful information for the evaluation of the parameters implemented in the vulnerability models (Baiocchi et al., 2012; Guarascio et al., 2007). By way of example, the forecast model, already tested for the vulnerability estimate referred to seismic events, thus makes it possible to express in a comparative way the expected behaviour of the buildings representative of the different types of construction present over the area. In the analysis carried out, it could be seen how buildings that were similar in construction features, height, year of construction and positon in the construction aggregate, built on analogous geolitological substrata, suffer significantly different damage if subject to the same stress. The causes of this different behaviour can be identified through the increasingly detailed analysis of the construction features and the elements around the buildings themselves. The ad hoc gathering of more detailed information, adopted as variables of the forecast model, is justifiable only if the costs-benefits analysis

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gives back a positive evaluation in terms of an increase in savability. The vulnerability model generates the “ex-ante rating” on the potential damage caused by the natural disaster, thus giving the operational guidelines that make it possible to efficiently coordinate survey systems of Mobile Mapping Systems and drones (UAVs; Figure 5), equipped with measurement instruments (thermal cameras, telecameras, laserscanners etc.), used for the expost identification of the actual damage and the real time return of the “ex-post rating” for the planning of emergency and rescue operations. The operators of the emergency teams could with simple commands from a screen ask for further surveys of areas of specific interest, interactively updating the vulnerability map in this way and permitting the improvement of the priority estimates in an interactive process leading to the optimum streamlining of the rescue operations. The modern UAVs allow a complete and continuous image flow from the sensors installed on the drones to the operators and the master control centre (Boccardo et al., 2015): what has to be absolutely preserved is the integrity of the network connection and for this reason specific backup infrastructures need to be present on the site. This system is within the present technical possibilities and engineering design, as demonstrated in some examples (Baglioni et al., 2013; D’Orazio et al., 2014): also data that can be recovered simply and rapidly can significantly improve the decision-making process. The evaluation of the integrity and reliability of the communications network is the functional assumption of the emergency management model which, if properly applied, streamlines the rescue operations. It is strategically important to bear in mind that the system must be implemented and integrated in the very first alert phase for the risk event and that such phase must be aimed at organising and coordinating as much georefereable information as is available on the area and its features. The management of the very first emergency phase is of vital importance for human savability, and the streamlining of a completely automated management procedure of the teams will make it possible to save time that is never as precious as in that specific phase, as the recent Copyright© Nuova Cultura

experience in L’Aquila teaches us (Grimaz, 2011) and, above all, di Haiti (Ajmar et al., 2013; Kapucu, 2015). In detail the system should develop in the following steps, considering that many of the passages are not unidirectional but must be taken iteratively so as to streamline and calibrate its parameters, making it possible to reach a higher and higher level of reliability. • Setting up of a relational georeferenced database containing all the data available for the assessment and estimate of the risk parameters, vulnerability and dangerousness, referred to the specific emergency and to those likely to be triggered by the event itself, like for example what happened for the Fukujima disaster8. • Implementation of the communications network between the central database (opportunely duplicated by means of “mirroring” systems) and the single input and output devices and verification of its robustness also in the case of extreme emergency (total loss of electricity, total collapse of the existing mobile data infrastructure). • Planning of the scale of priorities of the remote testing and inspections to be carried out in real time by the remotely controlled sensors (mainly drones, Figure 6) and testing of their continuous database updating capacity. • Study of the interface and its legibility by the rescue team, verification of the modalities of the detailed requests by the single teams, verification of the intuitiveness of the interface, verification of the functionality, consistency and robustness. • Prioritisation criteria of interventions to be communicated in real time to the individual teams according to: ex-ante data, “automatic” tests by the remote mobile sensors, ad hoc verifications requested by the teams. • Exclusion of the single site from the list of priorities at the end of the intervention for the first safety measures carried out by the team.

See for example Nishikawa et al., in press. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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• Communication of the end of the state of emergency upon termination of the last safety intervention on the last site. The integration of these technologies, algorithms and the necessary calculation models requires the development of specific strategies that are both calibrated for each single event and contextualised in automatic processes, but the benefits in terms of predictable savability are so high as to “repay” the efforts and create the premises to “assemble” a structured pilot

geotechnological system based on the synergy between the geomatics, engineering and geographic points of view. All this is with a view to moving towards a collaborative emergency management system where different research fields and levels of government and institutions “come together to address a common goal and produce shared results” (Kapucu, 2012, p. S41) finalised to social utility in case of geodynamic events.

Figure 5. Octocopter used in a real post-seismic scenario. Photo: M. Mormile (2015).

Figure 6. Quadcopter during the surveying of a facade during a post-seismic phase. Photo: M. Mormile (2015).

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Acknowledgements V. Baiocchi wrote paragraph 3; C. Pesaresi wrote paragraphs 1 and 2.

The Authors thank Prof. Roberto Scandone for his very useful comments and suggestions. The Scientific responsible for the GIS4RISKS project, financed by the Sapienza University of Rome, is Cristiano Pesaresi. The Institutions which have expressed their interest to participate in the GIS4RISKS project are the following: The Italian Civil Protection Department (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) – Office III: Seismic and Volcanic Risk; The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV); The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI Italia); The European Space Agency (ESA/ESRIN); The Geographic Research and Application Laboratory (GREAL) – European University of Rome; The Italian Association of Geography Teachers (AIIG).

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Maguire D.J. and Rhind D.W. (Eds.), Geographical Information Systems: Principles, Techniques, Applications and Management, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, pp. 845-858. D’Orazio M., Quagliarini E., Bernardini G. and Spalazzi L., “EPES – Earthquake pedestrians’ evacuation simulator: A tool for predicting earthquake pedestrians’ evacuation in urban outdoor”, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 10, 2014, pp. 153-177. Flowerdew R., “Spatial Data Integration”, in Maguire D.J., Goodchild M.F. and Rhind D.W. (Eds.), Geographical Information Systems, vol. 1 (Principles), Harlow, Longman Scientific and Technical, Longman Group UK, 1991, pp. 375-387. Grimaz S., “Management of urban shoring during a seismic emergency: Advances from the 2009 Ĺ’Aquila (Italy) earthquake experience”, Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata, 52, 2, 2011, pp. 1-15. Guarascio M., Lombardi M., Rossi G. and Sciarra G., “Risk Analysis and Acceptability Criteria”, WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 94, 2007, pp. 131-138. How J.P. et al., “Increasing Autonomy of UAVs”, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 16, 2, 2009, pp. 43-51. Jerolleman A. and Kiefer J.J. (Eds.), Natural Hazard Mitigation, Boca Raton, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, 2013. Johnson R., GIS Technology for Disasters and Emergency Management, An ESRI White Paper, New York, Environmental Systems Research Institute, 2000, pp. 1-6. Kapucu N., “Disaster and emergency management systems in urban areas”, Cities, 29 (Special Issue 1), 2012, pp. S41-S49. Kapucu N., “Leadership and Collaborative Governance in Managing Emergencies and Crises”, in Fra.Paleo U. (Ed.), Risk Governance: The Articulation of Hazard, Politics and Ecology, New York-Londra, Springer, 2015, pp. 211-235. Lane S., “Living with risk”, Teaching Geography, 37, 2, 2012, pp. 50-53.

24. Maguire D.J. and Dangermond J., “The Functionality of GIS”, in Maguire D.J., Goodchild M.F. and Rhind D.W. (Eds.), Geographical Information Systems, vol. 1 (Principles), Harlow, Longman Scientific and Technical, Longman Group UK, 1991, pp. 319-335. 25. McGonigle A.J.S., Aiuppa A., Giudice G., Tamburello G. and Hodson A.J., “Unmanned aerial vehicle measurements of volcanic carbon dioxide fluxes”, Geophysical Research Letters, 35, 6, 2008, pp. 1-4. 26. Michael N., Shen S., Mohta K., Mulgaonkar Y. and Kumar V., “Collaborative Mapping of an Earthquake-Damaged Building via Ground and Aerial Robots”, Journal of Field Robotics, 29, 5, 2012, pp. 832-841. 27. Mormile M., “Models and methods for the photogrammetric use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) images” Ph.D. Thesis, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 2015. 28. Nishikawa S., Kato M., Homma T. and Takahara T., “Changes in risk perceptions before and after nuclear accidents: Evidence from Japan”, Environmental Science and Policy, in press. 29. Pesaresi C., “Le potenzialità dei GIS in campo geoeconomico e nelle emergenze sismiche”, L’Universo, 2, 2004, pp. 245-262. 30. Pesaresi C., Casagrande G. and Morri R., “Testing Geographical Methodology and Tools for the Study of Territories Damaged by Earthquakes. The Case of L’Aquila and Other Localities Three Years after the April 6th 2009 Event”, International Journal of Geosciences, 4, 2013, pp. 1-10. 31. Pesaresi C. and Lombardi M., “GIS4RISKS project. Synergic use of GIS applications for analysing volcanic and seismic risks in the pre and post event”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, 2014, pp. 9-32. 32. Rasekh A. and Vafaeinezhad A.R., “Developing a GIS Based Decision Support System for Resource Allocation in Earthquake Search and Rescue Operation”, in Murgante B. et al., Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2012, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference (Salvador de Bahia, 18-21 June 2012), Part II, Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 275-285. Rhind D.W., Green N.P.A., Mounsey H.M. and Wiggins J.C., “The integration of geographical data”, Proceedings of Austra Carto Perth, Perth, Australian Cartographic Association, 1984, pp. 273-293. Scandone R. and Giacomelli L., “Catastrofi naturali: Previsione e Prevenzione”, in Scandone R. (Ed.), Le catastrofi naturali in Italia, Scienze e Ricerche (Special Issue 10), 2015, pp. 5-11. Soddu P., Martini M.G., Atzori S., Colozza R. and Coppari S., “Il supporto alle attività delle sale operative di Protezione Civile nell’emergenza sismica”, MondoGIS, 30, 2002, pp. 39-42. Thamm H.-P., Ludwig T. and Reuter C., “Design of a Process Model for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Emergencies”, Proceedings of the 10th International ISCRAM Conference, 2013, pp. 10, http://www.iscram. org/legacy/ISCRAM2013/files/128.pdf. Tomlin C.D., “Cartographic Modelling”, in Maguire D.J., Goodchild M.F. and Rhind D.W. (Eds.), Geographical Information Systems, vol. 1 (Principles), Harlow, Longman Scientific and Technical, Longman Group UK, 1991, pp. 361-374. VV.AA., “In Japan, Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake Damage Assessment Data is Gathered More Efficiently Using GIS”, in ESRI (Ed.), GIS Best Practices GIS for Earthquakes, Redlands, 2007a, pp. 5-9. VV.AA., “FEMA and Local Governments Battle Hazards with a New GIS Tool”, in ESRI (Ed.), GIS Best Practices GIS for Earthquakes, Redlands, 2007b, pp. 33-36. Ware J.L., “GIS Training for Disaster Relief”, in ESRI (Ed.), GIS Best Practices GIS for Earthquakes, Redlands, 2007, pp. 37-44.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of R Research and Didactics D in Geeography (J-RE EADING), 2, 44, Dec., 2015, pp. 39-59 DOI: 10.44558/6063-04

Geeographies of esscape. A facct-findin ng and didacticc surveyy on asy ylum seeekers at the CA ARA off Casteln nuovo d di Porto – Romee Flavia Crristaldia, San ndra Leonaardia, Anton nio Tintorib a

Dipartimennto di Scienzee documentariie, linguistico--filologiche e geografiche, Sapienza Univversity of Rom me, Rome, Italy b Istituto di R Ricerche sulla Popolazione e le Politiche S Sociali, Nationnal Research Council, Rome, Italy Email: flaviaa.cristaldi@unniroma1.it Received: Occtober 2015 – Acccepted: Novem mber 2015

Ab bstract This articlee focuses on thhe geographiccal knowledgge of their miggratory routess of the asylum m seekers of the t Castelnuovo di Porto Reception R Cenntre for Asyluum Seekers ((CARA), locaated near Rom me. Through an nnaire, schoool courses and a assisted seelf-administraation of a 444 question semi-structuured question geographic content and subjects in eeach country were reconsttructed to verrify any posssible connectiion T between tyypes of traveel, spatial beehavior and geographicall knowledge acquired byy migrants. The questionnaiire, translatedd into Englishh, French, Arabic, Somali,, Tigrinya, Urrdu was givenn to 200 guessts, who were aasked to draw w a mental map concerning their migraatory path, maaking it possiible to show the t idea of the world that puushes migrants towards couuntries of asyllum. Keywords: Immigration,, Refugees, T Travels, Menttal Maps

1. Introoduction Armed conflicts, vioolations of huuman rights, worsening security and humanitariann conditions, natural ddisasters annd climatee changing consequencces push milliions of peoplle to a forced exodus (Crristaldi, 20133, 2012). Inn 2014, also because off the wars inn Syria and IIraq, asylum applications to industriialized counttries reached the highest level in 22 years y (from thhe beginning of the Ballkan war). The T United N Nations High Commissiooner for Refugees (UNHC CR) estimates Copyright© N Nuova Cultura

that inddustrialized countries, c in 2014, receiv ved 866,000 new asylum m applicationns (570,820 of which inn EU countriees); this show ws an increasee of 45% coompared to 2013, 2 when 596,600 5 asylu um applicatiions were submitted (U UNHCR, 2014). The asyylum seekers are mainly Syrians, Iraq qis, Afghanss, Serbs and Eritreans who w come fro om geo-poliitically and economicallyy fragile areeas where lives are too offten put at riskk.

Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

The innternational arena sincee the 1948 Universal D Declaration off Human Rigghts (Art. 14) states that everyone hass the right to seek and to enjoy “asyylum” from m persecutionn in otherr countries. This right has been innternationally confirmed and regulateed by the 1951 Genevaa Conventionn and modifieed compared to time andd geographicaal constraintss dictated sinnce the 1967 New York Protocol. Thhe legislation provides forr different kiinds of legall protection iincluding the possibility oof achieving “refugee “ statuus” following the acceptannce of the appplication. In sshort, asylum seekers are people who, finding f themsselves outside the countryy of their habiitual residencce, are unable or do nott want to reeturn for feear of being persecuted for reasons of o race, religiion, membership of a particular social s group or political opinion. Thhese people can apply foor asylum inn another couuntry by subm mitting an appplication forr recognition of “refugee status”. s Even Ittaly, which recognizes tthe right off asylum as sstated in the 1948 Constittution, article 10, subparaagraph 31, is seeing s a sharpp increase off asylum appplications. People who appplied in Italy in 2014 w were more than t double that of the previous yeear (Figure 1), 1 placing Ittaly between the first thhree EU counntries for thee number off applicants for internaational proteection (after Germany aand Sweden), even if the rratio between inhabitants and seekers in i Italy (1.1 pper thousand) is still below w the EU aveerage of 1.2 peer thousand.

Figure 1. N Number of assylum applicattions in Italy from 2008 too 2014 (in thouusands). Source: Natiional Commission for Rightss of Asylum. 1

“A foreigner who is denied, d in hiss or her own country, thee effective exxercise of thhe democratic liberties guaaranteed by thhe Italian Connstitution shall have the right of asylum in i the territoryy of the Italian Republic, in accordancce with thee conditions established bby law”.

Regaarding the asy ylum seekers’’ home counttry, the top ffive nationaliities who appplied for asylu um in Italy in 2014 are: Pakistan, Niigeria, Somallia, Eritrea and Afghaniistan. Each year, y based on world cconflicts or on o political issues i affectiing trouble spots, the countries’ ordder changes. In recent yyears many applications were presentted a by citizzens of Maali, Gambia,, Senegal and a Bangladdesh, with a peak of requests fro om Tunisianns in 2010-20 011. Obviiously these flows f requiree the State to be involvedd for both thee recognitionn of the migraant and thee assessmentt of their application a for asylum (as regulated d by the Dubblin Conventiion III) andd, in the timee needed to carry out theese formalitties, it shou uld organizee a receptiion system. Among the different d form ms provided for by the IItalian legislaation there arre the receptiion centers for asylum seekers s (CAR RA), introducced in 2008,, designed to o house the migrant m until the t recognittion of “reffugee status”” or until the t permit iis issued on humanitarian h grounds by the t Territoriial Commisssion. The CARAs are a currentlyy located in n Sicily, Caalabria, Apullia, Lazio, Marche an nd Friuli Venezia V Giu ulia (www.innterno.gov.it//it/temi/immigrazione-easilo/sisstema-accogliienza-sul-terrritorio/centrilimmigrrazione) and they are often in the neews for diffeerent problem ms. At present therre are manny papers and a geographhical studiess examiningg regular and a irregularr incoming migration floows, especiaally highlighhting their so ocial, culturall and econom mic characteeristics (Krasna, 2009). In I the nation nal scene, bby contrast, stu udies on geoggraphical kno owledge off migrants, about a those spatial s elemeents which hhelp people to feel citizzens of seveeral territoriees and not of just one place,, are rare. This article aimss to study thhe geographical knowleddge of asy ylum seekers about th heir migratorry route; it is a universse of migran nts, often haaving to fleee quickly, whho do not haave time to plan in detaail the escapee route and the t directionn needed to t reach thhe destinatio on. Geograpphical knowleedge changes the way peop ple look at ttheir world an nd, by introduucing an ideaa of spatial iintegration, itt lets people navigate on the t Earth’s surface by helping them m to minim mize internal disorientatio on. Fleeing migrants leaave with thheir remarkaable life experience e and a Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

education. Some of them studied more than nine years, others graduated, while some are almost illiterate. School provides for geography basics, therefore, migrants who attended school are supposed to have this kind of knowledge. Will the concepts learned at school about the location of countries, morphology, geographical coordinates, distances, cartography, and the political conditions of the territories to be crossed, etc. be useful? Will migrants be able to travel on their own along the way or will they be guided (carried) by smugglers, remaining disoriented for weeks, months and sometimes for years before arriving in Italy (often by sea)? Is the decision to seek asylum in Italy linked to the real knowledge of the country or is it mainly a need/obligation coming from the Dublin Convention which binds migrants to submit the request for asylum to the first country of entry into the EU? What kind of maps did migrants draw in their minds? In order to answer these questions, a questionnaire, translated into English, French, Arabic, Somali, Tigrinya, Urdu, has been developed and from November to December 2013 it was self-administered to a group of guests of CARA of Castelnuovo di Porto (a few kilometers from Rome). At the time of the survey, 200 out of the 723 asylum seekers living in the facility were interviewed. Many of these could map out their migratory path drawing a mental map. The importance of this subjective drawing is that the map is not the territory; it does not faithfully reproduce the geography of places, because it filters reality according to the beliefs, expectations, knowledge of individuals (De Vecchis, 1994). The analysis of the individual maps is the first step to understanding the idea each applicant has about the territory they crossed and about the path they made (Gokten, Sudas, 2014). The CARA guests are primarily males, many of the women are members of families as well as the 80 minors received (Table 1).

The origin of the asylum seekers housed in Castelnuovo di Porto obviously reflects the composition of the flows in Italy with a substantial presence of Pakistani citizens followed by Somalis and Nigerians (Figure 2). Age

Number

Males

Females

369

328

151

126

Over

723

613

110

Total

Table 1. Asylum seeker at the CARA in the period of the survey by age and sex.

Survey methodology and specification

The sample of the survey “geographical knowledge of immigrants” is a non-probability sample because the target of the survey does not allow the creation of a sampling design including a random selection of units on which to perform the detection. The results of the research, outlined below, do not allow the inference to the reference universe and so they are therefore extensible only to the sample used, but they represent original data on this phenomenon; indeed they are extremely important not only in terms of statistical estimation but furthermore in the qualitative research on asylum seekers’ characteristics and knowledge, as well as in the field of dynamics underlying the journey taken by a part of the population often experiencing critical situations in terms of safety.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 22. Origin of thhe CARAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gueests by citizenship and sex. T Top Ten Coun ntries.

Figure 3. Maain countries of o birth (percenntages).

Figure 4. Maajor nations off departure witth destination IItaly (percentaages).

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Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

3. Overview of asylum seekers. Personal characteristics and education Respondents have inhomogeneous personal characteristics. In terms of geographical origin the most represented macro-region is Asia. 34% of asylum seekers are from this area, while the remaining population is from Sahel (28%), the Horn of Africa (25%), North Africa (11%) and in a small part from the Middle East (2%)2. By analyzing the answers based on nationality Asia is, however, largely represented by Pakistan (30% of the total), a country subject to frequent terrorist attacks at least in part related to the Afghan political contingencies. Africans are the vast majority of other asylum seekers, above all from Eritrea, Egypt and Nigeria (Figure 3). Immigrants are young people, aged between 19 and 40 (the most represented age group is from 25 to 30, and corresponds to 40% of the sample). Generally, people under 18 and over 40 were in low proportion, as well as women: only 2 every 10 immigrants. The respondents’ data show that single persons were in the majority (69%), followed by a lower share of married people (26%), and by the separated or divorced (5%). In which country did asylum seekers live before leaving for Italy? The answers to this question only partially follow the analysis of nationality. The majority of respondents, 3 out of 10, comes from Libya, and about 1 out of 10 from Pakistan, Nigeria and Eritrea (Figure 4). In the case of the specific category of asylum seekers, the motivating factors to emigrate are different, but, in general, these people leave the country in which they live for international protection with the intent to put themselves and their family in a safe place, far from social, political or military threats. For these migrants

the choice to leave their country does not arise from economic needs which, even if they can influence their choice, are not a priority (Livi Bacci, 2010). The vast majority of respondents – 7 out of 10 – declared the possession of employment prior to departure. The trades registered and most widely carried out in the countries of origin are labourers and farmers (together accounting for 34% of the occupations identified), but there are also many people registered generally as employed, entrepreneurs and teachers (31%) (Figure 5). As evidence of the special needs of those who emigrate in order to exercise their right of asylum, notably, only 1 respondent out of 10 was unemployed before embarking on the journey to a place where freedom and personal safety were defended. Although respondents are poorly represented by the very young (only 4.5% are under 18 years old)3 a sample of 15% of students is remarkable; these are people who, before the departure, probably attended a secondary school or university. One aspect that was indirectly confirmed by data on education was that 20% of the asylum seekers said they had studied during their life from 14 to 18 years old. From this point of view, more frequently, respondents studied from 9 to 13 years of age (38%), but in the context of the group examined the survey also revealed a large number of people who have studied up to a maximum of 8 years (37%) (Figure 6). With regard to nationality, while the Horn of Africa is at the top of the ranking for education, at the very bottom we can find Sahel, where 3 out of 10 have studied up to 4 years. With regard to school and university curricula, respondents studied mostly scientific subjects (31%) then humanities and technical subjects (24% and 23% respectively).

The countries of origin of the immigrants interviewed were aggregated by macro-regions. The Asian area includes: Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Georgia; the area of North Africa: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco; the Sahel area: Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameron, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan; the area of the Horn of Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia; the Middle East area: Syria, Turkey; the East Europe area: Romania, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria; the South Europe area: Greece, Cyprus, Malta.

This information should be considered taking into account that unaccompanied minors (MSNA) are given hospitality in dedicated temporary highly specialized reception facilities. A MSNA is a thirdcountry national or a stateless person below the age of 18 who enters the territory of EU Member States unaccompanied by a responsible adult, or minor who is left unaccompanied after his entering the territory of a Member State.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 5. Main M immigrannt employmennt in the countrry of origin (peercentages).

Figure 6. Years of studdy (percentagess).

Everyboody studied geography; g thhe difference was in the time devotedd to the subjeect. Figure 7 shows thatt the study of geographyy is usually restricted to a limited number n of yeears (34% off respondentts studied it for f up to threee years) and that, almosst everywheree, it is progrressively less present witth increasing years of educcation. What are the toppics of thee study off geography?? In first plaace is the ggeography off their counttry (32%), thhen the geogrraphy of the world (28% %), geographyy of their citty (23%) and their continnent (17%). It I is women in particular who acquirre a broader view v during ttheir studies, especially in the field of physicall geography, CopyrightÂŠ N Nuova Cultura

learningg concepts reelating to thhe entire glob be, and thiss mainly in th he Horn of Africa. A Althou ugh 63% off respondentss studied at least 9 yeaars, about 8 out of 10 immigrants knew little or nothing of Italy befo ore leaving. Even E 41% knew nothing of the presen nt host countrry. ors The fact indicatess the importaant push facto ore that leadd to emigrantts often blinddly facing, mo or less cconsciously, the t risks assoociated with the t journey,, first of all the way of travelling to o a land sometimes unk known. In a way the so ole exceptioons are respondents from m the Horn of Africa: half of them m showed a medium-hiigh knowleddge of Italy before departuure. Italian Asssociation of Geeography Teacheers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 7. Years of stuudy of geograpphy (percentagges).

Overall,, however,, albeit sscarce, the awareness of the charaacteristics off Italy was a prerogativee of women and young ppeople (40% of womenn and 21% of men kknew Italy); consequenttly the levvel of this knowledge decreases progressivelly with thee increasing migrant agee (Figure 8). The suurvey also found f the m most known aspects off Italy beforre the asyluum seekers’ departure. A Among thesee they knew in particular and thee democracy (27%), physical characteristtics of thee territory (15%), the existence of undeclaared work (14%), the economic aand social coonditions (12%), the type of work available (99%) and othher specific aspects noot really rellevant (23%). Figure 9 shows the relation betw ween geograpphical origin and knowleedge of thesee aspects of Italy. Hence we can uunderstand the t importannce of the undeclaredd work for peoople from Noorth Africa – an unforttunately exttremely com mmunicative aspect, thatt “advertises”” Italy – the presence off democracy for peoplee from the Sahel, the awareness of the avaailability of professions practicable for people frrom Asia. From thhe geographiical analysis we can see how knowlledge about Ittaly before deeparture was often limitted to the name n of the capital; the position off Sicily, as well as the distance in kilometers from the country c of ddeparture are rarely know wn (Figure 100).

4. Geogra aphical knoowledge Whaat is the geog graphical knowledge at the t time of departure? Are A these peopple leaving with w little knowledge about the route and a the coun ntry of destiination or have h they a broad cultu ural backgroound, includin ng geographiccal basis? Haave they eveer seen a map p of Italy, whhat is their id dea of the loocal topograp phy and, abovve all, have the t expectattions they had h at the beginning b beeen reached?? Of ccourse, for those who must choo ose whetherr to die or fleee (Barbieri et al., 2015) in and from countries where dictaatorial regim mes have livving conditio ons at the lim mits of hum man rights orr where the absence a of a state s makes any a possiblee oligarch th he owner off human liv ves, having a look at a map m before seetting off mig ght be totallly irrelevant. Whoever iss in search of a new lifee as an escape route to freeedom does not n care abbout knowing the itinnerary or the t destinatiion precisely. Probably for thosse who have no choice, the t knowleddge of the area will not n stop th heir departurre, but geograaphical sciencce suggests th hat knowingg places and spaces can somehow s com me in handdy. As Immaanuel Kant said, s geograp phy allows uus to be citizeens of the woorld and to haave a clear understandiing of the resources and a opportunnities that Mother M Eartth, outside the t borders of the singlee territorial reeality, can offfer. Not onlly that, kno owing the teerritory and its resourcees, realizing our place in the world, can c offer a ddifferent chan nce for redem mption, possib bly Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

geared to survival within our own country, always with the same security conditions of life and freedom. In addition, for those who are involved in migration studies it is important to have full knowledge about what migrants know at the time of leaving, just to try to intervene, whenever possible, with information campaigns that would certainly not block their escape and would not prevent shipwrecks and deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, but could help to improve the migrants' living conditions in countries of departure leading to different choices and enabling a proper welcome to the different needs. It is important to have data and information about migrants in order to implement a proper and reliable policy of coexistence, to have a proper arrangement in the destination countries and respect for the dignity of the human being. These men and women are a force to be valued and used in the best possible way, with mutual respect, in order to improve the fates of their countries and the countries of destination. Europe, plagued by the economic crisis, could define targeted courses to give asylum seekers a job, a training and gratification, according to their origin, knowledge, attitudes and skills. A cynic might say that this human capital may not be assessed for its real capabilities and, on the contrary, because of marginalization and abandonment, it could create degraded modes where crime and exploitation of a valuable workforce proliferate4. It is therefore important to check how they describe their territory and what their perception of territoriality is, that is the relationship that every human being has with the space surrounding them and what type of relationship they take with them in order to satisfy their own needs (Rafferstin, 2007). In response to the question “Before leaving have you ever seen a map of Italy” 44.5% said they had never seen a map, 31.9% saw it once and 23.6% several times (Figure 11).

The percentage of respondents who had never seen a map of Italy rose to 54.8% among Asians who represent the peak in the sample although this contrasts with the years of study. People from the Sahel (49.2%) and North Africa (47.4%) show the same ranking, above the average, once again in contrast with the previous data. Definitely respondents from the Horn of Africa and the Middle East are better informed; the percentage of lack of information drops respectively to 24.4% and 25%, but while in the first case we can notice an identical distribution of the sample (37.8%) on the two possible answers, in the second case the single observation of the paper reaches 50% (the highest figure between the various geographical areas) and the multiple vision 25%. On the other hand, the North African component shows also the highest percentage of respondents who say they have seen a map of Italy several times (42.1%) compared to migrants from other areas (Figure 12). By analyzing the total sample and the weight of respondents by region of origin we can also highlight how migrants from the Horn of Africa represent the percentage with greater awareness of the Italian territory through a cartographic view (8.9% said he had seen a map several times and an identical percentage said they had seen it at least once). With regard to their age, the most significant component is between 25 and 30 (39.5%). The sample has a normal/ Gaussian distribution and shows a slight asymmetry to the right accounting for 23.7% between 19 and 24 and 26.3% between 31 and 40; lower percentages under 18 and over 41 (Figure 13). 89.5% of the sample is central-loaded and (19-40) also shows a high prevalence of migrants who have no knowledge of the geography of Italy (78 out of 170, 45.9%) (Figure 14).

The job-matching between the national and regional employment needs and the CARA human resources is one of the IOM’s tasks with the aim to maximize the asylum seekers’ professionalism and skills.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 8. Knowledge off Italy before ddeparture (perccentages).

Figuree 9. Geographiical aspects off Italy known bbefore the depaarture (percenttages).

Figure 110. Italian geoggraphical aspeects known beffore departure (percentages).

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Italiaan Association of Geography Teeachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 111. The graph shhows the respoonse rates to thhe question “H Have you ever seen s a map beffore leaving”?..

Womenn showed knowledge k aabout maps (67.6% of which 44.1% % once) highher than men (59.9% of w which 28.8% % only once). F Finally, with respect to the employm ment carriedd out in the country of departuure, the sample is heterogeneous among the follow wing groups: farmer 14.33%, worker 19.6%, emplooyed 12.7%, unemployeed 11.1%, teaacher/school lleader 6.3%, retailer/entrrepreneur 11.6%, 1 studdent 15.3%, other 9% oon the other side s workers (only 43.2% of the sampple). The onnly categoriess departing significantly from the average vallues are teaachers/school leaders andd students on one side ((respectively 75% and 772.4% of the sample declared to have read a mapp at least onnce) and To the question “Where havve you seen the t map?” they replied as follows: 299.4% on an atlas, 23% in a book, 18.3% on the internet, 21.4% at school on a wall, 2.4% on a single sheet of papeer, and 5.6% somewheree else. Analyziing by fact-fiinding/didactiic source we can see thaat people from m the Horn off Africa used different kkinds of sourrces; Internett (25%) has almost reacched the weigght of traditioonal vehicles such as the atlas (27.55%) and the map on the wall of thee classroom (30%). ( Two out of three migrants frrom the Midddle East prefeer internet to the more traditional book. b There is quite a different breakdown for Asianss, where a traditional setting is overwhelming o gly with the atlas, the bbook and the school evaluuated by over 70%; interrnet reachess only 15% %. Similarly, internet is important bu ut less for thhose coming from Northh Africa (9.1% %) and the Saahel (12.5%) (Figures 155 and 16). Comparred to the average ddata already examined, with regard to t the age of respondents, Copyright© N Nuova Cultura

the relattionship betw ween age and consultation n of the netw work is not surprising. In I fact for the t under 188s geographic knowledgee derives mosstly from intternet (40%) and books (60%), ( while in the otheer age groups the values arre similar to the t data alreeady shown. In teerms of profeessions, as shhown in Figu ure 17, thee categories of farmers,, workers and a employeees mainly prefer to tap tradition nal sources (atlas, bookss and school)) while intern net appears to be more th he preserve of o entrepreneu urs and studdents.

5. Alon ng the journ ney Oftenn the escape does not makke it possiblee to plan anyything. Life obliges peopple to flee ev ven with no documents and a no luggagge in search of o a k of jourrney is full of safer pllace. This kind obstaclees and risks. Some asylum m seekers giive up; otheers die during g the journeyy (Gatti, 200 08). No Euroopean would d face this joourney: witho out water, w without any certainties, bu ut refugees haave no choiice and they y flee from m certain deaath knowingg that they must again face a risk of death. ““If I had no ot left there, I would haave surely ddied”, said a Tunisian interviewed in 2011 inn Gualdo Tadino after sailing in the t Mediterrranean aboarrd a dinghy “I “ knew I cou uld die crossing the sea, but at least I had a chancce” (Cristalddi, 2013, pp. 175-176). The majority of o respondennts said th hey escaped from a city, while only a small part saaid they lived in an isollated house, confirming c th hat migrantss above all leeft cities or sm mall towns, th hat is from more or lesss small urbann centres wheere ideas sppread and where higher soocial classes are a generallly found. The T majorityy fled from a Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

firefight, while others want to look for a job (Figure 18). Interestingly, droughts, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters are pushing a large number of people to flee from their countries of residence (Cristaldi, 2013). International studies estimate over the next few years an increase in this type of migrants so we can expect an increase in the number of refugees and their pressure on European countries (UNHCR, 2015; Coderoni, Perito, 2014). Everyone had Europe as their destination, the unattainable fortress that swallows the dead along its invisible walls. Only six out of ten migrants considered Italy as a possible destination, others would have preferred to reach other foreign lands. But before arriving in Italy they had to cross deserts, seas, borders and not everyone knew the details of the route. Only two out of ten said they knew the entire itinerary well while seven said they did not know it at all. The fact that they do not know the route can be one of the reasons pushing migrants to rely on smuggler organizations that carry paying bodies to their yearned for destinations. Only three out of ten migrants said they organized the trip by themselves while the others relied on relatives, friends and networks of smugglers. Asked about the awareness of their position during the entire trip, only three out of ten said they always knew their location while the others have always been more or less unaware of their position. Five out of ten did not even know there would be all those stopovers, and sometimes the stops were long. For half of the respondents there were also stops longer than four weeks; the reasons are various: finding a job to get money to continue, waiting for money from the family, looking for a lift on a new means of transport, waiting for the sea to be calm enough. Eight out of ten migrants faced a trip which took much longer than expected and this also because of their little geographical knowledge. Most of the migrants who did not follow the route in an informed manner came from the Sahel and Asia. Significantly, women were more aware than men, perhaps because now many women know what atrocities they have to go through before they reach Europe and try to get better information about this. Many of them are raped and made pregnant, and many men admitted they did not take their wife with them Copyright© Nuova Cultura

because they would not be able to defend her. The awareness of the journey is related also to the kind of work: employees, teachers, school leaders and students reported greater awareness than the other respondents (including farmers and workers). Many asylum seekers said they had been robbed during the journey of the few belongings they had managed to take with them when they fled. Some of them took a map, a compass, or a GPS so as not to get lost in the desert (Figure 19). 13 out of the 20 migrants who had a map came from the Sahel; this shows an awareness of the complexity of the journey through the desert and their need to get oriented. Some of them had a mobile phone (20%), a communication tool that goes beyond the land borders and reaches the family even in extreme cases, for example to ask the family to pay a ransom in the case of a kidnapping. The youngsters declared they used some devices while such behavior becomes less frequent among older people; while electronic instruments were used mainly by males, females made more use of maps. The majority of respondents crossed the sea and arrived on the Sicilian coast with a dinghy or a “rust bucket” but a large proportion of the sample arrived by land (from Eastern Europe) or by a flight (Figure 20) contradicting the stereotype often conveyed by the media and by some political groups which, showing asylum seekers rescued at sea or shipwrecked, talk of invasions. Immigration by sea in recent years has increased sharply as a result of the closure of the European borders following the adoption of a particularly restrictive visa regime (Idos, 2013). In 2013 42,925 immigrants landed on Italian shores, a much higher number than in 2012 (13,267) but lower than in 2011 (62,692) when the Arab Spring’s instability and conflicts pushed thousands of people to flee (VV.AA., 2014). Mind maps made by asylum seekers, collected during the survey, with a few stretches of thousands of kilometers covered, told of the seas crossed and the uncertainties faced.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 12. C Cross tabulationn “Have you evver seen a map of Italy beforee leaving?” – “W What is your country c of birth h?”.

Figure 13. P Percentage of thhose who view wed a map of IItaly before theeir departure by y age bracketss.

Figure 14. C Cross tabulationn “Have you eever seen a mapp of Italy befoore leaving?” – “How old aree you?”.

Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figure 15. “Where have you seen the m map of Italy?”..

Figure 16. C Cross tabulationn “Where havee you seen the map of Italy?” – “What is your y country off birth?”.

Figure 17. C Cross tabulatioon “Where havve you seen thhe map of Itally?” – “What did you do foor a living beffore leaving for IItaly?”.

Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

F Figure 18. Reaasons that led tto the departurre.

F Figure 19. Toools used duringg the journey tto get oriented..

Figurre 20. Means of transport useed to reach Itally.

CopyrightÂŠ N Nuova Cultura

Italian Association A of Geeography Teach hers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Mind maps madde by two asyllum seekers. R Respectively (aa) drawn by an n immigrant froom Ghana and Figure 21. M (b) from Afgghanistan. CopyrightÂŠ N Nuova Cultura

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Flavia Cristaldi, Sandrra Leonardi, Anntonio Tintori

Figgure 22. Mind map made draawing by an asylum seeker frrom Eritrea.

Figuure 23. Map annd description by an asylum seeker coming g from Kashm mir. CopyrightÂŠ N Nuova Cultura

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Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

The first two drawings (Figure 21) represent the journey with the same symbolism: a succession of clouds, one close to the other, indicating the countries that migrants passed through. In the first map the Ghanaian migrant correctly named the African countries he passed through, but he called the sea “the sea”, not knowing its real name. Other migrants correctly called it the Mediterranean Sea but there are those who identified it as the Atlantic Ocean. The third picture (Figure 22) puts Eritrea, the country of origin of the migrant, in the Horn of Africa, but while Africa’s outline is close to reality, America’s outline is far from it, just like Europe. Completely different is the fourth example shown in Figure 23; here the asylum seeker from Kashmir represented the political conflicts of that area by showing an excellent knowledge, in contrast, however, with the absolute ignorance of the countries he crossed, as the man himself admits. This testimony, as others collected during the survey, shows that the reasons for migration are not only economic, but they are also related to political factors. 6. Italy, this unknown? With regard to the expectations fulfilled with regard to the correspondence between the idea they had about Italy and reality, 36.6% of respondents declared having found little correspondence; 34.7% did not find any correspondence, while 19.2% found a suitable correspondence and only 9.6% found a high correspondence. With regard to the correspondence between reality and expectations, within a situation of general substantial disillusionment, North Africans and migrants from the Horn of Africa, however, have higher percentages than average, both for the high and substantial satisfaction, while asylum seekers from the Sahel and Asians show greater disillusionment. Moreover, the analysis by age and gender highlights a feeling of bitter awareness among the youngest and the oldest and a higher pragmatism among women. In terms of the job done, it is interesting to note the figure of teachers/leaders who do not identify any high correspondence (0%) between the geography of Italy before the trip and reality, but Copyright© Nuova Cultura

they record a percentage of low correspondence (60%) above the average figure of the sample (36.5%). Conversely, above average satisfaction characterizes farmers and students. Asians stood out in the field of geographical knowledge when they arrived in Italy thanks to the use of the map. From the answers to the question “Since in Italy, have you looked at other maps?”, we could notice the new knowledge in Asians and in migrants from the Sahel, who answered in the affirmative, respectively, for 77% and 67.7% (vs. an average figure of 66.5%). These answers are a consequence of the CARA literacy courses. Groups between 19 and 40, women, single people result over the average figure for the affirmative answer, as if to describe a migration route that confirms what has been written for Asians, asylum seekers from Asia-North AfricaSouthern Europe. The map that the migrants looked at, once they arrived in Italy, was mostly a world map (35.1%) a map of Italy/Europe (26.7%), and finally of Rome (18.3%). Less attention was directed at the Mediterranean countries (4.6%) and the Italian regions (11.5%). The interest in the map of Rome can arise from the location of the CARA, where the data were collected. These data show an element of curiosity about the general context, about Europe which is the main destination and about neighboring regions or about the territory where they are hosted. Worthy of note is that while the youngest are interested above all in the local context, as the age increases this interest shifts to a geographical knowledge on a smaller scale, up to the global context for those over 41 years old. Similarly, with far beyond the average figure are the samples of women, divorced/separated people, students and entrepreneurs and, for geographical origin, those who, before arriving to Italy, lived in Sahel, Middle East or Northern Europe. However, asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa, Asians and asylum seekers coming from Southern Europe show a mainly local interest, above average. With regard to the knowledge of the Italian territory from the physical point of view, about the presence of deserts (“Are there deserts in Italy?”) the 8% responded affirmatively, mostly men, aged between 25 and 30 years, who are

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mainly students (18.5%) and employees (12,5%). Obviously, in light of their travel and of the privileged access route to the Italian territory, 88.6% showed an awareness that the country is surrounded by the sea. As regards the names of the seas, 44% identified correctly the seas around Italy (although only 9.2% indicates the Ionian Sea) and there is a high percentage of migrants who say they do not remember (36.4 %). In addition, for 9.6%, Italy is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, for 4.2% by the Pacific Ocean, for 3.3% by the Indian Ocean, and 2.5% thinks that the sea around Italy is the Persian Gulf. Always to check for the geographical awareness of the guests of the CARA of Castelnuovo di Porto questions related to the morphology of the host country were asked: “In Italy are there mountains higher than 4,000 meters above sea level?” And the majority of respondents said they did not know. With regard to the name of the capital of Italy almost the whole sample (96.2%) show some knowledge of the role of Rome. 7. Conclusions What emerges from the data is a scenario that is very different from the one given by the media, driven rather by looking for sensational news that ultimately affects the idea that everyone has of immigration. The results of this study highlights the discomfort and a degree of inadequacy in the reception system, which is still strongly oriented towards the emergency aspect of the phenomenon, with few initiatives for integration policies (Unar, 2014). In fact, the host should not be targeted exclusively to liberalize their possibility to travel in Europe as much as possible but must ensure a successful integration (Giordano, 2015). These men and women, alone or with their families, remain in the accommodation facilities for a long time, which do not allow any integration with the surrounding area, both due to the geographical distances and the legislation in force. In particular, the CARA of Castelnuovo di Porto is located in open countryside a few km away from the town, 30 km from Rome and it ends up making people there feel even more isolated than people without landmarks. Even the existing rules do not allow asylum seekers to start to look for means of subsistence Copyright© Nuova Cultura

immediately; despite the fact that they express a great desire for redemption and realization, these rules eventually force them endure long periods of waiting. In other regional contexts, the localization of CARA pushes migrants to find undeclared work during the long months of waiting. In Apulia, for example, they can often find intermittent work in the agriculture sector, swelling the ranks of the army of invisible migrants who, with their sweat and very few gains, set our tables (Cristaldi, 2014). The asylum seekers’ strong desire to talk about their own path and their motivation that forced them to leave their country is a clear example of suffering and constriction in a place/unplace because their destination is not Italy, as Italy is only a transit country to the free world (Oropeza, 2011). As reported by Eurostat in 2014, 1 out of 3 asylum seekers in the EU applied for asylum in Germany (more than 200,000 applications submitted in 2014). Following Germany, the largest number of applications submitted for asylum was in Sweden (81,000 applications, representing 13% of applicants) and in Italy (64,000 applications, 10% of applicants). Following these is France (62,000 applications, 10%) and Hungary (42,000 applications, 7%). The five main countries of destination for asylum seekers, however, have a trend of growth in applications other than in the last year: in Italy in 2014 asylum seekers more than doubled, in fact, they had an increase of 143% compared to 2013 (26,000 applications). It appears to be the country with the highest increase compared to other European countries (Hungary, 126%, and Denmark, 105%). In Germany asylum applications increased by 60% and in Sweden by 50%. A 5% decrease, compared to applications filed in France in 2013. But this figure does not correspond to the will of the asylum seekers, as they are forced by law to remain in the first country they reach. In relation to the population, the highest number of asylum seekers is in Sweden (9 applicants per thousand inhabitants), followed by Germany with 7, while in France and the United Kingdom there are respectively three and four per thousand inhabitants, in Italy less than one per thousand inhabitants (Giordano, 2015; Baldinelli 2013; Caritas – Migrantes 2013, UNHCR Italia 2014) (Table 2). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Flavia Cristaldi, Sandra Leonardi, Antonio Tintori

Country Number of asylum applications in 2014 Germany 202,815 Sweden 74,375 Italy 58,975 France 56,905 Table 2. Number of asylum applications submitted in 2014. Source: UNHCR, 2015.

But apart from the number of applications, what seems to be clear is that these people flee their countries of birth, face long journeys by putting their lives at risk, enduring forms of torture and ill-treatment of various kinds (Barbieri et al., 2015), often working along the way to pay for the next leg of the trip, in order to reach a safe country able to protect their right to life. Although for the most part they have no idea about the route and do not know the main characteristics of the country that hosts them at the time, the information gathered profiles often educated people, who have well-defined skills which could also be an opportunity for Italy and its social and economic system. The current education systems in the departure countries show significant differences compared to the Italian one: the level of training for African countries is generally translated into a low number of years of study (average 8 years for girls and 10 years for boys, while in Italy this stood at 16 years) (Save the Children, 2013). Understanding what the geographical knowledge of asylum seekers is may allow the communities involved to prepare services that can facilitate the transition, the gradual acceptance and integration to the Italian territory (IOM, 2008). Therefore, to know the disparate levels of education and geographical training, it could be educationally useful to have a reference point in order to calibrate better teaching methods for courses that are required by the various associations within the CARAs and for other reception facilities. Acknowledgements Even if the paper was devised together by the Authors, Flavia Cristaldi wrote paragraphs 1, 5 and 7; Sandra Leonardi wrote paragraphs 4 and 6; Antonio Tintori wrote paragraphs 2 and 3.

References 1. Alto Commissariato delle Nazioni Unite per i Rifugiati, I rifugiati nel mondo. Cinquant’anni di azione umanitaria, Oxford, UNHCR and Oxford University Press, 2000. 2. Baldinelli G., Panorama migranti: il numero e gli apporti degli stranieri in Italia e a Roma, Roma, SONIA – OMCVI, 2013. 3. Barbieri A., Cannella G., Deotti L. and Peca M., Fuggire o morire, rotte migratorie dei paesi sub-sahariani verso l’Europa, Rome, MEDU, 2015. 4. Bommes M. and Morawska E., International Migration Research: Constructions, Omissions and the Promises of Interdisciplinarity, London, Ashgate, 2005. 5. Brusa C., “La geografia della percezione quale strumento di educazione ambientale”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 87, 1, 1980, pp. 49-60. 6. Brusa C., “Spazio vissuto e regionalizzazione”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 89, 2, 1982, pp. 379-382. 7. Brusa C. (Ed.), Immigrazione e multicultura nell’Italia di oggi. Il territorio, i problemi, la didattica, voll. 1 and 2, Milan, Franco Angeli, 1997. 8. Bussi F. (Ed.), Ritrovare i segni, rinnovare i significati, Quaderni del Dipartimento di geografia di Padova, 2010. 9. Caritas – Migrantes, XXIII Rapporto immigrazione, Todi, Tau, 2013. 10. Centro Astalli, Rapporto annuale 2015, attività e servizi del Centro Astalli, Rome, 2015. 11. Coderoni S. and Perito M.A., “Migration from the Southern Mediterranean Countries. An Analysis of Some Macro Drivers”, Global Environment (White Horse Press), 7, 2, 2014, pp. 291-325. 12. Cristaldi F., Immigrazione e territorio, lo spazio con/diviso, Bologna, Pàtron, 2012. 13. Cristaldi F., “Le migrazioni ambientali: prime riflessioni geografiche” in Aru S., Corsale A. and Tanca M. (Eds.), Percorsi migratori della contemporaneità. Forme, pratiche, territori. CUEC, University Press/Ricerche sociali, 2013, pp. 41-53. 14. Cristaldi F., “I nuovi schiavi: gli immigrati del Gran Ghetto di San Severo”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 122, 2014, pp. 119-142. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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15. Cristaldi F. and Castagnoli D. (Eds.), Le parole per dirlo. Migrazioni, comunicazione e territorio, Perugia, Morlacchi, 2012. 16. Daini P., “Mappe cognitive e mappe disegnate: le hand-drawn sketch maps, come espressioni psicologiche e geografie personali”, Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, XI, X, 1993, pp. 191201. 17. De Vecchis G., Riflessioni per una didattica geografica, Rome, Kappa, 1994. 18. De Vecchis G., Geografia della mobilità. Muoversi e viaggiare in un mondo globale, Rome, Carocci, 2014. 19. De Vecchis G. and Staluppi G.A., Fondamenti di didattica della geografia, Turin, UTET, 1997. 20. Eden C., “Analyzing cognitive maps to help structure issues or problems”, European Journal of Operational Research, 159, 3, 2004, pp. 673-686. 21. Farah N., Rifugiati, Voci della diaspora somala, Rome, Meltemi, 2003. 22. Friedman J. and Randeria S., Worlds on the Move: Globalization, Migration and Cultural Security, London, I.B. Tauris, 2004. 23. Fuller G. and Chapman M., “On the role of mental maps in migration research”, International Migration Review, 8, 4, 1974, pp. 491-506. 24. Gatti F., Bilal. Viaggiare, lavorare, morire da clandestini, Milan, BUR, 2008. 25. Geddes A., The Politics of Migration and Immigration in Europe London, London, Sage, 2003. 26. Geotema, Immigrazione e processi di interazione culturale, 43-44-45, 20112012. 27. Giordano A., Movimenti di popolazione, Rome, Luiss University Press, 2015. 28. Gokten C. and Sudas I., “The image of Australia: a case study on the mental Maps of Turkish immigrants in Sidney”, Journal of Geography and Geology, 6, 2, 2014, pp. 82-92. 29. Gold P. and White R., Mental Maps, London, Routledge, 2002. 30. Joly D., International Migration in the New Millennium: Global Movement and Settlement, London, Ashgate, 2004.

31. Kofman E., Gender and International Migration in Europe: Employment, Welfare and Politics, London, Routledge, 2000. 32. Krasna F., Alla ricerca dell’identità perduta, Una panoramica degli studi geografici sull’immigrazione straniera in Italia, Bologna, Pàtron, 2009. 33. Livi Bacci M., In cammino. Breve storia delle migrazioni, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010. 34. Masiello S., Punti di fuga, prospettive sociologiche sul diritto di asilo e i rifugiati in Italia, Naples, Liguori, 2007. 35. OIM, Migration and Climate Change, Migration Research, 31, 2008. 36. OIM, 1951-2011: le migrazioni in Italia tra passato e futuro, Rome, Centro Studi e Ricerche Idos, 2012. 37. Oropeza J.A., “Premessa”, in Petrovic N., Rifugiati, profughi, sfollati. Breve storia del diritto all’asilo in Italia dalla Costituzione a oggi, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2011, pp. 13-15. 38. Papotti D., “Guardare un paesaggio è già possederlo? La ‘democrazia del paesaggio’ fra mobilità globale, immigrazione e localismi identitari”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 120, 4, 2013, pp. 290-306. 39. Petrovic N., Rifugiati, profughi, sfollati. Breve storia del diritto all’asilo in Italia dalla Costituzione a oggi, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2011. 40. Pollice F., Popoli in fuga: geografia delle migrazioni forzate, Naples, Cuen, 2007. 41. Raffestin C., “Il concetto di territorialità”, in Bertoncin M. and Pase A. (Eds.), Territorialità. Necessità di regole condivise e nuovi vissuti territoriali, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2007, pp. 21-31. 42. Rocca L., Minelle C. and Bussi F., “Building geographical knowledge toge-ther: the case of a Geography teaching on line course”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 2014, pp. 3148. 43. Save the Children, Ending the hidden exclusion. Learning and equity in education post 2015, London, 2015. 44. UNAR, Dossier Statistico Immigrazione, Rome, 2014. 45. UNESCO, “Education for All is affordable – by 2015 and beyond”. Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Policy Paper n.

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46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

06, 2013 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images /0021/002199/219998E.pdf. UNHCR, On the run in their own land, Geneva, United Nation, 2014. UNHCR, Asylum Trends 2014, Geneva, 2015. VV.AA., Rapporto sulla protezione internazionale in Italia, Rome, 2014. White S.E., “Mental map variability: A migration modeling problem”, The Annals of Regional Science, 12, 3, 1978, pp. 89-97. Zimmermann K.F., European Migration: What do we know? Oxford University Press, 2005.

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Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 61-68 DOI: 10.4458/6063-05

Story Maps at school: teaching and learning stories with maps Miriam Martaa, Paolo Ossoa a

Esri Italia, Rome, Italy Email: mmarta@esriitalia.it

Received: September 2015 – Accepted: October 2015

Abstract Storytelling is the art of involving the emotions and the imagination of people by telling stories. Mapbased Storytelling can be very useful to transmit knowledge in several topics, focusing on where the stories take place. In this paper we explore the opportunities offered by Storytelling with maps in didactics. In particular we refer to the set of different applications offered by Esri to build Story Maps based on different approaches and techniques. We also describe a project, promoted by Esri Italia in collaboration with the Italian Association of Geography Teachers, that involved several Italian schools, to spread the concept of Story Maps and their role in teaching and learning different topics. Keywords: Story Maps, GIS, Storytelling, Didactics, ArcGIS Online

1. The didactic power of Storytelling In the last years many authors have been stressing the power of storytelling to involve the audience in order to transmit knowledge. In particular the art of storytelling has been experienced in the classroom to catch the attention of pupils. Storytelling is an oral art of performing a story with a live audience (Kirkby et al., 2014). Of course storytelling is not a new method of teaching. On the contrary storytelling is the most ancient form of education. More than 200,000 years ago cave paintings were already used to tell stories through the use of pictures. Later on Copyright© Nuova Cultura

oral tradition was very important in Africa and Ancient Greece. It is worth noting that not every human culture in the world is literate, but every single culture tells stories (Henningen, 2005). People around the world have used stories as a powerful way to transmit cultural values, traditions, beliefs and history to future generations (Hardy, 1978). Storytelling is still a successful way to involve the audience because the words and actions of the performer are tools used to encourage the listener’s imagination. Indeed, concepts can be more easily assimilated if they are presented in the form of a story. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

Furthermore through storytelling the teller and the audience become directly and tightly connected. So Storytelling is the oldest form of teaching. It was used very early on by human communities to give children the answers to important questions such as creation and the origin of life. In this way teachers can be considered as having been storytellers for millennia (Henningen, 2005). To stress the capacity of storytelling to impress the audience the teacher can prepare the stories in a way that suits the pupils in relation to their age and interests. Digital storytelling recently emerged as a new and interesting way to tell stories, thanks to the support of new media and technologies. The idea is to use a set of multimedia, such as text, graphics, images, audio and videos to narrate a wide range of tales, from historical events, to scientific topics, current events and personal life, typically with a strong emotional component. The great opportunity for this form of digital expression is that these stories can be created by people everywhere, on any subject, and easily shared all over the world through the web. In the field of education, teachers and their students, from early childhood classes through graduate school, are using digital storytelling in many different ways. Digital stories available on the web can be helpfully used by teachers to deal with topics that are difficult to address through traditional methods. Indeed the power of storytelling to involve the audience is strengthened by the support of multimedia that involves the emotional side of people even more. At the same time teachers can use digital stories as an opportunity for students to build their own stories, exploiting the confidence of the new generation in creating digital contents and sharing them online. Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn them into a multidimensional experience, through the combination of voice, text, images, audio and video. It encourages them to communicate, collaborate, research and gain a deeper understanding of history as they explore the most effective way to retell it. CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

A very interesting and successful way to build digital stories is to incorporate maps in storytelling. Storytelling with maps can be used across many topics, for literature, history, geography, politics, environment, science.

2. Telling stories with maps Maps tell many different types of stories. Indeed maps have been telling stories for centuries. Maps have always captured the attention of people, stimulating imagination and inspiration (Kerski, 2013). Maps, as the travel stories of missionaries, diplomats and merchants, were the basis of geography and, in general, were used as a tool to transmit the knowledge of the world. The importance of storytelling through maps was also stressed in the past when the journeys of famous leaders were turned into fictional stories. The stories of the trips were built to impress the reader with wonderful and fantastic facts (Palagiano, 2007). Medieval maps were for example used to transmit a set of geographical knowledge and to propose a vision of the world, putting together cosmology and theology. The description of reality was part of the more general explanation of the world (Conti, 2007). Since the function of maps has always been to describe and to tell the known world, or the knowledge of the world, in the past decades maps have been integrated with data analysis and have been strengthened through many different tools by digital technologies. Geographic Information Systems, web maps and mobile apps, are used every day to inform people, locate services, alert in case of emergencies, support decision, to communicate and to do many other kinds of things connected to geolocation. Nowadays maps can, therefore, tell stories in new ways. Maps are useful tools to describe phenomena, situations and relationships, to trace routes and positions of objects, to show changes that have occurred over time, to point out differences in places, to model possible scenarios related to different actions. For these reasons maps are very important to support decisions and make plans.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

A Story Map has all the functions of a normal map but, in addition, it can be specifically created to stress the message and the story which the author wants to express. Story maps include a set of functions and instruments, such as texts, popups, graphs, charts, photos, videos, audio, that facilitate the comprehension of the story. Story maps are, indeed, particularly effective to inform, educate, entertain and involve the audience. But these new abilities of maps do not necessarily allow us to be good storytellers if we are not able to take advantage of this new way of building maps. There are some general principles to follow in order to increase the ability of a Story Map to be an effective communication medium. Esri Inc., one of the most important companies worldwide in the field of geospatial technology, is working hard to explore different ways and solutions to create Story Maps and to tell stories through maps. The Esri Story Maps team develops templates, applications and guidelines on how to make Story Maps through ArcGIS Online, one of the main elements of the Esri Platform for GIS technology. ArcGIS Online offers many opportunities for nonspecialists to develop maps to promote their own best practices. ArcGIS Online makes it possible to create web maps through a combination of available basemaps, thematic maps, data, popups, with texts, audio, videos. The resulting maps can be shared with everyone and be viewed on multiple devices. There are different types of Story Maps. The simplest Story Map provides a set of reference points located on a map. These points can be associated with descriptive texts. Using other Esri templates it is possible to explain a geography-related topic, summarize a status or situation, compare two or more themes or places, showing changes over time, forecasting the future, providing a narrative. Such story maps can tell the extent of damage from an eruption, the pattern of vegetation in a national park, compare cities around the world, show changes occurring in land use, explore the scenario of climate change (Esri, 2012b). It is very easy to build these story maps, following a wizard on the website www.arcgis.com. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

This is the result of a rapid change in the GIS technology promoted by Esri to involve large audiences. Story maps can be used in the classroom for both teaching and learning. The website http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/ provides a set of existing Story Maps that can be useful to propose topics in a different way. Story maps are divided into the following fields: Architecture and Design, Business, Conservation and Sustainability, Culture, Destinations, Events and Disasters, History, Infrastructure and Planning, Nature and Environment, Oceans, Parks and Recreation, People and Health, Public Art, Science and Technology, Sports and Entertainment, Travelogues. Another way to use Story Maps in the classroom is to ask the students to build their own map. The process to realize a Story Map is to develop a storyboard, gather data, create a web map, save and share it. It is very important to help students to figure out what story they want to communicate and to what audience. Then it is necessary to consider all the elements, such as data, texts, videos, audio, to be included in the story that must be as clear as possible (Esri, 2012b). Through the realization of their own Story Map the students have the possibility to gather a deeper understanding of processes and causes of phenomena, to understand the interrelationships and the effects of events, to inform and inspire their classmates. Another way to let students explore the world of Story Maps is to divide the class into several groups and to assign different tasks to do. It can also be interesting to use Story Maps, for example the template called “Map tour”, to relate a school trip, locating on a map all the places visited and associating pictures and descriptions with these points. Another useful way to evaluate the power of Story Maps in didactics is to use them to assign homework. Teachers can build, also together with the students, a map by locating a set of points. These points can be associated to texts describing a topic, such as history, geography or literature. For each point is it possible to provide a text to read and a set of questions to answer. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

3. The use of Story Maps at school: the project of Esri Italia and AIIG Although Storytelling with maps is a very useful tool in education, a problem in promoting this method is the lack of teachers who are trained with web-based mapping and geotechnologies. However the migration of geospatial technology to the web has reduced the number of barriers for teachers to implement such tools at school. They no longer need to install software and a computer laboratory but just an ordinary web browser (Kerski, 2013). In addition, the new web-based applications are very simple to learn. Esri Italia is doing everything to promote ArcGIS Online and the tool of Storytelling with maps, also helping teachers in discovering the power of Story Maps in didactics. On the occasion of the GIS Day 2014, the international day to celebrate the importance of Geography worldwide, Esri Italia and the Association of Italian Geography Teachers, promoted the project “Story Maps at school: teaching and learning stories with maps”, that involved more than 60 teachers, of several subjects, in order to teach them how to use and build Story Maps in the classroom. Several schools of Rome, Turin and Florence and approximately 1,800 students were

involved. This initiative was very successful and the participants were very impressed by the opportunities that these instruments can offer. The teachers involved had the possibility to learn different ways to use Story Maps to teach special topics (using the web site http://storymaps.arcgis. com/en/) and helped their students in building their own Story Maps through the Esri web application called Map tour. The different classes of students involved realised a remarkable number of Story Maps, concerning projects involving their schools, school trips, special topics, a set of points of interest near the school district. The students had the opportunity to express themselves, choosing the story to tell and how to tell it. Naturally this task was also a medium to learn Geography and the use of GIS technologies. The Esri Italia 2015 Conference (April 15-16, Rome) hosted a special session devoted to GIS and didactics and the Organising Committee gave an award to the best application built by the schools participating in the project. All the Story Maps realised are included in a web gallery: http://www.esriitalia.it/mapgallery/ thegeobservatory/Cosa/GISDay_2014/. These Story Maps testify the imagination and enthusiasm shown by the students and their teachers.

Figure 1. “The Age of Humans” an atlas on human influences, as well as the cities that are helping to re-shape the way our species interacts with the planet. Source: http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

Figure 2. “Oklahoma Before and After the Tornado” a Story Map to compare aerial views before and after the tornado of May 20, 2013. Source: http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/.

Figure 3. “Explore a Tapestry of World Ecosystems” a Story Map on global ecosystems. Source: http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

Figure 5. A web map in ArcGIS Online including texts to read and questions to answer. Source: www.arcgis.com.

Figure 6. The Story Map realised by the catering college “J. Beccari” of Turin. It is about food and the students made an original video, included in the map, to give an account of their activities at school. The Story Map received a special prize. Source: http://www.esriitalia.it/mapgallery/thegeobservatory/Cosa/GISDay_2014/.

Figure 7. The Story Map realised by the school ITE of Ceccano. In the Story Map the students described the highlights of their region. The Story Map received a special prize. Source: http://www.esriitalia.it/mapgallery/thegeobservatory/Cosa/GISDay_2014/. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

4. Conclusions As we personally experimented during the project “Story Maps at school: teaching and learning stories with maps”, Storytelling with maps” motivates students. They consider it to be an interesting activity and a skill that is worth acquiring. It helps students in developing a positive attitude toward the learning process (Hamilton and Weiss, 2005). Students are actively involved in the process of creating Storytelling with maps; they learn to be creative, by thinking and telling their own stories. Students also experience that different people have different methods, sensibility and that everyone has his own way to tell a story (Hamilton and Weiss, 2005). Storytelling with maps is an opportunity to promote imagination and imagination helps us to solve problems and to think outside the box.

Acknowledgements M. Marta has written paragraphs 1-2 and 4; P. Osso paragraph 3.

References 1. Azzari M., Zamperlin P. and Landi F., “GIS in Geography Teaching”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 27-42. 2. Bertazzon S., “Rethinking GIS teaching to bridge the gap between technical skills and geographic knowledge”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 2, 2013, pp. 67-72. 3. Burrough P.A. and McDonnell R.A., Principles of Geographical Information Systems, Oxford University Press, 1998. 4. Campbell J., Introduzione alla cartografia, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1989.

The use of maps in school is very important in all the subjects in which location is a key component and in order to build a problembased education (Kerski, 2013). Indeed, we can use map-based Storytelling to point out where facts, events, phenomena, etc. take place.

5. Conti S., “L’idea dell’Oriente nella cartografia dal medioevo all’inizio dell’età moderna”, in Palagiano C., Pesaresi C. and Marta M. (Eds.), L’impresa di Marco Polo, Cartografia, viaggi, percezione, Rome, Tiellemedia, 2007, pp. 37-52.

The use of geotechnologies in classroom can be addressed to building web-based maps and Story Maps. Indeed dealing with geotechnologies has become very important since mapping services are part of many everyday experiences. To know these instruments is both an opportunity and a challenge since the use of geotechnologies will be even more diffused in the future (Kerski, 2013).

6. Esri, “Storytelling with Maps: Workflows and Best Practices”, 2012a, http://Story maps.ESRI.com/downloads/Building%20St ory%20Maps.pdf.

Story Maps help students in understanding that the Earth is changing: they can begin to think about what, where and why it is changing. It will help in asking questions, about the changes occurring and about the possible actions to undertake. This is what is called problem and value-based learning, which is a method to promote the education of activism (Kerski, 2013). This is how Geography can help in building a better world.

7. Esri, “Telling Stories with Maps – A White Paper”, 2012b http://Story.maps.ESRI.com /downloads/Telling%20Stories%20with%20 Maps.pdf. 8. Giglio A., Marta M., Morri R., Pesaresi C. and Ronza M., “I GIS per l’integrazione tra natura e tecnologia. Uno strumento per la diffusione della cultura geografica”, Ambiente Società Territorio – Geografia nelle Scuole, 3, 2012, pp. 21-28. 9. Hamilton M. and Weiss M., Excerpt from children tell stories: teaching and using storytelling in the classroom, Katonah, Richard C. Owen Publishers, 2005. 10. Hardy B., “Narrative as a primary Act of Mind”, in Meek M., Warlow A. and Barton

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Miriam Marta, Paolo Osso

G. (Eds.), The cool web: the pattern of children’s reading, New York, Atheneum, 1978, pp. 12-23. 11. Henningen H., The didactic functions of storytelling in the primary school classroom, Orlamünd, Grin, 2005. 12. Kerski J.J., Understanding Our Changing World through Web-Mapping Based Investigations, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 11-26. 13. Kirby J., Faulkner J. and Perrin J., “‘Once there was a…’: Reclaiming storytelling in the middle years”, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 22, 2, 2014, pp. i-x. 14. Lago L., Imago Mundi et Italiae. La versione del mondo e la scoperta dell’Italia nella cartografia antica, Trieste, La Mongolfiera, 1994.

15. Ludovisi A. and Torresani S., Storia della cartografia, Bologna, Pàtron, 1996. 16. Marta M. and Morri R., Per una didattica del luogo: l’utilizzo dei GIS, in Bozzato S. and Reali R. (Eds.), GIS e Territorio. Laboratori sperimentali per una nuova didattica della Geografia, Rome, Società Geografica Italiana, 2012, pp. 27-40. 17. Palagiano C., “La percezione dell’Asia ai tempi di Marco Polo”, in Palagiano C., Pesaresi C. and Marta M. (Eds.), L’impresa di Marco Polo, Cartografia, viaggi, percezione, Rome, Tiellemedia, 2007, pp. 19-36. 18. Pesaresi C., “Strumenti applicativi della geografia moderna”, in De Vecchis G., Didattica della geografia. Teoria e prassi, Novara, UTET – De Agostini, 2011, pp. 97-112.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 69-78 DOI: 10.4458/6063-06

The changing relations between school, food and agriculture. The case of the educational farms in Sardinia Andrea Corsalea a

Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio, University of Cagliari, Italy Email: acorsale@unica.it

Received: October 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Accepted: November 2015

Abstract Educational farms are a relatively recent form of activity for agricultural operators, aimed at spreading the knowledge of cultivation techniques, promoting healthy food products and supporting rural culture and natural heritage. They generate additional revenues for farmers and combine active learning and nutrition education, enhancing the awareness of the social and environmental role of the rural world. The Italian experience is mainly based on regional and local initiatives. The author critically analyzed the pedagogical offer of the network of the registered educational farms of Sardinia and conducted a survey on a sample of selected and representative ones in order to understand their views on the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in the educational activity, and to evaluate the current trends in this sector. The survey revealed significant strengths, related to their widespread distribution, their diverse offer and the ongoing educational training of their operators. However, several weaknesses, owing to modest revenues, competition by unregistered farms and lack of specialized educators, seem to hamper their further development. Proposals excessively focused on descriptive approaches and merely local features are also still very common. Keywords: Agriculture, Educational Farms, Local Development, Sardinia

1. Introduction As the need for a solid relation between school, agriculture and territory is considered crucial for cultural, environmental, economic and health reasons, it is useful to investigate this topic at the general and local level. Educational farms offer key opportunities to bring the rural world closer to urban or urbanized children and families, ultimately and ideally building a diversified, synergic and structured training and

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educational system able to promote healthy nutrition and environmentally friendly agriculture (Maldague, 1990). The advantages in terms of didactic opportunities and results clearly go beyond the specific theme of environmental and nutrition education and encompass geographical education, according to the related renewed methods of systemic territorial analysis and experience (Gerber, 2003).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Andrea Corsale

The pedagogical principles of teaching in farms are based on a practical and active approach. In fact, these educational principles had already been theorized, among others, by Bailey (1909), Montessori (1912) and Dewey (1915). Montessori, in particular, had sensed the special bond that exists between children and nature, recognizing its immense educational potential. In her book “The Discovery of the Child”, published in 1948, she devotes an entire chapter to “Nature in education”, considering it one of the most important elements to be used in schools. Schools, complete with gardens, often prescribed basic farming as a powerful means of education already in the early XX Century. The contact with nature and the responsibilities arising from the care of flowers, plants and animals were considered important ways to promote the personal autonomy of children (Desmond, Grieshop and Subramaniam, 2004). The spread of mass education during the XX Century coincided with the end of rural civilization and the growth of globalization, thus calling for a closer and renewed relation between education and agriculture (Rilla and Desmond, 2000; Zavalloni, 2010). Experiential education is a process through which a learner constructs knowledge, skill, and value from direct experiences. According to Kolb’s experiential learning model (Kolb, 1975 in Weatherford and Weatherford, 1987) concrete experience leads to observations and reflections. These, in turn, result in the formation of abstract concepts and generalizations of these concepts as well as the capacity to test the implications of these concepts in new situations. Developmental psychologists have attempted to study children’s relationships with nature and whether an innate sense of kinship with nature manifests itself by the time they reach a certain age (Tuan, 1978). Edith Cobb (1969) wrote that middle childhood (from approximately five to twelve years) is when the “natural world is experienced in some highly evocative way.” Tuan (1978) additionally suggests that children have to be taught by adults about their natural environment, as “nature is an inarticulate teacher.” Children show a natural curiosity about the world, but this curiosity may be easily repressed if adults fail to nurture it.

School gardens have been widely used to teach children about nutrition and how to make healthier food choices, but direct experience of the agricultural world can produce effective results, too (Morris, Briggs and ZidenbergSherr, 2000). Manual activity, direct observation, investigation and discovery allow the child to actively live the educational experience. Visiting a farm also helps in building a network of relations between school and territory, between consumers and producers. Support for local products, increase in consumer awareness, endorsement of health and nutrition education and promotion of territorial identity are important connected objectives. Multidisciplinary educational approaches, including, among others, geography, history, ecology, technology and ethnography, are particularly appropriate (Disinger and Monroe, 1994; Drake, 1998; Skelly and Zajicek, 1998). The Italian Governmental “Regulations on the National Guidelines for the Curriculum” (2012) recognize educational and territorial laboratories as methods of fundamental importance in schools: “[...] The laboratory is the best way of working that encourages research and planning, involving students in thinking, evaluating and implementing activities lived in a participated and shared way, and can be activated within the school as well as promoting the territory as a resource for learning [...]” (http://www.istruzione.it/). This implicitly recognizes the high pedagogical value of educational farms and the importance of the relations between schools, territory and producers. These conditions contributed to the consolidation of multifunctional farms, which include education within their service offer, and often show great capacity for innovation, developing their proposals beyond the traditional paths of nutrition and environmental education. New and increasingly structured and differentiated educational proposals, ranging from painting with natural colors to archaeology camps, including multidisciplinary approaches and themes such as multiculturalism and global issues, are quickly spreading in many Italian contexts (Bertazzoni, 2005; Sofo and Natile, 2013). However, widespread weaknesses due to the generally and relatively modest economic Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Andrea Corsale

benefits linked with educational activities are well present (Marsden and Sonnino, 2008; Ohe, 2012). The experience of educational farms in Italy followed a somewhat different path from other European countries. Their birth, while finding its roots in the older experiences of Europe and the United States, only occurred in the second half of the XX century, when the technological, cultural and social context changed the relations with food and rural territory (Brusa, 2004; Dematteis, 2001). The early steps for opening farms to visitors can be traced back to the 1960s, when events such as the “Open Gates” and the “Days at the Farm” appeared in Northern Italy, to promote contacts between city and countryside. Only in 1997, though, did educational farms become an organized stable reality. The first active region in this regard was EmiliaRomagna: in that year Alimos (then called Centrale Ortofrutticola), a not-for-profit corporation consisting of agronomists and agrotechnicians, organized the first permanent group of educational farms with the help of various farmers of the province of Forlì-Cesena, forming the Network of Educational Farms of Romagna. The network was soon expanded through the project “Open Farms and Educational farms”; this initiative included an accreditation process with an obligation to sign a charter of quality and attend specialized training courses (Canavari et al., 2011). Following this example, other regional administrations, such as Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, set up their own networks and quality charters. In recent years, the phenomenon has rapidly grown, from 1,936 educational farms surveyed by Alimos in 2010 to more than 2,500 in 2015. Educational farms are concentrated in particular in the North of Italy, but their number is expected to grow in the whole country, because they respond to a widespread need for schools to introduce children to the world of agricultural production and food chain, supporting environmental and nutrition education (Guigoni, 2006; Montanari, 2004; Russo, 2009). The reasons that prompted farmers to undertake such initiatives are both social and economic. On the one hand, there was a clear need to bridge the gap between urban and rural Copyright© Nuova Cultura

culture that had widened between the 1950s and 1980s, following the process of industrialization of the country and the massive exodus of workers from the countryside and from agriculture to industry and services sectors. On the other hand, there was a need for farmers to promote farm products and find additional sources of income. The ultimate mission is to promote a new food culture (Boschetti and Lo Surdo, 2008; Casini, 2009; Nazzaro, 2008). The Universal Exposition held in Milan between May and October 2015, focused on the multifaceted links between agriculture, nutrition, health, environment and technology, stirred renewed interest for the theme within the Italian schools, resulting in a potential boost for the educational farm sector (Conti, 2015). To qualify as an “educational farm”, quality standards apply, related to security, training, competence, and pedagogical setting. In the absence of a specific national law, the regional governments establish their own registers of educational farms and their associated quality charters, which define the rules and parameters that farms must follow to be accredited.

2. Research methodology In order to investigate the matter at the local level, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted. The study incorporated the three main sources of information recognized in qualitative research: consultation of secondary sources, observations and interviews (Merriam, 2002; Patton, 2002). Prior to entering the field, a range of secondary sources was consulted. A review of literature on the relation between agriculture, gardening and education, part of which has been cited above, was undertaken to provide a broad academic context for the research. The present state of the agricultural sector in Sardinia was also analyzed through official data. The following step consisted in a critical survey on the services offered by the registered educational farms in Sardinia, through the official Register, followed by a total of 10 semistructured interviews with owners of educational farms located in the provinces of Nuoro and Oristano, selected by the author in order to represent the main different landscapes and Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Andrea Corsale

cropping systems of the island (Table 1). Farm owner Luigi Franca Giovanna Massimo Patrizia Antonio Simona Pietro

Province

Main productions

Nuoro Nuoro Nuoro Nuoro Nuoro Nuoro Oristano Oristano

Gianni Salvatore

Oristano Oristano

Wheat, wine, cheese Oil, fruits, vegetables Cheese, honey Meat, milk, cheese Wheat, honey, fruits Oil, wine Fruits, vegetables Wheat, meat, cheese, wine Cheese, wine, meat Rice, vegetables

Table 1. Surveyed educational farms. Elaborated by A. Corsale.

The interviews were held by telephone between March and June 2015. The objective of the survey among the selected farmers was to understand their views on the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in the educational activity, and to analyze the current trends in this sector.

3. Educational farms in Sardinia The system of registered educational farms in Sardinia developed in the late 2000s, together with increasingly strong investments on nutrition education programmes by the Regional Government, particularly through its Agency for Agriculture (ERSAT, Ente regionale di sviluppo e assistenza tecnica in agricoltura, today LAORE, Agenzia per l’attuazione dei programmi regionali in campo agricolo e per lo sviluppo rurale). Experiences of school group visits to farms and food processing facilities had already been common since the 1980s, but a recognized net-work of institutionally certified educational structures was only created in 2008 (www.sardegnaagricoltura.it). The creation of a stable, certified and recognizable network of educational proposals within the agricultural world, following the model of other Italian regions, was expected to produce multiple benefits: for farmers the opportunity to diversify the activities and increase business visibility; for students the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

experience of “learning nature” on the ground and get in touch with the world of work; for the institutions the chance to promote territorial systems, local development and healthy nutrition (Corsale, Iorio and Sistu, 2009). The Charter of Quality was adopted by the Regional Government with the Resolution 33/10 dated 5th September 2007, which contextually established the Regional Register of Educational Farms. The document defines the educational farm as “an agricultural or agro-tourist enterprise, either single or associated, which offers educational and environmental services, whose goal is the rediscovery of local, traditional and quality products of Sardinia, knowledge of agricultural and livestock production cycles and the strengthening of the links among agriculture, land and food, for schools of all levels and, more generally, for all consumers”. Clear guidelines are provided on how to run the activity, on structural and production characteristics, on safety, hygiene, organization and logistics. The Quality Charter also defines the aspects of communication, the use of the logo, the fees and the obligations that the operator must subscribe to. Among the basic requirements, the activity has to be conducted by a farmer or an agricultural entrepreneur. These farms must play a real activity of agricultural production according to either organic production systems or low environmental impact ones, respecting ecosystems and animal welfare, in order to highlight the links between agriculture and nature and between agriculture and healthy nutrition. The educational farm operators are required to develop specific pedagogical skills through a qualifying training course of 90 hours, organized on a provincial basis by the Regional Agency for Agriculture (LAORE), which must be followed by periodic refresher courses of 30 hours, every two years. A specific certificate is awarded after the successful attendance of the training course, and its possession is a requirement for membership in the Regional Register of Educational Farms since 2007. The courses are focused on the ability to transmit agronomic and nutrition knowledge, environmental values and rural cultural heritage to visitors of different age groups. Operator training includes, in addition to strictly agronomic and ecologic skills, specific modules on management,

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Andrea Corsale

coordination and design of educational programmes to be implemented in the farm. Since many farmers and agricultural operators do not always have a solid education background themselves, the main aim is to promote teaching methods based on simple and understandable concepts, conveying activism, curiosity and emotions. Educational proposals must be diversified according to the different age groups and preparatory materials for schools should be provided. Particular attention is paid by the Charter to the structural characteristics that the farms should have to meet the specific needs of users. They must have comfortable indoor spaces as well as equipped outdoor areas. Safety and hygiene are also regulated by the Charter. Operators must be trained in safety at work and first aid; special attention is placed on the prevention of all risks and insurance against civil liability is mandatory. Guest registers and procedures for auditing and monitoring activities must be present, too. Registered farms are awarded the collective brand logo “Educational Farm of Sardinia” since 2008 (Figure 1). In order to strengthen the initiative and protect both participating farmers and visitors, specific procedures and systems of control, with appropriate penalties for lack of compliance with the rules, exist. Farms which do not respect the regulations and quality standards can be cancelled from the register and prohibited from using the logo.

Figure 1. The logo of the educational farms of Sardinia. Elaborated by A. Corsale, 2015.

Since the creation of the network, the increase in the number of participating farms has been considerable: from 78 units in 2008 to 128 in 2010, to a record of 172 in 2014, followed by a decrease to 165 in 2015. They are particularly widespread in the inland areas of Sardinia. The province of Nuoro holds the largest number of farms (39, representing 23.6% of the total), followed by the provinces of Sassari (18.2%), Oristano (14.2%), Cagliari (11.5%), Carbonia-Iglesias (8.5%), Ogliastra (8.5%), Medio Campidano (7.9%) and Olbia-Tempio (7.3%). Among the registered farms, 58.8% are run by male farmer and the remaining 41.2% by female farmers (www.sardegnaagricoltura.it). The most recent statistical data about the agricultural sector of Sardinia show critical and evolving features. According to the latest Census on Agriculture (2010), 60,812 businesses were active in the island, with a significant drop from the previous census of 2000 (107,442 units). Sardinian farms have the largest average surface in Italy (19 hectares, up from 9 hectares in 2000), but 60% of the utilized agricultural area is used as pastures, compared to the national average of 27%. The number of workers in the sector also dropped significantly, from 215,097 in 2000 to 119,305 in 2010. About 85% of the work is done by the owners and their families (www.istat.it). In 2012 agriculture and food processing produced 6% of Sardinian GDP and 4% of the region’s export. The balance of trade shows a consistent deficit; in 2014 agricultural and food imports reached € 309 million, while exports were € 180 million (www.crenosterritorio.it). Of course this means that, in spite of these negative data, the agricultural sector of Sardinia has wide margins of potential recovery and growth, first of all considering its internal market. According to the data provided by the Regional Government in 2012, within the periodical national governmental survey on children’s nutrition and health called “Okkio alla Salute” (slang for “focus on health”), 25.4% of children aged 8 and 9 are overweight (the national average is 32.8%); 24.1% eat fruit less than once a day, and this percentage reaches 39.1% for vegetables. Among the primary schools of the island, 81.6% includes nutrition education in their programmes; in the vast majority of cases (82%)

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the topic is taught by the schoolteacher alone (http://www.regione.sardegna.it/scuolaesalute/). Educational farms may thus clearly play a significant role in the improvement of the awareness of the link between nutrition and health and in the development of territorial systems where agriculture can find a renewed social, economic and cultural centrality.

4. Services offered to schools The registered educational farms offer a wide and dynamic range of proposals, constantly evolving in response to changing demands, needs and lifestyles. The activities offered to schools basically fall into three categories: educational programmes, workshops and supplementary activities. - Programmes are normally related to food and other products, as well as environment, farming and rural culture, ranging from production to transformation, from sustainnability to working methods and techniques, from past traditions to new evolutions. A guided tour of the farm is usually included, followed by a collective discussion and question-time between guests and hosts. Several farms organize excursions in the surroundings, too. - Workshops include mainly manual activities, product processing and sensory laboratories. The bread laboratory is among the most common because it is one of the bases of the Mediterranean diet and strongly recalls rural culture and traditions. Its length is relatively short and children can taste their own bread within the same day. Workshops on breadmaking often include elements of history, archaeology and ethnography. - Supplementary activities are offered in addition to the strictly educational ones and include sports and services directed at persons other than students, including childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s families. The programme generally includes a focus on the farm itself, the natural and cultural context, biodiversity, the cultivation techniques, the processing of the products, and the knowledge of typical crafts. Nutrition education is exemplified through the presentation of sample food chains (e.g. wheat-bread, milk-cheese, CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

olive-oil, bee-honey, medicinal plants-spirits, fruit-jams) and the organization of multisensory workshops. Different farming systems are involved, from commercial and industrial agriculture to organic, biodynamic and synergic ones. Traditional crops and livestock, such as sheep, goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, cows, red oxen and bees, are shown to visitors alongside new trends such as biogas stations, medicinal plants and ostrich breeding. Only two fishing activities have joined the network so far. The educational offer tends to periodically change depending on the season and the weather conditions. The activities can last from one morning to a whole day and can include meals. While the transformation of wheat, milk, olives and grapes into bread, cheese, oil and wine are the most common activities offered to the visitors, creative and innovative workshops are also present, from scarecrow making to alternative energy demonstrations, from aromatherapy to pet therapy. The substantial absence of protected areas in the inland regions of the island, due to local ongoing conflicts about their creation, make educational farms, together with the visitor centers run by the Sardinian Forestry Agency, the main hubs of environmental education in such areas. The adjustment to the required quality standards represents a significant burden for the operators, also considering that similar educational activities can be carried out by farms which are not included in the register, without attendance at training courses and observance of specific measures. Several schools still bring their classes to visit farms and food processing facilities which are not part of the network and do not therefore guarantee specific educational skills and spaces. In order to avoid this disincentive effect, the Regional Government of Sardinia offers financial support for the investments of farmers and operators on the restructuring of farm buildings to be used as socio-educational spaces. The support is realized through investment aids for the rehabilitation or construction of buildings with materials, shapes and construction techniques compatible with the rural landscape of Sardinia, and through the purchase of furniture and equipment. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Andrea Corsale

In order to further support the network, the Regional Government and other local administrations periodically launch campaigns and projects to favor systematic collaboration between schools and educational farms. An ambitious project called “Pipius-Med”, whose name comes from the Sardinian word “pipius” (children) and the abbreviation for “Mediterranean”, was launched by the Regional government in 2007. It involves primary and secondary schools, families, local communities and farms. An international dimension was introduced, aiming at the development of regional and interregional co-operation among schools, technicians and organic agriculture operators in the Western Mediterranean, stressing the common heritage of the various peoples who inhabit the region, with a diachronic approach which involves history and archaeology. The focus is on organic production, and children are assisted by agronomists from the Regional bodies, teachers and owners of the participating educational farms in the direct cultivation of a vegetable garden. Thus, they prepare the ground, dig, plant, water, weed, recognize beneficial and harmful insects, create compost and harvest fruits and vegetables. Other nutrition education programmes have been launched in recent years by the Regional Government, involving educational farms. The project “Satu po imparai” (Sardinian for “Countryside to learn”) has been implemented since 2010 in the province of Medio Campidano. It is a project on nutrition and environmental education promoted by LAORE, the provincial administration and the local health agency, involving nursery, primary and secondary schools together with registered educational farms within the territory of the province. The project aims to bring the world of education closer to rural life enhancing the multifunctional role of agricultural enterprises, offering a new way of teaching in the country involving children in themed games and practices. Among its aims, the promotion of local identity and heritage and the introduction of local certified food in school canteens (particularly bread, cheese, honey, yoghurt, fresh fruit) were most prominent. The project also focused on waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and the use of ecological detergents. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Its success led to the extension of the project, from 2012, to the provinces of Oristano, Nuoro and Carbonia-Iglesias, where it is called “Campu Maistu” (Sardinian for “Teacher field”). The main aims of the programme were confirmed, focusing on the education of children and families for a correct and healthy diet, awareness of the value of local heritage and food, introduction of these products in school canteens and strengthening of the network of educational farms. Within the project, schools and farms are invited to systematically collaborate in all the phases of planning and realization of the educational experience, in order to experiment focused and targeted actions and practices. In spite of these good practices, analyzing the offer at the general regional level, several weaknesses emerge. The Register does not work as a real network and synergies between participating farmers are limited. Besides some exceptions, the offer is rather repetitive and standardized. Dedicated websites and promotional brochures are still rare and hamper target expansion. Moreover, the patent focus on local traditions, identity and heritage can weaken the long-term educational value of the proposal when this is not appropriately linked with related global-level issues and the growing ethnic and cultural diversity of the Sardinian population.

5. The survey The interviews with the farm owners and operators led to an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of the offer, its economic role and its perspectives. Direct interviews by telephone were compared with their publicized proposals, through websites and brochures, in order to better set their features within the system. The ten farms surveyed produce some of the most common and typical agricultural and livestock products of the island, ranging from durum wheat to pecorino cheese (Table 1; Figure 2). Eight of them also work as agro-tourist farms providing meals and accommodation. Seven of them open all year round, two of them open in autumn and springtime, and one of them only in the springtime period. All of them are family-run businesses.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figure 2. An educational farm in inner Sardinia. Photo: A. Corsale, 2015.

Their educational proposals range from very traditional ones, consisting in showing children their animals and their cultivation techniques, to more active approaches, including workshops where children learn how to process food and cook simple recipes, to innovative activities dealing with ecology and sustainability. Descriptive approaches, however, tend to prevail (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Traditional sheep milking in an educational farm in inner Sardinia. Photo: A. Corsale, 2015.

Considerable stress on the value of local cultural heritage is present in all the educational proposals, usually directly linked with agriculture and rural life (local food varieties and recipes, crafts, customs, mythology, music, language, childlore etc.). Some of them include landscape

observation, biodiversity studies, sightseeing to local cultural and architectural highlights. Integration with prehistoric archaeology, linked with the widespread presence of Nuragic sites, often emerges in their proposals; one of them built a reconstruction of a Nuragic village and focuses on Neolithic agriculture and life. Since seven of these farms have an organic certification, this form of agriculture is normally presented and explained to the young visitors, while the others tend to stress the value of quality, tradition and localism. The educational proposals are usually standard, albeit diversified according to different age groups, but three of the surveyed farms declared having had experiences of collaboration with schools on customized activities after prior agreements with teachers and families. Primary schools are the main targets, but nursery and secondary school groups are relatively frequent, too, as well as external users such as adults, families, people with disabilities and tourists. Their views on the educational activities and business are mainly positive. The number of visitors ranges from 200 to 800 per school year and the applied rates vary from € 2 to € 8 per person for a short visit to € 20 for a full-day visit with meal. Participation in focused workshops and excursions has additional fees ranging from € 7 to € 15. Most surveyed farmers consider the activity as a promotional opportunity, stating that many children often come back with their families to eat meals and purchase the company’s products. At the same time, several critical points emerged through the survey. The income generated by the visits is generally considered modest, compared with the costs of complying with the strict regulations and regulations contained in the Charter of Quality. Competition from unregistered farms was mentioned as a serious problem by several interviewees, and the participation in the mandatory periodic refresher training courses is considered as a burden by most of them. Since the business is run at family level in all the cases surveyed, attending the courses and organizing high-level educational proposals is considered particularly time-consuming. According to the interviewees, modest revenues do not justify the employment of specialized educators.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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6. Conclusions Educational farms are a new form of activity for agricultural operators, aimed at spreading the knowledge of cultivation techniques, promoting food products and supporting local rural culture. They generate additional revenues for farmers and endorse active learning, respect for nature and familiarity with the territory. The spirit that animates the educational farm is to enhance the awareness of the social role of the rural world and to promote natural, historical, archaeological and cultural heritage. These farms mainly work with school groups but the general public can also benefit from their activities, including tourists. The Italian experience is rather recent and mainly based on regional and local initiatives. The educational farms of Sardinia, organized as an institutionalized network since 2007, show significant strengths, related to their widespread distribution, their diverse offer and the ongoing educational training of their operators. However, several weaknesses, owing to modest revenues, competition by unregistered farms and lack of specialized educators, seem to hamper their further development. Proposals excessively focused on descriptive approaches and merely local features are also still very common. These features were confirmed by the results of the survey. Several initiatives launched by regional and local administrations aim at overcoming these critical issues encouraging a more consistent collaboration between schools and farms, both in terms of educational projects and supply of local food. Wider perspectives, including a Mediterranean cultural and environmental dimension, are also encouraged, but still sporadic. Overall, according to the existing literature and the survey results, educational activities in agriculture are still often regarded as a social investment, rather than a profitable economic one, particularly for small producers. Possible keys for a further growth of the sector in the island may include more innovative educational approaches, links to global issues experienced through the local dimension, a more proactive role of school and teachers, openness towards multiculturalism, and a stronger integration with tourism, including incoming school tourism from other Italian regions and from abroad. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

References 1. Bailey L.H., The nature study idea, New York, McMillan Co, 1909. 2. Bertazzoni C., Fare scuola in fattoria, Milan, L’Informatore Agrario, 2005. 3. Boschetti M. and Lo Surdo G., L’Azienda agricola multifunzionale, Milan, L’Informatore agrario, 2008. 4. Brusa C., Crisi delle tradizioni alimentari, ristorazione e segni dell’etnicità, Milan, IRRE, 2004. 5. Canavari M., Huffaker C., Mari R., Regazzi D. and Spadoni R., “Educational farms in the Emilia-Romagna region: their role in food habit education”, in Sidali K.L., Spiller A. and Schulze B. (Eds.), Food, Agri-Culture and Tourism. Linking local gastronomy and rural tourism: interdisciplinary perspectives, Heidelberg, Springer, 2011, pp. 73-91. 6. Casini L., Guida per la valorizzazione della multifunzionalità dell’agricoltura, Florence, Firenze University Press, 2009. 7. Cobb E., “The ecology of imagination in childhood”, in Shepard P. and McKinley D. (Eds.), The Subversive Science: Essays Toward an Ecology of Man, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1969. 8. Conti S. (Ed.), Italian heritage. Landscapes, tastes and colours, Milan, Mondadori, 2015. 9. Corsale A., Iorio M. and Sistu G., “Turismo ed educazione ambientale”, in Pinna A.M. (Ed.), Economia della Sardegna, 16° Rapporto, CRENoS – Centre for North-South Economic Research, Universities of Cagliari and Sassari, Cagliari, CUEC, 2009, pp. 115118. 10. Dematteis G., “Reti globali, identità territoriali e ciberspazio”, in Bonora P. (Ed.), Comcities. Geografie della comunicazione, Bologna, Baskerville, 2001, pp. 51-59. 11. Desmond D., Grieshop J. and Subramaniam A., Revisiting garden-based learning in basic education, Rome, FAO, Paris, UNESCO, 2004. 12. Dewey J., Schools of tomorrow, New York, E.P. Dutton, 1915. 13. Disinger J.F. and Monroe M.C., Defining environmental education, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1994. 14. Drake S.M., Creating integrated curriculum, Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press, 1998. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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15. Gerber R. (Ed.), International Handbook on Geographical Education, Dordrecht, Springer, 2003. 16. Guigoni A., L’alimentazione mediterranea tra locale e globale, tra passato e presente, Cagliari, AM&D, 2006. 17. Maldague M. (Ed.), Methods and techniques for evaluating environmental, education, Paris, UNESCO, 1990. 18. Marsden T. and Sonnino R., “Rural Development and the Regional State: Denying Multifunctional Agriculture in the UK”, Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 4, 2008, pp. 422-431. 19. Merriam S.B., Qualitative Research in Practice, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2002. 20. Montanari M., Il cibo come cultura, Bari, Laterza, 2004. 21. Montessori M., The Montessori Method, New York, Stokes, 1912. 22. Montessori M., The discovery of the child, New York, Schocken, 1948. 23. Morris J., Briggs M. and Zidenberg-Cherr S., “School-based gardens can teach kids healthier eating habits”, California Agriculture, 54, 5, 2000, pp. 40-46. 24. Nazzaro C., Sviluppo rurale, multifunzionalità e diversificazione in agricoltura. Nuovi percorsi di creazione di valore per le aziende agricole delle aree interne del Mezzogiorno d’Italia, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2008. 25. Ohe Y., “Evaluating operators’ attitudes to educational tourism in dairy farms: The case of Japan”, Tourism Economics, 18, 3, 2012, pp. 577-595.

26. Orefice G. and Rizzuto M., Fattoria Didattica: come organizzarla, come promuoverla, Rome, Agra, 2009. 27. Patton M.Q., Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Los Angeles, Sage, 2002. 28. Rilla E. and Desmond D.J., Connecting children to the land: A review of programs in agricultural literacy in California, Oakland, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2000. 29. Russo V., Alimentazione, sostenibilità e multiculturalità. Azioni, riflessioni e temi di ricerca, Milan, Arcipelago, 2009. 30. Skelly S.M. and Zajicek J.M., “The effect of an interdisciplinary garden program in the environmental attitudes of elementary school students”, Hortechnology, 8, 4, 1998, pp. 579583. 31. Sofo A. and Natile M.C., La realtà rurale delle fattorie didattiche in Italia, Raleigh, Lulu Press, 2013. 32. Tuan Y., “Children and the natural environment”, in Altman I. and Wohlwill J.F. (Eds.), Children and the Environment, New York, Plenium Press, 1978. 33. Weatherford E. and Weatherford C.G., A review of theory and research found in selected experiential education, life skill development, and 4-H program impacts literature, Raleigh, North Carolina State University Press, 1987. 34. Zavalloni G., “A scuola dai contadini”, in Zavalloni G. (Ed.), Orti di pace. Il lavoro della terra come via educativa, Bologna, EMI, 2010.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 79-84 DOI: 10.4458/6063-07

English lessons: the changing nature of geography curriculum and assessment in England Alan Kindera a

The Geographical Association, Sheffield, United Kingdom Email: akinder@geography.org.uk

Received: October 2015 – Accepted: November 2015

Abstract Recent reforms to the national geography curriculum in England have been far reaching. Through “knowledge-led” reforms leading to the creation of a “core knowledge” geography curriculum, policy makers have emphasised both greater rigour and increased curriculum freedom for teachers. As a consequence, the way in which teachers approach geographical knowledge, particularly place knowledge, is under reexamination. At the same time, the removal of a nationally-agreed set of progression statements means that standards for 5-14 year olds have effectively become a local matter. The English experience therefore presents us with an opportunity to trace broad and international ideas in education, such as the “knowledge turn”, on national policies and subsequently on the pedagogy and assessment enacted by geography teachers. Keywords: Assessment, Core, Curriculum, England, Knowledge, National, Reform

1. Introduction For teachers of geography in England, the current school year (September 2016 – July 2016) presents a number of significant challenges. Reformed national curriculum Programmes of Study (PoS) for geography, which apply in maintained schools to pupils from 5-14 years, are barely a year old, and consequently much planning work remains in order to address their requirements. At the same time, a fundamental rethink is underway in terms of pupil assessment (Geographical Association – GA, 2015).

of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in 2010. A changed emphasis in policy towards education swiftly followed, articulated by the 2010 White Paper The importance of teaching (DfE, 2010), enacted by legislation in 2011 (HM Government, 2011) and espoused by a reform-minded Secretary of State for Education (Gove, 2013). Whilst the scope of these educational reforms was very wide, in relation to curriculum two particularly influential sources may be identified.

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2. Curriculum influences The first of these influences was a research paper, Could do better: Using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum in England (Oates, 2010). Described in its foreword by the Secretary of State as “fascinating and insightful” (ibid.), its author Tim Oates argued that the most effective curricula internationally: • employ sparsely-stated concepts, principles, fundamental operations and key knowledge to underpin processes focused on deep learning and valid assessment; • give freedom to schools to design teaching around these; • but also align curriculum (aims, content etc.) with other “control factors” e.g. learning materials, inspection arrangements etc. It seems clear that ministers’ thinking was also influenced by the work of E.D. Hirsch, and in particular his Core Knowledge Sequence (www.coreknowledge.org), which identified in a very precise way the domain – and age – specific knowledge that Hirsch argued was needed by pupils to develop deeper forms of understanding. The curriculum reforms might also be viewed as a response to concerns that England’s education system was falling behind other jurisdictions internationally, that a shift of emphasis away from “traditional subject disciplines” meant school leavers in England were not equipped with the knowledge they needed to succeed in the workplace or higher education, and that the National Curriculum itself, as a “project to reverse national economic and social decline” (Hopkin, 2013a), might have faltered. It is therefore highly significant that the 2014 National Curriculum for England described itself as “an introduction to the essential knowledge [students] need to be educated citizens... to the best that has been thought and said” (DfE, 2014), a marked change from its “recent trajectory… towards a relatively loose entitlement framework” (Hopkin, 2013a).

3. A knowledge-led geography curriculum In geography, the PoS are arranged into “Key Stages” for students of different age ranges, with the content of each structured around a “purpose Copyright© Nuova Cultura

of study” statement, “aims” and various content categories: “locational knowledge”, “human and physical geography” and “geographical skills and fieldwork” (DfE, 2013). These revised PoS now employ the kind of sparse language advocated by Oates, and contain a number of highly prescriptive (if not always precise) requirements for teaching (Table 1). Place and locational knowledge have a renewed emphasis, alongside knowledge of human and physical processes and some technical procedures, such as map skills – a so-called “places, processes and procedures” curriculum (Kinder, 2013a). 5-6 years - name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans - use basic geographical vocabulary (beach, cliff, city, town...)

7-10 years - position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator - human and physical geography of a region of the UK, in a European country, and within North or South America

11-14 years - extend knowledge of the world’s major countries and physical and human features - key processes in physical and human geography e.g. glaciation

- use simple compass directions Table 1. Excerpts from the English national curriculum PoS for geography. Source: Department for Education (DfE), 2013.

4. The impact of the new curriculum Assessing the impact of the new national curriculum in geography at this point in time is difficult, and not only because it is only around a year old. Whilst it has been observed over many years that the PoS were frameworks for planning rather than curricula as such (Boardman, 1995; Rawling, 1995; Westaway and Rawling, 2002; Rawling, 2008), it has more recently been argued that this edition of the national curriculum exerts particularly weak influence on the geography content selected for teaching, since the “essential core” approach (Figure 1) creates a good deal of curriculum content variation between schools (Kinder, 2013a) and other control factors are now more influential in schools (Mitchell, 2013). Furthermore, Martin (2014)

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points out that since new Academies and Free Schools are exempt from following the PoS, less than half the pupils aged over 11 years in England are even taught the national curriculum. So, whilst the PoS have stimulated interest in and teaching of some aspects of geography (the Americas and glaciation being notable examples, judging by the popularity of GA publications and training courses for teachers on these topics) it seems that the geography national curriculum in England, despite its name, no longer plays the strong national or curriculum-shaping function it once did.

Figure 1. The relationship between the essential core and the content selected in two schools. Source: Kinder, 2013a. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Geographical Association.

5. Curriculum debates What the national curriculum does seem to have done is stimulate professional debate, particularly around the status of knowledge in geography education. The question was much discussed during the curriculum-writing process (Morgan, 2011; Hopkin, 2011; Kinder and Lambert, 2011) and during this period the GA ran its own curriculum writing and consultation exercises, culminating in a draft “knowledge-led” curriculum document which elicited feedback from over two hundred teachers. One of the more thought-provoking aspects of the final feedback report was the observation that a “false debate” had influenced the thinking of some teachers, one in which “the ‘subject’ [of geography] is equated with sterile tradition and inert Copyright© Nuova Cultura

knowledge whilst ‘pupil interests’ are seen as the sole source of engagement, albeit transient and lacking in substance” (Kinder, 2012). In other words, prior to these reforms, some teachers seem to have come to regard their own specialist subject knowledge as having limited educational potential. The national educational debate about knowledge (or more accurately concerns about a knowledge deficit) had also coalesced in geography to some degree around the issue of place and locational knowledge. A national report by the school inspectorate stated that the “majority of students, especially in... weaker schools, had poorly developed core knowledge in geography. Their mental images of places and the world around them were often confused and lacked spatial coherence” (Ofsted, 2011), whilst Hopkin (2012) noted how requirements for locational knowledge had been reduced with successive iterations of the national curriculum (Table 2).

PoS

Locational knowledge requirement

1991

Identify features on six maps

1995

Identify features on three maps

1999

Detailed list of exemplars e.g. nine largest world cities

2007

Unspecified

2013

Specific world regions sequenced to create a “whole world map” by 14 years

Table 2. Locational knowledge requirements in the English national curriculum PoS for geography. Source: Kinder, 2013a. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Geographical Association.

The GA’s curriculum consultation exercises demonstrated very clearly that teachers were anxious about the prescription of place knowledge within a national curriculum, as for many this was an aspect of professional choice and freedom they valued highly (and used to deploy their own expert knowledge as well as connect with students’ experiences). Coupled to this was a fear that the teaching of location necesItalian Association of Geography Teachers

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sarily involved didactic teaching, or the teacher acting in transmission mode, with consequently low levels of engagement and knowledge retention. The subsequent publication of the statutory national curriculum document in 2013 prompted a range of responses from teachers, which did include excitement and a sense of liberation and challenge (Aston and Renshaw, 2014; Cook, 2014; Larkin and Goldup, 2014). Although the PoS made “no attempt to define knowledge, justify its importance to learning or distinguish between requirements to know and understand aspects of the content” (Kinder, 2013b) it seems that some teachers re-evaluated their specialist subject knowledge not as dry, irrelevant or disengaging to young people, but as a resource or a “source of energy” in the classroom – something the GA describes in its take on curriculum making (GA, 2009). The GA also advocated a more productive line of thinking with regard to locational knowledge, arguing that “knowing the location of a place is one of the prerequisites to understanding its characteristics, the ways in which it is changing or even why people might feel attached to it” (Kinder, 2013a), that a coherent framework of locational knowledge is needed to “use the uniqueness of places to explain why the outcomes of universal environmental and human processes may vary, and why similar problems may require different strategies in different places” (Lambert et al., 2012, p. 3) whilst also acknowledging that “the challenge will be to find new and engaging ways of [teaching locational knowledge], as well as the means to ensure [it] contributes to thinking geographically (rather than to the creation of a gazetteer of countries, cities, rivers and other features)” (Kinder, 2013a). There is some evidence that teachers are responding to this challenge (May, 2014).

6. The “vexed question” of assessment Assessment of the new curriculum has also generated a great deal of professional debate. In England, a great deal of energy is now expended on the “accountability agenda”: assessing the quality of teaching, monitoring the progress of individual pupils and groups of pupils, preparing for periodic inspections and ensuring each school meets a variety of performance measures, Copyright© Nuova Cultura

particularly the outcomes of assessments and examinations. In geography, the curriculum had been accompanied for nearly 20 years by Attainment Target(s) (ATs). These were outcome statements, known also as Level Descriptors, which provided a national set of expectations against which teachers were able to plan and summatively assess their pupils. Over the years, concerns grew that the broad and abstract language of the AT was being misused, by being applied to pupils’ everyday work and being used to set inappropriate improvement targets based on numbers (the Levels) rather than qualitative actions. The increased pressure of accountability also meant that teachers were being judged on the “performance” of pupils in terms of Levels, which applied upwards pressure to the Level at which pupils’ work was then assessed (Hopkin, 2006). The new national curriculum had “remarkably little to say about expected outcomes, requiring only that pupils “know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study” (Kinder, 2013b). Instead, the Department for Education (DfE) declared schools free to devise their own assessment systems, implying that standards and expectations were “destined to become local, rather than national matters” (ibid.). Given the educational culture and context described above, this freedom rather put the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons, with many schools and teachers still presently struggling to reconcile the pressure to record attainment frequently and at fine levels of detail, with this new official encouragement to separate day-to-day or formative assessment from reporting overall achievement and progress. The GA’s response is summarised in a new assessment and progression framework for geography (GA, 2014), which advises teachers to be more cautious about judging and reporting overall attainment but which also offers a new set of broad benchmarks for assessing progress, based on three aspects of students’ achievement in geography: • contextual world knowledge of locations, places and geographical features; • understanding of the conditions, processes and interactions that explain geographical features, distribution patterns, and changes Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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over time and space; • competence in geographical enquiry, and the application of skills in observing, collecting, analysing, evaluating and communicating geographical information. Tentatively, new assessment practices are emerging, incorporating teachers’ contextualised understanding of expected standards and in some cases tied to the theme or context in which the student is working – implicitly and occasionally explicitly acknowledging the non-linear nature of progress in geography and the spiral nature of its curriculum (Harris, 2015; Weeden and Hopkin, 2014).

7. Conclusions So, rather like the French Revolution, it may be too early to tell precisely what the impact of the 2014 English National Curriculum will be. However, it has prompted some teachers to reflect on the range of places they teach, the role of place and locational knowledge in their teaching and (for some) the status of knowledge in geography education. It has certainly prompted a debate about expectations, progress and standards in school geography, and appears to be produced new approaches to assessment in which the non-linear nature of progress in the subject is better acknowledged. Each of these outcomes illustrates to some extent how the international “knowledge turn” in higher education has found its way into English curriculum debates and ultimately into negotiations over the content of the geography national curriculum for England. This process therefore gives us an fascinating example of the way in which international and intellectual debates can influence national educational policy, and subsequently impact on the pedagogy and assessment enacted by geography teachers. Acknowledgements The Author wishes to thank The Geographical Association (GA) for the kind permission to reproduce Figure 1 and Table 2 (originally published in Teaching Geography, 38, 2, p. 57). This article builds on the ideas set out by the author at the 100th Annual Meeting of the National Council Copyright© Nuova Cultura

for Geographic Education, August 6-9, 2015, Washington D.C.

References 1. Aston R. and Renshaw S., “Planning a new key stage 3”, Teaching Geography, 39, 2, 2014, p. 645. 2. Boardman D., “Designing new courses”, Teaching Geography, 20, 2, 1995, p. 56. 3. Cook K., “Planning a new key stage 3”, Teaching Geography, 39, 1, 2014, pp. 1617. 4. DfE, “The importance of teaching”, 2010, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ystem/uploads/attachment_data/file/17542 9/CM-7980.pdf. 5. DfE, “Statutory guidance – National curriculum in England: geography programmes of study”, 2013, https://www. gov.uk/government/publications/nationalcurriculum-in-england-geography-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-inengland-geography-programmes-of-study. 6. DfE, “National curriculum in England: framework for key stages 1 to 4”, 2014, Paragraph 3.1, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-inengland-framework-for-key-stages-1-to4/the-national-curriculum-in-englandframework-for-key-stages-1-to-4. 7. GA, “A different view: a manifesto from the Geographical Association”, 2009, http: //www.geography.org.uk/resources/adiffer entview/. 8. GA, “An assessment and progression fram ework for geography”, 2014, http://www.g eography.org.uk/download/GA%20Assessment%204pp%20flyer-3.pdf. 9. GA, “2014 National Curriculum”, 2015, ht tp://www.geography.org.uk/news/2014nati onalcurriculum. 10. Gove M., “Why there has never been a better time to be a teacher”, 2013, http:// www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michae l-gove-speaks-about-the-importan-ce-ofteaching. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Alan Kinder

11. Harris T., “Stakes and ladders”, Teaching Geography, 40, 1, 2015, pp. 14-16. 12. HM Government, “Education Act 2011”, 2011, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/21/pdfs/ukpga_20110021_en.pdf. 13. Hopkin J., “Level descriptions and assessment in geography: a GA discussion paper”, 2006, http://www.geography.org. uk/download/GA_AULevelAssessmentsIn Geography.pdf. 14. Hopkin J., “Sampling the world”, Teaching Geography, 36, 3, 2011, pp. 96-97. 15. Hopkin J., “Framing the geography national curriculum”, Geography, 98, 2, 2013a, pp. 60-62. 16. Hopkin J., “What is Key Stage 3 for?”, in Lambert D. and Jones M. (Eds.), Debates in geography education, London, Routledge, 2013b, pp. 29-43. 17. Kinder A., “Geographical Association curriculum consultation feedback report”, 2012, http://www.geography.org.uk/download/GA _GINNCConsultationFeedbackReport.pdf. 18. Kinder A., “Keeping up with curriculum change”, Teaching Geography, 38, 2, 2013a, pp. 56-59. 19. Kinder A., “Geography from 2014: back to the future”, Teaching Geography, 38, 3, 2013b, pp. 98-101. 20. Kinder A. and Lambert D., “The National Curriculum Review: what geography should we teach?”, Teaching Geography, 36, 3, 2011, pp. 93-95. 21. Lambert D., Hopkin J. and Kinder A., “Thinking geographically”, 2012, http:// www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_GI NCConsultation%20ThinkingGeographically%20NC%202012.pdf.

2014, p. 18. 23. Martin F., “Interpreting and implementing the 2014 National Curriculum”, Teaching Geography, 39, 1, 2014, pp. 14-15. 24. May C., “Planning a new key stage 3”, Teaching geography, 39, 3, 2014, pp. 99101. 25. Mitchell D., “What controls the ‘real’ curriculum?”, Teaching Geography, 38, 2, 2013, pp. 60-62. 26. Morgan J., “Knowledge and the school curriculum: a rough guide for teachers”, Teaching Geography, 36, 3, 2011, pp. 9092. 27. Oates T., “Could do better: Using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum in England”, 2010, http:// www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/images/ 112281-could-do-better-using-international-comparisons-to-refine-the-nationalcurriculum-in-england.pdf. 28. Ofsted, “Geography. Learning to make a world of difference”, 2011, http://www. geography.org.uk/download/Ofsted%20 report%2020geography%20learning%20 to%20make%20a%20world%20of%20diff erence%20(2011).pdf. 29. Rawling E., “What’s new?”, Teaching Geography, 20, 2, 1995, pp. 59-61. 30. Rawling E., “Planning your Key Stage 3 curriculum”, Teaching Geography, 33, 3, 2008. 31. Weeden P. and Hopkin J., “Assessing without levels”, Teaching Geography, 39, 2, 2014, pp. 60-63. 32. Westaway J. and Rawling E., “Curriculum 2000 in England: one year on”, Teaching Geography, 27, 1, 2002, pp. 9-11.

22. Larkin M and Goldup G., “Planning a new key stage 3”, Teaching Geography, 39, 1,

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 85-93 DOI: 10.4458/6063-08

Geography and disability: a reflection on opportunities offered by teaching geography to dyslexic students Renata Allegria a

Italian Association of Geography Teachers (AIIG) – Liguria, Italy Email: renata.allegri@libero.it

Received: July 2015 – Accepted: October 2015

Abstract Thanks to the enactment of Law 170/2010, in Italy teachers are required to adopt forms of teaching that differ significantly from the “traditional model” for students with dyslexia. A consideration on disability is an opportunity to reflect on the teaching of geographic skills, which consists mainly in the search for strategies that can facilitate the learning process of the students, even for people with learning difficulties. Geography becomes the discipline that can meet the needs of students with learning disabilities and which has great potential for teaching, because by means of values training and the organization of knowledge characterizing it, they can emphasize and highlight the processing of information that takes place on the basis of the person’s cognitive style. Keywords: Dyslexia, Learning Disability, Cognitive Style, Active Learners, Geography Workshop, Bridge Discipline

1. The law on Dyslexia in Italy Dyslexia affects the area of the brain that deals with language, leading to differences in the way information is processed and affecting the underlying skills needed for learning to read, write and spell. Dyslexic students can often perform a range of complex tasks, such as solving complicated problems in electronics or design, yet they cannot do seemingly simple tasks: learning to read and spell, organizing writing, taking notes, remembering instructions, telling the time or finding their way around. This pattern of strengths and weaknesses can be regarded as a Copyright© Nuova Cultura

cognitive or learning style. In fact, many dyslexic students themselves experience their dyslexia as a difference in the way they think or learn, even related to the place where they were born. In fact, when talking about dyslexia one must always keep in mind that neurobiological difficulties can affect the ability to read and write of any person in the world, no matter what their language might be. It is also true, nevertheless, that it does not affect all of them in the same way, but has a degree of influence which varies depending on the specific characteristics of each language.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Italian, for example, is a transparent spelling language, which means that the correspondence phoneme-grapheme is direct, and consequently words are read as they are written. Italian speaking children, although dyslexic, will always have fewer difficulties than their Anglophone peers, given the strong correlation that directly links graphemes and phonemes in Italian words. When, however, they have to learn other languages, as in the case of English which is now taught as early as the first year of school, they too will be unable to read without making mistakes, thus compromising their understanding. The reason is therefore clear why the incidence of dyslexia in English speaking countries is much higher than in Italy. If in our country, in fact, cases of reading disorder are around 3% and 5% of the school population, in the US, according to the International Dyslexia Association, these percentages quadruple and even reach 15-20% . In Italy, thanks to the enactment of the law on Dyslexia (law 170/2010), students with reading disabilities have acquired the right to take part in school life as active learners, without having to face the difficulties that made their studies fraught and arduous. Today, according to the new legislation, through remedial work, formal intervention and support measures students can give their best while dealing with their special needs. The Law on Dyslexia is the result of a 13 year struggle led by the AID association (Italian Dyslexia Association) with the cooperation of parents, dyslexic adults, teachers and technicians of the Association. It is relevant to point out that the Italian acronym DSA, which stands for Specific Learning. Disorder, focuses on a condition that seems to be more related to a body impairment, whereas the English acronym LD, Learning Disability, refers to a social perspective. Moreover, the term “Disorder” is one of the first formulations (Critchley, 1968), introducing the criterion of “difference” between IQ and academic skills, whereas the term “disability” highlights the ethical goal of social care dealing with the right to have equal opportunities in the field of Education. The word “disability” is Copyright© Nuova Cultura

strictly related to a social condition and has nothing to do with a subjective condition of the person. More precisely, a learning disability is a classification that includes several areas of functioning in which a person has difficulty in learning in a typical manner, usually caused by unknown factors. While learning difficulty, learning disorder and learning disability are often used interchangeably, they differ in many ways. These problems, however, are not enough to warrant an official diagnosis. Learning disability on the other hand, is an official clinical diagnosis, whereby the individual meets certain criteria, as determined by a professional (psychologist, paediatrician, etc.). The difference lies in the degree, frequency, and intensity of reported symptoms and problems, and thus the two should not be confused. Types of learning disorders include reading (dyslexia), writing and mathematics (dysgraphia and dyscalculia).

2. Dyslexia: a learning difference According to the social model of individual differences, difficulties depend mainly on the culture in which we live. In fact, in an oral culture, dyslexics do not manifest themselves, since they would not be required to write and read (Pollak, 2009). In the interactive social model, dyslexia is considered a learning difference, because every human being is “neurodifferent”: we can say that it is the social context that determines whether the neurodiversity is perceived as disability or not. Moreover, difficulties can be neutralized by exploiting potentialities (leveraging on the strengths) emerging from a person with DSA (Stella and Grandi, 2011): • intelligence; • ability to store images; • unusual approach to school subjects; • ability to make unconventional connections; • creativity and ability to produce new ideas; • propensity to the selection of topics in a discussion; Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

• skill in the problem solving strategy that requires you to imagine possible solutions. Many of these above mentioned characteristics are associated with the ability to process information in a global way, rather than sequentially, and to think in a visual rather than verbal way (Morgan and Klein, 2000). This way of thinking is a characteristic of all children, even those who are dyslexic, since they tend to have a high level of divergent thinking, that allows them to find different solutions in a given situation (Land and Jarman, 1992). This feature generally remains stable – in children with DSA – into adulthood, so that Fortune magazine (Morris, 2002) connects the high percentage of top managers who are dyslexics with the very nature of the digital economy. In practice, the success of these managers becomes relevant because of their approach to solving problems despite their difficulties. These results do not depend on a supposed therapy, but as a potential advantage in competitiveness resulting from the different nature of the new economy. In the school educational field, the abilities that affect teaching and learning are: reading, spelling, writing and oral language. Reading forms a major part of most curricular activities and if a student has, for instance, half the reading speed of other students, this may put an immense strain on his/her studies, affecting his/her ability to remember what has been read. Vocabulary levels may also be poor and so comprehension suffers. Students with dyslexia may experience some or all of the following: visual stress, reading overload, lack of speed with reading, difficulty in summarizing, difficulty in sorting and selecting materials for study, a lack of understanding and retention of what has been read, difficulty in focusing on the main points of what has been read, misreading (assignment or examination questions) (Figure 1).

dyslexia might include some or all of the following: difficulty in writing and listening simultaneously, difficulty in making detailed notes and understanding what has been written when reading it back, difficulty in focusing on the main points during lectures (note-taking). Among others, problems occur when copying quickly and correctly and moreover students with dyslexia may experience problems with their written work including some or all of the following: poorly constructed form and slow handwriting interfering with their ability to get ideas down, difficulty in planning and structuring written work, problems with the transition of ideas, difficulty in relating theory to practice, poor written expression and/or sentence structure, difficulty in understanding writing conventions, difficulty in relating abstract to particular. Certain difficulties, experienced by students with dyslexia, can be associated with language as well as written work and reading. Students may experience problems taking in orally given information quickly or accurately enough, understanding instructions or information, assimilating what has been said in a group situation, with word-finding problems or with pronunciation of polysyllabic words. Some dyslexic students experience shortterm memory problems which can affect notetaking, reading, writing and organisation but can also make it difficult for them to organize their time and meet deadlines. These difficulties tend to be the ones that are most often ignored and, because of this, dyslexic students can sometimes be judged as being lazy, unmotivated, sloppy or careless. I would like to point out that many students with dyslexia are mathematically very able; however, some may have difficulties resulting from visual perceptual or short-term/working memory problems (Stella, 2000).

As regards spelling, dyslexic students can experience problems with written expression and vocabulary to such a point that it can affects a tutor’s understanding of their work. The difficulties experienced by some students with Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

processing programs, concept maps and automatic audio players, calculators, tape recorders), in special attention (dispensation from reading aloud, by dictation, from the study of foreign language in writing) and the scheduling of more time to study at home and for the written tests or programmed oral verification. The use of pictures, maps, symbols, building maps, charts, mind maps, drawings, facilitates learning and makes it more active. But how to identify the difficulties?

Figure 1. Students with dyslexia may have ability to construe images and read them in a symbolic form. Adopted and redrawn by R. Allegri, 2003.

3. Planning a project for a different mode of learning Sometimes the difficulty may be associated with performing different tasks simultaneously e.g. listening to a speaker, taking notes and formulating responses (for some students performing these processes simultaneously is problematic). The development of this skill may be affected by a number of factors including dyslexia or dyscalculia which make it difficult for a student to extract the relevant information and organize it effectively. One of the most useful tools for planning a project for children or teens with DSA is a personalized learning plan, or PDP (Piano Didattico Personalizzato). It is a document drawn up by the teachers for each student with DSA that contains the procedures to be taken to cope with the difficulties. The student will not be followed by the Teacher for Special Needs (not required by law), but by all his teamteachers. This suggests that Law 170/2010 and the related Guidelines (2011) require that the school be compared with a different mode of learning. The possible precautions are identified in compensatory instruments (Computer with word

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As specifically regards the learning of geography, the difficulties can include the following: in multi-step problems, students frequently lose their way or omit sections, the retaining of various aspects of a problem in mind and combining them to achieve a final solution, sequencing complex instructions, and past/future events; slow reading, mis-reading or not understanding what has been read may also occur. There are a number of instructional practices that can be used to help all geography students to develop their information processing skills, and these can be summarized as follows: encourage students to work with their peers for problem-solving activities. This helps them to bounce their ideas and helps to keep them focused on the task in hand without giving up. Students may need to focus more on the context of the problem in order to solve it, so they may need to be encouraged to seek out more background and supporting information, and highlight key words which help them to organize their thinking. It may help students if they are encouraged to colour code the stages of their problem solving. This helps them to focus on the various stages of the problem and will also help tutors to see at what stage of the problem the student is experiencing difficulties. In addition to needing a calculator, students may find the use of a computer, as we have said before, useful to focus on the task without becoming too distracted; furthermore they can be encouraged to create a pocket book of facts and formulas that they can carry around with them to help them remember certain sequences. Large multi-step problems may need to be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps: providing the student with flow diagrams Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

or tree diagrams for clarifying procedures can help the student to make sense of a problem. A successful strategy is to encourage students to use mind maps with extended pieces of work because they can help them to organise their thoughts (Waterfield, West and Chalkley, 2006) (Figure 2).

great capacity for abstraction. So geography becomes the discipline that aims to train world citizens to be aware, responsible and critical, enabling them to look at their environment creatively to make it more livable and to make decisions according to ethical environmental values.

Today, the support of software like Power Point or Prezi to program homework, the presence in the classroom of a smartboard with instant access to several geobrowsers, make the lives of students with DSA easier as they are a dynamic means of reiteration. The advantages mainly concern interactivity, the use of multimedia resources: smartboards helps to marry listening and reading with the individual communicative power of images and video.

It is therefore evident that the method can be treated as the content, since the strength of geography as a science is the way whereby we can study the territory. All aspects are in fact translated into teaching practice.

Another potential is processing auditory information: ensure that the overall discourse allows reiteration, clarification of new terms and regular pauses for reflection and to catch up, temper the overall speed of delivery, provide clear examples and explanations, supply handouts and explanatory lists of new concepts and unfamiliar terms.

3. Everything should be based on observation and collection of data should be related to facts and phenomena.

In verbal communication it is necessary to learn to be multi-tasking (especially note taking), while learning strategies can: be aware of the difficulties posed by multi-sensory tasking, encourage students to audio record instructions and to audio record sessions (equipment may be funded through the DSAs, supplement verbal information with written or E-learning versions such as introductions, summaries and memory aids. These reflections for processing information make the geographer consider how geography can “naturally” be a discipline meeting these characteristics of teaching needed by a DSA, even for its “dependence” on images, the graficacy, thanks to the ability to make unconventional connections typical of DSA students. For the propensity to the selection of topics in a discussion, one of the key themes of geography to understand is that human behaviour has positive or negative effects on a territorial system, because each one is an active part of the system and responsible for its operation and determines the knowledge of how the territorial system works: it is plain to see that we are dealing with a global approach to the analysis of reality, and this approach requires Copyright© Nuova Cultura

1. Proceed inductively, experience.

starting

from

the

2. Use the deductive method in the verification of theoretical hypotheses.

4. Compare data relating to facts and phenomena, to be able to understand causality (Allegri, 2007) (Figure 3).

4. Learning geography and its potential for dyslexic students The formative values that characterize the discipline, can emphasize and highlight an information processing that takes place right on the basis of the cognitive style of the person (Stemberg, 1998). Cognitive styles relate to the choice of the cognitive strategies used to solve a task and should be evaluated as a preference in the use of their skills. Moreover, if we consider that geographers should answer questions like: Where?, What?, How did it happen?, What are the implications produced?, How should it be handled in the context for the benefit of humanity and the natural environment? We can easily deduce that these questions can be regarded as a part of the different characteristics of the cognitive styles which can be preferred and strongly influenced by students with disabilities and their own styles: i.e. nonverbal and visual styles, global styles following the divergent way of thinking.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

What kind of cognitive styles can a dyslexic student try according to the very nature of geography? Global: approaching a text, a student with a global style focuses on the overall picture, looking at what is normally called the overview, and then examines the details later. In geography, the first activity of reading maps/cards requires an immediate global approach. Analytical: the detail is perceived in a second phase and the following step of reading images comes after the first global approach, and it is helped by the legenda, that is a visual support guide to understanding. Even the legenda becomes a textual index suitable for the visual reading and the understanding of the overall message of the graphics or maps. Visual: the visual style works through mental images, diagrams and graphic representations. The main tools of geography are graphs and thematic maps of different types that, in a global view, analyze the various issues considered. Systematic/intuitive: systematic style sees the student proceeding in stages through the analysis of the different variables, whereas the intuitive style starts from a hypothesis and tries to confirm it. As for geography, both styles can be consistent in dealing with the various issues of geography. These steps are also suitable for children attending the primary school, always bearing in mind that they focus their attention on what they see, that is, the objects that surround them, rather than on the content of what is said and thought about it (Allegri, 2003). Unfortunately, the school continues to follow the general trend in transmitting a descriptive geographical knowledge, using the lessons as the only means of learning. This method is even more difficult for pupils with dyslexia and removes additional opportunities to the discipline instead of exploring new teaching and learning strategies. The teaching of geography should tend to enhance the potential of students with dyslexia: the teacher’s skills primarily consist in finding strategies that can facilitate students’ learning process, even for those with learning disabilities.

In order to plan effective instruction and intervention in reading comprehension, teachers must understand the array of abilities that contribute to reading comprehension and use assessments to help pinpoint students’ weaknesses. For instance, a student with dyslexia, whose reading comprehension problems are associated mainly with poor decoding and dysfluent reading, will need different emphasis in intervention than will a student with poor comprehension due to weaknesses in vocabulary and oral comprehension. Teachers must be able to model and teach research-based comprehension strategies, such as summarization and the use of graphic organizers, and apply methods that promote reflective reading, metacognition, and student engagement. Oral comprehension and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relationship; effective oral comprehension facilitates reading comprehension, and wide reading contributes to the development of oral comprehension. As stated above dyslexic people do not learn language skills subliminally, e.g. almost no dyslexic people can learn to spell correctly by copious reading. Often progress is made with a language skill when someone explains the skill in a way that makes sense to the dyslexic person. Without such explanations, comment and corrections about spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax are futile: they add to the demoralization of the student; they provide the student with no information that s/he can use to improve future work, and they are a waste of the tutor's time. The organizing of a geography classroom workshop with the cooperation of all students can be very useful, because it directly involves students in designing and promoting significant and active learning, based primarily on a visual approach, the ability to store images and an unusual approach to make unconventional, connections for the creativity and ability to produce new ideas and select the topics of discussion (Allegri, 2007). Furthermore, the above mentioned divergent thinking can promote a new learning attitude towards the study of geography: the systematic study of functioning in a particular geographic area, leads us to understand that it can be perceived in the multiplicity and complexity of Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

its parts, without making abstraction processes that would alter the right view or observation. Dyslexic students can also perform a variety of complex tasks, but cannot do the seemingly simple ones like learning organizing writing, taking notes, remembering instructions or readings that are difficult in length and vocabulary. One way to consider this model of strength and weakness is a cognitive style or learning and in fact many dyslexic students themselves experience their dyslexia as a difference in the way they think or learn, rather than as a disability. Geography is also a frontier, a bridge discipline in the current debate, since we see two opposite views: the conventional view sup-

porting a disjunctive logic way and a scientific approach to the subject, as opposed to an innovative position, showing the complex and multi-faceted nature of the discipline. The causes of these controversial and opposing debates are to be found in the identity, in the very nature of the discipline that results from the close relationship between environment and human beings and can be regarded as a science which cannot be considered either strictly natural, or distinctly humanistic. We dare say geography is forced, by its own nature, to adapt itself to the changing natural phenomena. For this reason, geography as a discipline should be flexible, always updated and continuously self-redefining.

Figure 2. A good education for students with dyslexia is a good education for all: a method of study that focuses on different channels of access to information and an active and strategic approach to texts and contents. Drawn by R. Allegri.

CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Renata Allegri

Figure 3. Phases of study in the classroom through various educational activities: the teacher’s attention arouses interest in what the student knows how he reached that knowledge. Adopted and redrawn by Stella and Grandi, 2011.

References 1. Allegri R., Percorsi nella mente e percorsi nel territorio, vol. 3, Rapallo, Emiliani, 2003. 2. Allegri R., “La geografia come opportunità didattica”, in Primi A. (Ed.), Ricerca e didattica geografica, Genoa-Recco, Le Mani Università, 2007, pp. 99-128. 3. Allegri R., “Viaggio della geografia nelle otto competenze chiave”, in Garibaldi G. (Ed.), La Liguria: i caratteri di un sistema regionale aperto. Aggiornamenti scientifici e didattici (Sanremo, 28-30 October 2014), Liguria Geografia, XVI, 12 (Special Issue on line), 2014, pp. 147-155. 4. Boscolo P., “Intelligenze e differenze individuali”, in VV.AA. (Eds.), Intelligenza e diversità, Turin, Loescher, 1981. 5. Caruso A., “Competence and Geography: A meta-cognitive approach”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (JREADING), 1, 2015, pp. 43-52. 6. Critchley E.M.R, “Reading retardation, Dyslexya and delinquency”, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1968. 7. Dematteis G., “Per insegnare una geografia dei valori e delle trasformazioni territoriali”, Copyright© Nuova Cultura

9. 10. 11. 12.

13.

Ambiente Società Territorio – Geografia nelle Scuole, 3, 2004, pp. 10-14. De Vecchis G., Pasquinelli d’Allegra D. and Pesaresi C., “Geography in Italian schools. An example of a cross-curricular project using geospatial technologies for a practical contribution to educators”, Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO), 1, 1, 2011, pp. 4-25. De Vecchis G. and Staluppi G., Insegnare geografia. Idee e programmi, Turin, UTET, 2007. Giorda C., Il mio spazio nel mondo. La geografia per la scuola dell’infanzia e primaria, Rome, Carocci, 2014. Land G. and Jarman B., Breakpoint and beyond the future-today, ChampaignIllinois, Harper-Business, 1992. Legge 170/2010, Nuove norme in materia di Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento in ambito scolastico, n. 170, Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 244, 18th October. Linee guida per il diritto allo studio degli alunni e degli studenti con Disturbi specifici di apprendimento, allegate al Decreto Ministeriale, 12th July 2010.

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14. Morgan E. and Klein C., The Dyslexic Adult in a Non-Dyslexic World, London, Wiley, 2000. 15. Morris B., “Overcoming dyslexia”, Fortune magazine, 145, 10, 2002. 16. Naish M., Rawling E. and Hart C., “The enquiry-based approach to teaching and learning geography”, in Smith M. (Ed.), Teaching Geography in secondary schools: a reader, New York, Psychology Press, 2002, pp. 63-69. 17. Pasquinelli d’Allegra D., “Geografia a scuola. Metodi, tecniche, strategie”, in De Vecchis G., Didattica della geografia. Teoria e prassi, Turin, UTET, 2011, pp. 4978. 18. Pollak D., Neurodiversity in higher education: positive responses to specific learning, Chichester-Malden, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 19. Reed M. and Mitchell B., “Using information technologies for collaborative learning in geography: a case study from Canada”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 25, 3, 2001, pp. 321-339.

20. Rocca G., Il sapere geografico tra ricerca e didattica, Bologna, Pàtron, 2011. 21. Stella G., La dislessia. Aspetti clinici, psicologici, riabilitativi, Franco Angeli, Milan, 1997. 22. Stella G. and Grandi L., Come leggere la dislessia e i DSA, Turin, Giunti Scuola, 2011. 23. Stemberg R., Stili di pensiero, Trento, Erikson, 1998. 24. Vallega A., “La geografia passaporto per il mondo globale”, Geografia nelle Scuole, 3, 1998, pp. 16-22. 25. Vigorito M.G., “La Geografia e le altre discipline al servizio dell'handicap, dalla materna alla media”, Ambiente Società Territorio – Geografia nelle Scuole, 1, 2002, pp. 12-16. 26. Zanobini M. and Usai M.C., Psicologia della disabilità e dei disturbi dello sviluppo. Elementi di riabilitazione e di intervento, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2011.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGES Edited by Elisa Bignante and Marco Maggioli

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 97-102 DOI: 10.4458/6063-09

Pantanî Blog: Using ICT for Safeguarding and Sharing Indigenous Social Memory Géraud de Villea, Grace Albertb, Abigail Buckleyc, Kenneth Butlerc, Lakeram Haynesb a

Department of Engineering and Innovation, Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK b North Rupununi District Development Board, Bina Hill, Annai Central, Region 9, Guyana c Surama Ecolodge, Surama, Annai, Region 9, Guyana Email: geraud.de-ville@open.ac.uk Received: September 2015 – Accepted: October 2015

Abstract Oral storytelling has traditionally been the main vehicle for the transmission of social memory in the indigenous communities of the North Rupununi, Guyana. It allows them to maintain their worldview and reinforce their sense of community, but it also makes it particularly fragile to the test of time. Thanks to recent developments and the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICT), new opportunities for capturing, broadcasting and safeguarding indigenous social memory have emerged. Yet, there are fears that these technologies can also accelerate cultural loss. The Pantanî Blog experiment aimed at interrogating the role of ICT in safeguarding and sharing indigenous social memory in a fast-changing environment. Keywords: Storytelling, Social Memory, Culture, Indigenous, Guyana

1. Introduction If you happen to visit the Rupununi region of Guyana, and go on a hike with a local guide, it is likely you will hear plenty of fascinating stories and legends on the natural environment, as it happened to me. At the end of January 2014, I travelled to the deep south of Guyana with a team of local and foreign researchers and had an opportunity to visit a place called Skull Mountain, located in the Kanuku mountain range, not far from the Brazilian border. During the hike, our guide, an elder Makushi man, shared traditional tales with us, depicting every Copyright© Nuova Cultura

mountain, every river and every valley we crossed. It was like being walked through an old town, with its church, its streets and its main square. The places we saw were buzzing with memories and legends, evidencing the strength of the mutual relationship between Amerindian culture and their environment. Of course, this is a subtle relationship, one that does not immediately spring to the eye of the foreign observer. It is without material evidence, marks or scars, because it is not based on the presence of human settlements or the extraction of natural resources. Instead, it is deeply spiritual and embraces a cosmo-centric worldview. What apItalian Association of Geography Teachers

Géraud de Ville, Grace Albert, Abigail Buckley, Kenneth Butler, Lakeram Haynes

pears as thousands of hectares of wild savannah, forests and mountains is in fact the result of an inter-dependency, where human beings shape their environment and their environment shapes who they are.

alien to them (Diaz Andrade and Urquhart, 2012). This argument is even advanced by some indigenous peoples themselves, when they say that the traditional ways are changing under the influence of technology: “Now, the youngest child would know what is happening across the world, through technology, so their minds are more open and it is not limited to down here anymore. They have dreams, they have bigger dreams now than just growing up and becoming a father, having a family and stay in the village. It is about seeing this place here, that place there and becoming someone important, going somewhere, working, making a lot of money. So it gives them more options and takes away from them their origin, history” (Interview, March 2014).

Figure 1. Map of Guyana. Source: Mapbox.

2. Social memory, culture and ICT Social memory plays a central role in the formation of indigenous people’s worldview. For Walsh, it evokes a “system of knowledge and living based on the communion of humans and nature, and on the spatial-temporal harmonious totality of existence” (Walsh, 2010, p. 18). In the North Rupununi region of Guyana, where a majority of Makushi communities live, the main vehicle of this social memory has traditionally been dialogue and oral storytelling. It helps them maintain their relational and multifaceted worldview, reinforcing their sense of community and cooperative spirit (Mistry et al., 2014). But the oral transmission also makes social memory particularly fragile to the test of time.

Although ICT might have a real impact on behaviours and aspirations, Briggs argues that a group’s knowledge and identity are not definite characteristics but the product of complex sets of relationships which have in most cases grown from changes and influences over time and generations (Briggs, 2005). Technological change and novel ideas percolate within and among indigenous communities as part of an adaptation process, and are not solely the result of a hegemonic trend towards modernity, globalisation and loss of cultural identity (Belton, 2010; Diamond, 1999). For instance, looking at Mayan peasants, Indian farmers or the Amazonian Kayapo, Dyer-Witheford (1999) has shown how indigenous peoples have succes-sfully interfaced advanced communication networks with traditional forms of mobilisation. This suggests that the appropriation of ICTs may result from strategies to safeguard indigenous traditions and resisting hegemony, rather lead to cooptation and loss of social memory (Assies, 2000; Fischer, 1996; Garfield, 2001).

Technological developments, and the increasing exposure of indigenous peoples to information and communication technologies (ICT) are sometimes described as an accelerator of change akin to weakening indigenous social memory. ICT are said to threaten the loss of cultural identity, as they contribute to diverting the attention of users towards a system of belief

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Géraud de Ville, Grace Albert, Abigail Buckley, Kenneth Butler, Lakeram Haynes

principles of digital storytelling. For a year, from June 2014 to May 2015, the participants were encouraged to record and publicise stories of their choosing in a variety of formats, e.g. text, images, video and sound. As UK-based Editor, my role was to encourage, proofread, upload and share the stories on an online Wordpress platform named Pantanî – or “Stories” in Makushi (www.pantaniblog.org).

Figure 2. Capturing traditional knowledge. Source: Claudia Nuzzo.

Due to their particularities, ICT offer new possibilities for capturing, broadcasting and safeguarding indigenous social memory. Scholars argue that the visual culture that has (re)emerged with Internet is one of its main strengths for the appropriation of ICTs by traditional societies. Online communication, they argue, would not be far removed from more traditional forms of communication (Smith et al., 2000; Zimmerman et al., 2000). Furthermore, the falling costs of digital devices and online storage capacities have created favourable conditions for the digitalisation and archiving of social memory. Hence this question: How can ICT be used to resist change and culture loss in indigenous communities?

3. The Pantanî Blog Experiment The Pantanî Blog experiment was led as part of a PhD research looking at how ICT affect the well-being of indigenous communities in the North Rupununi. Using principles from Participatory Action Research, i.e. the ideas that research should be collaborative and lead to a change that will directly benefit the participants (Pain et al., 2011), this experiment aimed specifically at interrogating the role of ICT in safeguarding and sharing indigenous social memory in a fast-changing environment. Four indigenous participants, two men and two women, with prior experience in using ICT, were recruited in May 2014 to take part to the experiment. Each participant was handed a Samsung digital tablet and trained on the

Figure 3. Screenshot of Pantanî Blog story. Source: www.pantaniblog.org.

Over the project’s duration, approximately 35 stories were uploaded on the Pantanî Blog. These stories were also uploaded on a dedicated Facebook page and shared on various indigenous group pages to maximise exposure. In addition to being the platform on which stories were published, the Internet was also instrumental in the organisation of the project. It allowed me to keep an open line of communication with the participants throughout the project despite the geographical separation, by using email exchange, as well as chatting applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype. Two Skype evaluations were organised during the experiment, one in November 2014 and one in January 2015, to discuss the issues encountered by the participants and adjust the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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objectives accordingly. Early on, the limited Internet connectivity constrained the team to review certain deliverables. For instance, the initial plan of four stories per person per month was reviewed to only one story per person per month, and the project’s duration was extended from six months to one year. Each time, the participants were encouraged to step in and decisions were taken as a team. A final evaluation took place in the North Rupununi, in May 2015, during a one-day team meeting followed by public presentations in one community and in the local high school.

Figure 4. Presentation of the project in the Annai secondary school, North Rupununi, Guyana. Source: Géraud de Ville.

4. Results and Findings Central to the experiment, the use of ICT was recognised as one of the strengths of the project. This optimism towards technology could be expected given the relatively young age of the participants, ranging from 21 to 32 years old, and the fact that they all had previous personal and professional experience as ICT users. Despite seeming to agree that ICT were having an impact on their society, they also suggested that this impact could be positive. They recognised change – including technological change - as being inherent to their lives, arguing that they could not live the same way their parents did 30 years ago. But that did not prevent them from keeping a strong identity: “Change is going to happen as people are increasingly accessing the Internet, have smartphones etc. Thanks to that, people can have a trail of where they come from and remember who they are” (Final evaluation, May 2015). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

“Your ways might change, but you can’t change who you are” (Final evaluation, May 2015). Instead of feeling victimised, observing the impact of ICT on their lives as something uncontrollable, they insisted that it was people who decided when and how to use it, thereby rejecting the idea of a technology-driven determinism. For instance, one of the participants suggested that the project allowed her to talk to a variety of people and advise them on addiction to technology, as well as raise some of the security aspects of it.

Figure 5. Pantanî Blog project team evaluation. Source: Géraud de Ville.

The participants felt that uploading the stories online added value to the initiative. They discussed several other projects that had focused on the documentation of traditional stories. Contrary to Pantanî Blog, the stories collected via these projects had either been saved on computers or printed and distributed in the communities, but most of them had been lost after the end of the project. Instead, by uploading the stories online, it was felt that we were giving these stories a longer lifespan and sharing them with more people than in any other prior project. Asked to reflect on the role of ICT for sharing and promoting indigenous social memory with the outside world, both the participants and the wider community agreed that it was necessary, on the basis of a principle of reciprocity. People felt that if it was possible for them to learn about someone else’s culture

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on the Internet, that person should also be able to learn about the Amerindian culture. “People can learn from our culture across the world” (Final evaluation, May 2015). “We should not hide it, we should share what we know” (Community evaluation, May 2015). Notwithstanding the advantages of using ICT for safeguarding and sharing Amerindian social memory, the community evaluation revealed a key difference with the process of traditional storytelling. In the past, it was the shaman who was the key figure in communication. He would, for instance, use his mystical power to establish communication links with people who were gone, read dreams etc. These stories were then told by parents to their children for generations and generations and through this, interpretations would change. These stories evolved dynamically with time and existed in as many versions as there were storytellers. Instead, the Pantanî process of transcription and digitalisation was a way to fix one version of the story, which led to a long debate during the community evaluation. Some interveners suggested that we needed to ask several people to find the stories’ missing parts. Other wished we had set up a communal process where people would sit together and debate on a story to get it right. Importantly, the community members also insisted that the project should give more attention to the local impact, notably by playing a role in preserving the language and the tradition of storytelling in the communities. They felt that initiatives like Pantanî Blog could act as a stepping stone, a foundation on which to build to involve youngsters in the preservation of culture for future generations, and praised the participant’s plan to have the stories broadcasted on the local radio as well as to organise a storytelling competition in the local high school: “because our culture is our identity” (Community evaluation, May 2015).

Figure 6. Children reading a print-out of stories from Pantanî Blog. Source: Géraud de Ville.

5. Conclusions Several limitations were highlighted in the process of collecting stories, such as the absence of communal involvement in their transcription and a feeling that the project could have a more direct impact at the community level. This was largely due to the fact that Internet access is still fairly limited in the communities, and that issues with bandwidth also prevented the participants from using their tablets to their full potential, e.g. by uploading short films of people telling stories, and were mostly constrained to using text. Yet, the Pantanî Blog experiment has shown that ICT have a role to play in the documentation, preservation and sharing of indigenous social memory. It is a way of engaging young people with their traditional culture and it provides a mean for preserving these stories for future generations, sharing them beyond the community, and promoting the indigenous voice (Cunsolo Willox et al. 2012). Importantly, it also reinforces their sense of empowerment. As one participant said: “in the past people have come here and recorded Amerindian ways and we would not see it. Nowadays we produce this information ourselves!” (Final evaluation, May 2015).

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However, the experiment also revealed a deeper question about the nature of social memory and whether its value lies primarily in its (oral) mode of transmission rather than its content, or the other way around? This question would be an interesting starting point for further research. Acknowledgements The Authors wish to thank: -

the Open University and Mrs Webb, OU Masters in Environmental Management Alumnus, for sponsoring the project;

the Community of Surama, North Rupununi, Guyana, for their input;

all the individuals who have contributed to the project by sharing their stories… and all those who will contribute more stories in the future.

References 1. Assies W., “Indigenous peoples and reform of the state in Latin America”, in Assies W., van der Haar G. and Hoekema A. (Eds.), The Challenge of Diversity: Indigenous Peoples and Reform of the State in Latin America, Amsterdam, Thela Thesis, 2000, pp. 3-22. 2. Belton K.A., “From Cyberspace to Offline Communities: Indigenous Peoples and Global Connectivity”, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 35, 3, 2010, pp. 193-215. 3. Briggs J., “The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges”, Progress in Development Studies, 5, 2, 2005, pp. 99-114. 4. Cunsolo Willox A. et al., “Storytelling in a digital age: digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom”, Qualitative Research, 13, 2, 2012, pp. 127-147. 5. Diamond J.M., Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York, Norton, 1999.

6. Diaz Andrade A. and Urquhart C., “Unveiling the modernity bias: a critical examination of the politics of ICT4D”, Information Technology for Development, 18, 4, 2012, pp. 281-292. 7. Dyer-Witheford N., Cyber-Marx. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism, Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1999. 8. Fischer E., “Induced Cultural Change as a Strategy for Socioeconomic Development: The Pan-Maya Movement in Guatemala”, in Fischer E. and Brown R. (Eds.), Mayan Cultural Activism in Guatemala, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. 51-73. 9. Garfield S., Indigenous Struggles at the Heart of Brazil: State Policy; Frontier Expansion and the Xavante Indians; 19371988, Durham, Duke University Press, 2001. 10. Mistry J. et al., “The role of social memory in natural resource management: Insights from participatory video”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39, 1, 2014, pp. 115-127. 11. Pain R., Whitman G. and Milledge D., Participatory Action Research Toolkit: An Introduction to Using PAR as an Approach to Learning, Research and Action, Durham, 2011. 12. Smith C., Burke H. and Ward G.K., “Globalisation and Indigenous Peoples: Threat or Empowerment?”, in Smith C. and Ward G.K. (Eds.), Indigenous Cultures in an Interconnected World, University of British Columbia Press, 2000. 13. Walsh C., “Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de)colonial entanglements”, Development, 53, 1, 2010, pp. 15-21. 14. Zimmerman L.J., Zimmerman K.P. and Bruguier L.R., “Cyberspace Smoke Signals: New technologies and Native American Ethnicity”, in Smith C. and Ward G.K. (Eds.), Indigenous Cultures in an Interconnected World, University of British Columbia Press, 2000.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 105-113 DOI: 10.4458/6063-10

International Year of Global Understanding. An Interview with Benno Werlen Benno Werlena a

Executive Director of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) Email: benno.werlen@uni-jena.de

Received: October 2015 – Accepted: November 2015

Abstract The interview with Benno Werlen, Executive Director of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU), was conducted by the Italian Association of Geography Teachers (AIIG), focussing this initiative of the International Geographical Union (IGU) and highlighting relevant aspects from the educational and didactical point of view. The initiative recognizes that global social and climate changes require a global level of understanding. It aims to bridge the gap in awareness between local actions and global effects and it will provide information on culturally differentiated ways to reach global sustainability. The International Year of Global Understanding develops a blueprint for a new geographical view of a radically changing world. It is relating to global warming and sustainability debates, disparities of power, sustainable production and consumption of “less developed countries”. Keywords: Global Warming Debate, Globalization Process, Inequality-Poverty-Struggle, Problem Solving Strategies, Sustainability Debate

As stated in the press release “the involvement of the ISSC, ICSU and CIPSH in IYGU underwrites broad collaboration across the natural and social sciences and the humanities, from across disciplinary boundaries and from all around the world”. Considering that IYGU project has been initiated and promoted by IGU, which is the role of Geography in such a collaboration?

essentially geographic ones. The whole global warming debate, the sustainability debate, the global integration process etc., all these debates are in fact about interactions with nature – I would prefer the formulation, the transformation of nature by human action. All these issues are action-related geographical topics, asking for alternative ways of geography-making on the everyday level.

Let me first give a short overview of the geographical approach behind this initiative and how I see geography’s role in the current developments. I would say we now have many topics on the global politics agenda that are

The potential of geography to have something to say about the key questions of the global situation is tremendous, especially as a critical science suggesting new solutions for new problems emerging from the tremendous

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changes in the geographical conditions by the ongoing process of digitalization and subsequent globalization. However, at the same time, the institutional set-up of geography is rather weak. I believe we have three sections of geography that are diverting from one another due to an accelerated specialization. In this situation, the centrifugal forces become the dominant ones. Departments are increasingly splitting into units with only loose cooperation. I would say that there has been a growth in competence over the last thirty years, but simultaneously there is also a marked increase in specialization and separation. There has not been much growth in competence regarding integrated views of different realities of life and their scientific investigation.

geographical investigations into living spaces and into the evolution and differentiation of varied life forms. Both disciplinary perspectives are embedded in the practical and theoretical European problem situations of their time. Both scientific projects – one about life in general the other about human life on our planet – were linked to the social and spatial formations that we currently regard as historical. Given the current problem constellations, we need to rethink these concepts. The interim transformation of the spatial, as well as natural relations is based on the globalization process. This process is so radical that we can’t go on trying to solve ecological problems of the 21 century with problem solving strategies deriving from theories designed for problems of the 19th century.

If you contemplate the outlook for geography in the current political situation, I think that the split into divisions is problematic or at least deplorable. Geography’s strength used to be to focus on the interconnections between the human and physical parts and geographical methods. I am not saying that these interconnections were based on scientifically acceptable methodologies. From that point of view, the ongoing specialization even has its merits. But we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water! We should regard our position as that of a crossfaculty discipline. In addition geography has a high potential for transdisciplinary competence. This is documented by the fact that geography is simultaneously a member of the International Social Science Council and of the International Council for (Natural) Sciences for many many years, and now thanks to IYGU, since early December 2015 it is also a member of the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH). This is a quite unique position that no other discipline has reached so far. This opens the possibility to work on integrated approaches in new ways. Finding new forms and new ways of integration could be a major contribution to the scientific community.

I therefore regard the IGU Initiative for an “International Year of Global Understanding” (IYGU) as a bridge builder under new, globalized conditions and beyond the imperialistic and racist evil spirits of the past, also for geography. It should help bring the social and natural sciences and the humanities together to jointly work on this because it is a very important matter to raise awareness or understanding of the global embeddedness of everybody’s life, physically, socially and culturally. It is a new potential for geography but also a new potential for science itself in a highly politicized field of action. This view is confirmed by IYGU as a geographical project having – as you stated it in your question – engaged the three major scientific global umbrella organizations – the natural sciences (ICSU), the social sciences (ISSC), as well as philosophy and the humanities (CIPSH) – for the first time in history.

From the origins of ecological research geography has played a key role in developing theoretical frameworks and in empirical investigation. The theoretical foundations of ecological research and sustainability policies were developed at the end of the nineteenth century largely on the basis of biological and Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The potential of geography would be tremendous if we had a more adapted geographical view of the way people live in the world today. This specifically includes the elaboration of new geographical imaginations for new, unprecedented geographical conditions. Geography has gained enormous potential through economic geography having learned from Economics, social geography having learned from Sociology, and physical geography from the natural sciences. We shouldn’t turn these gains in scientific competence into a reason to split the discipline. We can and should build on it to find new ways of integration Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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without the old problems of reducing the meaningful to the biological (racism) or the material (vulgar geo-determinism), the reification and hierarchization of cultures (imperialism), etc. We should use this integrative capacity of geography. Geography could – not in a traditional way, but in new ways – be a solid bridge builder. I hope that this can become geography’s true and strongest potential. I believe this is worth working for. IYGU project has three main pillars: research projects, educational programmes and information campaigns. J-Reading born as a scientific journal to promote research project in geographical education field. Can be the 2016 a key year to plan, imagine and create new way to teach Geography in the future? If yes, how? Today, we need a global perspective for geographical imaginations. “Global understandding” becomes a new human condition, for the field of sustainability as well as for most parts of the political agenda. We need to think about global sustainability as well as transnational, global political perspectives. Global sustainability requires global understanding. To think globally and act locally, we require a better understanding of how our local, daily activities impact global levels. Achieving a true global understanding requires achieving a more sustainable planet through local actions. Our common future on earth depends on successfully establishing sustainable everyday actions. This is where the local and global become one – where scientific insights have always been applied. We need a widespread awareness of how everyday actions create the challenges that impact humanity. This includes our capacity to connect actions and thoughts that may seem disconnected across time and space. This basis has to be implemented in all three pillars of IYGU, all three main fields of action: research, education and information. Before I come back to them in more detail, let me please elaborate a bit more on the basis perspective of IYGU and the basic guidelines for the three pillars in some more detail. The IGU initiative for an International Year of Global Understanding recognizes that dealing successsfully with global social and climate changes requires a global level of understanding. The Copyright© Nuova Cultura

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IYGU aims to bridge the gap in the awareness between local actions and global effects and will develop a blueprint for a new geographical view of a radically changing world. Globalization has brought far-flung places and people into ever-closer contact. New kinds of supra-national communities are emerging at an accelerating pace. At the same time, these trends do not efface the local. On the contrary, globalization is also associated with a marked reaffirmation of cities and regions as distinctive forums of human action. The IYGU’s overarching objective is to develop a blueprint for a new geographical view of the world that is fully open to these realities. It seeks to work creatively with their inner tensions and potentialities in the search for widened horizons of peace, democracy, environmental sustainability, and conviviality in the modern world. The principal method to achieve these goals is to work toward a new map of the world. In the sense of an imaginative cartography, this will literally reveal the many forms of interdependence and conflict in the new world order. In the sense of an intellectual program of research and discussion, this will figuratively lay the conceptual foundations for an understanding of the new geography of globalization and its political implications. In short: The IYGU adopts a practicecentered perspective of the current geographical living conditions. More specifically, the IYGU initiative aims to raise awareness of the global embeddedness of everyday life; that is, awareness of the inextricable links between local action and global phenomena. The IYGU hopes to stimulate people to take responsibility for their actions and to consider the challenges of global social and climate changes by taking sustainability into account when making decisions. The IYGU will: •

empower bottom-up movements that relate to these aims,

•

promote global sustainability to reduce the potential for violent territorial conflicts, and

•

highlight that territorial conflicts are not an adequate solution for global challenges. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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All three main pillars will be dealt with in the perspective of the three focal interfaces: - Local || Global The local with global impact; - Social || Natural Culturally adapted, ecologically, and socially sustainable ways of living; - Everyday || Science Sustainable actions patterns and technologies for local use. The IYGU will demonstrate to a wide range of world citizens – as global citizens with global responsibilities – that most everyday activities share a two-fold embeddedness: in a natural and socio-cultural regard; and the link between the local and the global scale is embodied in both of them. In addition, the IYGU will advance science and technology for sustainable development and contribute to the achievement of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. Research will bring together social and natural scientists and humanities scholars to gain an understanding of the global impacts of everyday local activities. Teaching will use these research results at all levels in classrooms throughout the world. Information will be provided in co-operation with strong partners from the private and public sector as well as NGOs to increase global understanding in public awareness. The IYGU will complement the Future Earth initiative by mobilizing the social and natural sciences and the humanities to engage in sustainability research. Overall, the research field should bring together social and natural sciences and the humanities to gain an understanding of the global impacts of everyday local activities. In this context, the linkages with bottom-up movements will be of particular importance. The education field’s main aim should be to educate global citizens in global responsibility. In close cooperation with the scientific panel and the outreach panel the Regional Action Centers will – together with the outreach panel of IYGU – help develop teaching material adapted to national education systems and curricula. This material will be targeted at a variety of educational levels, from primary school up to Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Ph.D. programs. One of the RACs’ key tasks in this field will be to organize working groups to design these materials and adapt them to the needs and requirements of their national and regional contexts. In short, these teaching materials will be prepared for use in classrooms throughout the world at all educational levels. Information will be provided in cooperation with strong partners from the private and public sector as well as NGOs to increase public awareness by means of, for example, regional/national print media, computer games, global social networks, Internet platforms (www.global-understanding.info), and TV programs. In this respect, the Regional Action Centers will assume the role of mediator between the whole IYGU network and the local/national/regional living contexts. Unfortunately, when people listen to ideas like “individuals [have] to understand and change their everyday habits”, too often their mind goes to the “Middle Age”, an imaginary world without progress and technology. How can IYGU change this prejudice? This attitude may be connected to an understanding of ecology and sustainability linked to its traditional roots in the 19th century, as I mentioned before. The theoretical foundations of ecological research as developed by Ernst Haeckel in the 19th century depart from pre-given living spaces, very much in the way traditional geography does. Given the fact that the founder of human geography, Friedrich Ratzel was a student of Ernst Haeckel, this shared perspective is certainly not accidental, just as its common implications are not either. The pre-given spaces are seen as crucial elements in the evolution and differentiation of varied life forms, in the geography of cultures too. Today the “natural” and “spatial” (including their ecological components) are still the starting points of ecological investigations, preceding all human actions. According to the “World Commission on Environment and Development” report on subsequent current strategies, this methodological approach is still the basis of international ecological policies. The pre-given status of nature and space implies normative standards that undermine cultural and social differences. It therefore also undermines the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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required worldwide acceptance of the suggested ecological policies that depart from these premises. If current ecological problems are indeed caused by human actions, the reasons for these actions lie largely outside the competence of the realms of natural science. The nature of and the human reasons for non-sustainable practices are increasingly understood, but gaining knowledge of how to change individual and social practices in respect of sustainability remains a major challenge for healthy nature-society relationships, as well as regarding designing environmental policies informed by sound science. On the other hand, social and cultural scientists excluded the natural world from the beginning. This double blindness led to the nearly total absence of social science and humanities insights into sustainability research and into such global change issues as the politics of climate change. This constitutes the second challenge for the nature-society and science-policy interfaces. In short: the natural sciences donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a differentiated view of the causes of and reasons

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for human-induced ecological problems, and most social scientific approaches suffer from a near absence of bio-physical world expertise. A third approach is based on a general systems theory, which integrates bio-physical and socio-economic systems on the same ontological level. The ways bio-physical and socio-economic facts exist differ: bio-physical facts can be characterized as existing in a realm of materiality and (causal) determination, whereas socio-economic facts reside in a realm of contextuality, meaning, and path-dependency. The two cannot be treated as if they were integrated in a single system governed by the same kinds of functional relationships; recognizing their distinctive logics is a prerequisite for successfully tackling sociocultural realities and ecological challenges, or the dilemmas produced by human action. Understanding the impact of cultural interpretations is a prerequisite for achieving sustainnable development.

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That’s probably why your question is certainly shared by many people. The 19th century thinking is rather nature-fixed and not interpretation oriented. But this is exactly not valid for the IYGU program. It is not starting out from pre-given spaces dominating or even determining the ecological requirements. It is not true because the IYGU program is starting out not from spaces and biological preconditions, but from everyday practices. These practices are socio-culturally differentiated and are the basis for the interpretation of nature, not the other way around. These everyday practices are also to be seen as the core elements of everyday geography-making, as the way the natural conditions are transformed to satisfy people’s needs, the ways to the local and global become interconnected. Today’s living conditions are so very different from the ones of the 19th century. The differences are so radical that we can’t go on trying to solve 21st century ecological problems with problem solving strategies derived from theories designed for 19th century problems. The geographies of economics are being reshaped by new production technologies; time-space compression occurs through innovations in transportation and communication, while resource and energy use is expanded. All these processes are interrelated, and transform daily life all over the globe. Besides all these changes, the recognition of the interrelatedness of global processes has also increased. In addition, parochial discourses have become more forceful on the global stage, often in ways that seem to provoke discord rather than foster understanding. The current debate on refugees and immigrants is only one of the typical examples. It is important that we deepen our understanding of the new global realities to address these emerging interconnected challenges productively. Today, rather the exact opposite is often to be seen. Many of the discourses postulate a parochial interpretation of global processes instead of favoring interpretations based on global understanding as the guideline for local and regional action and measures. Each everyday practice everywhere in the world can be characterized by a two-fold embeddedness in bio-physical (the body of the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

persons, the natural and material contexts) conditions and socio-cultural processes at the global and local levels. So it is absolutely not about a backward orientated political program, but it is very much a forward orientated perspective on how to achieve healthy conditions and ways of living for as many of the people on this planet, and on how to achieve global sustainability. It is one of the important goals of the IYGU to highlight different ways of acting in that respect without preaching most of all renunciation, but showing attractive and joyful alternative ways of living, making the potential of the local living conditions useful. It’s not about returning to the past, it’s much more about creating a new future, overcoming the (social and natural) shortcomings the latemodern life-styles towards a life based on global understanding and responsibilities as cosmopolitan citizens. Our world is pervaded by inequality, poverty and struggle and wide disparities of power. A “negative” observer might consider the objectives of the project as mainly suitable for richer countries, and less to the poorest. Why is this not true? Of course, not all everyday actions have the same potential of transformation, or power if you like. And it is certainly the case that the kind of actions with the most important resource consumption are the ones with the highest impact on our natural living conditions. Therefore it is important to have a first focus on that kind of action, most of all typical of western life styles. In that sense the guess underlying your question is certainly correct. But we shouldn’t overlook the fact that all actions are transforming our living conditions in an indirect or direct way, very often with quite harmful implications for our health. And we can also say, that the biggest part of the world population doesn’t belong to the richest part of humanity. Therefore the conclusion may be that we have to find ways of living – for the richer and the poor – that are less harmful for our living conditions. And of course it will be the biggest challenge to find solutions that at the same time imply a considerable improvement in the standard of living of the poor and less wealthy part of humanity having less negative consequences for everyone. Under globalized living conditions it Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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is simply impossible to externalize the negative consequences of our actions as was probably the case before the industrial revolution. Since then we have been experiencing a growing integration of all local contexts in global processes. There is more or less no possibility of escape. We are all sitting in the same boat. And we need to find solutions to how we can navigate the boat with all passengers successfully through a restless ocean, leading hopefully – at least in that respect – to calmer waters. And as nobody can really escape, it is important to find solutions in a common effort and in a way that everyone can contribute with their own means. And in this context it is – at least in my view – important to see, that everyday actions are fundamental for all changes This is where the local and global become one without being the same, and where scientific insights should always be applied. Forging a global understanding includes our capacity to link actions and thoughts that may seem disconnected across time and space. Linking them opens up new choices, but also requires accepting new responsibilities. A better global understanding will enable us to master the biggest challenges of the present and will make sustainability real for the sake of the future generations On each day in 2016, the IYGU will highlight a change to an everyday activity that has been scientifically proven to be more sustainable than current practice. Could you anticipate some of the most remarkable examples of that? Will some of these examples be taken from the lifestyle, way of production and consumption of the “less developed countries”? As already mentioned, IYGU focuses on habitual day-to-day practices and seeks to shed light on their embeddedness in biophysical and socio-cultural contexts, as well as on the ways in which such everyday practices link the local and the global scale. In this way, the IYGU’s actions will highlight the importance of culturally differentiated ways to address the needs of society. On the whole, the IYGU intends to support new geographical imaginations for new geographical realities in the globalized digital age. If the emphasis is placed on culturally differentiated ways towards global sustainability Copyright© Nuova Cultura

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it is obvious that we can’t suggest the same solution for all parts of the world. We need proposals that are adapted to the cultural context as well as to different social and economic contexts. Therefore it will be the main task of the regional action centers to make proposals for their regions, using the local potentials and local opportunities. In addition we will advertise the nominees of the Katerva prize – called by Reuters as the Nobel Prize for sustainability – for advances in sustainable technologies and institution innovations over the last years. But the selection of these innovations will remain in the hands of the regional action centers around the world. The IYGU will offer the possibility to learn from each other and to stimulate local solutions to reach global sustainability. And by “learning from each other” I mean that this process can and should go in all directions, not only as a one-way communication. Of course all proposals will need contextualization. But first of all we need the openness and readiness to learn from others. What kind and what strategy of communication do you think to apply in order to prevent digital divide to not allow less developed countries to get involved? The main element of the communication of the IYGU will be the Regional Action Centers (RACs). The Regional Action Centers will give the IYGU a presence and identity at the regional and national level. The aim of the RACs is to organize IYGU-related activities (mainly dissemination/PR via publications and events) in the lead-up to, during, and within a year after completion of the IYGU in 2016. The RAC activities are to reflect on the bottom-up and integrative approach that characterizes the IYGU project overall; that is, the RACs should draw on the strengths of the social and natural sciences as well as the humanities when planning and implementing their activities. Every RAC will cooperate with scientific bodies, national academies, and/or ministries to plan IYGUrelated activities in keeping with the Durban declaration (2015). The action plan of the Regional Action Centers is embedded in the following tenets.

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1. Thinking globally and acting locally presupposes global understanding. In order to achieve global sustainability, we need to bridge the gap in awareness between local actions and global effects. Herein lies the ultimate significance of a program for the promotion of global understanding. 2. Humankind is confronted with unprecedented situations: the world’s climate, ecosystems, biodiversity, economic system, and sociocultural well-being are at stake. Those already most vulnerable will bear the brunt of the impacts. 3. Global environmental change research has produced scientific insights into earth system processes that are rarely translated into effective policies. We need to deepen our knowledge of socio-cultural contexts and to improve social and cultural acceptance of scientific knowledge. 4. Genuine transdisciplinary research is a firstorder necessity. In order to achieve this, we need to overcome the established divide between the natural and social sciences. Natural and social scientific knowledge have to be integrated with non-scientific and nonWestern forms of knowledge to develop a global competence framework. It is imperative that the gap between global problems and national, regional, and local behavior and decision-making be bridged. Effective solutions must be based on bottom-up decisions and actions, and should be complemented by top-down measures when necessary. The Regional Action Centers are the hubs to get face-to-face with local schools, with the community of scientists and policy makers, NGOs etc. by organizing meetings and conferences, bringing the private sector on board etc. Based on signing a Memorandum of Understanding, RACs will work as independent units in terms of fundraising, staffing, accountting, event organization, research, PR, and publications. The responsibilities of an RAC will be to initiate and coordinate actions at the regional/national level. Actions will include

stimulating research activities in the context of the outreach program. The RACs will act mainly as hubs for coordinating the IYGU communication networks and actions at the regional level. The hub concept is related to the bottom-up structure of the IYGU program. The activities encompass several thematic fields and types of action linked to the IYGU program’s rationale and objectives. The RAC will also set up its own website in [official language(s) of the country/region], and maintain and update this website. The website will be linked to the main IYGU website (http://www.global-understanding.info). Teachers can up- and download teaching materials to/from these websites. A bottom-up approach like the one proposed by IYGU seems to need many years to be fully implemented. Has IYGU (and the organizations that promote it) just imagined some follow-up after 2016? Which is, in your personal opinion, the minimum goal that you expect to consider IYGU as a success story? The IYGU is scheduled for 2016 and is preceded by a year of preparation (2015) and followed by a year of harvest/evaluation (2017). The harvest year will bring the sustainable achievements of 2016 in the form of operating networks on the level of the already mentioned three pillars of action. But these three years will mark just the beginning of coordinated work for global understanding between sciences, teaching and information. And geography has the opportunity to play a central role in this process. Global understanding will support policy decisions that promote sustainability. Global sustainability cannot come about without local sustainability. Actions and thoughts that may seem disconnected in space and time are often fundamentally linked, and global understanding enables people to make such connections. Many people know about the need for sustainability, but few make the corresponding decisions. The IYGU’s main goal is to promote global understanding so that actions and decisions yield sustainable outcomes, every day, all over the world. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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The main goal of IYGU is therefore to build bridges between global thinking and local actions by developing an understanding for the embeddedness of our life in global processes. These developments require transdisciplinary thinking. The minimum goal so to speak would then be to foster this kind of thinking and developing sustainable networks for the cooperation of science, teaching and everyday policy making by changing people’s behavior in favor of a more sustainable way of living. The minimum goal would be to establish a network of regional action centers and institutional networks that will operate well beyond 2016 and strengthen the impact of bottom-up activities. For this the preparation of teaching materials on the respective subject for all levels of education and in the different languages will be one of the pre-conditions to reach this goal.

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Scheunemann Inguelore and Oosterbeek Luiz (Eds.), A new paradigm of sustainability: theory and praxis of integrated landscape management, Rio de Janeiro, IBIO, 2012. Scott Allen, A World in Emergence: Cities and Regions in the 21st Century, London, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014. Sultana Farhana and Loftus Alex, The Right to Water, London Taylor and Francis, 2011. Werlen Benno, Sozialgeographie alltäglicher Regionalisierungen, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997. Werlen Benno (Ed.), Global Sustainability. Cultural Perspectives and Challenges for Transdisciplinary Integrated Reseach, Dordrecht, Springer Publishers, 2015.

Could you please suggest 10-12 readings (possibly 5-6 “geographical” and other 5-6 “non-mainly-geographical”) that are in the “spirit” of IYGU project? Beck Ulrich, The Metamorphosis of the World: How Climate Change is Transforming Our Concept of the World, London, John Wiley and Sons, 2016. Dennis Kingsley and Urry John, After the Car, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2013. Giddens Anthony, The Politics of Climate Change, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2011. Jackson Peter, Food Words, London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015. Pickles John and Smith Adrian, Articulations of Capital: Global Production Networks and Regional Transformations, London, John Wiley and Son, 2016. Rosa Hartmut, Social Acceleration, New York, Columbia University Press, 2015. Sassen Sasskia, The Global City, Princeton N.J., Princeton University Press, 2001.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 4, Dec., 2015, pp. 115-119 DOI: 10.4458/6063-11

EUGEO Commitment to Geographical Education: from the “Rome Declaration” to the “New International Charter on Geography Education” Massimiliano Tabusia a

EUGEO Secretary General Email: tabusi@unistrasi.it

Received: November 2015 – Accepted: December 2015

Abstract This paper aims to summarize the recent activities carried out by the Association of European Geographical Society (EUGEO) on a path related to the state of geography as a discipline and to geographical education. The attention is focused on two main steps of this path. The first is the Rome declaration on Geographical Education in Europe, signed in Rome, 2013, by the International Geographical Union (IGU), the Commission on Geographical Education (CGE), EUGEO, EUROGEO and the Association of Italian Teachers of Geography (AIIG). The second is the New International Charter on Geography Education, that is planned to be endorsed, in its final version, by the General Assembly of the IGU on the occasion of the International Geographical Union Congress in Beijing, August 2016. The aim is to trace and discuss the motivations and ways in which EUGEO has been involved in the drafting of these two documents. Keywords: EUGEO, Geography Education, International Cooperation, Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe, International Charter on Geography Education, IGU-CGE, School, Teachers

1. Introduction The last Century was the one in which the world changed more than ever before, and, as we all know from experience even before studies, changes occurred at an unthinkable rate in comparison with previous eras. These changes continue and intensify more and more in the new millennium. Although most of these changes are due to a continuous hyper-specialization in science and technology disciplines, the results have not always been entirely satisfactory, at least not for the Planet as a whole, nor for many of its inhabitants. Along with major changes in production systems, in the extraordinary ability Copyright© Nuova Cultura

to transport raw materials and goods and in the increased mobility of capital, the world has experienced considerable imbalances, not only in the environmental field but also in the social one. In this context, geographical knowledge would be crucial to shape conscious citizens and to enable them to understand the complexity of the contemporary world and to interact with it. Nevertheless, in a number of European countries (and not only there) geography is under the threat of being reduced or even abolished from the school curricula (Ottens, 2013), and very often geographic knowledge is confused with mnemonic study of geographic places and Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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names. Considering these and other problems, after a long and open debate on the occasion of its 2016 Congress in Beijing, the IGU is going to endorse a new International Charter on Geography Education developed by the CGE. The first edition of the Charter (Haubrick, 1992) is still meaningful, but “since 1992 the world has changed and with it the discipline of geography and geography education [...]; compared to the 1992 Charter the new Charter is updated, and is more compact and includes an action plan” (CGE, 2015b, p. 2)1. The Charter could be a vital opportunity not only to improve aims and objectives for geographical education, but for Geography by and large to reflect on its role in (and for) society and to boost it. This paper aims to summarize the recent activities carried out by the Association of European Geographical Society (EUGEO) in relation to the state of geography as a discipline and geographical education. These activities, in particular for geographical education, have been closely interconnected with the process that led to the drafting of the Charter. Once the Charter is approved EUGEO will undertake to let it circulate and to support any action needed to implement its action plan. Paragraph 2 is dedicated to the activities between 2012 and the Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe (2013). Paragraph 3 describes the involvement of EUGEO in the follow-up of that declaration up to the drafting of the New International Charter on Geography Education. Lastly, the conclusions only illustrate the thoughts of the author and does not commit EUGEO.

2. EUGEO and Geographical Education: the making of the Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe The Association of Geographical Societies in Europe (EUGEO) has focused on issues in the last years relating to the state of Geography in Europe, and then, more specifically, to the state of geographical education. The 2012 EUGEO 1

A Charter draft, updated on November 15, 2015, is published on the CGE Commission website (http://www. igu-cge.org). The same website has also published the International Declaration on Research in Geography Education, signed in Moscow, 2015, of great importance to the issues discussed here.

Seminar, in example, was entitled “State of Geography in Europe”, with presentations from Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. All the presentations2, given by EUGEO member societies, among other fields of action considered (employment, academia etc.), highlighted the situation of Geography in schools as being very important in each country as well. Although in different ways for different countries, an almost common trend of weakening emerged. In some countries, like Italy, a reduction of geography content from the school curricula started in 2010 (De Vecchis, 2011, 2014), giving rise to a reflection on the role of geographical knowledge in contemporary societies and its perception in the media and public opinion in general (Maggioli and Tabusi, 2011). In the Italian case, the Italian Association of Geography Teachers, AIIG, along with the other Italian Geographical Associations (Italian Geographical Society, SGI; Geographical Studies Society, SSG; Association of Italian Geographers AGEI) and with the support of a website managed by some “young” geographers (luogoespazio.info), decided to start a public appeal in favor of Geography in the school curricula. Thanks to the support of international nets of geographers, endorsements were not only from Italy, but also from almost seventy countries all over the world, demonstrating that the importance of geographical knowledge goes well beyond borders. This is because, as the appeal reported, “Doing geography at school means educating citizens of Italy and the world to be aware, independent, critical and responsible, to know how to live their lives within their environment, and how to change it in a creative and sustainable way, with an eye to the future”. During 2012-2013 EUGEO was involved, mainly with the research work of its President (Henk Ottens) and in cooperation with the Italian company Bshape, AIIG and SGI, in a project promoted by the Education Office of the European Space Agency (ESA). The project had as its aim the use of remote sensing data and methods for geography teaching in the school 2

Presentations materials are available in EUGEO website (www.eugeo.eu), under “Events”, and then “Cologne Seminar”. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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curriculum, with nine countries investigated (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and United Kingdom). Unless the situation is quite different in these countries, geography is generally appreciated as being very important knowledge especially in our era, but teachers’ major obstacles are mainly related to the “time available for geography teaching, the quantity and quality of initial training for teachers, and the lack of adequate refresher training” (Ottens, 2013). Considering geographical education as a priority, in its IV Congress (Rome, 2013) EUGEO promoted, thanks to AIIG, a special session focused on this specific theme, together with the International Geographical Union (IGU), the IGU Commission on Geographical Education (CGE) and EUROGEO (Ottens, 2013; Van der Schee, 2014). The results of this important and very stimulating session are resumed in the Rome declaration on Geographical Education in Europe (De Vecchis, Donert, Kolossov, Ottens and Van der Schee, 2013). Ottens, who undersigned it on behalf of EUGEO, defines the Declaration as a “joint response of the European Geography Community to recent threats to reduce or even abolish geography content from school curricula. [...] The Rome Declaration is a first step, a wake-up call to warn about the negative consequences for young persons and for society at large of this” (Ottens, 2013, p. 98). The declaration starts with the following sentences: “Geographical education provides students with essential capabilities and competences needed to know and understand the world. Responsible and effective uses of geographical information are vital for the future of Europe. Therefore, all European citizens need to understand how to deal with it. Geographical education provides them with the knowledge and skills to do this”. It is surely rhetorical, but it is also a matter of fact to argue that future generations will build and organize our world. A hyper-specialization in science and technology disciplines is not capable of ensuring by itself responsibility and effectiveness for the future of Europe; not without a broader and multiscalar (in a word, geographical) knowledge which, however, has to make use of modern methods and technologies. Nevertheless, geography is not perceived as such Copyright© Nuova Cultura

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a kind of knowledge by a wide range of public, but in most cases, it brings to mind the school mnemonic subject par excellence, which consists primarily in learning by heart State names, their capitals, rivers and the names of seas and so on, as “clearly” showed by TV quizzes (Van der Schee, 2012). But this, of course, is not true only for Europe: to know better the place in which one lives, its cultural sense and, at the same time, other places and cultures in the world with the connection between people and their territories, all this is fundamental to live and build the present world (Bednarz, Heffron and Huynh, 2013; Stoltman, 2013; Butt and Lambert, 2014). Geography matters in a wide range of topics, and all of them play a key role in the most relevant facts of our contemporaneity. Peace, war, identities, migrations, spaces, places, boundaries, cities, flows, segregation, wealth and poverty, resources, climate, urbanization and many others, they are all the subject of study for geographers around the world. As Vladimir Kolossov, President of the IGU, states, “It is necessary to improve the image of geography in society and among decision makers. Geography plays the unique role in culture and education, in shaping our identities and understanding of the world” (2014, p. 78). For this reason, the Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe has been not a final destination, but one step along an important path to reflect on the discipline itself. A path to reach a geographical education whose usefulness is perceived and put into practice by the communities in a cooperative way. Using Joop Van der Schee’s words, “It seems wise to extend the Rome Declaration to a worldwide initiative to improve the position and quality of geography education and to use the ideas from earlier plans to improve geography education” (2014, p. 10).

3. From the Rome follow-up to a New International Charter on Geography Education After the EUGEO Congress in Rome, the IGU Commission on Geographical Education (of which Joop Van der Schee is co-chair) continued in its pivotal role to push forward for a wide reflection, stimulating a number of links

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and meetings with regional and national organizations. During 2014 EUGEO was involved – with the participation of the President and the Secretary General – in two meetings with the same Institutions that signed the Rome Declaration. The first was an informal but extremely productive meeting in Utrecht (February), promoted by CGE and conceived as a follow-up of the Rome session. The intention was to plan a “roadmap” of actions (just imagined by Ottens, 2013) to strengthen geographical education and the position of geography in the public sphere. Van der Schee masterfully reported (and substantially expanded) the meeting’s results in this Journal (2014), introducing the idea of an International strategy for geography education. The second meeting was in the context of the EUROGEO Congress in Malta (May), where the findings of Rome and Utrecht were further developed. EUGEO members discussed these developments in Krakow during the 2014 Annual seminar, with an introduction by the CGE co-chair. Between 2014 and 2015 the CGE decided to summarize the work developed in Europe with that carried out with geographers from all over the world, so as to propose a new Charter on Geography Education. On the occasion of the EUGEO General Assembly in Budapest (September 2015), the Annual EUGEO Seminar discussed the Charter draft with particular focus on actions arising from the paper. What can we do as geographers, and what can Geography do for society, in terms of methods, tools and skills? This was one of the main questions during the seminar. The possible answers were connected with the ability to relate the research results in simple and effective terms, taking into account that the communication of the research results is just as important as the results themselves. “Don’t be shy to say I’m a geographer!”, is a phrase coming out of the debate that sums up the sense of this part of the discussion very well. A more continuous and strict connection with the stakeholders is another part of a possible answer. Another part of the discussion focused on the socalled minimum requirement for geography teaching and geographical literacy of those who teach geography. While the principle itself is clear and supported by the participants, the reflection goes around the fact that the concept Copyright© Nuova Cultura

of “minimum” should not serve as a pretext to lower the requirements in countries where they are higher. Another focal point of the discussion is related to who should formulate the standards: the prevailing view is that it is important that the decision makers are supported in these choices by the active involvement of those who do research and teaching. The key concept that emerged here is that it should be a specific professional duty to be able to interpret the curriculum in a way that makes geography a valuable learning experience for citizens of the 21st century. The problem of digital illiteracy (connected with the knowledge of languages) is evoked, and every possible effort by the community of geographers to share and improve information, methods and results is highly recommended.

4. Final remarks These cannot really be conclusions, because the path has not been completed yet nor it will be concluded with the proclamation of the Charter. It was not the aim of this paper to analyze the Charter in its various points, nor to advance observations on its contents: the drafting process has been widely participated3 and, like the IGU-CGE website reports, the present version takes into account the comments made during the EUGEO Budapest Congress and before. In these final remarks, I would try, rather, to formulate just a few reflections on geography education and geography itself, as a discipline, as well as on the opportunities that the Charter opens up. Focusing on principles about geography education and its importance for students implies, inevitably, focusing on the importance of geography for communities and society. This is the reason why it seems reasonable to believe that the success of the Charter (and of its principles), far from being a geo-education specialist “affair”, will be as great as the determined support of the entire community of geographers will be. The point is not the defense of a discipline because of a kind of “corporative selfishness”. The point is to 3

A very important and useful instrument to follow the Commission’s work and the making of the Charter is the IGU-CGE Newsletter, edited by Brooks, Lidstone and Van der Schee (http://www.igu-cge.org). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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preserve and put into action strikingly modern knowledge with a decisive avail in our time. Knowledge that is useful to understand and solve actual problems, and to prevent and avoid future problems. To let people see that geographical thinking is not (only) for military, tourists and academics, but is helpful for individuals and communities in their everyday life: this seems to be the key task for geographers. And this seems to be the commitment that the Charter is calling us to take. To succeed in this, geographers need collective awareness of their social role and increased cooperation and networking. The nodes of the networks are certainly scholars, geographical societies, universities and research centers, but schools can also be so; teachers may try to start from the local scale, applying geographical thought to investigating territorial problems and possible solutions, and “infecting” students, families and (maybe) local decision makers with it. This is, of course, just one of many hypotheses that can be imagined to make geographical knowledge available to society. To reach this goal, however, it seems very important to have a clear idea of the contribution of geography to education, sound research in the field of geography education, a strong international cooperation and a solid action plan. For all these reasons it seems very important, and stimulating, to have the new International Charter on Geography Education.

References 1. Bednarz S.W., Heffron S. and Huynh N.T. (Eds.), A Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education: Geography Education Research, Report from the Geography Education Research Committee of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Project, Washington DC, Association of American Geographers, 2013. 2. Bshape, AIIG, SGI, EUGEO, How to teach Geography through remote sensing, Report WP1: Analysis of the Geography Curriculum and Practice in Schools, Report for the European Space Agency, Rome, Bshape, 2013. 3. Butt G. and Lambert D., “International perspectives on the future of geography Copyright© Nuova Cultura

4. 5. 6. 7.

10.

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education: an analysis of national curricula and standards”, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 23, 2, 2014, pp. 1-12. CGE, “International Declaration on Research in Geography Education”, 2015a, www.igu-cge.org. CGE, “2016 International Charter on Geography Education” (draft November 15), 2015b, www.igu-cge.org/charters_1.htm. De Vecchis G. (Ed.), A scuola senza geografia?, Rome, Carocci, 2011. De Vecchis G., Donert K., Kolossov V., Ottens H. and Van der Schee J., “Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 101. De Vecchis G., “The fight for geography in the italian schools (2010-2014): an updating”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, 2014, pp. 5-8. Haubrich H., International Charter on Geographical Education, Freiburg, IGU Commission on Geographical Education, 1992. Kolossov V., “The International Geographical Union before its centennial: new challenges and developments”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 1, 3, 2014, pp. 73-79. Maggioli M. and Tabusi M., “Geografie pop e geografie accademiche”, in De Vecchis G. (Ed.), A scuola senza geografia?, Rome, Carocci, 2011, pp. 93-132. Ottens H., “Reflections on Geography Education in Europe”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 97-100. Stoltman J., “Geography Education in the United States: Initiatives for the 21st century”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 5-9. Van der Schee J., “Geographical Education in a Changing World”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 0, 1, 2012, pp. 1-5. Van der Schee J., “Looking for an international strategy for geography education”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (JREADING), 1, 3, 2014, pp. 9-13.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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