The Power of Collective Tactics: Response to Peters and Turner

Abstract

Letter to the editorThe power of collective tactics: response to Peters and Turner Dear Editor Peters and Turner (2014) raise a set of very important issues concerning the use of teachingfocused staff in higher education and how these staff navigate the situations they find themselves in. As their sensitive treatment demonstrates, these are issues that are tied to, but not identical with, wider concerns about casualisation in academic labour markets. We welcome the authors' brave and insightful use of autobiography to make this important contribution.One of the most powerful strategies they demonstrate is their collaborative response to what can feel like individual predicaments. The chance to discuss the experiences of being employed in precarious circumstances engenders a feeling of recognition and the possibility of exploring how one might belong. It also facilitates the development of those projects, such as grant writing and paper writing, which make finding more permanent jobs possible. Collaboration is an invaluable mechanism for managing to survive on temporary teaching contracts. Their paper makes as good a case as any of the importance of collegiality and solidarity with and between teaching-focused academics. It seems to be becoming normal for early career and those on nonstandard contracts to be used instrumentally (ESRC, 2012). Whilst it is a structural problem, it is something all geographers are able to challenge in our everyday working practices and relationships.There are also networks for teaching-focused staff which aim to provide collegial space outside of departments. THE GEES network (Teaching-focused in Higher Education in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences) is one example. A LinkedIn group enables people to share information and debate about teaching and being a teacher in higher education. The network also has an annual professional development workshop. The INLT (International Network for Learning and Teaching) facilitates academic and postgraduate geographers in conversation about policy and practice in higher education geography. It is an international group that meets face to face for writing retreats and at conferences, as well as providing professional support through e-mail and sharing good practice. The Higher Education Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG) provides another forum for discussing issues concerning higher education and geography, connecting those with interests in research, teaching, and learning through events and other activities.These networks facilitate teaching-focused staff in the positive contributions they make to the discipline. Moreover, these networks can provide a lifeline for people isolated in their departments. We would encourage all teaching-focused staff to become involved with these networks as a means to support, and be supported by, the community. In addition, we call on heads of departments and others to ensure that those on teaching-focused contracts are supported (financi...

The future role of GIS education in creating critical spatial thinkers

“…Outputs from this research agenda would be beneficial to both members of the geography community who teach the skills associated with critical spatial thinking, as well as those outside geography who are also interested in these skills. This would also support the development of teaching-only staff within geography departments, helping with their professional development (Bearman, Dyer, Walkington, & Wyse, 2015). This approach could be achieved by considering GIS to be a generic literacy skill (like literacy, numeracy and IT literacy), and then GIS would need to be integrated into the curriculum across many different modules.…”

Shifting landscapes: from coalface to quick sand? Teaching Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences in Higher Education

“…THE GEES (Teaching‐focused in HE) network can be used to contact others and share information, get feedback from peers, organise/take part in skype reading groups and write collaborative publications (Bearman et al . ; THE GEES network ).…”

“…In this section we suggest some interventions that might begin to address the issues we have highlighted (see Table 5). We hope these might provoke conversations in departments and beyond about the best ways to make visible our different experiences and make room for expanded understandings of academic careers, and for a collective response to what can often feel like individual predicaments (Bearman et al 2015).…”

“…Networks THE GEES (Teaching-focused in HE) network can be used to contact others and share information, get feedback from peers, organise/take part in skype reading groups and write collaborative publications (Bearman et al 2015;THE GEES network 2015). The International Network for Learning and Teaching in Geography in Higher Education (INLT) is a way to engage with a professional and international community of people researching their own teaching practice.…”