By Dr Verity Jones, Associate Professor in Education
The annual Geography Teacher Educator Conference took place in Manchester this year. At a time when teachers, teacher educators and researchers are navigating curriculum change, intensifying accountability pressures and the urgent challenges of climate and environmental crisis, conferences like this feel more important than ever. They offer not only a space for sharing research, but also a vital community of practice where ideas, uncertainties and hopes can be held collectively.
Conferences as spaces of knowledge exchange and care
The Geography Teacher Educator conference was awash with the generosity of exchange. Geography teacher education sits at a productive intersection between academic research, classroom practice and policy, and this was reflected in the diversity of sessions and conversations. Delegates moved fluidly between theory and practice: discussing curriculum futures, teacher identity, disciplinary knowledge, and pedagogical approaches to sustainability and environmental justice.
Equally important was the sense of support. Informal conversations over coffee were as valuable as formal presentations, offering space to share challenges, test ideas and reconnect with a community that understands the particular pressures of working in and with schools. In a sector where workloads are high and opportunities for reflective dialogue can be limited, these conferences act as moments of pause, renewal and collective thinking.
Schools under the microscope: Interdisciplinary inquiry with children
I was fortunate to present two interdisciplinary projects during the conference. The first was Schools under the microscope, a collaborative project (with Dr Ben Williams and Dr Margarida Sardo, UWE Bristol) that brings together geography, science, creative methods and children’s literature to explore how young people understand and experience their school environments.
Central to this project is our new children’s book, developed as both a research output and a pedagogical resource (with a launch coming soon!). The book invites children to look closely at microfibres. Sharing this work with geography teacher educators prompted rich discussion about the role of narrative, creativity and interdisciplinary approaches in supporting meaningful environmental learning.
The Hear Soil Project
My second input to the conference was a co-presentation with Amanda Bailey (Bath Spa University) focused on the Hear Soil Project. Hear Soil uses sound, sensory engagement and creative inquiry to foreground soil as a living, relational and often invisible element of geographical education.
Presenting this work within a geography teacher education context generated thoughtful conversations about how we might move beyond extractive or purely scientific framings of soil, towards pedagogies that emphasise care, reciprocity and more-than-human relationships. These discussions reinforced the value of collaborative, cross-institutional projects in opening up new ways of thinking about disciplinary knowledge.
Looking ahead
Leaving Manchester, I was reminded that conferences like this are not simply about dissemination. They are about connection, care and collective imagination. For those of us working in education and childhood research, they provide the conditions for interdisciplinary ideas to take root, for early-stage projects to be nurtured, and for shared commitments to social and environmental justice to be renewed.
As we look ahead to upcoming project launches and continued collaborations, the conversations begun at this conference will continue to shape both research and practice – a reminder of why these spaces matter.
