Pedagogic Research Methods in Geography Higher Education

Abstract

The idea for this section of the journal came partly from our mutual involvement in a project that was designed to raise the pedagogic research capacity of academics working in geography, earth and environmental sciences (GEES). This project was funded by the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network and undertaken by the LTSN GEES Subject Centre for these subjects. The project was based on a partnership with educational researchers and subject specialists. Briefly, four cross-university and cross-subject research groups were funded to explore pedagogic issues relating to various aspects of fieldwork; one further group, ‘doing pedagogic research’, was charged with researching the project's effectiveness in building pedagogic research capacity.We were participants in the ‘doing pedagogic research’ group that surfaced evidence about the value of facilitating dialogues between educationists and subject specialists. Of course, geographers are experienced in a range of research methods, depending on their specialisms, and many of these methods—quantitative and qualitative—do overlap with educational research methods. However, we also generated evidence that resistance to some pedagogic research methods, particularly qualitative ones, had much to do with subject-based views about their reliability and validity. We hope, therefore, that this section will both deepen dialogue about the value of pedagogic research and show ways in which robust research designs can be developed within a range of methods.In this section of the journal, our intention is to publish articles that describe and reflect on particular research methods and techniques to stimulate ideas among our readers about ways in which they might conduct pedagogic research. We also hope to publish discussions on methodology. As a journal dedicated to advancing our understandings of the teaching and learning of geography in higher education, there needs to be space to question the value basis for such understandings. In the first contribution in this section (which comes out of the LTSN GEES Project) Steve Gaskin describes the use and methods of the Nominal Group Technique within focus-group research with geography students.