Teaching Fieldwork in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Will be published approx. on 7. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
418 pages
978-1-0494-2457-6 (ISBN)
Description
This book provides invaluable practical guidance for teaching and learning through fieldwork in higher education. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of experienced field educators, it delves into the challenges and opportunities of teaching beyond the classroom across Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES).
Organised into three thematic parts, the book covers ethical and responsible fieldwork, approaches to defining and redefining the field, and relevant skills and competencies. Chapters discuss strategies for making learning accessible, facing uncertainty and transforming fieldwork using digital tools, supplemented by themed vignettes which provide examples and resources for teaching. The book documents the many innovative ways in which educators are responding to the changing contexts of fieldwork and concludes by presenting an insightful audit tool that readers can use to reflect on, review and enhance their field teaching.
Interdisciplinary in scope, this is a vital read for instructors in geography, earth sciences, environmental science and archaeology as well as other courses with a fieldwork component. Its theoretical and practical insights are also beneficial to students and researchers interested in education, teaching methods, outdoor education and future skills development.
Organised into three thematic parts, the book covers ethical and responsible fieldwork, approaches to defining and redefining the field, and relevant skills and competencies. Chapters discuss strategies for making learning accessible, facing uncertainty and transforming fieldwork using digital tools, supplemented by themed vignettes which provide examples and resources for teaching. The book documents the many innovative ways in which educators are responding to the changing contexts of fieldwork and concludes by presenting an insightful audit tool that readers can use to reflect on, review and enhance their field teaching.
Interdisciplinary in scope, this is a vital read for instructors in geography, earth sciences, environmental science and archaeology as well as other courses with a fieldwork component. Its theoretical and practical insights are also beneficial to students and researchers interested in education, teaching methods, outdoor education and future skills development.
Reviews / Votes
'This collection of edited chapters provides a timely contribution to the pedagogy of field teaching and learning. At the outset, the signature pedagogy of the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences disciplines is conceptualised in its broadest terms, essentially defined as any learning activity that takes place beyond the limits of the classroom. Fundamentally fieldwork engages students with real-world experiences. The intent of this book is to provide both guidance and examples of how to create field courses (from moments to months) that can be delivered within the challenging and continually evolving framework of Higher Education in which we find ourselves at present. Covering three key themes, (1) ethical, responsible, safe and accessible fieldwork, (2) defining and redefining the field, and (3) fieldwork skills and competences, examples and resources to design and deliver field courses are shared throughout each chapter using a series of vignettes. The 'how to' emphasis of each chapter is backed up and informed by a robust pedagogy. This approach makes the content of the book, with its emphasis and focus on sharing practice and commitment to enhancing fieldwork, engaging, accessible and appealing, as well as generating and embodying a genuine community of practice in the discipline. To underscore the practical emphasis of this book, a Fieldwork Audit Tool is introduced at the end, which provides educators with a tool comprising a series of questions to reflect on, review and enhance our field teaching. This is a valuable and thought-provoking resource for all involved in field teaching and its implementation will help ensure fieldwork is rigorously designed and delivered and fit for purpose to meet the needs of our students and adapt to the challenges faced in our disciplines. I commend this book as a must-read for those who want to make use of real-world moments in their teaching design and delivery - and which of us doesn't want to do that?' -- Ian Fuller, Massey University, New Zealand 'The enthusiasm for fieldwork jumps off the page, particularly from the vignettes offering teachers practical hands-on tips to optimize fieldwork learning. A sound longitudinal view also permeates the book via innovative suggestions regarding continuous (student) evaluations before, during and after the actual fieldwork, and fieldwork material reuse by future learners' cohorts. The practical examples, firmly embedded in the literature, inspired me to jot down valuable takeaways so frantically that it was hard to decipher them afterwards.' -- Veronique Schutjens, Utrecht University, the NetherlandsMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0494-2457-6 (9781049424576)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Edited by Derek France, Division of Humanities, Cultures & Environment, University of Chester, Lesley Batty, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham and Dan Swanton, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
Content
Contents
Preface xxi
Acknowledgements xxix
1 Introduction to Teaching Fieldwork in Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences 1
Derek France, Lesley Batty and Dan Swanton
Vignette 1.1: Students' everyday life as fieldwork - learning
emotional geographies in the classroom and beyond 11
Matej Blazek
Vignette 1.2: Through the window - embedding micro-fieldwork
activity into classroom teaching 14
Peter G. Knight
Vignette 1.3: Fieldwork bingo cards 17
Kjersti Daae and Mirjam S. Glessmer
2 Climate hypocrisy, sustainability and undergraduate fieldtrips 21
Elizabeth R. Hurrell, Adrian Gonzalez and Daryl Stump
Vignette 2.1: Sustainable travel for fieldwork 41
Jane Bevan, Tamara Hunt and Lucas Trawicki
Vignette 2.2: Growing local sustainable food and community 44
Eifiona Thomas Lane and Rebecca Jones
Vignette 2.3: Lower carbon week-long fieldtrips 47
Aled Singleton, Keith Halfacree, Angharad Closs and Stephens
3 Ethics in fieldwork teaching 50
Julia Cooke, Matthew W. Bulbert, Eleanor Drinkwater and
Zoe M. Simmons
Vignette 3.1: Developing a care-full praxis of 'access is love' in
approaching and practising fieldwork 70
Sam Staddon and Clare Barnes
Vignette 3.2: Decolonising geography fieldwork - commemorative
landscapes in Western Australia 73
4 Who really matters? Methods for making fieldwork accessible
and inclusive 77
Trevor Collins and Sarah Davies
Vignette 4.1: Inclusivity in student fieldtrips 91
Christine Barnes, Kevin Lougheed and Daniel Schillereff
Vignette 4.2: Conquering the mountain - the practicalities of
making in-person fieldwork accessible 94
Katherine Dobbie and Jennifer Pike
Vignette 4.3: Enabling remote activity - a responsive system for live
linking students to fieldwork 98
Sarah Davies and Trevor Collins
Vignette 4.4: An inclusive, accessible investigation based on the use
of video resources 101
Janet Haresnape, Hannah Gauci and Vicky Taylor
Vignette 4.5: Hybrid fieldwork approaches - the independent study
of 'place' in teaching and learning 104
Fiona Williams and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 4.6: Geoscience in pixels - a creative approach to more
inclusive fieldwork 107
Ed Thomas, Anna McGairy, Manlin Zhang, Frankie Butler and
Rosa Francesca
Vignette 4.7: Distance teaching field skills without access to the
internet - a second-year Human Geography module 111
Vicky Johnson and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 4.8: City parks as venues for accessible and inclusive Open
University environment field days 114
Jennie Neve Bellamy and Yoseph Araya
5 Supporting students in the field 117
Julie Peacock, Liam Taylor and C. Scott Watson
Vignette 5.1: Foregrounding field-based student welfare and
community - a framework for developing collaborative residential
field courses 129
Hannah Mathers
6 Research in the field and professional practice 133
Brian Whalley, Derek France and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 6.1: 'Drifting' the city - familiarising learners with the
field site through group-led, randomised walking 152
Edward Wigley
Vignette 6.2: Exploring in/accessibility of familiar urban
environments using qualitative and immersive methods 155
Faith and Tucker
Vignette 6.3: Undergraduate expedition fieldwork to South Central
Norway 158
Jane Bevan and Derek France
Vignette 6.4: Experiential learning during international fieldwork in
Barcelona 161
Alan Marvell and David Simm
Vignette 6.5: Using interactive maps and dashboards to develop
students' sense of place before, during and after Human Geography
fieldwork 164
David Morgan and Charlotte Foster
Vignette 6.6: Participation of undergraduate students as field
assistants for postgraduate fieldwork 167
Edward G. McGowan and Matthew Brown
7 Enhancing and transforming fieldwork using digital tools 170
Lesley Batty, Kristofer Chan and Derek France
Vignette 7.1: Hyperlocal fieldwork - connecting users to a local or
bringing together many locals 190
Addy Pope and Derek France
Vignette 7.2: Opportunities offered by drones, 360 degrees scanning
and extended reality (virtual and augmented reality) to enhance
fieldwork experience 193
Servel Miller
Vignette 7.3: Using Esri's 360 VR for developing learning
opportunities and accessibility on field courses 196
Damien Mansell
Vignette 7.4: Digital fieldtrips - crafting environmental history
narratives with StoryMapJS 199
Paul Munro
Vignette 7.5: Student co-creation of virtual fieldtrips 202
Simon M. Hutchinson and Amy L. Evans
Vignette 7.6: Project Millport - creating a virtual fieldtrip in
Minecraft 205
Richard Fitzpatrick
8 Citizen science and community-based fieldwork 208
Alice Mauchline and Ian Thornhill
Vignette 8.1: Volunteering as fieldwork - 'I felt as though I was
doing something that actually was beneficial to the environment
rather than just learning how to help theoretically' 224
Dominic Charles Henri
Vignette 8.2: Participatory action research in Malawi 227
Alan Dixon
Vignette 8.3: ArcGIS Survey123 231
Kristofer Chan
9 Navigating success: groupwork strategies in field environments 234
Liz Hamilton
Vignette 9.1: Students taking ownership in a jigsaw approach to
fieldwork 258
Kjersti Daae, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen and Mirjam S. Glessmer
Vignette 9.2: Groupwork in an immersive virtual fieldtrip setting 262
Jenny Shepperson and Sarah Zylinski
Vignette 9.3: Learning environmental science in the UK using
mobile-device-captured current data by Malawian macadamia nut
farmers 265
Yoseph Araya, Jennie Neve Bellamy, Andrew Emmott, Will Rawes
and Emmanuel Zuza
Vignette 9.4: Site surveying for contaminated land assessment 268
Lucy Crockford
Vignette 9.5: Using Digital Field Notebooks (DFN) for collaborative
field notes 271
Janine Maddison, Richard Bevan and Sara Marsham
Vignette 9.6: Reconstructing natural and anthropogenic
environmental change 275
Graham Wilson and Derek France
10 Project-led fieldwork 279
Phil Jones and Rhiannon Blake
Vignette 10.1: Challenging fieldwork with problem-based learning 290
Adrian Chappell, Pan He and David MacLeod
Vignette 10.2: Project-based field teaching - blending desktop
research with first-hand encounters 293
Niall Majury and Conor Graham
11 Assessment and fieldwork 296
Dan Swanton
Vignette 11.1: Landscape character assessment - working above the
ecosystem level 315
Bethan Wood
Vignette 11.2: Volcanic hazard and emergency management in the
Bay of Naples 318
Servel Miller, Martin Degg, Namrata Bhattacharya-Mis and
Katharine Welsh
Vignette 11.3: Building reflection for research design learning and
research skill development 322
Katie Orchel and Geoff Main
12 Field learning and employability in Geography, Earth, and
Environmental Sciences 327
Jacqueline Dohaney and Alison Stokes
Vignette 12.1: Using scaffolding to deliver professional field skills to
tackle the graduate ecological skills gap 340
Sarah L. Taylor
Vignette 12.2: Fieldwork case studies - a model for the development
of essential employability skills in a fieldwork setting 343
Laura Grange and Martyn Kurr
Vignette 12.3: Live fieldwork broadcast - a student placement 348
Janine Maddison, Leah Ada Constantinou, Ellen Fletcher, Callum
Turner, Richard Bevan and Sara Marsham
Vignette 12.4: From the field to a career - building skills for
employability 352
Addy Pope, Dave Morgan and Damien Mansell
Vignette 12.5: Working with industry for Grand Challenge studentled fieldwork learning experience 355
Rupert Perkins and Sophie Watson
13 Conclusions and recommendations for teaching fieldwork in
Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences 359
Derek France, Lesley Batty and Dan Swanton
Preface xxi
Acknowledgements xxix
1 Introduction to Teaching Fieldwork in Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences 1
Derek France, Lesley Batty and Dan Swanton
Vignette 1.1: Students' everyday life as fieldwork - learning
emotional geographies in the classroom and beyond 11
Matej Blazek
Vignette 1.2: Through the window - embedding micro-fieldwork
activity into classroom teaching 14
Peter G. Knight
Vignette 1.3: Fieldwork bingo cards 17
Kjersti Daae and Mirjam S. Glessmer
2 Climate hypocrisy, sustainability and undergraduate fieldtrips 21
Elizabeth R. Hurrell, Adrian Gonzalez and Daryl Stump
Vignette 2.1: Sustainable travel for fieldwork 41
Jane Bevan, Tamara Hunt and Lucas Trawicki
Vignette 2.2: Growing local sustainable food and community 44
Eifiona Thomas Lane and Rebecca Jones
Vignette 2.3: Lower carbon week-long fieldtrips 47
Aled Singleton, Keith Halfacree, Angharad Closs and Stephens
3 Ethics in fieldwork teaching 50
Julia Cooke, Matthew W. Bulbert, Eleanor Drinkwater and
Zoe M. Simmons
Vignette 3.1: Developing a care-full praxis of 'access is love' in
approaching and practising fieldwork 70
Sam Staddon and Clare Barnes
Vignette 3.2: Decolonising geography fieldwork - commemorative
landscapes in Western Australia 73
4 Who really matters? Methods for making fieldwork accessible
and inclusive 77
Trevor Collins and Sarah Davies
Vignette 4.1: Inclusivity in student fieldtrips 91
Christine Barnes, Kevin Lougheed and Daniel Schillereff
Vignette 4.2: Conquering the mountain - the practicalities of
making in-person fieldwork accessible 94
Katherine Dobbie and Jennifer Pike
Vignette 4.3: Enabling remote activity - a responsive system for live
linking students to fieldwork 98
Sarah Davies and Trevor Collins
Vignette 4.4: An inclusive, accessible investigation based on the use
of video resources 101
Janet Haresnape, Hannah Gauci and Vicky Taylor
Vignette 4.5: Hybrid fieldwork approaches - the independent study
of 'place' in teaching and learning 104
Fiona Williams and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 4.6: Geoscience in pixels - a creative approach to more
inclusive fieldwork 107
Ed Thomas, Anna McGairy, Manlin Zhang, Frankie Butler and
Rosa Francesca
Vignette 4.7: Distance teaching field skills without access to the
internet - a second-year Human Geography module 111
Vicky Johnson and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 4.8: City parks as venues for accessible and inclusive Open
University environment field days 114
Jennie Neve Bellamy and Yoseph Araya
5 Supporting students in the field 117
Julie Peacock, Liam Taylor and C. Scott Watson
Vignette 5.1: Foregrounding field-based student welfare and
community - a framework for developing collaborative residential
field courses 129
Hannah Mathers
6 Research in the field and professional practice 133
Brian Whalley, Derek France and Sonja Rewhorn
Vignette 6.1: 'Drifting' the city - familiarising learners with the
field site through group-led, randomised walking 152
Edward Wigley
Vignette 6.2: Exploring in/accessibility of familiar urban
environments using qualitative and immersive methods 155
Faith and Tucker
Vignette 6.3: Undergraduate expedition fieldwork to South Central
Norway 158
Jane Bevan and Derek France
Vignette 6.4: Experiential learning during international fieldwork in
Barcelona 161
Alan Marvell and David Simm
Vignette 6.5: Using interactive maps and dashboards to develop
students' sense of place before, during and after Human Geography
fieldwork 164
David Morgan and Charlotte Foster
Vignette 6.6: Participation of undergraduate students as field
assistants for postgraduate fieldwork 167
Edward G. McGowan and Matthew Brown
7 Enhancing and transforming fieldwork using digital tools 170
Lesley Batty, Kristofer Chan and Derek France
Vignette 7.1: Hyperlocal fieldwork - connecting users to a local or
bringing together many locals 190
Addy Pope and Derek France
Vignette 7.2: Opportunities offered by drones, 360 degrees scanning
and extended reality (virtual and augmented reality) to enhance
fieldwork experience 193
Servel Miller
Vignette 7.3: Using Esri's 360 VR for developing learning
opportunities and accessibility on field courses 196
Damien Mansell
Vignette 7.4: Digital fieldtrips - crafting environmental history
narratives with StoryMapJS 199
Paul Munro
Vignette 7.5: Student co-creation of virtual fieldtrips 202
Simon M. Hutchinson and Amy L. Evans
Vignette 7.6: Project Millport - creating a virtual fieldtrip in
Minecraft 205
Richard Fitzpatrick
8 Citizen science and community-based fieldwork 208
Alice Mauchline and Ian Thornhill
Vignette 8.1: Volunteering as fieldwork - 'I felt as though I was
doing something that actually was beneficial to the environment
rather than just learning how to help theoretically' 224
Dominic Charles Henri
Vignette 8.2: Participatory action research in Malawi 227
Alan Dixon
Vignette 8.3: ArcGIS Survey123 231
Kristofer Chan
9 Navigating success: groupwork strategies in field environments 234
Liz Hamilton
Vignette 9.1: Students taking ownership in a jigsaw approach to
fieldwork 258
Kjersti Daae, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen and Mirjam S. Glessmer
Vignette 9.2: Groupwork in an immersive virtual fieldtrip setting 262
Jenny Shepperson and Sarah Zylinski
Vignette 9.3: Learning environmental science in the UK using
mobile-device-captured current data by Malawian macadamia nut
farmers 265
Yoseph Araya, Jennie Neve Bellamy, Andrew Emmott, Will Rawes
and Emmanuel Zuza
Vignette 9.4: Site surveying for contaminated land assessment 268
Lucy Crockford
Vignette 9.5: Using Digital Field Notebooks (DFN) for collaborative
field notes 271
Janine Maddison, Richard Bevan and Sara Marsham
Vignette 9.6: Reconstructing natural and anthropogenic
environmental change 275
Graham Wilson and Derek France
10 Project-led fieldwork 279
Phil Jones and Rhiannon Blake
Vignette 10.1: Challenging fieldwork with problem-based learning 290
Adrian Chappell, Pan He and David MacLeod
Vignette 10.2: Project-based field teaching - blending desktop
research with first-hand encounters 293
Niall Majury and Conor Graham
11 Assessment and fieldwork 296
Dan Swanton
Vignette 11.1: Landscape character assessment - working above the
ecosystem level 315
Bethan Wood
Vignette 11.2: Volcanic hazard and emergency management in the
Bay of Naples 318
Servel Miller, Martin Degg, Namrata Bhattacharya-Mis and
Katharine Welsh
Vignette 11.3: Building reflection for research design learning and
research skill development 322
Katie Orchel and Geoff Main
12 Field learning and employability in Geography, Earth, and
Environmental Sciences 327
Jacqueline Dohaney and Alison Stokes
Vignette 12.1: Using scaffolding to deliver professional field skills to
tackle the graduate ecological skills gap 340
Sarah L. Taylor
Vignette 12.2: Fieldwork case studies - a model for the development
of essential employability skills in a fieldwork setting 343
Laura Grange and Martyn Kurr
Vignette 12.3: Live fieldwork broadcast - a student placement 348
Janine Maddison, Leah Ada Constantinou, Ellen Fletcher, Callum
Turner, Richard Bevan and Sara Marsham
Vignette 12.4: From the field to a career - building skills for
employability 352
Addy Pope, Dave Morgan and Damien Mansell
Vignette 12.5: Working with industry for Grand Challenge studentled fieldwork learning experience 355
Rupert Perkins and Sophie Watson
13 Conclusions and recommendations for teaching fieldwork in
Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences 359
Derek France, Lesley Batty and Dan Swanton