Reflections on SEAGA 2012

2012 is my Year of Jubilee. In the Hebrew tradition, the year of Jubilee was mainly a time of joy, the year of remission or universal pardon.

For me, this year started great with me taking my Professional Development Leaves. I spend the first ten weeks of 2012 having the time of my life running around the National Institute of Education (NIE) engaging students and lectures in deep and interesting conversations.Sadly the ten weeks flew by and I was back in school by March.

It was at one of these sessions when Dr Chang Chew Hung asked if I would be attending the Southeast Asian Geography Association (SEAGA) Conference. I was hesitant as it was held during the end of year school holidays and I was not willing to sacrifice one week for the conference. Beside the conference price was another factor. He then proceeded to list down a litany of illustrious geographers who have been invited as keynote speakers. I must confess after being in the school for over twenty-five years, these names did not ring a bell at all.

However, I decided to attend the conference because few people could resist the charms of such a persuasive professor.

Now that SEAGA 2012 has ended, I felt tired but refreshed. Just like the Jews who have been asked to let the land rest in the 50^th year to allow the land to rejuvenate, I felt recharged and re-energised to go back to school in 2013.

I have attended other conferences (APERA 2006, 2008, conferences organised by CRPP, Gifted Conferences and of course the Teachers’ Conferences) and presented at some of them but SEAGA 2012 is different for me in three aspects.

Firstly, the papers presented are peered reviewed. This allows for more in-depth discussion and consultation before the papers are presented. As a presenter, I appreciate this opportunity to receive feedback and improvements.

Secondly, SEAGA introduced a paper discussant system in which an appointed discussant (of related field) presided over each concurrent paper session.

The role of the discussant was to provide feedback to the paper presentation as well as to link the presentations to the issues discussed at the conference.

This paper discussant system enriched each concurrent paper session because the quality of conversations held during the question and answer session were observed to be better than when it was chaired by high school students or when no chair was appointed.

Thirdly, SEAGA 2012 satisfies my needs as a Geography educator as I can meet educators, scholars and policy makers who are specifically working in the field of Geography or related to Geography.

While conferences like APERA have wide ranging delegates from diverse fields attending and thus offers a unique opportunity for the exchange of ideas and for fostering communication and collaboration on an international scale, attending SEAGA 2012 provides me with the depth of discussion that I require as a Geography educator.

If there is one important thing I learnt from SEAGA after listening to the Keynotes Speakers and the concurrent sessions, it is that what is printed in the textbook, newspaper or even academic journal need not be considered as sacred truth and unlike the Pope, textbooks, theoretical models and theories are not infallible.

As a teacher, sometime I am guilty of committing this sin: that everything the text-book said is correct and I required students to regurgitate back the content as gospel truth. Beside, teachers often encounter parents who object to assessments and exam papers that test student’s ability to apply geography skills and complained that these materials are not found in the textbook. As a result, teachers, students and parents together with tuition teachers cling on to textbooks as a life buoy. (Aspect of Physical Geography by M. Chong sprang to mind.)

For example, Prof John Lidstone’s keynotes address entitled “Whose Geography? Modelling Space, Place and Cultures in Geographical Education,” make me realised that we teachers sometime teach the current popular themes or flavour of the month without considering critically if these issues are politically motivated or promoted by lobbyists with hidden agenda.

He shared that in the 1960s, some adults did not want to have children because of the fear of nuclear threats. Recently, a group of students confronted a student because he was using the inhaler for his asthma. They were afraid that the asthmatic boy by using his inhaler was contributing to the Green House effect.

Do we as educators teach climate change in a climate of fear just like what we did in the 60s with nuclear war and the 70s with the population bomb? I remembered the arithmetic progression for the production of food, and the geometric progression for population while doing “A” level Geography and I was worried that I would go hungry if I have children. Obviously my fear was unfounded as I proceed to have six children without considering the Malthusian catastrophe.

Prof Lidstone suggested that young people must be encouraged to identify their own realities and so their own geographies. I like what he proposed that geographical education must move towards philosophy. I take it to mean that we have to help our student think critically about the current issue of climate change and to be able to join the dots with thought and not just joint any catastrophic events like flood, typhoon, drought and earthquake together and blamed it inconveniently to climate change.

Another Keynote Address by Professor Jonathan Rigg reinforced my resolve not to teach Geography of Development is a neat and compartmentalized way. In his keynote address entitled “Beyond Recipes of Development: The hidden geometries of change in Southeast Asia,” he warned us not to just “see a pattern of change and a set of developmental paths that can be ‘explained’ by reference to unifying conceptual models and policy frameworks.”

He provided examples to illustrate the “unplanned, unseen and unexpected and, therefore, to the gaps between planning designs and planning experiences, between what is seen and measured and what ultimately proves to be important, and between expectations and outcome.”

He posed this though provoking question: Why are our explanations for the patterns or the world so often partial, incomplete and far from universal in the application?

In future when I teach Geography of Development, I will keep his question in mind when I present developmental theory to my students.

Finally Prof Teh Tiong Sa concurrent session entitled “What happened to the text-book example of the Padang Benggali groyne field in Butterworth, Penang?” adviced teachers to always do a reconnaissance before taking students to the field. He explained that the groyne field and sandy beach in Padang Benggali which was confirmed to be there in 1996 has turned muddy and mangroves had encroached on to the muddy tidal flats by 2004. A photo of the Padang Benggali groynes was used as an illustration for the Sec 3 Geography textbook in the 1990s. After listening to Prof The talk, I am reminded to always check case study and examples suggested in the text-book as the study of geography fluid.

Another important take away from the SEAGA 2012 is this constant thought that has been imprinted in my mind when Prof Chang the President of SEAGA expressed his belief that education is about hope.

Yes too often we as educator have used the instrument of fear to make our students behaved in a certain way. If you continue to use hair spray or do not reduced the usage of air con, the sea level will rise. Sometime we would bully our students into conforming to certain expected behaviour.

But Prof Chiang remined the participants that to bring about behaviour that is long lasting, beyond the time that students spend in school, we must give them hope, that drive, that belief that what they are doing is worthwhile, will make a different.

In the long run, it is this hope that we all can make a different for the environment that motivate us to continue this journey to change our attitudes, our belief and our behaviour to make this world a better place to live in. I am glad that SEAGA 2012 has rekindled my hope .

Apart from attending keynotes address and concurrent sessions, I was able to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

We have very animated discussion during the tea breaks and lunch sessions where we examine the ideas presented at the conferences and see how we can bring it back to the classroom.