Editor’s Notebook

Where you obtain your news is important. The study of geography is not equivalent to a current events class, but one cannot deny that content might overlap. During spring 2024, I am teaching Spaces of Political Geography, primarily to majors in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies but also to students from other disciplines who signed up for the course to fulfill a distribution requirement and because the topic was of interest. I want them to leave the class not only prepared for deeper study of human geography (perhaps a few students) but also equipped to ask substantive questions about the decisions being made by elected and appointed officials regarding policy on a variety of topics. They are curious and capable but also used to very short and superficial observations about current events, so I have asked students to serve as discussion leaders each week, identifying and sharing news articles related to elections and conflicts as part of their work this semester. As one student (anonymous, with permission) noted in a discussion, “I spend most of my time on Instagram and have seen many videos of the ongoing events in Gaza in short-form content, so I may have seen some topics being brushed over but nothing going into full detail.” While their reading habits may not change significantly, I hope that they consider and assess the sources and types of materials they use to gather knowledge as part of this collaborative learning effort.

Few achievements are accomplished by an individual working in complete isolation—to cure a disease, invent a new machine, or create a work of art. As a native of Dayton, I was raised with an appreciation for the Wright Brothers’ achievements in flight, knowing that although the first occurrence of humans in the air happened in North Carolina due to its geographic situation, all the research and engineering work had been accomplished in Ohio (Figure 1). Ralph Vaughn Williams, one of twentieth century’s noted composers, was surrounded not only by people who supported his physical well-being with cooking, cleaning, and companionship but also by other musicians. His biographer, Eric Saylor, observed “Vaughan Williams’s reliance on Holst’s criticism, encouragement, and judgment was not simply the indulgence of a long-standing habit, but part of his own creative process” (Saylor 2022, 132). Our political life also requires collaboration, experimentation, and engagement with multiple perspectives, as illustrated by recognition of the American “Founding Fathers,” sometimes as individuals but more often as a group of people trying to create a new system of governance. James-Christian Blockwood (2024) wrote recently in The Fulcrum about ways to return order to our political system, suggesting that substantive discourse, issue (rather than personal) politics, and respect for voter independence and electoral systems will help restore trust. It is clear that we will not be able to ensure that the country is moving forward—“with liberty and justice for all”—using any one path. We benefit from collaboration and cooperation as well as robust debates over how to use our time, talent, and treasure.

Figure 1. Ohio historical marker: Huffman Prairie Flying Field.

Credit: HMdb.org PhotoID = 13277

Copyright: http://www.hmdb.org/copyright.asp

Image Location: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=207158

The focus of this issue on Black mobility is the result of multiple people coming together not only to produce a professional development workshop for teachers but also to share details that undergird the materials offered for study. Alderman and Bottone note that “while citizenship is a formal, legally defined condition, it is also enacted through claims and negotiations of space and time and thus shaped by an unevenness in people, especially vulnerable and marginalized communities, being able to access and move across spaces” (2024, 25). You will find in the background essays, both about the structure of the workshop and its content, perspectives that invite us to consider what we understand about the Black experience, particularly individual efforts and local experiences, in the United States over time. Stack and Alderman note, “Continuing to live and to carry on with tasks, despite the structure of oppression and threats of violence around them, is important civil rights work” (2024, 53). Institute participants—and now readers—are asked to reflect on familiar ideas from new perspectives as well as to engage with stories about how everyday people make choices in their lives that are seldom recorded in history books, but nevertheless contribute to making the community a safer and more just place. In offering both lessons for the classroom and background about those lessons, I hope that you will find the materials useful in your classrooms.

We continue our series about the map-reader’s brain by engaging with topics of geographic analysis that use words we might define differently in another setting. Human brains are simply too small to understand everything in the world individually, so we are always striving for patterns—both to observe them and to create them—possibly making life easier going forward. Common spaces are often set up in similar fashion (think airports) so that when you land in an unfamiliar place you don’t have to imagine how the process works. However, Phil Gersmehl asks students to look more deeply at geographic patterns, both natural and human-made, to gain new insights into how the world is organized. I appreciate the National Council for Geographic Education’s ongoing collaboration with Dr. Gersmehl.

As you may note, Greg Hill of Texas has moved to the past-president’s chair and Thomas Larsen of Iowa is serving as the NCGE president this year, demonstrating the importance of effective transfer of power, no matter the scale. Collaboration of all sorts is valuable, as I discovered when I researched professional development collaboration for a collection about international geographical education. “Fruitful collaborations may not generate breakthroughs or address long-standing problems, but simply enable better teaching, wider use of resources, and increased self-confidence in discussing geographic approaches to the world. … The ultimate effect of partnering with other groups and individuals may be the benefits that accrue to participants who leave inspired and invigorated to teach another day” (Theobald 2022, 47 and 61). Do you see unexplored avenues for collaboration in your work? Do you know someone with whom you would like to collaborate but don’t have a solid idea what that might look like? I hope that you find inspiration to teach students about difficult topics such as these, knowing that there are many people available to collaborate with you in this effort.

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Rebecca Theobald

Rebecca Theobald is an Associate Research Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She has been interested in the intersection of geography and education since living in Memphis in the 1980s and observing the inequality of school resources as determined by their neighborhood situation. She served as Coordinator for the Colorado Geographic Alliance from 2008–2018. Her current project, GeoCivics, engages students and community members in asking geographic questions to address apportionment and redistricting, with the goal of incorporating geospatial technology into classrooms across disciplines from math to history.