Research Paper: Towards a greater understanding of the causes of African poverty

1. @garrysimmons Head of Geography, Bethany School MA student, Institute of Education Research Paper:Towards a greater understanding of the causes of African poverty

2. Some student misconceptions • “I’d say history is a minor factor.” • “The DR Congo – that’s French!” • “Africa has very high temperatures which makes it difficult to grow crops” • “Education systems are equally poor across Africa with very few universities” • “It’s the governments’ fault that African economies are not branching out into secondary, tertiary and quaternary industry”

3. What inspired me to research? • Lack of knowledge – an opportunity for disjuncture • Charles Rawding’s #gaconf12 session on “Keeping up to date with subject knowledge” • An interest in learning and wanting to understand how students learn Geog – Constructivism • Tony Binns and Etienne Nel’s #gaconf12 session. “Africa: Diversity and development” I realised I knew little about this diverse continent • An interest in curriculum making

4. What is the focus of my research? • Understanding the reasons for the development gap. Why does poverty still exist in the 21st Century? • A focus on African LDCs.

5. What makes this area so complex? Trevor Bennetts (2005): Progress in Geographical Understanding, IRGEE 14:2

6. What makes this area so complex? • Diagram from Potter et al (2012): Key Concepts in Development Geography. London:Sage

7. What makes this area so complex? • Economics + diversity + politics + history (Depth PLUS breadth) • Tremendous diversity of opinion as evidenced by BBC World debate. Diverse political and academic perspectives • The range of poverty definitions e.g. HDI, GDP, Social indicators, national or individual.

8. How did I assess student understanding (my method) • Case Study of Sixth Form students at my School: 9xL6th and 3xU6th. • Prior knowledge – Written task, Focus group, questionnaire • Sequence of three lessons – Colonial Period, independence, 21st Century Challenges • Post learning – questionnaire, written task, semi-structured interviews. • Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.

9. Lesson 1. The Colonial Period: Off to a bad start

10. Lesson 2: Independence: The false dawn

11. Lesson 3: 21st Century Challenges

12. What were my key findings? • Successes:  Understanding clearly improved (Questionnaire 40 to 80% correct responses)  Students better understood the exploitative nature of colonialism  Students better understood why independence was a false dawn.  Students’ misconceptions about climate and natural resources were challenged and overcome

13. Improved understanding? • “Western countries are, in a way, what made Africa poor” • “You can’t have a stereotyped view of Africa” • “I don’t think poverty is caused by one single reason. I think it’s a mixture of multiple ones...each one has a knock on effect.” • “LEDCs use oil resources to develop themselves”

14. What were my key findings? • Challenges:  Environmental determinism is entrenched in many of my students  Students didn’t fully understand the debate about the efficacy of foreign aid.  Student didn’t fully understand the nature of capital flows.  Students only partially grasped the hegemonic influence of economic, political and technical power.

15. What were my challenges? • I didn’t expect the combination of political, historical, economics and geographical diversity to be so challenging for students (and for me). • Due to complexity I wasn’t able to spend enough time on how to bridge the development gap – although I did tentatively look at some of the macro ideas.

16. The implications for Geog Ed? • There is still a shocking ignorance about African diversity. Does this ring any bells from other Geography teachers? • Little is known about African places, nations and recent histories. The continent’s marginalisation from globalisation extends to my geography classroom - and perhaps to others as well? • Little is known about the historical colonial period and Britain’s role in the formation of Africa. • Little is known about the real nature of the exploitative economic and political power that exists in the world – this power powerfully shapes human geography.

17. Some routes forward • I (and we?) need to teach more about the ‘dark’ continent. • There is an opportunity for some innovative curriculum development at all key stages

18. What other useful resources • Bennetts, T. (2005) Progression in geographical understanding. IRGEE 14 (2) pp112-132 • Binns et al (2012) Africa: Diversity and Development. London: Routledge • Potter et al (2011) Key concepts in Development Geography. London:Sage • Why Poverty.net website • Twitter @GdnDevelopment (Guardian) • Twitter @askwhypoverty

19. Why Poverty.net Website

20. @askwhypoverty Twitter

21. @Gdndevelopment Twitter

22. Why might this research be valuable? • “I feel I am better informed and better educated as a result of these lessons.” • “I found having Africa as a case study really helpful” • “I believe it’s important to understand why poverty exists in Africa. We need to discuss how to resolve it.” • “It’s important because it links in to other things we’ve been learning [synoptic]

23. Thank you for listening • Any questions? • How would you take this research forward? • @garrysimmons – please do get in touch.