Australian Geography Teachers Association

AGTA News 2016

The AGTA Board met in Sydney in October 2016 for the biannual meeting and AGM.

There were some significant changes to the Executive. In a changing of the guard, Grant Kleeman completed his term as President and was replaced by Trish Douglas. As such, Malcolm McInerney also completed his term as Immediate Past Chair. AGTA would like to formally express their thanks to both Grant and Malcolm for their outstanding leadership and support of the organisation and for the teaching of Geography in Australia.

The AGTA Board Executive 2016-17:
Chair:Trish Douglas (VIC)
Deputy chair: Darryl Mitchie (WA)
Secretary: Susan Caldis (NSW)
Treasurer & Immediate Past Chair: Dr. Grant Kleeman (NSW)

National Committee for Geography

National Committee for Geography has made more progress on the Decadal plan for geography. It has been decided to develop a program called Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences. This will assist in explaining the role of geography to policy makers and decisions maker. This will include the development of an educative document organised around the Federal Government list of the five main focuses for strategic research to be delivered by March 2016. Working parties will be formed to investigate and report on these five strands:

  • Living in a changing environment
  • Promoting population health and well being
  • Managing our food and water assets
  • Securing Australia’s place in a changing world
  • Lifting productivity and economic growth

All of these have explicit links to geographical research and the importance of geographical knowledge in the classroom. There will be a sixth working party focussing on school geography and developing support for the foundational nature of Geography and the fundamental need for compulsory Geography F-10 in schools. More information is available on the Geographical Sciences — Australian Academy of Science website. AGTA has supported this initiative by contribution to the seeding funding to begin the project. Look out for opportunities to get involved.

AGTA Awards

Have you developed an exciting new teaching resource? As the conference program begins to take shape don’t forget about the AGTA awards. The entry details will be added to the website soon. Bookmark this link for further information.

AC—Professional Learning

AGTA has been active in the provision of PL opportunities for a range of teachers across the whole country. Contact your local GTA for information about upcoming events. Also look out for exciting new opportunities in 2016. AGTA continues to fund experts to attend workshops and forums in different locations where a need has been identified. If you would like more information about this please contact AGTA via this link to see if we can help.