A new Geographical Association teacher toolkit

A new Geographical Association teacher toolkit created by Dr Charlene Rose during her Centre-UB Early Career Researcher Fellowship is now available for use. This toolkit is based on Dr Rose’s research undertaken for her PhD thesis which asked how do Caribbean restaurants and takeaways advertise to the superdiverse constituency of Ladywood, Birmingham via their signage.

The toolkit will be of use to those teaching the A-level Geography ‘Changing place; changing places’ theme. It considers how Caribbean restaurants and takeaways use their signage to advertise to the superdiverse Ladywood constituency in Birmingham, UK, and provides real-world examples for the changing places sub-themes:

  • changing demographic and cultural characteristics, economic change and social inequalities
  • food production, circulation and consumption, cultural and artistic approaches to representing place
  • lived experience of place (i.e. how people see, experience and understand places) in the past and present
  • place making and marketing as revealed and contrasted in the work of a range of formal and informal agencies or their materials.

The lesson aims to help students:

  • understand the concept of ‘superdiversity’
  • understand how and why the UK demographics have changed since the Second World War
  • understand why migration may cause difficulties in entering the labour force
  • think about how a diverse population may influence how food is advertised
  • think about how and why food may change in a different country or area.

The resource can be found here and includes:

  • Teacher notes and lesson plan (PDF)
  • Case study notes (PDF)
  • Student PowerPoint (PPT)
  • Student activity sheet (PDF)
  • A glossary of key terms (PDF)
  • Larger versions of the tables and figures in the PowerPoint (PDFs) – Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2

The resources and the research that underpins the toolkit were made possible by the University of Birmingham, the Centre for National Training and Research Excellence in Understanding Behaviour (Centre-UB), UKRI, the Geographical Association (GA) and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Dr Charlene Rose and the GA send their thanks to Kay Basterfield and Hope Nyabienda, who provided valuable teacher perspectives on the resources.