Engaging Learners through Walking

How can walking bring ‘hidden’ histories into focus? How can this activity foster critical engagement with heritage? How can walking tours be opportunities for co-creation and for sharing diverse stories, experiences and perspectives? Join researcher, lecturer and avid walker Dr Rosie Spooner from the University of Glasgow for an in-person half-day workshop centred around these questions. **

This workshop is principally intended for school-teachers and other education professionals, but is open to anyone interested in how walking can support experiential learning and engagement and sees relevance to their professional practice. It discusses and provides practical examples of how walking can be a tool for uncovering not just the history of a place, but also those stories, perspectives and voices that have often been overlooked, under-represented or marginalised.

The workshop will begin with a guided walk through Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow’s West End, exploring how this major civic landmark has been shaped by slavery, colonialism and imperialism. After winding our way through the park, we will convene at Kelvin Hall for a mixture of presentation, breakout activities and group discussion. Providing context to the morning’s tour of Kelvingrove Park, Rosie will briefly speak about her ongoing research project called Critical Walking and discuss the practicalities of creating, developing, leading and evaluating historical walking tours. This will open out to breakout sessions designed to get participants thinking about and sharing ideas for how to incorporate this type of walking activity into the classroom and their work with learners.

Participants will come away from the workshop with an understanding of how walking and walking tours, broadly conceived, can be used to foster engagement with topics that can be challenging, difficult or uncomfortable to discuss. While Rosie’s research focuses on histories and legacies of empire, this approach can be applied to a diverse range of subjects and issues. Practical resources for leveraging the sensory and embodied nature of walking will also be provided, equipping participants with the tools to use walking as a method for fostering critical thinking, collective conversation and thoughtful reflection.

Refreshments, teas/coffees and a catered lunch will be provided. More details about the workshop, including a full programme, will be sent to participants a week in advance.

** This workshop acknowledges that walking is not universally accessible and that this physical act is understood and experienced differently by each individual. It recognises that there are a variety of ways in which an individual might move through space and sense that movement, such as rolling, wheeling, and other forms of mobility enabled through assistive technologies. As such, this workshop takes a broad and inclusive view of what can constitute walking.