The bloggin' (geo)grapher

Most teachers would like to be full-time post-graduate students

2011-04-14T00:48:00.000-07:00

Most teachers would like to be full-time post-graduate students (Lim Shi Hui, ZB, 14/4, p12) Report noted that teachers could pursue part-time Master’s degrees while teaching part-time under the TEACH framework, and that teachers would receive a monetary award of $4,000 upon completion of their part-time Master’s programme. Report however noted that teachers interviewed were not keen to

What now?

2011-04-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

I am now busy with thesis amendments, much to the surprise of my math and science trained colleagues. I'm the only one in my Humanities department doing a research master degree, so there is no other reference for them to gauge my progress. The other disciplines apparently do not have to do the amounts of revisions they see me struggling with.It is very common for Social Sciences to still make

Here comes a lady claiming to represent children and young people

2011-04-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

For the Singaporeans who bother reading up on politics, there is this youngish 27/28 year-old female who currently is being fielded by a dominant political party to enter into parliament once the elections are done. Notice she is going into parliament, not politics.When I first heard about her and saw her on the news, I was quite curious why she was suicidal enough to enter politics at her

Can Singapore improve its education system? Can!

2010-07-13T05:14:00.000-07:00

Was quite inspired by the Finnish education system, where 'streaming' only happens when a child is 15 years old. I think this will work so much better for many kids in Singapore, as well as the boys as boys tend to peak later than girls.Something else is also that children in troubled family structures nearing the teens (when the streaming happens) will be more ready to open up about their

Ideas for title again!

2010-07-01T02:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm now more free since I took no-pay leave to focus on writing my thesis and I'm glad to report that my first data chapter is now more or less done, with 1 last minor edit which Brenda does not want to read until the whole thesis draft is in order. I have proven to be a slow learner but with not having to work for a month, I hope I will become sharper with my writing and thinking. Finally

counting down 1.5 months to completion

2010-06-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

It has been such an arduous journey so far. I just sent in a more decent Chapter 5 to Prof Yeoh after falling sick on it. I swear I will not go crowded places ever again other than the need to go to church. I think my body seemed more prone to stuff in the air. Also, my staying in my school most of the time far away from the maddening crowd seems to have made me not so updated with the flu

Singapore as a place for citizenship

2010-06-01T23:04:00.001-07:00

Just thought this looked very nice when I scribbled my first thoughts onto my window in my study room. It's Warren Town by the way.

Roots/Routes to Citizenship

2010-04-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

I finally settled down to this theoretical framework and more importantly, Prof Yeoh agrees that this is something more catchy and workable, compared to my pathetic attempt at trying to force-fit Bourdieu's capital into my thesis.Essentially, I'm looking at Massey's elaborations on roots/routes of culture and I'm interested in how place and space plays the part in creating the root/routes of

Extract of introduction from The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History

2010-03-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

The fate of place: a philosophical history By Edward S. CaseyFrom page 1. Yes, I copied it from Google Book.(I think I am reproducing a legal amount here, since copyright laws state only 10% of a book can be reproduced. And I'm changing the spacing.)"Whatever is true for space and time,this much is true for place:we are immerse in it and could not do without it. To be it all - to exist in any way

A question that came to my mind when teaching about governance (A Teacher's POV)

2010-01-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

I've been reworking my chapter 1 and hopefully can get more help along the way from my helpful professors. Thesis progress has been a little delayed but I have taken comfort in exploring topics for teaching governance in my IH modules.My students had been studying the cabinet line up as part of their lesson on Integrated Humanities (IH). While teaching, it struck me that lining up some political

School Rules - which side am I on?

2010-01-07T00:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a little glimpse into my school meeting when we teachers were talking about discipline in school."Old school" teachers like me were raising issues of small things like socks, hair, size of earrings worn by female students and the kind of individualization stunts the students (aka the very teenagers I'm studying) were pulling off in the first week of school.One of my school leader was quite

Yi Fu Tuan on aging. Interesting.

2009-12-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

This is what Yi Fu Tuan talked about when he was considering his retirement, on the experiences of age. I think this bears some light on a humanistic way of looking at aged geographies.My question will be that of experience - Did Yi Fu Tuan have a traumatic time as a child that would cause him to reconsider issues of morality as a child? Hm, wish he said more.==============================July 20

I hate this book title

2009-12-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

Record time...

2009-12-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

I sent off Chapter 1, 3 and 4 to Brenda in the last 48 hours. Quite on my own schedule, but she will only read them on 18 Dec.Going to rework Chapter 5 and 6 and send it off to her by 21 Dec.Reworking title:Old title: Citizenship, Cosmopolitanism and Emigration Amongst Youths in the Singapore Education System Proposed new titles: Teenagers' Citizenship in Singapore: Examining the case for

Something that hit my mind/heart

2009-10-29T19:50:00.001-07:00

"The imposition of one homogenous idea of childhood is clearly problematic when faced with the multiple realities of children and young people's lives globally"Something to consider is also the time-space specific realities of children globally. I think I had a very time-space specific childhood even in Singapore.Teenager/ Youth/ Young people's geographies is so exciting to study - everyone can

Teenagers and political action

2009-08-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

Weller (2007) talked about micro-geographies as the scale of some teenagers' participation. Participants often take part in political issues at the personal level, at a scale that is complex and dynamic. Their collective socialization is brief and personally, I think, unsustainable.Their individual and collective actions can be interpreted as political in nature but there is a perpetual issue of

I wonder how possible this actually is...

2009-08-26T19:30:00.001-07:00

Click on the image to read more about exploring Singapore's geothermal potential. I'm not quite convinced currently but will see if I can drop by to listen to this after my meeting with David and Chen-chieh on our school project...

Teenagers change their minds more often than adults?

2009-08-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

The impression I am getting from coding my respondents' transcripts is that they feel that there are many things they will not want to lock down as they have not really experienced the situations we are discussing, like emigration. There are more uncertainties when they discussed it as compared to their sense of citizenship, which they are very sure of.Their hesitation is locking themselves down

Lest I forget.

2009-07-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Thinking aloud from Aitken again.How are children and young people contextualised in representations of global economic space and in what ways can they attain social and cultural capital that has some power? How will they embrace their progressive sense of place (Massey, 1993, 1994) and locate their changing childhood in the ebbs and flows of a complex and globalising world?How long will this

Describing my methods

2009-06-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

I'm still in a not good limbo on writing methodology. I took a look at Theo's master thesis and realised I do not really need to write I am researching from a humanistic perspective, adopting feminist perspectives and methodology... scaffoldings Brenda said are important but not necessarily needed to be seen.Tracey's words were "discuss more of the methodological approaches as well as methods" as

Taking stock of time

2009-06-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Okay. I planned a trip to destress from this Friday to next Monday.This gives me the whole of 16 and 17 June to REALLY finish my draft of the Literature Review (I lost count of drafts) and most importantly, send in to Brenda and Tracey for vetting.I'm 1/3 through my Chapter 5. 17-18 June to finish the chapter draft and send into Brenda for vetting and comments. With Susie Weller book coming to me

Memoing myself

2009-06-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Grad student says:Okay, I've done some work on memoing and coding on 'singaporean' and understanding the relationship between youth programs and and the fostering of citizenship in Singaporean schools.Think I should be able to write out Ch5 and 7 fully by end of next week after looking through the interviews of students.Just need to maintain sanity.The stressed out teacher says:Sometimes, it is

Back to thesis writing season

2009-06-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

While the rest of my colleagues take their well deserved rest, I started my 'hobby' of working on my thesis again.I am starting to write the drafts of the following chapters, jumping around them to give me variety in my thinking processesCh5 - What is Singaporean?Ch7 - CCAs and citizenshipCh4 - Methods - first draft got killed - writing a 2nd versionCh3 - Literature Review - tidied up

Using TAMSanalyzer properly finally

2009-05-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I must admit that my work really got me off railed from my thesis for a while. I have not followed up on writing my methods draft again and I left off TAMSanalyzer quite a bit. I finally started learning the coding proper today after feeling stuck on my data chapter drafts. Yes, I work on drafts based on gut feelings from data without properly analysing them first.Well, that's why they are

I owe myself a literature review on citizenship

2009-04-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Not only citizenship. I need to do at least 5 pages before I know what to cut down further?? I suddenly feel very ignorant of power geographies.Sigh. Time to read Peet. I've been putting it off.

Sarah James in Area 1990 - Is there a 'place' for children in Geography?

2009-03-25T01:17:00.000-07:00

Historical account by now - James, Sarah (1990) Is there a 'place' for children in Geography? Area 22.3, pages 278-283She argues that studies on children can contribute to understanding socio-spatial relationships, spatial behaviour and environmental cognition. Beyond making children visible, she argues that they must be viewed as a meaningful part of the total population (aka adults) and to

Geographies of Young People Stuart Aitken

2009-03-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a 1 page review to contextualise this book into a summary for my new literature review section. I think I'm going to print out the old literature review on recycled paper and cut them out literally to classify the old information into a new skeleton.Visual learner...Aitken, S.C (2001) Geographies of Young People: the morally contested spaces of identity. London: Routledge.I think the

Entry 1: my first memo for my journal method

2009-03-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

I had decided on embarking on keeping a journal to track my concerns as I develop this new module that is fondly remembered as 'development module' when I first conceptualized it.Remembering some discussions I had with other educators during a humanities conference last year, we agreed that 'globalization' is another development ideology. The challenge in teaching 'ideology' is that it is very

Pulling literature together again

2009-02-19T01:16:00.001-08:00

Okay, note to self. Need to beef up literature review again.ACME has a special on citizenship. Almost missed it.Gaskell in Children's Geographies 6(3)- Need to read and write a response to it here.2 books at home waiting for me to write a 1 page response too.Boocock, S.S. & Scott, K.A. (2005) Kids in Context: The Sociological Study of Children and Chilhoods. US: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,

Education Policy Analyst

2009-02-19T00:49:00.000-08:00

I think I may have found one of my dream jobs today. MOE is recruiting Education Policy Analyst this season. Sigh, but I'm not ready yet because I only have 4 years of working experience as a teacher and I'm still doing my masters.I want to be doing research and making an impact somehow through the questions I ask and the social issues that education can help systematically solve, especially in

Of children and adults

2008-12-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

Reading up on the very problematic category of 'children' in Children's Geographies. Short of becoming my favourite journal, I have probably read every other journal article in the journal since its inception.Something Gill Valentine mentioned of children got me thinking very much about deduction. Valentine (1999) mentioned that young people may have different values from adults or different

LOs of writing a thesis

2008-12-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

'LO' means 'learning outcome' for teachers and trainers. This is something I need to focus on now that I'm going to do quite a bit of writing in Dec.My LOs for my thesis:communicate my discovery show evidence in terms of writing to be able to to organize technical discussion and formulate argumentspresent original and substantial thoughtsprovide believe-able evidence to support hypotheses be able

the magical 313

2008-12-01T22:49:00.000-08:00

313 many sound like a number that ain't much. But it is THE NUMBER of respondents I have coming from NINE schools! Good thing I had a little elf to help with the crunching of the data into the SPSS program. Still, this process had taken me a full 10 months on a part time basis. It had not been easy going down the list of randomized schools and getting the principals to agree to the research.I

The place of Chinese schools in narrating the history of Singapore Education

2008-11-26T20:22:00.001-08:00

I'm finally in the last section of my Singapore Chapter. Got the inspiration to skip lunch (okay I had a full Macs Big Breakfast with my hubby, food still in the digestive works) and work on the last section of the chapter today after a 'Get it Right' seminar on writing by Stuart Elden, Henry Yeung and James Peter Terry earlier on this morning.My humble Mac as my writing tool with me again in the

the Constructivist classroom and theory building

2008-11-26T06:27:00.000-08:00

OK, I hope I got the spelling correct. It will be a grave horror if I got it wrong on a post that is supposed to talk about Constructivism and theory building.I presented my paper on the possibility of engaging students in their classrooms in building theories on globalization at the Humanities Conference before I left for my honeymoon. Yes, I got married and attended a conference between my

journal papers sounding like 'gossip columns'

2008-10-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

I know this is funny but as I am reading up on Singapore's development (so I can write something on Singapore's development from early 1990s to post 911) via some economic geography journal papers, it seems like each paper is more of who went to the various industry players to get qualitative information, content analyse it and produce something that basically does not whitewash reality at a

Development - the Spence Report

2008-10-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

I recently highlighted the existence of the Spence Report to my students as a kind of cliff hanger thought to their lesson on development.For the report highlights, please visit : http://www.growthcommission.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=192At the danger of over summarizing the report, I was quite intrigued by the following points:the 'global' economy (continues to) help

Emigration values amongst young Singaporeans

2008-10-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dr Leong Chan-Hoong is going to speak on his research and *arh!* I can't go because of my students's year 1 exam that is going on at the same time. I feel at my wits' end because this is going to be one useful seminar for my thesis and *argh* I CAN'T GO.Sigh. I am going to try to email him for his powerpoint slides and find out who is going so I can find the person to help me record the audio

Getting published in Geography

2008-10-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is a seminar organised by the Dept of Geography in NUS for graduates students as well as the lecturers.Speakers:· Stuart Elden, as Editor, Environment and Planning (D)· Henry Yeung, as Editor, Environment and Planning (A) and Economic Geography· David Higgitt, as Editor, Journal of Geography in Higher EducationDate: Wednesday, 22 October 2008· Time: 10.00-11.30am·

Bigger than I planned

2008-09-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

I'm 4 days from the Humanities Conference paper submission deadline and I'm at 6 pages so far. Supposed to have about 15 pages or so, less than 6000 words.... that's only 5k more words to go for the rest of the paper! Oh no! Must squeeze!!Realised that I have to think through how to link the following 2 ideas-pointing out pedagogical gap between students' experiences of globalization processes

The thing about giftedness

2008-09-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is not exactly something geographical but something that has captured my attention with an incident that happened in my school. Not surprising an incident sparking thinking and reflections on giftedness can happen in my school since my school deals with gifted education.I will not comment further but it has gotten me thinking is about giftedness as a state of being for children and

Enjoying the quietness of the Central Library

2008-07-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

It's the last few days of holidays for NUS students before they come back for academic year 2008/09 semester 1.I enjoyed the quietness of the Central Library. The smell of musty books in the Singapore-Malaysia collection. The feel of the rotating stool under my feet that allows me to reach for books on the uppermost shelves.It was a nice journey of the history of education in Singapore. And a

Powers of ten

2008-06-18T22:51:00.001-07:00

In Geography, we will have ideas of space and we probably theorise about space quite abit.http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/Fellow geographers, please see the java representation in the above link, and perhaps wonder (as a form of intellectual exercise) the issues of space in the representation and how does this inform our ongoing debates on 'space' as a theory.:)

ACME Journal

2008-06-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Something of interest to people interested in critical geographies -http://www.acme-journal.org/index.htmlACME is an on-line international journal for critical and radical analyses of the social, the spatial and the political. The journal's purpose is to provide a forum for the publication of critical and radical work about space in the social sciences - including anarchist, anti-racist,

Looking at what really matters

2008-06-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

This is what I said I want to challenge."The Straits Times reported that about two-thirds of Singapore teens would like to work abroad, and highlighted the challenge of keeping them connected to Singapore. In my proposed topic, I aim to uncover how migration expectations and intentions are formed and how they interact with the way national identity is negotiated among Singaporean elite

Notes on methods and preliminary observations from data entry

2008-06-17T02:15:00.000-07:00

I'm in the midst of doing data entry now. Slow and tedious process. I'm quite rusty with SPSS. Still very descriptive at the moment.Something pretty interesting that has come up is that there seemed to be very little strong trend. A pretty diverse phemomenon seemed to be in the cards.Something I see is that the students who responded seemed to agree that CCA does help prepare them to be citizens

Amazing how things started

2008-05-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Doing up my Singapore Chapter now (way overdue) and thought I should attribute Singapore's math and science education to the roots of development and look for Truman's Point 4 speech about industrialization and scientific progress as the keys to development. Saw this picture that are recommendations on how the share "know-how" in 1949 and realised how eerily relevant this is still to today's

Submitted a paper proposal to Humanities Conference today

2008-04-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of submission for paper proposal for the Humanities Conference organised by NIE. I submitted Globalization in Geography: The socialization of 'cosmopolitans'. Hope it gets accepted. I came up with the introduction a while ago but it took me some time to roughly know what I want to present on.Abstract:Globalization today is not an end product phenomenon we see in the world

MOE finally approved my survey

2008-04-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

It's been two months.First the reject letter.Then appeal... change stuff... now I can't really remember what I changed also. Sigh.Finally, it wasn't really the research questions. It was 3 statements in the survey someone, somewhere, was not too comfortable with.Duration: almost two months (short of a few days) to come to these '3 statements'.Researchers be forewarned. Better budget in two months

It is 16 April 2008

2008-04-15T20:25:00.001-07:00

Today is 16 April 2008 and my research request with MOE is still at a standstill. I have requested for a face-to-face meeting to help speed up the process.This is most frustrating. Is this the reason why it is so hard to do educational research in Singapore? Red tape? I don't even know what kind of tape to call this.Should I continue to do this sort of research outside MOE? The same positionality

What are the chances?

2008-04-08T02:52:00.000-07:00

I've decided to subscribe to the AAG - Association of American Geographers - as a student because it is so much cheaper as a graduate student to join and get free journal (hardcopies) books.I was looking at the AAG conferences in the next 2 years -March 22-27, 2009 Las Vegas, NevadaApril 14-18, 2010Washington, DCI'm wondering if I ever will get a chance to go once I get the data from my research

Capturing my thoughts for my students' project

2008-03-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Gut Ideas while reading:Jullien,M. and Thiollay, J. (1996) Effects of rain forest disturbance and fragmentation: comparative changes of the raptor community along natural and human-made gradients in French Guiana. Biogeography, 23, pages 7 to 25.S.V.'s focus on Bukit Timah's fragmentation should be an investigative stance. The phenomenon we are investigating is the disturbance of human-made

What are some youths doing in UK?

2008-03-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

I am on the UK Youth Parliament email list and there is this very interesting voting going on at the moment with the youth body over there. I think these are issues that even Singaporean youths may want to take up, for afterall, they look like very 'everyday issues' that affect youths.Here are some of my thoughts (contextualising within my own country) on the campaigns they are listing out. It's

Finding directions

2008-02-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

Been wondering what exactly is my research interest and I think I found it in a MOE material."Educational Research & Statistics"My research interest:National identityCitizenshipCosmopolitan citizenship education researchYouth participation and education programs designLife suddenly look so clear.Where to base myself is still something to explore though.

Qualitative Researching!

2008-02-20T20:15:00.001-08:00

I'm currently attending a cross-dept module on qualitative research and gosh do I enjoy the brain gym! Yesterday we did a textual analysis of an interview and I realise the skills I learnt in literature really does come in handy. Feels good to be on track with my readings too. Thankfully. Hope I can keep this up.Dr E has asked me to reconsider the relationship between national identity and

national identity or citizenship?

2008-02-10T02:17:00.000-08:00

I just made an epistomological blunder.I've been happily thinking I can recycle my literature review on national identity but as I reseach more and more into articles on youths and what citizenship education is about for them, I realised I need to shift to 'citizenship' instead.CITIZENSHIP - as in citizenship education, aka national education in Singapore.Good thing, I can even do a PhD thesis on

questions in a better order

2008-02-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

Main research question: On investigating youth participation programs, cosmopolitanism, national identity and emigrationHow do youth participation programs in schools influence the interaction of cosmopolitanism and national identity in youths?What does youth participation programs do for youths in terms of their (a) cosmopolitan outlook and (b) national identity?Indepth interview questions:What

My research questions (almost final)

2008-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hi, anyone want to drop in comments on my research topic? Not too sure who visits my academic blog...-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On investigating cosmopolitanism and national identityHow does cosmopolitanism interact with national identity?On investigating cosmopolitanism, national identity and emigrationWhat are the effects of

Thesis Notes #1

2007-12-09T23:26:00.000-08:00

In a way, I have always kept fragment of notes in a physical notebook but my recent mindless throwing away of a notebook and misplacing my master thesis 'ideas book' tells me I better start putting up some notes here just in case.Just to capture some thoughts -Idea A:In my opinion, youths in Singapore are very into 'doing' things, and with all this youth.sg things going on, it is no wonder that

Social Imaginaries and Political Ideologies in the Age of Globalization

2007-11-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

Social Imaginaries and Political Ideologies in theAge of Globalization Speaker: Prof Manfred B. Steger Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne and Globalization Research Center University of Hawai’i-Manoa, Hawai’i I attended this talk at NUS Geog Dept seminar. It

Seeing Collaboration between researchers and "research subjects"

2007-10-25T01:10:00.000-07:00

Before reading this paper by Richa Nagar, I never really thought anything about calling the individuals I work with "research subjects". Well, perhaps there is a little naggin' idea at the back of my mine that this 'cover term' makes me more interested in uncovering phenomena than be more interested in the lives of people. Basically, as I read about the lives of 'Farah Ali' and the group of

Responses to structures

2007-09-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Cindi Katz's Growing Up Global now and something about her breaking down 'resistance' as responses to situations into 'resistance, resilience and reformulation' is quite enlightening. It broadens the way we can understand how individuals can handle dealing with social injustice.To a large extent then, I see children employing these coping strategies with their daily attempts at

Why children matters

2007-09-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to an annotated bibliography and upcoming essay assignment, I have to read up on children geography (in UK it seems to be about youths from 5-16 years of age) and social theory. This way, I prepare for my thesis literature review as well as do up an assignment for GE5216...I was reading up on selected articles (really selected based on my whim and fancy) and this one really spoke to me

Nostalgia

2007-08-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am currently attending a module that is getting us through assigned readings (I do an average of 9 A4 pages of ideas a day without fail, on top of my ISM readings and on-going assignment).We were on the topic of place and space, and much of our discussions were on how Doreen Massey had sort of blended our notions of space and place pretty much closely. As in, when she argues for space, much of

1st lesson on Geography and Social Theory: What is Theory

2007-08-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm currently taking a module in NUS Geography Dept for this academic year, alongside my Independant Study Module with my supervisor. This post has a divergent kind of structure - as it should be when opening up concepts. I'll try closing it here on my blog, taking the whole exercise as an exercise of using "Concept Development Model" to structure my learning here.The lecturers cum facilitators

Spoken like a true academic!

2007-06-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

As an academic, I have the luxury of reflection, and the possibility of looking in from outside. I believe it is sometimes my duty to be critical, to raise questions and consider issues which may have been overlooked in the heat of political debates (Shakespeare, 1996)Shakespeare, T. (1996) Rules of engagement: doing disability research, Disability and Society, 11, 115–119.

Search google search trends!

2007-05-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Google trends, a search engine on our searches on Google. This feels like f[f(x)] kind of function! Hah! I'm quite amused. I did a search on 'globalization', just for fun and I realised the graph exhibits a similar trend to in most years- people are interested in globalization from the start of the year, spring perhaps, and the interest dies down in the summer and picks up

Nigel Thrift in Singapore : Royal Geographical Society - National University of Singapore Department of Geography lecture

2007-05-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

I know Nigel Thrift from my readings in my honours year and it was a great surprise to me to know someone who is from your "reading list" is actually coming to Singapore to give a talk. It is pretty similar to the time when Tracy Skelton came to Singapore on a visiting professorship to give a presentation on what she has done. Oh. Tracy Skelton is coming to teach at the NUS Geography Dept. I

Globalization and its impact on children and youths

2007-04-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

I know in the literature of Globalization, we always talk about economic globalization, social globalization etc etc. I am sure many of us have seen the impact of globalization on the economies around the world, with an ever increasing amount of foreign direct investments increasing worldwide even as we see more and more uncertainty (over the Net at least) in the capitalist system. We are talking

Is Geography a Humanities subject or Social Science subject?

2007-04-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

I worked a straight 2.5hours on some exam strategies notes for my students before rewarding myself with time to answer this question.Gosh, I need time-space to think.Just like how Friedman did it in "The World is Flat", I'm going to use dictionary.com and other websites to frame the definitions. One may dispute with me on this method, but perhaps it can be intentional that I do it this way as a

Global climate change and local weather studies

2007-04-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

I am not an authority on climate studies, for I only read up on things related to the school projects my students are interested in but I have been thinking about what it means to have more revelation of global climatic studies.Global trends can only be enforced when we have enough evidences from various parts of the world in terms of local weather studies, on top of technologies like remote

GTA Food Seminar 2007

2007-04-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went to the Geography Teachers' Association Seminar on Food in Singapore, which was in line with the secondary school syllabus change, which now includes the Geography of Food Production.There were 3 guest speakers, Mr Leslie Cheong from AVA, Dr Victor Savage and Dr Margaret Chan.A little intro to the mighty minds who presented their topics:Mr Leslie Cheong is the Director, Food

The thing about the demographic transition model

2007-03-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

One thinks about the most problematic things when teaching young students. Afterall, you are trying to present a most accurate picture of the world to them.I gave a class test for a cohort of young ones this week and one supposedly simple question was to classify Chad as a country that fits into one of the stages in the demographic transition model.One quick look at its 2000 population pyramid -

A little post

2007-02-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

A little post to celebrate the opening of a humble blog. I will be beefing up the RSS feeds for the meantime.