I recently presented new research related to teaching at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in London. My paper was titled “Walking Tours as Active (Mobilities) Learning Tools.” The abstract:

A walking tour is standard fare on an overseas fieldtrip. Especially when led by a local resident, it promises to provide an informative insider’s perspective on an unknown place. However, it may be an ineffective learning tool, simply reproducing the one-way, passive reception of knowledge associated with the lecture theatre. How might walking tours be reconfigured as pedagogical tools that do more than claim to promote active learning? Moreover, how might walking tours open pathways for students to experience and reflect upon the power and practices associated with the study of mobilities? This presentation analyzes four years of “twinned” walking tours undertaken by Singaporean students in Japan (2014-17). Twinned walking tours involve a tour led by a professional guide, followed by a tour developed and led by the students themselves in a separate location. Student reflections comparing the twinned assignments note many benefits of learning “on the move,” including positioning students into scholars and increasing their emotional engagement in learning. However, student reflections also show how an exercise originally designed to investigate the politics of heritage unintentionally led students to experience and learn about mobilities, in particular the differential mobilities of students vs. local inhabitants and the power of a walking tour to temporarily immobilize people and landscapes “on tour.” This presentation advocates “twinned” walking tours as active learning tools that also enable the teaching and learning of key concepts and experiences associated with emerging scholarship on mobilities.