Steve is Associate Professor of Teacher Education. He is subject lead for the Geography PGCE and MSc Learning and Teaching.

Steve is a qualified geography teacher and was previously the head of department at a comprehensive secondary school in Oxfordshire, and Head of Programmes at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln. He leads the interdisciplinary Education and Training for the Climate (ETC) Hub at Oxford.

He holds an MA in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Warwick University, an MSc in Educational Research Methodology and a DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford which were funded by an ESRC Studentship. He is a qualified Mountain Leader and rock climbing instructor, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He researches at the intersection between the academic discipline and school subject of geography, work that is developing through three progress reports on Geographical Education: (I) fields, interactions and relationships; (II) anti-racist, decolonial futures; (III) climate change education (forthcoming). His research has been funded by the GCRF, ESRC, AHRC, ICHR, Nuffield Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Newton Fund, British Council, and PESGB. Recent collaborations include: Climate Change Education Futures in India (GCRF) in collaboration with colleagues at IISER, Pune; the role of cultural heritage in curriculum making in Kolkata (GCRF); and the Smart Cities Network for Sustainable Urban Future project (ESRC / Newton Fund) which was shortlisted for the Newton Prize (India).

Collaborations with colleagues in the School of Geography and the Environment are contributing to anti-racist curriculum futures, including in the school subject, and in postgraduate teaching through the TDEP-funded Oxford-UNISA course ‘Decolonising Research Methods’ which was shortlisted for the Vice-Chancellor’s teaching awards. These ideas are taken further in the context of school geography through his (2024) book: The Geography Teaching Adventure: reclaiming exploration to inspire curriculum and pedagogy.

His research on teacher education focuses on the contribution that geography education research offers to the conceptualisation and practice of teaching. This work includes ethnographic research on teachers’ curriculum making exploring the journeys through which information travels into school classrooms, beginning teachers’ experiences of school subject departments, the role of written lesson observation feedback in constructing ‘good teaching’, and knowledge in teacher education.

Steve serves on the editorial board of the journal Geography and is Chair of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo/IGU-CGE).

Research

Book chapters

  • Puttick, S. (2023). What stories should we tell?. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 114-128). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-7http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-7

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Exploration and geography. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 13-28). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-2http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-2

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Power, knowledge and prisoners. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 53-73). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-4http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-4

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Where should we start from?. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 92-113). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-6http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-6

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Striations of Empire in school geography. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 29-52). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-3http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-3

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Journeys of information. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 74-91). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-5http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-5

  • Puttick, S. (2023). The adventure. In The Geography Teaching Adventure (pp. 1-12). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-1http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682-1

  • Puttick, S., Chandrachud, P., Chopra, R., Robson, J., Singh, S., & Talks, I. (2022). Climate change education: following the information. In L. Hammond, M. Biddulph, S. Catling, & J. McKendrick (Eds.), Children, Education and Geography: Rethinking Intersections (pp. 168-181). Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003248538https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1fa2946c-c2f4-4100-b08b-15e6d4fb477b

  • Hammond, L., PUTTICK, S., Walshe, N., & Healy, G. (2022). Mentoring matters: contributing to a more just tomorrow in geography education. In G. Healy, L. Hammond, S. PUTTICK, & N. Walshe (Eds.), Mentoring Geography Teachers in the Secondary School A Practical Guide. Routledge.

  • PUTTICK, S. (2022). Planning in geography education: a conversation between university-based tutors and school-based mentors in Initial Teacher Education. In G. Healy, L. Hammond, S. PUTTICK, & N. Walshe (Eds.), Mentoring Geography Teachers in the Secondary School A Practical Guide. Routledge.

  • Walshe, N., Healy, G., PUTTICK, S., & Hammond, L. (2022). Introduction: Mentoring matters in and for geography education. In G. Healy, L. Hammond, S. PUTTICK, & N. Walshe (Eds.), Mentoring Geography Teachers in the Secondary School A Practical Guide. Routledge.

  • Puttick, S. (2019). Knowledge and virtue: re-ordering humans in Robert Grosseteste’s Philosophy of Education. In J. Cunningham & S. Puttick (Eds.), Robert Grosseteste and Theories of Education: The Ordered Human. Routledge.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295973https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f9775e11-455a-4045-9bc0-d935c0892cb6

  • Puttick, S., & Gee, N. (2019). Thriving in your subject department. In Surviving and Thriving in the Secondary School (pp. 36-45). Taylor & Francis.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351037143-5

  • Wood, P., & Puttick, S. (2019). A Plexus Curriculum in School Geography-A Holistic Approach to School Geography for an Endangered Planet. In CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION (pp. 385-399).
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32898-6_22

    • Journal articles

  • Puttick, S. (2024). Critical and sustainable geography education. Geography, 109(1), 2-3.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2024.2307220

  • Puttick, S., Chandrachud, P., Chopra, R., Khosla, R., Robson, J., Singh, S., & Talks, I. (2023). Knowledge, crisis and (un)certainty in climate change education in India. British Educational Research Journal.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3939https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:01769e9d-6d2c-4de6-9524-05f12163642b

  • Puttick, S. (2023). Geographical education II: anti-racist, decolonial futures. Progress in Human Geography, 47(6), 850-858.
    https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231202248https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:35693f54-3328-4abf-a10a-ce147c647c16

  • Gee, N., Parrish, A., & Puttick, S. (2023). Towards a typology of secondary school subject departments. Teacher Development.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2023.2258106https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:82b0db73-9023-4243-a151-22d960c18829

  • Murrey, A., Hlabangane, N., Puttick, S., & della Frattina, C. (2023). Gesturing towards decolonial teaching praxis and unlearning colonial methods: teaching reflections in the struggle to decolonise research methodologies. OXFORD REVIEW OF EDUCATION, 49(4), 461-477.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2023.2223920http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2023.2223920

  • Hall, S., McGill, R., Puttick, S., & Maltby, J. (2022). Resilience, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and anger: A linguistic inquiry into the psychological processes associated with resilience in secondary school STEM learning. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(3), 1215-1238.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12496

  • Puttick, S. (2022). Geographical Education I: fields, interactions and relationships. Progress in Human Geography, 46(3), 898-906.
    https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325221080251https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7691a728-3167-4251-a16f-fb68e30afa4f

  • Siân Davies-Vollum, K., Puttick, S., Doherty, F., Agyekhumene, A., Aneyo, I., Addo, K., Boateng, I., Danby, A., Danso-Wiredu, E., Degbe, G., Hemstock, S., Mitchell, S., Raha, D., & Sohou, Z. (2022). Resilient lagoons? Climate change, sustainability and adaptation. Geography, 107(3), 153-157.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2022.2114166

  • Puttick, S. (2022). Expansive geographical knowledges. Geography, 107(2), 58-59.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2022.2068835

  • Hall, S., Puttick, S., & Maltby, J. (2021). Identifying the psychological processes used by male and female students when learning about science technology engineering and mathematics: A linguistic inquiry. Science Education, 105(6), 1151-1172.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21679

  • Puttick, S., & Talks, I. (2021). Teachers’ sources of information about climate change: a scoping review. Curriculum Journal, 33(3), 0958-5176.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.136https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fc152e97-62e5-49ab-bc74-cc9a7fe134c0

  • Puttick, S., & Cullinane, A. (2021). Towards the nature of geography for geography education: an exploratory account, learning from work on the nature of science. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 46(3), 343-359.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2021.1903844https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d2d30eea-6184-4022-96b7-4f81bb75ceae

  • Puttick, S., & Wynn, J. (2020). Constructing ‘good teaching’ through written lesson observation feedback. Oxford Review of Education, 47(2), 152-169.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1846289https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:56aa3527-076a-4f5e-bdff-51168c02375d

  • Puttick, S., Nye, Z., Wynn, J., Muir, L., & Hill, Y. (2020). Student teachers’ beliefs about diversity: analysing the impact of a ‘diversity week’ during Initial Teacher Education. Teacher Development, 25(1), 85-100.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2020.1854336https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0e1ac00a-7fb9-4c5b-a1c2-0fd87ed1eda8

  • Puttick, S., & Murrey-Ndewa, A. (2020). Confronting the deafening silence on race in geography education in England: learning from anti-racist, decolonial and black geographies. Geography, 105(3), 126-134.
    https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:34818a46-0d74-4a93-99c4-5631c415af46

  • Puttick, S., & Warren-Lee, N. (2020). Geography mentors’ written lesson observation feedback during Initial Teacher Education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 30(2), 95-111.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2020.1757830https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9cb8d5b8-904e-4831-8b76-930caf9776c1

  • Puttick, S. (2020). Geography amid COVID-19 — inequality, decent work, and curriculum. Geography, 105(2), 58-59.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2020.12094089

  • Puttick, S., Hill, Y., Beckley, P., Farrar, E., Luby, A., & Hounslow-Eyre, A. (2019). Liminal spaces constructed by primary schools in predominantly white working-class areas in England. Ethnography and Education, 15(2), 137-154.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2018.1564062https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:215a15e1-2805-47f3-8343-cd7ba650c009

  • Puttick, S. (2017). Student teachers’ positionalities as knowers in school subject departments. British Educational Research Journal, 44(1), 25-42.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3314https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a7d9b016-8ab2-47fc-bb1e-9e546ad3434a

  • Puttick, S., Paramore, J., & Gee, N. (2017). A critical account of what “geography” means to primary trainee teachers in England. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 27(2), 165-178.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2017.1321304https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cf128209-07d3-49b5-adf6-ae8d225482cb

  • Puttick, S. (2017). Should we only teach about real people and real places?. Geography, 102(1), 26-32.
    https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0b535712-abec-4ee1-a1d9-81c14d984c5e

  • Puttick, S. (2017). ‘You’ll see that everywhere’: institutional isomorphism in secondary school subject departments. School Leadership and Management, 37(1-2), 61-79.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2017.1293633https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8f50003e-aba9-4649-9624-7422cd8779f8

  • Puttick, S. (2017). Performativity, guilty knowledge, and ethnographic intervention. ETHNOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION, 12(1), 49-63.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2015.1110039

  • Puttick, S. (2016). An analysis of individual and departmental geographical stories, and their role in sustaining teachers. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 25(2), 134-150.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2016.1149341

  • Puttick, S. (2015). Chief examiners as Prophet and Priest: relations between examination boards and school subjects, and possible implications for knowledge. CURRICULUM JOURNAL, 26(3), 468-487.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2014.1000936

  • Puttick, S. (2013). Looking at and looking along: A conceptual framework for teaching different perspectives in geography. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 22(4), 353-366.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2013.826546

  • Puttick, S. (n.d.). The Geography Teaching Adventure.
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003321682

    • Funded Research Projects

    • Education and Training for the Climate (ETC) Hub (PI)
      2022-24
    • Geography, Mathematics and Sustainability (CI)
      2023-24
    • Sustainable Lagoons in West Africa (Network partner)
      2021-22
    • Climate Change Education Futures in India (PI)
      2020-21
    • Decolonising Research Methods (CI)
      2020-21
    • Trust and Climate Change: information for teaching in a digital age (PI)
      2020
    • Heritage and enquiry-based learning in urban primary schools in India (PI)
      2020
    • Digital Urbanism and Diasporas: walking the cultural heritage of Calcutta’s riverfront (Wider team)
      2020
    • Resilience in STEM learning, (CI)
      2019-21
    • Lincolnshire-Hunan Generation UK (PI)
      2018
    • The Ordered Human Project: Robert Grosseteste’s philosophy of education
      2016-2019
    • Smart Cities Network for Sustainable Urban Future: UK-India collaboration on sustainable cities and urbanisation
      2016-2017