IRGEE in retrospect – the 30th anniversary serving the international geography and environmental education communities

Towards the end of the 1980s, John Lidstone and Rod Gerber shared a coffee at the relatively newly created Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. As a new university, the pressure was on to increase international research publications, but for the two geographical educators, the options for publishing academic research papers were relatively few. Most of the reputable journals were strongly associated with national geographical societies, and often bridged the gap between professional teacher articles and academic research. Scarfe (1949) had reviewed research in geographical education, and recognised three types of study as predominating; tricks of the trade, psychological factors and the interests of children. Many of these were reports of small experiments conducted by teachers in their own classrooms. At that time, the “content” of geographical education was regarded as relatively fixed, and the purpose of the research was primarily to increase the speed and effectiveness of the learning process. The nexus between academic research and professional publications remained relatively close well into the 1980s. As Lidstone and Gerber reflected on the conferences and symposia of the IGU Commission on Geographical Education (CGE) at that time, it became apparent that the proceedings of such conferences constituted virtually the only truly international sources of academic research. This thought quickly led to the idea that the Commission was an ideal foundation on which to build a new journal with a focus on promoting the diffusion of high quality academic research across linguistic, cultural and national boundaries. Being the more junior academic, Lidstone was given the job of approaching international publishers with the proposal. At that time, there was an universal agreement amongst publishing houses that there was no demand for any new journals, much less one focussed on Geographical Education. However, after thirty-two (the number is forever imprinted in Lidstone’s brain) rejections, Latrobe University Press agreed to support the idea, so long as the cost for the first three years was underwritten by someone else. Gerber at that time was newly elected as President of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland and proposed the new journal as an exciting new project for the Society, and thus the International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (IRGEE) was born. Within a short time, Latrobe University Press sold its titles to Channel View Publications in the United Kingdom, who in turn sold its titles to Routledge—Taylor and Francis. In the early years, the editors’ primary objective was to increase circulation internationally and encourage young researchers around the world to make their work accessible around the world. Much effort was made to promote careful attention to carefully articulated and defined methodologies. When Joe Stoltman replaced Rod Gerber as co-editor, his extensive international networks (and those of Taylor and Francis) helped the journal to increase the geographical spread of both contributors and readers. When Lidstone and Stoltman passed the editorial baton to Gillian Kidman and Chew Hung Chang in 2017, the challenge had become one of increasing the journal’s “High Impact Metrics” status in response to governments’ desire to hold universities accountable to national policy initiatives.