CORE MATHS IN THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES
RICHARD HARRIS
PROFESSOR OF QUANTITATIVE GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
ABOUT ME

• Interested in the
geography of
education and
the education of
geographers
ABOUT ME
• Interim Director of the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)
• Academic Lead SWDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods pathway
• Academic Advisor for the RGS-IBG Data Skills project
• Former Director of the University of Bristol Q-Step Centre
• Member of the A-level Advisory Board for Geography
• Member of the QAA Benchmark Statements Review panel for Geography
ABOUT ME
• Interim Director of the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)
• Academic Lead SWDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods pathway
• Academic Advisor for the RGS-IBG Data Skills project
• Former Director of the University of Bristol Q-Step Centre
• Member of the A-level Advisory Board for Geography
• Member of the QAA Benchmark Statements Review panel for Geography
ABOUT ME
• Interim Director of the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)
• Academic Lead SWDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods pathway
• Academic Advisor for the RGS-IBG Data Skills project
• Former Director of the University of Bristol Q-Step Centre
• Member of the A-level Advisory Board for Geography
• Member of the QAA Benchmark Statements Review panel for Geography
• BUT I neither am a mathematician nor a statistician – I am a quantitative geographer
Q-STEP
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL Q-STEP CENTRE
ABOUT THESE COURSES
• No mathematical requirement at A-level;
we suggest around grade B or C (as were) at GCSE
• A student will typically encounter a ‘statistics in society’ type of course in year 1,
descriptive, inferential and relational statics in year 2, and perhaps more advanced
methods (e.g. multilevel modelling) in year 3, going on (optionally) to network analysis,
spatial analysis and longitudinal analysis in year 4.
• Software typically used: SPSS, R, (Python?) and Stata; also ArcGIS
WHY Q-STEP?

• “The ability to understand and interpret data is an essential

feature of life in the 21st century: vital for the economy, for our
society and for us as individuals. The ubiquity of statistics makes
it vital that citizens, scientists and policy makers are fluent with
numbers. Data analysis is revolutionising both how we see the
world and how we interact with it” (British Academy, 2015)
WHY Q-STEP?

• Various reports providing evidence that UK-trained social

scientists do not have the needed quantitative skills
• In part it is about citizenship, in part about employability but
not entirely so
• and not even entirely about maths..
 Numeracy

Learning
Social Critical
science thinking

Skills
 Maths
Numeracy

Learning
Social Critical
science thinking

Skills
 Maths
Numeracy

Learning
Social Critical
science thinking

Skills
 Maths
Numeracy

Learning
Social Critical
science thinking

Skills
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS IN A ‘POST-TRUTH’ WORLD

• The importance of evidence-based facts

• An empirical basis for reasoned argument
• “All speech is not equal. Some things are true; some things are
not. Figuring out how to tell the difference is the work of the
university” (The New Yorker, 2017).
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS IN A ‘POST-TRUTH’ WORLD

• The importance of evidence-based facts

• An empirical basis for reasoned argument
• “All speech is not equal. Some things are true; some things are
not. Figuring out how to tell the difference is the work of the
university” (The New Yorker, 2017).
• But not just the universities…
THE
CONNECTIONS
ARE ESSENTIAL
WW.RGS.ORG/DATASKILLS
• “Recent changes in curricula in schools and at university, along with a recognised
skills gap, have brought renewed emphasis on students being trained in data skills
(the collection, analysis and presentation of data) in geography at GCSE, A Level
and in undergraduate courses. The shift is presenting new challenges for many
school teachers, particularly those with little prior experience of such skills.”
THE UPSKILLING OF QUANTITATIVE SKILLS

QAA Benchmark statement for geography (as was)

THE UPSKILLING OF QUANTITATIVE SKILLS

QAA Benchmark statement for geography (as it became)

3.13 It is important to emphasise numeracy and numeric skills. Geographers require

skills in the presentation, interpretation, analysis and communication of quantitative data.
They should be familiar with a range of statistical techniques including simple descriptive
statistics, inferential tests and relational statistics such as correlation and regression;
principles of research design and ways to collect data; the retrieval and manipulation of
secondary data sets; and geospatial technologies such as digital cartography, GIS and
Remote Sensing. Attention is given to spatial statistics, to issues of spatial dependency, to
spatial difference and to the effects of scale.
GCSE GEOGRAPHY (SUBJECT CONTENT, DFE 2014)
GCSE GEOGRAPHY (SUBJECT CONTENT, DFE 2014)
GCSE GEOGRAPHY (SUBJECT CONTENT, DFE 2014)
GCSE GEOGRAPHY (SUBJECT CONTENT, DFE 2014)
GCSE GEOGRAPHY (SUBJECT CONTENT, DFE 2014)
A/AS-LEVEL GEOGRAPHY
WW.RGS.ORG/DATASKILLS
• The main change to the geography curricula is not the introduction of harder
maths but of the embedding of maths and data skills within the topics of study
• Trying to get away from this:

“Chi-square is something taught to

geographers at school and misunderstood
thereafter!” (Crawley, 2007)
A LEVEL CONTENT ADVISORY BOARD REPORT
FOR GEOGRAPHY
A LEVEL CONTENT ADVISORY BOARD REPORT
FOR GEOGRAPHY
A LEVEL CONTENT ADVISORY BOARD REPORT
FOR GEOGRAPHY
A LEVEL CONTENT ADVISORY BOARD REPORT
FOR GEOGRAPHY
Data skills
Data skills
Data Numeracy

skills
Numeracy

Data
skills

Statistics
 Numeracy

Data
skills
Data
Statistics
handling
 Numeracy

Computat Data Statistics

skills
ion

Data
handling
 Numeracy

Computati
Visualisation

Data
on

skills
Data
Statistics
handling
 Numeracy

Thinking
geo- Visualisation
graphically

Data
skills
Computa
Statistics
tion

Data
handling
WHY DO WE CARE
ABOUT SOCIAL
SCIENCE STUDENTS
HAVING GOOD
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS?
WHY DO WE CARE
ABOUT SOCIAL
SCIENCE STUDENTS
HAVING GOOD
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS?

BECAUSE THEY ARE

NOT GOOD SOCIAL
SCIENTISTS WITHOUT
THEM
WHY DO WE CARE
ABOUT SOCIAL
SCIENCE STUDENTS
HAVING GOOD
QUANTITATIVE SKILLS?

BECAUSE THEY ARE

NOT GOOD SOCIAL
SCIENTISTS WITHOUT
THEM
…. But by no means all have A-level maths!
WHAT SORTS OF MATHS AND DATA SKILLS ARE WE
LOOKING FOR?
• Personal opinion:
• Largely it’s the ‘simple’ ability to manipulate data and calculate things like percentages and
averages
• Familiarity with algebra
• To understand that numbers and data can be useful
• To not be scared off using them
WHAT SORTS OF MATHS AND DATA SKILLS ARE WE
LOOKING FOR?
• Personal opinion:
• Largely it’s the ‘simple’ ability to manipulate data and calculate things like percentages and
averages
• Familiarity with algebra
• To understand that numbers and data can be useful
• To not be scared off using them
QUANTITATIVE NARRATIVES

• The ability to tell convincing ‘stories’ with data and to challenge

the nonsensical ones
ON THE SUBJECT OF INEQUALITY
• Can also cover:
• Scatter plots
• Line of best fit (a regression line)
• Modelling (the relationship between two variables)
• Outliers and unusual observations
• ‘Sample’ selection
• Correlation (Vs causation)
• Statistical significance
ON THE SUBJECT OF GLOBAL WARMING
• Can also cover:
• Misuse of data
• The idea of uncertainty in statistics
• Confidence intervals
THE PERCENTAGES OF EACH ETHNIC GROUP IN SCHOOLS WHERE THEIR
OWN ETHNIC GROUP IS PREDOMINANT, IN A MAJORITY
AND/OR THE LARGEST GROUP
• Primary pupils • Secondary pupils
THE POINT IS…
• The mathematical level required is not enormously high
• But the cognitive demands are greater than the maths alone suggests
• Interpretation in context
• Intra- and inter-disciplinary connections
• Dealing with messy and uncertain data

• ‘Real world’ maths and data skills

QUANTITATIVE SKILLS

• … as part of the co-production of ‘powerful

knowledge’
WHERE DOES CORE
MATHS COME IN?
source: https://amsp.org.uk/universities/core-maths
source: https://amsp.org.uk/universities/core-maths
source: https://amsp.org.uk/universities/core-maths
SOME CHALLENGES
• The way of approaching maths and data skills is not generic across
disciplines
• Core Maths is not an admissions requirement for many University courses
• Some social sciences remain antagonistic to quantitative approaches
• Embedding maths may not be sufficient
• Our focus, at the University level, is not necessarily on maths but data
science
• “The sceptical argument says, in effect, that we
can’t defend fundamental scientific methods as any
more rational than other methods. What Kant
points out, however, is that we can show that they
are more democratic, more respectful of basic
human autonomy. Why? Because scientific methods
use human cognitive capacities such as observation
and inference [that] aren’t secret or the province
of a few. Observation and logic are strategies
that everyone can, at least to some extent,
use […] and that can be made at least a
little more effective with training”