Use inclusive visual maps of a discourse field to expose educators to multiple perspectives before making pedagogical and curricular choices¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article recommends that educators facing a crowded, contested discourse field use social cartography to organize multiple perspectives visually before selecting among them. The authors argue that 'teachers and students wrestling with such conceptions can only benefit from exposure to multiple perspectives and from a conceptual organization of the various insights and concerns,' and that an inclusive visual circle of dialogue 'may tend to deconstruct, delimit, or redistribute this power over construction of meaning.' The strategy treats mapping as a ludic, playful way of resisting any silencing metanarrative.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A discourse field broad enough that educators otherwise select among perspectives 'often without reference to any overall view of the effects or possibilities of selection'
• Willingness to treat the resulting map as provisional and open to reader revision

Constraints¶

• The authors concede mapping 'doesn't change anything' by itself; its utility grows the more participatory it is
• Only actual usage by practitioners can provide the feedback the authors seek

Target Learners¶

• teachers addressing environmental issues
• students wrestling with human/nature conceptions
• comparative educators

Target Learning Goals¶

• seeing pedagogical truth and value positions from a diversity of perspectives
• making implicit value commitments in curricular choices explicit

Affordances¶

Related Strategies¶

• Cultivate Multiple Ways of Knowing and Making Meaning

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Nicholson-Goodman, JoVictoria; Paulston, Rolland G. (1996). Mapping/Remapping Discourse in Educational Policy Studies. Occasional Paper Series, APS Conceptual Mapping Project. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED395559