Geography

Basic education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) seems to be characterized by lecture methods of instruction, a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and a disconnection with local community problems. During 2008, a “My Community, Our Earth”(MyCOE) workshop was organized in the MENA region and involved teachers of geography, math and science. It aimed to promote and support the use of geographic methods and technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), regarding sustainable development topics as a way to improve primary and secondary teaching and learning through an interdisciplinary approach and connection to local issues. These subjects were integrated to a perspective based on spatial thinking, spatial analysis, active learning and problem solving on a variety of regional and local issues. This article explores the impact that the MyCOE workshop may have on participants’ learning. Preworkshop and postworkshop questionnaires were administered, and the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data shows that the respondents’ expertise was reinforced and that they learned to use geographic technologies. In addition, the MyCOE workshop resulted in the development of a more concrete vision among participants of what basic math and science education could be in Arab nations, by using geographic learning as a framework for integrated education.

Hawthorne, Timothy, Patricia Solís, Brittney Terry, Marie Price, and Christopher L. Atchison. (Accepted 2014, in press.) Critical Reflection Mapping as a Hybrid Methodology for Examining Socio-Spatial Perceptions of New Research Sites. Manuscript accepted by Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

We introduce critical reflection mapping as a novel and hybrid research methodology for examining the sociospatial perceptions of researchers in new research settings, particularly international ones. The methodology, theoretically situated within the critical geographic information systems literature, combines two existing research methods (qualitative sketch mapping and critical reflection) to elicit original ways in which researchers can critically reflect on an area new to them while spatially linking these qualitative place-based reflections to sketch maps. The methodology allows for synergistic data sets to inform each other and to be analyzed together rather than separately. Through critical reflection mapping, we demonstrate how multiple data sets and methods are combined so that critical reflection and word clouds add significant intellectual value by making another layer of textual information immediately accessible to qualitative sketch mapping data analysis. We present two case studies in Belize and Panama from our current community geography research agendas to demonstrate the viability as well as the caveats of this novel methodology for understanding and representing the immediate sociospatial perceptions of researchers. In the context of international research experiences discussed in this article, the methodology captures individual responses to features of the built environment including walkability and sustainability; documents the changing emotions a newly immersed researcher has in a largely unfamiliar geographic setting; and connects new experiences in a foreign research setting to an individual's everyday lived experiences, positionality, and multiple identities. It also makes these experiences more visible to fellow researchers in a large research team and thus lends itself as a potential forum for shared reflection.