This article explores moments of becoming a/r/tography. A/r/tography is a research methodology, a creative practice, and a performative pedagogy that lives in the rhizomatic practices of the in-between. Resisting the tendency for endless critique of past experience and bodies of knowledge, a/r/tography is concerned with the creative invention of…

Access to a quality education is unevenly mapped by the demographic context of the communities in which public school students live. A growing body of research suggests that this geographic effect deeply challenges the goal of equalizing educational opportunities. This paper explores the relationship between students' neighborhood characteristics…

In an increasingly competitive economy, the capacity for self-motivation, problem-solving skills and an ability to think critically are core graduate attributes. However, the capacity to create an educational environment that develops and harnesses such skills is a distinct challenge as resources become increasingly restricted. Geographical Skills…

The topic of discourse in general is examined and examples of how scientific inquiry in the field of geography is affected by discourse are provided. To develop a more complete understanding of research, the author states that it is often useful to step back and ask why researchers choose to conduct research as they do, and why they so often ride…

This paper discusses the authenticity of digital spatial data. The first section describes three formats for digital spatial data: vector, raster, and thematic. The second section addresses the integrity of spatial data, including six possible formats for the same information: (1) aerial photographic prints, time stamped, primary, remotely sensed…

This paper addresses the library collection development of spatial information in cartographic format. Highlights include: the impermanent nature of maps; changes in spatial information creation, storage, processing, and management resulting from developments in computer-based information technology; steps required to download the digital version…

Value-by-area maps, or cartograms, provide a curiosity-provoking method of depicting geographically related data. The use of cartograms for learning such data involves a learner's familiarity with the region depicted and the distortion of true, earth-centered scale. To examine the effects of region familiarity and region distortion on learning…

This essay demonstrates how social cartography--the writing and reading of maps addressing questions of location in the social milieu--may enhance social research and move it forward in its struggles to distance itself from the positivistic restraints of modernism. Social cartography suggests an opening of dialogue among diverse social players,…

Trends in information policy are discussed as they impact on cartographic information, stressing particularly the relationships between cartographic communication, documentation, and policy making. Distinction is made between cartographic communication as a subject for information policy and cartographic communication as an expedient in public…

This paper identifies how comparative educators have chosen to visually represent the field of development education since about 1963. This is an attempt to historicize the vision as scholars struggle with the representational dilemmas and opportunities of late modernity/postmodernity. The paper is organized in three parts. Part 1 illustrates how…

Introductory courses in Geographic Information Systems and cartography cover the fundamentals of map design. Students are given guidelines for producing a good map, but visual demonstrations are much more impressive. ArcView was used to produce illustrations of bad mapping practices and placed in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate…

This study selected 28 illustrative examples of the visual culture in comparative education used since the 1960s. Journals examined are the "Comparative Education Review"; "Comparative Education"; "Compare"; and others. From visual analysis of these sources, four scopic regimes or visual subcultures are identified.…

A geographer and a developmental psychologist collaborated on an investigation of the development of children's ability to comprehend, produce, and use graphic representations of space. Such representations are called "geo-graphics" in this paper. The researchers held that children's mastery of maps is dependent on their developing…

In an investigation of the development of mapping as distinct from drawing, 39 middle and lower class Cambridge, Massachusetts children in kindergarten and first- and second-grades were shown a small three-dimensional model town, asked to make a smaller, three-dimensional copy of the model, and then asked to make a map showing each item in the…

This paper traces the historical development of cartography graduate programs, establishes an evolutionary model, and evaluates the model to determine if it has some utility today for the development of programs capable of producing highly skilled cartographers. Cartography is defined to include traditional cartography, computer cartography,…