Between the Map and the World: Examining Ideologies of Place and Reasoning About Space and Time (Poster 3)

• In Event: Critically Examining Space and Time in Learning and Design for More Just and Equitable Futures

Abstract

Objectives
This poster examines how ideologies of place (Cresswell, 1996) mediate reasoning about space and time (NRC, 2006). Reasoning about space involves using spatial technologies (i.e., maps) or experiencing space (i.e., walking) to explore geographic patterns. By ideologies of place, we mean the social meanings about the moral value of space (i.e., good/bad).

In this study, we observed three preservice teachers learning about urban heat island (UHI) effect in Austin, Texas. We analyzed how the teachers used a map of redlined neighborhoods (Digital Scholarship Lab, 2019) and a virtual neighborhood tour with Google StreetView to reason about urban heat islands in the city. The research question guiding this investigation was: What ideologies of place are reproduced as students reason about UHI effect?

Theoretical Framework
To understand how people reason about space, we drew on Taylor’s (2020) grid and mobile epistemologies. Grid epistemologies are ways of knowing about space informed by cartesian representations. Mobile epistemologies are ways of knowing about spaces that are informed by moving throughout a space. To understand ideologies of place, we drew on Cresswell’s (1996) three components of a place ideology: classification, differentiation, and naturalization.

Methods and Data Sources
We video-recorded the teachers, over Zoom, as they investigated UHI effect. The 22-minute recording captured participants’ talk, gestures, and any spatial technologies which were used. To analyze the data, we: (a) created a content log of the video; (b) parsed the content log into episodes of activity; (c) described these episodes with Taylor’s mobile and grid epistemologies; and (d) identified elements of Cresswell’s three components of place ideology.

Results
Reasoning about urban heat islands involved dynamically switching between grid and mobile epistemologies. This could be seen in three distinct episodes:

Episode 1. Teachers began by exploring the redline map of Austin. Drawing on personal experiences having visited neighborhoods, participants expressed their surprise about certain neighborhood ratings and their lack of surprise about other neighborhood ratings.

Episode 2. Then, teachers opened Google Street View and began exploring a neighborhood named Westlake. Students ‘moved’ through the neighborhood pointing out the material infrastructure of the place and classifying the building materials as ‘good’ and ‘nice.’ One teacher in particular characterized this neighborhood as similar to ‘old Europe’ – a connection to a new space and different time period.

Episode 3. To close, teachers summarized their ideas about what makes the Westlake neighborhood cooler than surrounding neighborhoods. Teachers reproduced an ideology of place which represents Westlake as a positive space, with wealthy residents, and ‘good’ and ‘nice’ material construction. These affective and aesthetic evaluations of the place contributed to why the teachers believed this neighborhood would have cooler surface temperatures.

Scholarly Significance
Ideologies about place surfaced when the teachers reasoned with spatial technologies or experiences in space. These ideologies of place shaped how the teachers interpreted visual information in technologies and experiential information from virtual walking tours. This line of inquiry further illuminates the role of ideologies in STEM learning, interactions with technologies, and reasoning about critical social and spatial injustices.

Authors

• Maximilian Sherard, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Flavio S. Azevedo, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author