Seeing the Unseen: Critical Geospatial Mapping as a Pedagogical Tool to Center the Margins

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Theory and Teacher Research (Table 11)

Abstract

A hyper-standardized and an alarmist educational climate, that is steeped in a larger white supremacist context in the U.S., serves to dehumanize students through deficit discourses that inhibit teachers’ work to center their students’ humanity and counter inequities through culturally relevant and critical pedagogies. Scholars have called for attention to mapping as a pedagogical tool to disrupt this dehumanization of teachers and students. In line with this, I offer the tool of critical geospatial mapping (CGSM) and provide two examples of how its application allowed pre- and in-service teachers to see the previously unseen and critique deficit narratives. This holds opportunity to supporting teachers and others in their work to move beyond harmful stereotypes and biases.

Author

• Racheal M. Banda, Miami University (OH)