Mapping Potentials in Our Flow: Examining Currents in Physical, Mobile, and Virtual Samples of Classroom Cartographies

• In Event: Constructing Possibilities: New Directions in Social Studies Research and Practice for Racial Justice

Abstract

This conceptual paper examines the physical and philosophical movements of three critical teacher-educators and the mapping methods and assignments they use to support pre-service teachers in developing critical stances. Inspired by King’s theorization of shoals, we draw on scholarship advancing anti-colonial frameworks (Sabzalian, 2018) to dismantle racial and spatial injustice (Soja, 2010) in light of critical geographies and spatial-temporal interactions. We advance three vignettes borne of our own mapping work to utilize the already present elements of students, families, and communities as powerful potentials that chart new possibilities in physical, mobile, and virtual examples of teacher-education coursework. We further share the limitations of our approaches and invite others to consider how they might take up mapping activities in their contexts.

Authors

• Matthew R. Deroo, Florida International University

• Timothy Monreal, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Brianne Rose Pitts, Western Michigan University