Seeking Spatial Justice in Inclusive Education: Sketch Mapping Systems of Power Through the Spatial Organization of Schools

• In Event: Exploring Spatiotemporal Dimensions of Education and Inequity: Expanding Our Capacity to Build Equitable Educational Opportunity

Abstract

Objectives 
Inclusive education scholarship often treats space as a physical construct rather than one imbued with social meaning (Artiles, 2003). Treating space in this uncritical way, ignores the role that space plays in constructing and solidifying ability hierarchies, cultural assumptions and social identities that are used to justify exclusion (Waitoller & Annamma, 2017). The purpose of this presentation is to foreground space as a way to offer new insights into how school spaces can be (re)imagined for increased equity and inclusion.

Theoretical Framework
Critical inclusion (Siuty, 2019) seeks to challenge the interlocking systems of oppression within schools that prohibit access, belonging and justice. Spatial stories (de Certeau, 1987; Elwood & Mitchell, 2016) are narratives that explore how space gets imbued with meaning around spatial practices. In the present study, we examine youths’ spatial stories to understand how power gets bartered through school geographies to construct norms around belonging and inclusivity. 

Methods
96 students at an urban high school participated in this study. Participants engaged a unit on critical geography and mapping prior to creating their own sketch maps (Boschmann & Cubbon, 2014). Students also wrote narratives describing their maps and analyzed their maps collectively in small focus groups. Centering their voices allowed us to counter normative understandings of school space. We analyzed our data using a process of grounded visualization (Knigge & Cope, 2006) where we coded Geographic Information Systems (GIS) visualizations and transcripts to generate relevant themes through a multi-step process that layered together the multiple types of data (Franke et al., 2017). 

Data Sources
Researchers gathered data using student generated sketch maps that incorporated shading, symbols and marginalia to contextualize their spatial experiences. Sketch maps are cartographically accurate maps that represent individual or group experiences of space (Boschmann & Cubbon, 2014). Students also composed written narratives that described the decisions they made around their maps. Finally, students analyzed their sketch maps in small focus groups. Individual maps were digitized and coded using GIS software to create composite maps for analysis (Weinder & Harris, 2003).

Results
GIS visualizations revealed that white students and students of color inversely experienced inclusivity and exclusivity in highly frequented spaces. Investigating students’ spatial stories revealed ways in which students with access to power actively maintained the norms for participation within spaces. The collective spatial stories amongst students created dominant narratives about the types of bodies that belonged in various areas of the school. Marginalized students’ reported using spatial knowledge in order to make navigation decisions motivated by a desire to maintain their personal safety. 

Scholarly Significance 
Our analysis builds on previous assertions that space is not a neutral construct in inclusive education (Armstrong, 2003). Student spatial stories revealed the ways in which students with proximity to power constructed spatial stories with the purpose of maintaining their power and access to belonging. This meaning dictated requirements for inclusion and exclusion and how students experienced school geographies. Inclusive education must explicitly attend to students’ spatial stories as a way to disrupt processes that support geographies of exclusion (Sibley, 1995). 


Authors

• Molly Elizabeth Siuty, Portland State University

• Kari Goin, Portland State University