Introducing the special issue: some thoughts on school cartography

ABSTRACT

The introduction to this special issue begins with a brief background on some of the milestones in the history of school cartography, from the publication of the first school atlases to research activities developed in the twentieth century. The research projects developed in the twentieth century contributed to determine e.g. which core skills children should develop when they begin to learn map use, as well as tried to find answers to diverse questions that cartographers, geographers, teachers and other colleagues ask when teaching concepts related to maps or map use in schools. Finally, a short overview of the articles chosen for the special issue is offered, giving a general idea of the wide spectrum of themes that editors wished to cover with this selection.

KEYWORDS:

• School cartography
• school atlases
• map concepts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

José Jesús Reyes Nunez is Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests lie in Cartography for Children (teaching of cartographic concepts and map use in Elementary and Secondary Schools), Digital and GIS Cartography, Web Cartography and Geovisualization. Author of more than 25 articles in scientific publications and more than 65 papers in different events, he has collaborated as cartographer in more than 40 textbooks and atlases. He is responsible for the organization of the Barbara Petchenik Map Competition in Hungary from 1999, being President of the International Jury in 2005 and 2007. He was Chair of the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children from 2007 to 2015, currently Vice-Chair of the same Commission. The International Cartographic Association awarded him with the Diploma for Outstandings Services to ICA in 2015.