Critical spatial learning: participatory mapping, spatial histories, and youth civic engagement

Abstract

As digital technologies become ubiquitous in many places, scholars of civic engagement, youth and political life, and geographic education have explored the potential of teaching critical and spatial thinking through digital technologies. This paper examines interactive digital mapping as a technology environment for teaching and practicing critical spatial thinking, in relation to civic engagement. From this participatory and dialogic mapping project with teenage girls in Seattle, Washington, we develop a conceptualization of critical spatial thinking that emphasizes how social and spatial processes intertwine to generate societal inequalities and show how this learning informs students’ social and spatial civic responses. We show how interactive digital mapping pedagogies offer students an opportunity to develop awareness of what happens in their urban geographies, but also how and what they might do to intervene.

Keywords:

• participatory mapping
• civic engagement
• youth geographies
• critical spatial thinking
• children's politics

Acknowledgements

We thank Ryan Burns for research assistance and building the Mapping Youth Journeys platform, and the editor and reviewers for their helpful input.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We focus on adolescent youth and teens; those who are likely to be using digital technologies for more advanced scholastic exercises.

2. This argument builds on our prior findings that collaborative mapping processes contribute to political subject formation – youth coming to identify as members of some collective ‘us’ that can act to influence community life (Elwood and Mitchell 2012; Elwood and Mitchell 2013). Here, we focus on how these political subjects form socio-spatial knowledge develops through collaborative mapping. We do not frame young people as ‘unformed’ political subjects but as active learning agents deepening their understanding of the worlds around them.

3. We could not use Google's mapping tools, because account holders must be 13 years old

4. Some had difficulty using the mouse pad to control zoom tools, and needed help to reorient from extremely large or small zoom levels.

5. All names are self-selected pseudonyms.

6. Student quoted in fieldnotes, 03/01/11

7. Student quoted in fieldnotes 03/01/11

8. Student quoted in fieldnotes 03/01/11

9. Student quoted in fieldnotes 03/01/11

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Spencer Foundation #20100052 and National Geographical Education Foundation #2008-UI03.