ABSTRACT
In recent years educators, policymakers, and researchers have embraced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to convey complex social, demographic, and geographic data. However, complex issues of power, exclusion, meaning-making, and agenda-setting may be invisible to the casual consumer. As well, application-specific users are likely to be aware of the ongoing debate between cartographers and GIS technicians over the responsibility of map makers to anticipate and address social and ethical issues related to data representation. This chapter is based on the authors’ process of encountering, employing, and reflecting upon GIS mapping during a statewide project examining the distribution, activities, and target populations of college access provider organizations. Categories of logistical, representational, and interpretational issues arose that required the researchers to consider how their mapping efforts might be used in an educational policy arena to misrepresent, oversimplify, or exclude some constituents from policy formation and resource allocation processes. In turn, educational researchers considering GIS mapping are challenged to do so fully aware of the methodological and epistemological challenges of the process.
