Visual Mapping: Creating Collaborative Visual Narratives from Connections within the Nou Llevant-Soledat Sud District of Palma

Abstract

This study aims to raise awareness among teachers, who carry out their work in a disadvantaged social and cultural context, of the possibilities offered by the construction of a visual map of their environment. In order to establish connections in an expressive and collaborative way, a workshop was held in a primary school with fifth grade students from the Nou Llevant-Soledat Sud neighbourhood in Palma (Balearic Islands, Spain). By using narrative mapping as an analytical technique, the students built a new language: an analogical network, their network, of information. The creation of maps has reinforced the message of intersection and encouraged new behaviours. The approximation of different universes through drawings carried out by the students has allowed us to create narratives and consequent mind maps. The results prove the importance of cartographic representation as a tool for learning and educational awareness. It also enables a creative process that attempts to ease the cognitive burden of the reality of the neighbourhood and softens the resulting information by making it gentler.