Mapping the Postmodern Turn in Comparative Education.

This paper advocates the use of cognitive maps by researchers in comparative education. Cognitive maps are defined as "visual imageries depicting on the two dimensional surface of a screen or paper the researcher's perceived application, allocation, or appropriation of social space by social groups at a given time and in a given place." The use of cognitive maps is advocated as a means of expanding social dialogue because it offers the map's reader a forum for responding directly to the map maker by producing on the map differences in claims to social space perceived by the reader. Numerous theorists of the postmodern enterprise in geography/cartography are discussed, as is the work of three academic practitioners, one in comparative education and two in geographic cartography, who have observed that colleagues in these areas must now move their respective academic fields toward a postmodernist integration of ideas and theories. The use of cognitive maps, and not necessarily postmodernism itself, is promoted as a means for comparative fields to expand their knowledge base. Three figures illustrating various aspects of cognitive mapping are included and 46 footnotes are appended. (DB)