Getting There from Here: Mapping as a Process for Relationship Renewal

Abstract

Inspired to guide students toward more ethical relationships with the living world, this article looks at maps as a common tool used in outdoor environmental education. I argue that maps are tools laden with European Enlightenment ideologies and reinforce a type of human being who has lost their way within an ecological web. To balance these understandings, I offer a process of mapping that was shaped alongside students during multi-day outdoor learning experiences. Through sharing student-generated examples, I offer insights for how a more interpretive means of mapping (and unmapping) through experience can support students to situate themselves within place-based ecologies as a form of relationship renewal.