Using mixed methods research with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can provide further insights into several aspects of education and offer new opportunities for teachers and educational scholars to effect and apply learner-centered methods in an engaging manner. Particularly combined by qualitative data, GIS can be used as both a powerful teaching tool in the classroom by students and educators and an empowering research tool outside the classroom by school administrators and policy makers. I will rely on my own long-term methodological research integrating GIS and ethnographic methods focusing on the social production of public spaces in Tehran, Iran. This integration is called Qualitative Geographic Information Systems (QGIS) and refers to an array of methodological efforts to incorporate into GIS more qualitative data into GIS than have traditionally been included. My goal here is to not only appreciate the methodological opportunities QGIS offers, but also to examine its conceptual and technical boundaries as a research tool for educational researchers. I contend that, despites its limitations, the integration of GIS tools with qualitative data becomes even more essential in educational research as we work with changing human subjects (e.g., students and teachers), their identities, perceptions, relationships, access to resources (or the lack thereof), and finally the art and science of teaching.