Womac, PatrickBindewald, BenjaminSala, Matthew Della2023-12-052023-12-052017Womac, P., Bindewald, B., & Sala, M.D. (2017). Mapping for mutuality: Using data maps to enhance educational policymakers' awareness of the communities they serve. Research in Geographic Education, 19(1), pp. 43-66.1529-0085https://hdl.handle.net/10877/17348The purpose of this conceptual article is to explore the merits of mapping as a data tool for improving state policymakers' awareness of the characteristics and circumstances of the communities they serve. Using South Carolina's Supreme Court decision on a landmark school finance case as the context, a series of maps were created and examined to illuminate the distributions of county and school district goods across the state. We found that maps provided an added geospatial component when compared to the findings from traditional quantitative analyses. Implications for the use of maps in educational policymaking, university curriculum, and secondary education curriculum are outlined in the discussion.Text24 pages1 file (.pdf)engeographygeography of opportunityeducation policymappingcontextual patternsequityArticle