Map Projection Education in Cartography Textbooks: a Content Analysis

DOI: 10.14714/CP90.1449 PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE Map Projection Education in Cartography Textbooks: A Content Analysis Fritz C. Kessler [email protected] The Pennsylvania State University As developments in the field of map projections occur (e.g., the deriving of a new map projection), it would be reasonable to expect that those developments that are important from a teaching standpoint would be included in cartography textbooks. However, researchers have not examined whether map projection material presented in cartography textbooks is keeping pace with developments in the field and whether that material is important for cartography students to learn. To provide such an assessment, I present the results of a content analysis of projection material discussed in 24 cartography textbooks published during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Results suggest that some material, such as projection properties, was discussed in all textbooks across the study period. Other material, such as methods used to illustrate distortion patterns, and the importance of datums, was either inconsistently presented or rarely mentioned. Comparing recent developments in projections to the results of the content analysis, I offer three recommendations that future cartography textbooks should follow when considering what projection material is important. First, textbooks should discuss the importance that defining a coordinate system has in the digital environment. Second, textbooks should summarize the results from experimental studies that provide insights into how map readers understand projections and how to choose appropriate map projections. Third, textbooks should review the impacts of technology on projections, such as the web Mercator projection, programming languages, and the challenges of projecting raster data. KEYWORDS: map projection; datum; content analysis; cartographic education; history of cartography ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend thanks to the three anonymous reviewers and Amy Griffin, the Editor of Cartographic Perspectives, for their helpful comments that improved this article. I also appreciate the help of Dr. Terry Slocum for his editorial assistance. INTRODUCTION While developing a forthcoming book, Working example, one textbook explained in detail the steps needed with Map Projections: A Visual Guide to their Selection, to select a projection, while another provided no guidance. I wanted to include an overview chapter on projections. Further inquiry into textbooks written prior to World This overview chapter is important, as my book is written War II revealed that most placed emphasis on the tech- for mapmakers with little background knowledge of the nical skills needed to graphically construct projections. subject. To assist in determining appropriate projection However, due to advancements in computer technolo- material to include in this chapter, I arbitrarily sampled gy, these skills are no longer relevant and are not found cartography textbooks published since 1990 and reviewed in more recent textbooks. The variation in coverage that their contents, as these textbooks often contained over- I found sparked my interest to more thoroughly examine view chapters on projections. A casual inspection revealed what projection material was included in textbooks from considerable variation in the material they included. For 1900 to the present. © by the author(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0. Cartographic Perspectives, Number 90, 2018 Map Projection Education in Cartography Textbooks – Kessler | 6 This paper consists of three major sections. The first section the field of projections, but were quickly integrated into summarizes the results of a content analysis of projection the field during the latter half of this time period. material presented in 24 cartography textbooks published during the twentieth and early twentry-first centuries, The third section ties together the results of the content which were randomly selected from a larger set of text- analysis with these developments, with the ultimate goal books, each containing a discussion of projections within of recommending what projection material should be in- a holistic discussion of mapmaking. The textbooks were cluded in future textbooks by summarizing earlier mate- published in English between 1900 and 2014. Briefly, the rial and augmenting it with new developments that are content analysis involved reading through each projection significant for introductory students to learn. For example, discussion and recording projection-specific words (e.g., viewing distortion across a projection’s surface is obviously “conformal”). These words were then used to create cate- important for students to learn because of the differenc- gories (e.g., map projection properties), and the categories es between projections and their suitability for different were then used to characterize the projection material that mapping purposes. However, other developments may be was presented in the surveyed textbooks. important in a general sense but are not significant from a teaching standpoint. For instance, Lee’s (1965) con- The second section discusses developments in the field of formal map of the world in a triangle satisfied a specific projections that took place during the twentieth and early mathematical curiosity, but does not have any practical twentry-first centuries, including new projections, meth- cartographic advantage. Thus, learning about Lee’s projec- ods of symbolizing distortion patterns, and applications tion would not be particularly impactful from a teaching of projections for specific map purposes. Some develop- perspective. ments, such as programming languages, took place outside CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MAP PROJECTION MATERIAL IN CARTOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS Krippendorff (2019) divides content analysis into cartographic software. Gluck (1998) applied content anal- qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative con- ysis as one of several qualitative techniques when investi- tent analysis is concerned with drawing parallels between gating cartographic and geospatial images from the 1994 objects, whereas quantitative content analysis (which was annual reports of 153 United States corporations. To ex- utilized for this research) involves counting the frequen- amine the variation in map design across eleven editions cy of objects or their attributes. Objects can include maps, of Goode’s World Atlas, Muehlenhaus (2011) likewise em- images, written text, or verbal communication. The basic ployed it. I have previously (Kessler and Slocum 2011) idea is to record the frequency of an object (e.g., counting used content analysis to examine map design in thematic the number of times the word “terrorist” appears through- maps published in the Annals of the Association of American out a series of newspapers) across a specific time period Geographers and the Geographical Journal during the twen- or particular media, gathering numerical data that can tieth century. Most recently, Muehlenhaus (2013) admin- reveal patterns or themes. In return, these counts can be istered the technique to evaluate the communicative char- used to answer specific research questions (e.g., is the word acteristics of 256 persuasive maps. “terrorist” used more frequently in newspapers since the events of 9/11?). Shreier (2012) outlines five steps that characterize a content analysis. She identifies the first step as the formula- Content analysis has been applied in a variety of disci- tion of the research question. In the second, the researcher plines and provided insight into numerous cartographic selects the appropriate material for the content analysis. research questions. Gilmartin (1992) used content anal- The third step involves selecting the individuals who will ysis to contextualize 25 years of cartographic research perform the content analysis. During the fourth step, the appearing in three cartography journals. Using a combi- categories that will be used to organize the data collect- nation of content analysis and focus groups, Monmonier ed during the content analysis are defined. The fifth step and Gluck (1994) studied participants’ views of animated rounds out the process by presenting and interpreting the Cartographic Perspectives, Number 90, 2018 Map Projection Education in Cartography Textbooks – Kessler | 7 findings of the content analysis. As shown in the follow- The third substep used stratified random sampling from ing discussion, I applied these steps to carry out a content the 48 textbooks identified in substep 2; this was done to analysis of projection material in cartography textbooks save time over conducting analysis on the entire group. I from 1900 to 2014. began the sampling by placing each of the 48 textbooks into the decade in which it was published. I then randomly STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE RESEARCH QUESTION sampled two textbooks from each decade. To avoid over- sampling multiple editions of the same textbook, only one One way that many students learn about projections is edition of each title was selected. Table 1 lists the 24 text- through cartography textbooks. Ideally, projection mate- book titles, authors, and publication dates used for this rial included in these textbooks should keep pace with the study. developments in the broader mapping field. However, no studies exist that survey projection material

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