Mapping as an Approach to Curriculum Planning

Recently I visited one of the tour-guide services sponsored by a large oil company. I was planning an automobile trip and sought the help of a middle-aged man attired in a blue blazer with red pencil in hand. His questions were simple and direct: Where do you want to go? Where do you start? How much time do you have for your trip? What are your interests? Which route-scenic or highways and throughways? I answered each of his questions quickly and without elaboration. Then he reached into his files and produced a series of maps that he proceeded to mark with his red pencil. His comments afterward were interesting and helpful. He spoke of road construction to avoid, of interesting sites to seek out, of special events that would coincide with my travel. After I had told him generally what I needed, he was able to convey to me a range of information related to my travels. Armed with maps of varying degrees of complexity and detail, he was able to help chart my course for the next few weeks. As I left carrying my maps, I noticed his turning to the next person in line and asking, "Where do you want to go?" Thinking by analogy has its strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, an analogy affords a way of using ideas in another context. One can develop a certain kind of distance in viewing familiar concepts and situations from another vantage point. Given the structure and distance afforded by the analogy, one can return to the initial ideas of operations using the analogy for the special insights it can provide.' But just as an analogy can be used as a tool, it may also become a trap. A powerful and persuasive analogy can force one to structure perceptions in terms of the analogy rather than in terms of the realities of the problem. For example, references to human behavior using the machine as an analogy have led to certain in-put/out-put assumptions that prompt the treatment of people in an overly mechanistic fashion, ignoring data that do not conveniently fit into the machine's framework. Thus, I found myself thinking warily about my experience in having a trip mapped for me as an analogy for another of my concerns-mapping (planning) curricula. At the time, I was deeply im