Maps for Learning: How Dorothy Heathcote’s Use of Maps Facilitates Reflecting upon Arts Praxis as Thinking Praxis

Abstract

Arts praxis as thinking praxis connects to Paolo Freire's transformational social pedagogy and Heathcote's drama for learning. Against this background, this practice-based piece explores different examples of how maps can be used for reflecting and communicating knowledge in learning and educational contexts. It argues that maps can visualise processes of meta-learning and thereby empower learners to understand in which way their thought processes unfold. Featuring my own experience of using map making for reflection in a higher education literature course, the essay follows the guiding argument that the form a map takes on, its aesthetic quality, marks a relevant contribution to the learning experience. The emerging concept of knowledge empowers the learner through giving them awareness and thereby agency of their own learning journey. To contextualise this 'thinking of maps' further, the essay references a material map from the archive of Dorothy Heathcote, which was presented during the Heathcote Now Conference in 2025, and a mental metaphor from her Fight for Drama speech (1989). The essay elucidates how maps can help to reflect upon and support the plurality of thinking praxis possible in our schools and societies today. As a practice-based piece, it emphasises the core argument with its playful, interactive form.