Mapping our Globe - Why Use Equal-Area Maps?
1907 GA article
The ideal is an 'equal-area' world map. There is a long history of professional bodies recommending 'equal-area' world maps for schools. In 1907-08, the Geographical Association printed a recommendation that world maps in school atlases should be equal area.
A century later, there can surely be no justification today for schools to use a world map that shows one part of the world bigger than another area of the same size. Variation of size within one map is both confusing to pupils and 'unfair' to parts of the world - usually the Tropical countries.
But there are still questions about which equal-area maps are most helpful.
Should we always use equal-area world maps?
Perhaps the answer should be 'almost always'. For example, there is occasionally a case for printing a 'globe lookalike' map (i.e. 3D appearance on a 2D sheet of paper) provided lines of latitude and longitude are clear. They help pupils to see that a globe is being represented, and help us to 'adjust' to the idea that size is unreliable and measurements should not be made on this map. They cannot show the whole world, but they are good at showing the world as centred on London or Tokyo or Sydney. World maps can be centred anywhere, for example, a Sydney-centred map helps us to see that our 'Far East' is Australia's 'Near North'.
Secondly, there is a need to 'warn' everyone about misleading world maps they may still encounter. So there is a case for keeping a 'rogues gallery' of world maps that are not equal area.
Thirdly, most of the beautiful world maps based on satellite imagery are - unfortunately - not equal-area maps. Students may need help to realise that a satellite image of the world still has to distort shape or size or both. Until there are equal-area maps in this style, many schools may decide that the advantages of these maps outweigh the serious disadvantage of their varied scale.
The ideal outcome is a school with pupils who question any world map they see, and who are able to recognise the main qualities and limitations of any world map.
Where should a world map be centred?
There is a simple answer: anywhere we choose.
Pupils can be invited to make the case for different places as the centre of a world map. It is helpful for pupils to realise that any map projection can be centred anywhere, because a sphere has no top or bottom or sides.
In practice, there are a few points that can be usefully made for and against various centres. Pupils could be invited to draw up their own lists, when shown contrasting world maps. If different groups of pupils were allocated a country or region to represent (e.g. Australia, UK, USA, Antarctica, Russia), there would be important disagreements - and the value of the globe would be re-emphasised.
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1907 GA article
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