’I learned a lot about my classmates …’. Exploring focus group discussions as learning environment to raise controversial issues in geography and economic education

Teachers of geography and economics address numerous topics in the classroom which are controversially discussed in society and/or affect pupils directly. How they deal with issues such as migration or identity depends not only on the respective curriculum but also on their disciplinary knowledge and pedagogic skills. This paper argues for the need to adapt learning environments depending on educational objectives, content, age and discusses focus groups as one possible way to work with students in secondary education on sensitive matters. Focus groups are seen as a tool to enable real-world complexity in the classroom, and to prepare students for participatory, active citizenship. The paper first discusses current theoretical thought regarding controversy in both society and the classroom. It then goes on to illustrate real-world classroom experiences of focus-group based learning on controversial issues and to discuss its benefits and challenges.

Spatial Decision Support System for Efficient School Location-Allocation

In Greece, a lack of a planning strategy was identified in the context of allocating students to schools. Particularly, the Secondary Educational Management of Lesvos Prefecture along with school Principals decide upon student allocation based on empirical knowledge and approximation techniques. As a consequence, during the school season of 2018-2019 capacity and proximity limitations were violated. This study introduces a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to assist school location-allocation decisions in future seasons. The objective of the proposed SDSS is to minimize commute-to-school distance concerning capacity and proximity limitations. For this purpose, a capacitated P-median approach is adopted and formulated as a mixed-integer linear problem. The SDSS is further evaluated using actual data for students' transition from primary to secondary education in the city of Mytilene, Greece. Evaluation of current allocation practices carried out and further compared to those obtained by the SDSS. The results indicate a decrease of 8% in total distance whereas proximity and capacity constraints were respected accordingly. The results may be potentially useful for school planners to assist the allocation decisions in the city of Mytilene.

The role of TCI and TCCI indexes in regional tourism planning

Podunavlje region in Serbia comprises 16.6% of the territory and 38.9% of the total population of the country. Due to its attractive natural values, cultural-historical monuments, ethnographic features, etc., Serbian Podunavlje has favorable conditions for the development of excursion, nautical, stationary, event, youth, rural, hunting, transit, and other kinds of tourism. Since the climate as a tourism resource and the factor of tourist migrations in the observed area has not been analyzed yet, the aim of this paper is the tourism valorization of the significance of climate using the two tourism climatic indexes: tourism climate index (TCI) and tourism climate comfort index (TCCI). To achieve it, the climate elements were first analyzed at five meteorological stations in Serbian Podunavlje: Sombor, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Veliko Gradište, and Negotin for the period 1990–2010. Then the periods favorable for tourism activities were determined according to the mentioned indexes at the given stations. The research results show that summer is certainly the most favorable season for tourism activities in the observed area since the maximum TCI values were recorded during summer, and the minimum ones during winter at all the stations. Regarding the TCCI, the most optimal values of this index were recorded in September and May. These results can further serve the tourism organizations in the municipalities in Serbian Podunavlje when considering the construction of the tourism infrastructure, marketing activities, and further affirmation of the resources for the purpose of sustainable development of tourism.

Spatial Analysis on Networks: Towards identifying similarity of routes

Finding an optimal path in a road network is a method of planning and decision-making that is mainly related to transportations and emergency response. The paper presents an algorithm for finding optimal paths in spatial networks, through the utilization of open source GIS and mathematical analysis of Networks using Graph Theory as well as using geographical proximity attributes of network nodes. The geometric and spatial information of the network as well as its relations with points of interest (POI) of the study areas located at the nodes and edges of the network, are transformed into spatial information, which by applying spatial queries in a geographical database (Postgis/Pgrouting) give query-enabled paths. The case study for the application of the algorithm and finding a route based on spatial queries is the island of Lesvos. This island combines intense topography and a complex road network with multiple geometric relationships. The area also has points of interest such as cultural, tourist and social. The final route will be a synthesis of morphological, tourist and cultural elements similar to the spatial search queries. Finally, the methodology as well as the search algorithm can be applied to any Spatial Network (transportations, environment, energy) described by its geographical features, considering all kinds of geographical issues, thus solving spatial problems and contributing to local development.

Axiological contexts of geographical cognition.

The paper reasons about value consciousness, which plays a special role in the study and development of geographical space. The understanding of geographical space is based on multidimensional analytical features of this subject category. Geographical space is represented as an area of mutual penetration of a unique natural shell and an original anthroposphere. In this fusion of nature and society, the predominant role of humans in the surrounding reality is highlighted. It is suggested that the urgent task of geographical knowledge is the need to unite knowledge about people, nature and society in the conditions of spatial interaction. It is emphasized that the main vector of modern geographical research is the conceptual progress from "Earth" to "Person" as the only reliable wealth that the world possesses. The dominant role of a person in the surrounding reality is determined by the moral consciousness and reasonable practice of an individual in specific spatial circumstances. The authors illustrate that in modern conditions it is impossible to do this without appealing to humanitarian values, which become the fundamental basis of the entire world "Dasein” (by M. Heidegger) as an existing being.

Spatial Causalities in Geographies of Scientific Knowledge

This paper tries to discuss the efforts of geographers of science to put science in its geographical contexts. Geographers of science have studied the socio-spatial settings in which scientific knowledge has been generated, displayed, and legitimated. For them, science is socially constructed in “spatialities” and “temporalities”. The major question of this study is how “spatialities” construct scientific knowledge via its “causalities”. The fundamental idea is that geography of science does not only deal with places, locations, and regions where scientific knowledge is produced or distributed; it also deals with a variety set of spatial causalities through which scientific knowledge can be formed and transformed. This means that the development of innovative knowledge and ideas take place not only within a spatial context but also occur due to the spatial causalities associated with the myriad interlinkages and interdependencies among places. These imperatives of spatial significance operate across many spatial scales from body/local to the planet/global. Hence, in our increasingly globalized world, we must seek knowledge in spatial encounters and in-between places, not merely within spaces and places. In addition, when we are living in an unprecedented transformation period which transfers the terrestrial spatial causalities to the virtual spatial causalities via intelligent and digital technologies, we should be more aware of the difference that new algorithms make in our daily life through hacking virtual spatial causalities.

Mapping summer SUHI and its impact on the environment using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques: A case study on Municipality of Prishtina (Kosovo)

Urban areas, compared to peripheral and rural areas, have higher temperatures which are caused by a series of unplanned activities that are undertaken by humans. Such a thing leads to the emergence of the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) phenomenon. In this paper, summer SUHI is determined through the calculation of LST for the Municipality of Prishtina using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques. To make this calculation, the Landsat 8 satellite image with 0% cloud cover was used. From the calculations made it turns out that the pixels with the highest value of LST are found in those parts where the urban area appears, where there are numerous constructions with impermeable materials, as well as in those areas where there are bare surfaces. Whereas, the pixels with lower values of LST appear in those parts where there are vegetation and water bodies, making these areas fresher. The SUHI phenomenon makes the lives of citizens difficult, therefore, such information is very important for the leaders and urban planners of the city of Prishtina, so that they take a series of steps towards minimizing such an effect in order to the life of the citizens to be as healthy as possible.

Lifelong training program on QGIS tools for earth observation sciences in south-east Europe

Earth Observation (EO) data are an indispensable source of useful geospatial information, which can be efficiently combined with other data within the latest released open-source QGIS software. This paper aims: i) to present a general overview of the QGIS EO plugins; ii) to promote the Lifelong Learning (LLL) courses for open-source QGIS software tools provided by the Geo-SEE Institute from Skopje; iii) to appreciate the advantages of open-source QGIS for developing and improving EO applications. The training objectives are to enhance the research, development tools and technologies of QGIS and stimulate the obtaining and disseminating knowledge to utilize the open-source GIS software. Furthermore, there is a growing need to increase the number of well-educated professionals on issues related to the EO sciences in South-East Europe (SEE), who are better prepared for the labor market in today's digital revolution by using QGIS tools and plugins combined with other related GIS software platforms provided by the OSGeo family.

Metadata: A pedagogical tool for the teaching of map projections in Elementary School

Digital interactive maps include a set of metadata, which show the purpose the user can use the map. Metadata in digital interactive world maps inform users about important information, such as the map projection. This research examines whether the educational and teaching use of the metadata of digital interactive maps construct a tool in the approach to the issue of map projection in Elementary School. The research was carried out in 17 Elementary Schools of Thessaloniki, Greece, where 6th-grade students (Ν = 655) were engaged in a series of activities related to metadata and map projections. ArcGIS Online was used as a didactic tool. Results showed that metadata of digital interactive maps have a great pedagogical value. The identification of the different information in the metadata, i.e., the map projection, and the students’ decision of what they can and cannot study with each map, is an important finding regarding their educational relevance.

Attitudes Towards Refugees & Immigrants in Greece: a national-local comparative analysis

Over the past decade, Greece has received a significant number of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who, due to specific decisions taken at both the EU and the national levels, have been “trapped” in Greece for an indefinite period. Dealing with this situation was, and still is, a hot issue, with state policies remaining focused on reception and control rather than on integration. Moreover, the spatial allocation of refugees in specific places throughout the country raised further debate, as they often provoked reactions (of substantial political costs), given that different localities tend to exhibit different attitudes and views towards refugees and immigrants. Since these perceptions seem to exert a significant effect on the direction of public debate and state policy there have been a number of nationwide surveys that have sought to shed light on them. These studies certainly advance our understanding on how Greeks in totality perceive those issues, but they also suffer from serious limitations regarding the specificities that different localities exhibit. On their grounds, the current works seek to provide a comparative analysis between the results of a nation-wide survey and a locally contacted one, contrasting perceptions between people living in Athens metropolitan area and in three small-medium size cities in central Greece (Trikala, Larisa, and Volos), in order to identify similarities and differences in views between the different spatial scales.