Book cover design: Iulia DOROFTEI, M.Sc. student at Regional Planning and Development, ForewordThe aim of this book is to encourage Romanian students and geographers to take an interest in qualitative research. It answers a need in the Romanian university geographical system: that of exploring the role of qualitative research methods and their usefulness and relevance both for research and for university students' professional training. Given the fact that, for a very long time, Romanian geographers used the descriptive method and the quantitative ones, very often not trusting the qualitative methods and the results obtained with such "subjective" methodology, a pro domo book like this volume is necessary.More than half of the authors of this volume are M.Sc. students who attended the courses on the Methodology of Regional Research (in Romanian) and Region and Geographical Regionalisation (in English) with the first editor of this volume (Associate professor Oana-Ramona Ilovan, Ph.D.), during their Master's studies at the educational programme Planning and Regional Development, in the Faculty of Geography, "Babeş-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. They wrote the theory or the presentation of the case studies we used, according to the way they were required to solve assignments during their Master's studies.During their courses and seminars, usually, the theoretical part was presented and explained by the professor (the first editor of this volume), who also provided students with relevant articles that they had to read and analyse in order to understand the theoretical part.Among the other authors of the chapters included in this volume, are Ph.D. students and also professors and researchers experienced in using the respective qualitative methods, their contribution being a theoretical and reflective 9 Foreword one. They cooperated with the students for the chapters they co-authored and gave critical and constructive feedback on students' contribution.More than once, the peer-review process (among the professors and researchers themselves; among the M.Sc. students and Ph.D. students) on content, form, and on observing ethical norms during the writing process provided opportunities for dialogue and respectful collaboration.For the presentation of the case studies used in the chapters of this book, students received relevant research articles selected by the second editor of this book, also student at the respective Master's programme.For these students, authors of the chapters, the process of writing, which involved analysing the case studies from a methodological perspective, was a learning activity. At the same time, they did their best at explaining diverse qualitative research methods and their role in Regional Geography, so that this book enables younger students at the respective Master's programme to learn more easily and efficiently, while being aware of the crucial importance of methodology, and, in this particular situation, of the qualitative methods for excellent research.Therefore, as coordinat...

Map skills stand at the core of Geography education. Map reading and map drawing, however, do not enjoy similar attention and consideration in Geography classrooms. Empirical research shows less developed competence models of map drawing as opposed to map reading and an overall map-drawing skill acquisition mainly based on classroom teaching experience. Furthermore, studies showed that teacher training students encounter difficulties when asked to represent geographic space. Drawing upon the theoretical Competence Model of Map Drawing, this paper analyses the symbolic and graphic coding skills of teacher training students. A total of 120 students enrolled in regular (60 persons) and distance education (60 participants) in kindergarten and primary teacher training programs (at the specialisation the Pedagogy of the Primary Grades and of Kindergarten, in Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania) participated in the study and delivered sketch maps based on instructions. Mixed methods served to analyse the representations. The results of the study show that, despite optical presentations resembling maps, most sketch maps actually resemble mental maps, which is proved by rudimentary symbolic coding.

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We live in an era in which public life within the urban space is in a profound crisis. The urban and economic development, corroborated with the technological advances, often determine public space to be replaced by remote social interactions. Thus have appeared more and more private spaces (i.e. commercial centres), culminating with an increasingly restricted and timid use of the public space that places under the sign of uncertainty the citizens' right to the city. In this study, we aimed at realising a territorial diagnosis of the squares in the central area of Cluj-Napoca, analysing the degree of functionality of the urban elements, their current role based on users' perceptions and experience, as well as the assessment of the cultural landscape's aesthetic. Methodology included a questionnaire survey, direct and participatory observation, thematic photography, cartographic mapping, urban inventory, and territorial diagnosis. Results showed that the historical squares in the central Cluj-Napoca area were different in form, profile, size and structure, and in functional attributes. In addition, there has been a change in the functions of squares, along with the evolution of the city, from the economic function to the recreational and cultural one. Moreover, we realised an analysis and typology of the cultural landscapes of the urban public space in Cluj-Napoca. These research results enabled us to propose a series of actions which could reduce or eliminate territorial malfunctions, providing results for the decision-making process and for other researchers wishing to explore more this topic.