Understanding, Utilising, and Shaping the Spatial Conditions of School: “Spatial Literacy” as a Subject Matter in Teacher Training

Abstract

Understanding school buildings not simply as “containers within which learning activities occur”, but instead as “‘built pedagogies’ that could influence teaching and learning practices, activities and behaviours” (Cleveland & Fisher, 2014, p. 23) makes current demands for a turn from classroom to learning landscape an issue to be addressed in teacher training. With this premise in mind, the idea of fostering “spatial literacy” among teachers has increasingly been ad-dressed in English-speaking discussions of this topic in the last few years. Specifically, this means raising teachers’ awareness of the pedagogical significance of spatial conditions of school as well as systematically preparing them for permanently occupying and inhabiting a new, possibly more open-plan school building. This article therefore attempts to define and discuss this specific form of teacher professionalisation with regard to school architecture – while considering three dimensions of spatial literacy with a specific focus on schools: understanding, utilising, and shaping.