Occupying Curriculum as Space

Abstract

Learning environment research is gaining previously unachieved sophistication as it develops beyond ‘post occupancy evaluation’ towards socio-cultural examinations of how students and teachers occupy and utilise space. This chapter argues that knowledge gained though previous research can be ‘mined’ for such spatial implications. The overlap between gender studies and curriculum is one such field. Curriculum remains an effective tool for implementing macro-policies of government and articulating wider socio-cultural agendas in schools. However, for all this success there exists a very limited understanding of its lived impact on the student – that is, how curriculum is actually inhabited by an individual. A doctoral study was conducted in the late 1990s to address this paucity of knowledge. When published, the study advanced thinking on this topic, but now is open to further examination. The purpose of this chapter is not to repeat what was found, rather to re-interpret its findings through a spatial lens. Time is a great teacher; academic activity by the PhDs author in the intervening eleven years, particularly in the area of learning environments research, has allowed a different perspective on how curriculum is actually occupied and manipulated by its inhabitants.