Sailer, K; (2015) The Spatial and Social Organisation of Teaching and Learning: The case of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In: Karimi, K and Vaughan, L and Sailer, K and Palaiologou, G and Bolton, T, (eds.) Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium. (pp. 34:1-34:17). Space Syntax Laboratory, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL: London.

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Abstract

Existing research on school buildings and how their layout informs the spatial and social organisation of teaching and learning is scarce with an evidence base that has been called incomplete and underdeveloped in a 2005 report commissioned by the UK Design Council. Only a small handful of studies have analysed school buildings in the tradition of Space Syntax. Hence this paper aims to close this gap by systematically reviewing literature and proposing a theoretical framework for the future study of school buildings. Rather than focusing on an empirical case and post-rationalising phenomena found in the field, important concepts of the Space Syntax study of buildings as well as pedagogical theories are brought together upfront in a single conceptual framework. Only then is this framework applied to prove its feasibility and value. As a dataset, a well-known example from popular culture has been chosen to allow the framework to be easily comprehensible and perspicuous: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, the fictional secondary school of Harry Potter and his friends as featured in the novels by Joanne K Rowling and the associated movie series. Floor plans of Hogwarts are analysed using Visibility Graphs and the movie material has been systematically evaluated in order to distinguish types of learning (individual, peer and taught learning) and map episodes of learning onto functional areas of the floor plan. Seven important dimensions are identified in the framework: 1) Accommodating different teaching styles; 2) Accommodating different processes of learning; 3) Strong or weak framing of the relationship between teacher and taught; 4) Movement economies; 5) The interfaces a building constructs; 6) The realisation of spatial and transpatial solidarities; and 7) Correspondence and non-correspondence models. The analysis of the Hogwarts narrative highlights the importance of social and public spaces for the accommodation of diverse learning processes: only 10% of learning in the movies occurred in classroom settings and the majority of peer learning took place in common rooms, dormitories and courtyards. It is also shown that peer learning tended to happen in more integrated spaces. The paper concludes that the framework can be fruitfully applied and delivers interesting insights into the spatial and social organisation of teaching and learning inside school buildings in relation to pedagogy. It proposes to shift the focus of attention away from classroom conditions in the architectural debate and instead embrace the idea that learning is social and occurs in many different settings and places, which puts the idea of the school building as a whole in its interplay between spatial elements and their connections high up on the agenda.

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