2019/10/16 by Lisa Rosén Rasmussen
Social Sciences · #Educational Environments and Student Outcomes
paper · doi:10.1080/00309230.2019.1669680
crossref issued 2019/10/16 · crossref published 2019/10/16 · crossref published-online 2019/10/16 · openalex publication_date 2019/10/16 · crossref created 2019/10/16 · crossref published-print 2021/07/04 · crossref deposited 2021/08/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Focusing on the school corridor, this article explores the coming into being of Danish school space through shifting architectural designs, teaching practices, and volumes and organisations of pupils’ bodies. The analysis shows a transformation of the corridor itself: from primarily being a disciplining and potentially dangerous space for moving across and between different contexts, school corridors become stimulating spaces for active learning. Thereby, the child’s schooling and bodily movements, as well as meaning-making about where and how school is supposed to take place, are altered. The article draws on Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism to analyse guidance material on how to design, decorate, and use school buildings and a number of spearhead schools at the cutting edge of various trends within school architecture from the second half of the twentieth century until the present day. Through this theoretical lens, the article explores the material and discursive coming into being of the corridor as a space of potential, the transformations of the relationship between the corridor and the classroom, and, finally, the emergence of the corridor as a learning space.