Pupil perspectives on classroom spaces: A proposal for research into how year 3/4 children interpret the physical environment of their classroom

Abstract

The vast majority of research into the physical school environment has focused solely on the perspectives of teachers and researchers, thus overlooking children’s embodied experiences in, and perspectives on, the physical environment of their classroom. Accordingly, this research proposal seeks to explore how the physical classroom environment is interpreted through the eyes of year 3/4 children themselves. The proposed study adopts a pragmatic case study methodological design, involving the research methods of a photograph task, semi-structured group interviews and a drawing task, in order to comprehensively investigate children’s in- depth and idiosyncratic spatial understandings.