The View of the Child: Releasing “visual voices” in the design of learning environments

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of “visual voice” to facilitate a critical commentary on current discourses surrounding pupil participation in the design of learning environments for the future. The significance of material and spatial conditions constructing particular views of children and childhood is first discussed through some historical examples. Then, it is suggested that unpicking the complexity of the notion “the view of the child” is essential in developing critical awareness around possible frameworks for participation. Some historical and contemporary ways of viewing children's capacities as co-designers of their educational environments are discussed and this is followed by a critique of some approaches to participation in the design process current in the UK. Finally, through examples of some recent attempts to explore the meaning of “the visual culture of school” in an inter-disciplinary research setting, the article argues for a new approach to participation that engages children and adults in meaning making through layered narratives of the re-design of learning environments.

Notes

1. The philosophy of La Maison des Petites was aligned with the New Education Movement which was committed to develop educational environments consistent with viewing the child as constructor of knowledge.

2. Oral testimony, spatial tours that record commentary about meaning and experience, and mapping of significant spaces are clues here. Children with sight can work with others to interpret their “view”.

3. Often best realised through attention to the senses—especially sight and smell.

4. Still at the beginning of the millennium, predominantly within institutionalised spaces known as schools.

5. The Primary Programme, directed at all primary school buildings, comes online in 2007/8.

6. Mary Featherstone, “The Inside Out Project”, retrieved March 26, 2007, from www.featherston.com.au"

7. See http://www.room13scotland.com/ (retrieved March 26, 2007).

8. See http://www.thesorrellfoundation.com (retrieved March 26, 2007).

9. The full archive of materials submitted for The Guardian competition is now deposited at the University of Leeds, School of Education.

10. The Research Cluster was funded for one year by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council. A report of the activities is published in Inns (in press).

11. This was a state school in the city of Norwich.

12. “The age group we worked with was ideal. We also had a good range of different children to work with. I was particularly impressed with the way that the child with hearing problems (profoundly deaf) was able to take a full part as a researcher with the aid of his hearing equipment and his special friend” (Research Cluster field notes).

13. All children took photographs and made drawings of what they saw in their own classrooms.

14. Bignold School, Research Cluster field notes.

15. Bignold School, Research Cluster field notes.