Making sense of space: mapping and materializing panoptic features in research with youth and teachers

ABSTRACT

This article describes a study wherein teachers talked about school architecture by using their bodies as well as their voices while analysing maps youth drew of their schools. The youths’ maps and the teachers’ discussions revealed evidence of their tacit understanding of panoptic surveillance. This may be evocative of the ways panoptic architecture and surveillance work on bodies in ways that are both seen and unseen. The author theorizes the implications of these connections for teacher education, including the ways teachers may be primed to perpetuate the same sorts of surveillances they experienced.

KEYWORDS:

• Surveillance
• teacher education
• curriculum studies
• qualitative research
• social studies education

Acknowledgments

The JCS editorial team and reviewers read and provided feedback on multiple versions of this manuscript. The author wishes to express her gratitude for their insightful and helpful notes, generosity, encouragement and patience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin Adams

Erin Adams is Assistant Professor of Elementary Social Studies Education in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, USA. Her research focuses on social studies teacher education, primarily in the area of economics education . She is one of the authors of the Three Minute Theory video series as well as a number of articles and book chapters.