School architecture for primary education in a post-socialist country: a case study of Poland

ABSTRACT

The present educational paradigm, fundamentally unchanged since the 19th century, does not meet 21st-century educational needs. This paradigm shift must be accompanied by a strong educational architecture that fosters the skills needed for 21st-century success including creativity and cultural awareness. The present study investigates the primary school architecture of post-socialist Poland, tracing its evolution and asking whether its issues apply universally. A comparative review of representative primary school buildings illustrates that their developmental progress has been superficial, as only external forms have been adjusted. The standard spatial arrangement of the traditional corridor and classroom layout has remained stagnant. This layout is oversimplified, inflexible in design, and works against learner-centred pedagogies that stress diversity and multiplicity. This article highlights the inadequacy of Polish primary school spaces for 21st-century educational needs. The results indicate that this is a universal problem since corridor and classroom layouts are widely applied in all Western countries.

KEYWORDS:

• 21st-century education
• interdisciplinary analyses
• educational architecture evaluation
• impact of physical learning environments on teaching and learning process
• international implications

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and comments, which have significantly contributed to the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Rzeszow University of Technology under grants [DS.M.BP.17.001] and [DS.BA.18.001.04].