Classrooms without borders: new spaces and places of learning

Abstract

This article identifies what can be learned from seeking to adapt teaching and learning styles in a post-disaster environment. It focuses on the development of student research through community-based learning as a means of increasing engagement and contributing to recovery in an earthquake-damaged city. It urges consideration of the socio-political context within which such pedagogies are developed, and highlights the management of expectations amongst students, community partners and academic staff. It discusses some of the benefits and difficulties in developing new spaces and places of learning, and reflects critically on what these initiatives represent.

Keywords:

• Community-based learning
• learning spaces
• post-disaster pedagogies
• problem-based learning
• service learning
• student research

Acknowledgements

This article is based on the Journal’s Annual Lecture given at the Institute of Australian Geographers/New Zealand Geographical Society Conference at the University of Melbourne on 1 July 2014. My thanks go to Derek France and the Journal’s editorial board for the invitation, to the organizers of the conference for promoting the lecture as a keynote address and to the audience for the ensuing discussion. The practices discussed in the paper have been developed over some years in collaboration with Simon Kingham. I am grateful to him, and to David Conradson, Paul Cloke, Billy O’Steen and Harvey Perkins for comments on earlier drafts and to Malcolm Campbell who suggested the first part of the title.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The terms “paper” and “course” are synonymous in this context, with students referring to both interchangeably. A degree programme is comprised of a certain number of papers or courses taken in each year of study, with the number varying according to the weight of the papers or courses. The two examples under discussion are each weighted at 0.25 of a full-time year of study.

2. This is a key feature of well-established large-scale service learning programmes, such as those developed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina at Tulane and Loyola Universities in New Orleans. The Canterbury protocol is available from the author.

3. These results have been replicated in a repeat of the exercise in 2013.

4. Nor by many new learning spaces produced by designers without user input, and merely replacing one set of fixed fittings with new ones (e.g. immoveable tables and multiple fixed screens).