Participatory Design of Classrooms: Infrastructuring Education Reform in K-12 Personalized Learning Programs

Abstract

The redesign of the physical spaces of classrooms and schools has become a prominent feature in many K-12, personalized learning schools, though it is often dismissed as a peripheral aspect of change. Through observations and interviews at four public schools, I examine the affordances of these new spaces and the narrative of their design. I situate these spaces-turned-places as pedagogical artifacts in a participatory design process to examine how educators and students create functional and meaningful learning spaces. Reframing the physical spaces in this way suggests how the spaces may be supporting the sustainability of the reform.