Creating an ethos for learning: classroom seating and pedagogical use of space at a Chinese suburban middle school

Abstract

ABSTRACT The classroom is a crucial, everyday element of children's geographies with important socio-spatial characteristics that demand scholarly attention. This study ethnographically investigates the production of meanings in the classroom space through seating. Building on the conceptual framework of spatial dialectic (Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell), it theorizes that classroom space is a fluid process that shapes and is shaped by the everyday spatial practices of teachers and students. Specifically it draws on the fieldwork conducted at a suburban middle school in China's underdeveloped northwest region, exploring the process by which the hierarchical seating arrangements are used as a pedagogical tool for creating a charged space conducive for learning at the classroom level. The study reveals that the built space in the classroom has been transformed into a space imbued with moral terms, in and through which students are expected to commit themselves to schoolwork.