Resumen de Educational character of the room
Ingrid Kellermann, Cristoph Wulf
This contribution aims to evolve a new understanding of the meaning of �education room� which is comprised of far more than a measurable area. The school, and especially the classroom, represent a socially constructed place. Here educational processes become spaces to experience and learn with the objective of forming the personalities of young children. The performative conception of �education room� focuses the reciprocal effect of actions and structures, i.e. the structural order and material arrangement and positionings of objects and people as well as specific physical practices.
Thereby it becomes evident that spatial materiality and sociality are closely intervowen and create specific atmospheric qualities. The empirical data of an inner city school in Berlin verifies that the spatial/material classroom order implicates symbolic references, and pre-structures classroom interactions. Depending on the location, time and people, �education room� generates different educational spaces by simultaneously setting limitations and imposing restrictions. In this sense, the board area divides the classroom into two spaces for interaction similar to that of �stage� and �audience� in theatre. The �stage� can become an area of self-presentation for both the teacher and the pupil. On the other hand the physical/material position in the �audience� can have an impact on the sociality in the group of pupils and create �public� or exclusive �closed� spaces within the educational framework. The sensual perception of objective factors and subjective feelings are stored in the physical memory and influence the educational process beyond the instructional purposes. For this reason the structural room requirements and the social constitution of space must be equally considered at the reflection of �education room�.
