Spatiality and the place of the material in schools

Abstract Drawing on a research study into the spatiality of teachers' workplaces, this article explores the ‘concrete realities’ of the artefact-filled world with which teachers, support staff and students interact, and considers the way in which networks of people and things order the spaces of the school. Spatiality is examined explicitly in terms of the relationship between different kinds of space and place, including the network space of relations and objects. In focusing on the relationship between the social and the material, and their implication in the construction of the everyday interactions that constitute the school, the article explores the utility of Actor Network Theories (ANT) as a means of reconciling the two without privileging one over the other or relegating objects to simple cultural or symbolic artefacts. A further challenge is to explore the spatialising force of objects as implicated in the active construction of social space, without resorting to simplistic behavioural determinism. The theoretical focus relates to the empirical concern: how particular spatial arrangements encourage or constrain ways of working together.

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