Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2020
Department
Education
Abstract
The 1960s open space school removed partitions between classrooms in part to alleviate teacher isolation. The model was long ago deemed a failure. Years later, teachers in surviving open space facilities continue to navigate the reform. Despite wide dismissal of the model, components of teachers’ work that open space schools sought to normalize (collaboration, informality, proximity) are increasingly valued for improving teachers’ professional communities. In addition “open” designs are resurfacing in new school models. Picking up where earlier scholars left off, this article elevates perspectives of teachers working in a surviving open space school today using a conceptual framework of situated cognition. In so doing, it seeks to extend literature on teacher collaboration and teachers’ social sense-making in implementation. The following research questions guide the study: 1) How do teachers in a surviving open space school make sense of the open space design and experience their work in it? 2) How does the increased visibility normalized by the open space design contribute to teachers’ professional collaboration and culture? How does this visibility shape teachers’ views of a new facility of self-contained classrooms?
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812012200912
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Published Article/Book Citation
Murphy, J. T. (2020). “But Aren’t We Extinct?”: Inhabited Reform and Instructional Visibility in an Open Space School 40 Years Later. Teachers College Record, 122(9), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812012200912
Repository Citation
Murphy, Jeremy T., "“But Aren’t We Extinct?”: Inhabited Reform and Instructional Visibility in an Open Space School Forty Years Later" (2020). Education Department Faculty Scholarship. 2.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/educ_fac_scholarship/2
Comments
This is the Accepted Manuscript Version. This article has been published in a revised form as Murphy, J. T., “But Aren’t We Extinct?”: Inhabited Reform and Instructional Visibility in an Open Space School 40 Years Later, Teachers College Record, 122(9), 1-44. Copyright © 2020 Teachers College, Columbia University https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812012200912 This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND licence. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed.