Shifting Landscapes: the significance of spaces in academic development

Dr Colleen McKennaDr Jane Hughes

HEDERA and UCL Institute of Education(CC BY-SA 2.0) Steve Cadman

Overview

• About the study– Sites of practice– Impact of geography– Significance of architecture, furnishings– Structural spaces• Where• Impact

• Conclusion

‘For me, the space is crucial and has affected things hugely’

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ContextExILED study Funded by SEDA

Building on work by Barnett and Napoli, Clegg, Land, Gosling, Harland and Staniforth.

Research questions• Role and journey?• Sites of practice?• Networks / communities?• Career progression?

Methods

Survey - 214 respondents

Interviews - 14

General themes

- Location (place and impact)- Nature of the role- Pleasures - Challenges- Identity construction

‘What is the relationship between the experience of space and identification with the institution?’ (Cox et al. 2012)

Space in relation to teaching/learning - under-researched and under theorised

1. Sites of practice

Where do you do your work?

2. Geographical location

• Central site preferred• Challenges of distributed campuses

CC-BY Bill Harrison

• ‘The central campus location enjoyed by the [Unit name] shows that the [it] is a prominent feature of the University's study and learning support ... When [it] was first set up, it was in a hard-to-find corridor in an out-of-the-way building… [now] [it] is located in a much more prominent position and attracts staff as well as students.’ (R 111)

• We're placed off campus with services such as digital copy services and admissions, and it's very hard to network with academic staff in Faculties. (R 14)

‘We are not located alongside or with any external teaching staff ... This means there is less informal contact with teaching staff which means it is harder to make contact, to be aware of issues, new issues etc. We are located with quality assurance staff which is useful but adds to the perception that we are the centre telling staff what to do.’ (R 131)

Marginal spaces and identity

• Cox et al., 2012, refer to buildings on the periphery as ‘fuzzy edges of the campus…’

• ‘We have a limited sense of belonging. We are genuinely marginal from the iconic centres of the university.’ (Cox et al. 2012 – new lecturers)– Link to ‘symbols of hierarchy’

• ‘marginality is also a resource’.

Metaphors

• ‘A nomad that visits other people's territories’

• ‘an experienced map reader’, who ‘knows the territory’

3. Significance of architecture and internal design

Significance of design of physical site– Buildings– Interior layout– Control over environment– Signals of decor

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Significance of architecture/internal design

‘Physically – we are in a locked building, so drop-in is simply out of the question. Perception is an issue too – we are in the ‘Admin Building’, which puts people off from the start and links us with the admin function, which sits uneasily with what we do. Similarly we have no teaching space of our own and are only allowed to book space from the central teaching pool once our academic schools have had space allocated for teaching, hence we tend to get second-rate space that no one else wants – again leading to the perception by staff attending that this activity is somehow of lower priority to the University.’ (R 116)

Cox et al. 2012)

access

• ‘for me, the space is crucial and has affected things hugely, so we’re now in a building ... [which] is much more systematized, there’s a reception area ... you book in ... you go and you visit the space and then you go away again. And because it’s shared [with other central university functions] ... there’re no opportunities for us to do anything with the space to make it feel like educational development. (IE)

‘… the ordering of space in buildings is really about the ordering of relations between people.’

(Hillier and Hanson, 1984 in Jessop et al. 2012)

Design and hierarchy

We are not visible to the colleagues we work with in the Colleges, and the way our (new) offices have been designed, whilst they are meant to be hot-desking open flexible spaces, we are actually more separated as a team than we were before we moved.

The working culture does not yet have sufficiently high levels of trust and creativity to enable our work to be the very best it could be. We are somehow bound by institutional history, formal management structures, hierarchies and physical space - interesting times :-) (R 44)

Significance of architecture and internal design

• Internal space: academic markers (decoration, teaching rooms, offices) matter.

• External access & association of buildings

• Alignment with values – openness, collegiality, public good

Architecture and design• ‘Fabrication’ of the university through design

and decoration (Ball, 2000)

• Public service consumption good

5. Structural spaces

Key themes from qualitative data:

• central location vs department or faculties • relationship to HR or Quality Assurance• structural links with senior management

• Interviews: repeated narratives of restructuring & re-siting of academic development units

Institutional location

Structural spaces• majority expressed preference for central structural

location:

‘marginality can be interesting and stimulating, but it’s a hard place to be powerful from. For real change it helps to have a centrally understood role’ (R 115)

• vocal minority - preferred links with Education department

‘In a School of Education, most people are concerned with T & L so it is nice to be surrounded by like-minded people, but it limits interactions across the university.’ (R 111)

Structural spaces

‘HR is seen as a compliance function, and related to training, and not seen by academics as a natural home for teaching issues. Also, HR systems can become obstacles and barriers to our work as they operate in a very different culture.’ (R 41)

‘It is essential that staff feel your focus is development rather than judgement against a set of standards. I want people to be comfortable telling me when they think an aspect of their practice could be enhanced without them thinking I will be judging them’. (R 18)

(Confirms Gosling 2009)

Conclusions

• Location and setting – can codify role; signal certain values and communicates assumptions

• Access – changes interactions with peers; perhaps explains the broad range of places where interaction takes place (e.g. coffee shops; hotels)

• Structure – periphery offers freedom but often lacks the mandate of centrally located placement

• Implications for scholarship – powerful subtext• Gap between development and decision-making

Metaphors ‘I sit in no man’s land, in a space between everyone and the senior management team…I don’t have a seat at that table in a formal sense although I might be there in the … words I write.’ st

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Structural spaces

• ‘The Unit I work within is not an academic one. Not having an academic focus means I experience challenges in both my working week and also in managing my academic career. There is not the same support for research and scholarship that peers have nor is there support for appropriate development. . . Any [research] work I do on this is expected to be in my personal time.’ (R 144)

Personal impact of location