Flexibility and placemaking for autonomy in learning

Flexibility is a key aspiration of contemporary government guidance on school design. Used liberally, the term provides a convenient site for the meeting of educational approach (think flexible, personalised learning, timetabling, groupings) and spatial design (non-bounded, open space, moveable elements, independent structure and services). However, this meeting seems to pose a challenge. As Building Bulletin 95 puts it: ‘…the most flexibly designed spaces can only work if building users have a flexible attitude.’ Framing flexibility in the discourse of autonomy, this paper contends that it can be understood as a ‘tool’ to enable children to experience authorship of their own learning. The paper draws on participatory action research with primary and secondary schools in England in which the built environment and placemaking were explored as a means to support learning. Through examples, it is argued that once children are enabled to experience their learning environment as ‘flexible’, by changing it themselves, they are better able to self-direct their learning. Findings show that flexible learning space is encouraged when children and teachers experience together how their environment can support their learning needs. Once established, it is an environment that is constantly changing according to the needs of individuals and groups. The paper concludes that flexibility, at the congruence of spatial design and learning, can only be attained once children feel trusted to shape their environment within an enabling school culture.