Dissertation
How Contemporary Learning Spaces Influence Classroom Milieu: Australian Primary School Teachers Share Their Experiences
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00901
Abstract
There is an ongoing interest in transforming traditional classrooms motivated by a desire to create learning spaces that are more aligned with twenty-first century competencies, such as communicating, collaborating, and thinking critically and creatively. This qualitative study examined the lived experiences of primary school teachers in newly re-designed classrooms within the Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) system, as part of the School Revitalisation Project. The Revitalisation project provided grants to redesign learning spaces that would emphasise pedagogical approaches supporting student-centred learning.
The research drew on a phenomenological methodological approach informed by an ecological perspective to explore contemporary learning space milieu. Learning space milieu encompasses teaching and learning practices, student and teacher identity, social power relationships, and other aspects of the affective domain such as feelings of inclusivity, agency, and well-being. Learning spaces can be conceptualised as ecosystems involving the physical space, teachers, learners, pedagogical practices, interpersonal relationships, social networks and hierarchies, and digital and material resources. This study explored the enmeshed assemblage of elements to develop a holistic understanding of the dynamic people-space relations in contemporary learning spaces. This study centred on the concept of milieu as it captured the researcher’s intent to examine collective elements to understand the ways in which learning spaces are not abstract, institutional constructs, but are actual places for the human encounters fundamental in learning experiences and the human need for relationship and connection.
Details
- Title
- How Contemporary Learning Spaces Influence Classroom Milieu: Australian Primary School Teachers Share Their Experiences
- Authors
- Kym Thomas - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
- Contributors
- Alison Willis (Principal Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research CentreAli Black (Co-Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00901
- Organisation Unit
- School of Education and Tertiary Access
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991103846302621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
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