The authors of this paper proposal have each explored the history of school architecture in their respective countries - the UK and Denmark - in recent years. Currently, they are each working on archives that contain the records of meetings between architects and educators at home and abroad in this important period for the development of ideas about education and educational contexts. In 1954, an important meeting took place when architects from the ministry of education in Britain visited Denmark and took part in a commission to explore the relationship between ideas about education and the built environment. The travel report of this visit in August-September 1954 with contains the names of the schools they visited and with whom they went. They were asked to write reports on various aspects of school building design and planning. Amongst these was a report about how to observe schools:this includes drawings from the 10-15 schools they visited. The British team were very critical of what they observed in Denmark. Danish architects visited the UK shortly afterwards. The records of this visit indicate that they also visited key schools and were also critical of what they saw. The research questions to be addressed in the paper will contribute to the work of historians of education in recent years exploring how ideas travel and how they are received and impact on practice. The paper will illuminate a small feature of a wider international conversation carried out during the post war period on the design of school buildings based on a particular model of observation introduced by the British team.

The paper will present the findings from analysis of the existing archival records of the visits made by the British team to Denmark in 1954 and by the Danes to the UK later in the same year. Records - reports, plans, drawings and commentaries - situated in the Danish archives will be analysed. One of the authors is in regular contact with David L Medd OBE who was a key member of the British team who visited Denmark in 1954 and who managed the reciprocal visit. Notes made by David Medd reflecting on the findings of the visit will also be incorporated into the research.

The expectation is that this paper will explore the potential of the theoretical perspective drawn from cultural geography - i.e. the notion of the shaping and development of knowledge through travel and through consideration of application in geographical and cultural space. It will produce a micro-history of an important feature of the history of education in Europe, namely the extensive and deep relationship between the Scandinavian countries and the UK in developing ideas about childhood, education and educational environments in the 20th century.