Schooling in the developed world is required to prepare students as lifelong learners who have developed the capacities and agency to succeed in work and life in the twenty-first century (Schleicher, 2018). Schools are therefore required to support learners to design their own learning and collaborate with others. In many international contexts building new and radically different school buildings has become the key strategy in working towards this goal. Evidence relating to the impact of the physical environment on learning is complex (Woolner, Thomas, & Tiplady, 2018) – with no established theoretical framework, competing discourses on the design of schools to achieve this policy intent (Benade & Jackson, 2017) and little research concerning the voices and perspectives of school stakeholders (Schabmann et al., 2016). We apply the redeveloped conceptual framework for risk and public service innovation (European Union FP7 project) (Flemig, Osborne, & Kinder, 2016) to investigate how the physical dimensions of the school interact with the cultural, organizational and social dimensions of schooling and in particular with opportunities for learner agency. Responding to known risks and uncertainty involves resilience, flexibility and space for innovative and collaborative responses to unforeseen events (Flemig et al 2016). In twenty-first century schooling, opportunities to make choices, take risks and make mistakes are also an essential component of learning and growth. We examine the perspectives of principals, leaders, teachers, architects and planners regarding their educational vision and their experiences in their newly built schools in different loci and stages in Australia. Along with data gathered through interviews and observations, the study analyses tracking data of staff and students and photographic data gathered by participants. The large volume of diverse data arising from this study will be analysed using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) a relatively new method for identifying and quantifying connections among elements in coded data and representing them in a dynamic network model. We discuss the importance and challenges of addressing divergent stakeholder perspectives to ensure a closer alignment with the benefits for learning and agency and their diverse needs. Findings from this investigation are expected to inform theoretically grounded advice for policy and practice and future research. Our broader intention is to frame discussions and elicit debate among experts and the public to inform the efforts of researchers, educators, architects, policy-makers and planners to make inclusive and ‘responsible’ decisions about research and innovation (Ribeiro et al, 2018) in different learning environments.

Benade, L. & Jackson, M. (2017) Introduction to ACCESS special issue: Modern learning environments. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(8), 744-748, doi:10.1080/00131857.2017.1317986 Flemig, S., Osborne, S. & Kinder, T. (2016) Risky business—reconceptualizing risk and innovation in public services. Public Money & Management, 36(6), 425-432, doi: 10.1080/09540962.2016.1206751 Ribeiro, B., Bengtsson, L. Benneworth, P., Bührer, S., Castro-Martínez, E., Hansen, M., Jarmai, K., Lindner, R., Olmos-Peñuela, J., Ott, C. & Philip Shapira (2018). Introducing the dilemma of societal alignment for inclusive and responsible research and innovation. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5(3), 316-331, doi:10.1080/23299460.2018.1495033 Schabmann, A., Popper, V., Schmidt, B. M., Kühn, C. Pitro, U. & Spiel, C. (2016). The relevance of innovative school architecture for school principals. School Leadership & Management, 36(2), 184-203, doi:10.1080/13632434.2016.1196175 Schleicher, A. (2018), World class: How to build a 21st-century school system. OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264300002-en Woolner, P., Thomas, U. & Tiplady, L. J. (2018) Structural change from physical foundations: The role of the environment in enacting school change Journal of Educational Change (2018) 19: 223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-018-9317-4