Space matters to education. Physical spaces and material resources affect how teachers teach and students learn. Reflecting the diversity of users and uses, relations between school premises and education have proven extremely complex, with few direct causal links between physical elements and learning (Woolner et al., 2007). Spaces, nevertheless, facilitate or constrain activities and behaviour (Sigurðardóttir & Hjartarson, 2011; Stadler-Altmann, 2016), reflect educational cultures and often entrench educational values. Design and redesign, accordingly, may serve to enhance the alignment between space and pedagogy (Frelin & Grannäs, 2021), reflect new values and encourage innovative practices (Woolner et al., 2018).

Enthusiasm surrounds innovative learning environments or ILEs (OECD, 2013). The evidence base has been recognised by significant decision-makers, such as municipal bodies, national governments, the OECD and the World Bank (Grannäs & Stavem, 2021), and mandates for open, flexible school facilities are manifested (Sigurðardóttir & Hjartarson, 2011). The potential contribution of educational practitioners and their pupils to the adaption and redesign of conventional and innovative facilities, however, is often neglected (Bøjer, 2019: 45). A participatory approach to developing school space is frequently recommended (Blackmore et al., 2011), but uncertainties remain about how to carry it out.

One of the keys to successful alignment of practice, culture and school facilities, is to ignite awareness and initiative among practitioners and learners regarding their everyday physical environment and its possibilities. Although experience shows that designs for schools, cannot simply be transported between nations, approaches to planning and designing can be exported and used successfully in contrasting contexts (Woolner & Cardellino, 2021). Our ongoing research collaboration, DRAPES, and, specifically, our recent Erasmus+ project Collaborative ReDesign of Schools or CoReD (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/cored/), aimed to do just that, bringing together values, needs and pedagogical intentions when planning physical changes in schools or adjusting the arrangement and application of existing spaces. Guidance and tools were needed for school users to contribute to the design and redesign of their physical learning environments. The aim of this symposium is to share experiences gained from our research and development of six analytic tools for collaborative and participatory reflections on educational settings and redesign of schools, focusing particularly on how tools, initially developed in one European country (Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom), were adapted and used in differing national and school contexts, deepening our understanding of how each tool can be applied in diverse ways and settings.

Our overall goal has been to give practitioners the means to engage effectively with their own settings and practices to improve the fit between teaching, learning and space, as well as communicate our results to a global audience. The key idea has been to develop tools sufficiently structured for practitioners to pick up and use, but flexible enough to adjust for different design stages and educational settings. Fully developed, user-friendly tools, with instructions in six languages, are now maintained on a project website, supported by 26 case studies as well as cross context syntheses of how the tools work best and elaborated principles and guides for collaborative redesign of educational settings. The presentations report sections of these efforts including case studies, cross case synthesis and conclusive guidelines for tools developed and tested in the project.  We also seek to problematise the successes noted of the tools, questioning how they function as supports for thinking, and enablers of collaborative discussion of design by specialists in education rather than architecture.   We also consider these collaborations within the limits that wider national and political contexts put upon the opportunities for practitioners to take control of the design and use of school space.

Blackmore, J., et al. (2011) Research into the Connection between Built Learning Spaces and Student Outcomes (Melbourne, Victoria). Bøjer, B. (2019) Unlocking Learning Spaces. An Examination of the Interplay between the Design of Learning Spaces and Pedagogical Practices (KADK). Frelin, A. & Grannäs, J. (2021). Designing and building robust innovative learning environments. Buildings. 11(8). Grannäs, J. & Stavem, S. (2021). Transitions through remodelling teaching and learning environments. Education Inquiry, 12(3). OECD. (2013). Innovative Learning Environments. OECD. Sigurðardóttir, A.K. & Hjartarson, T. (2011) School Buildings for the 21st Century: Some Features of New School Buildings in Iceland. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 1(2). Stadler-Altmann, U. (ed.). (2016) Lernumgebungen. Erziehungswissenschaftliche und architekturkritische Perspektiven auf Schulgebäude und Klassenzimmer. Barbara Budrich. Woolner, P. & Cardellino, P. (2021). Crossing Contexts: Applying a System for Collaborative Investigation of School Space to Inform Design Decisions in Contrasting Settings. Buildings, 11(11). Woolner, P., et al. (2007) A sound foundation? What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for the Future. Oxford Review of Education, 33(1). Woolner P., et al. (2018) Structural change from physical foundations: The role of the environment in enacting school change. Journal of Educational Change, 19(2).