Qualitative research in education and particularly research on teaching and schools often focuses on the observation of practices located in the classroom and on school grounds. There exists a large number of national and international studies on the practices of pupils and teachers, describing both pupil and teacher perspectives. However, very little is known about the significance of school as space. Since the ‘spatial turn’ a lot of knowledge about space is produced and the relevance of space as a resource for agents has been affirmed. Nevertheless, research on schools has, so far, neglegted spacial dynamics (except McGregor 2004).

Our research emphasizes the relevance of space and the dynamics within classrooms. Classrooms are not only seen as “containers”, rather space and social action are conceptualized as a relational, dynamic unit (Löw 2001; McGregor 2004). Spacial compositions are considered not merely as a condition for but also and importantly as an effect of actions, i.e. the spatial rearrangement of people and social goods in school contexts modifies the options for action strategies.

The spatial dynamics and actions that they initiate will be explored and described with reference to the periodic rearrangement of the seating orders in a german secondary school classroom. The respective seating arrangement is decided by the teacher drawing lots and therefore randomly. The classroom as space is changed repetetively and a new social order and structure has to be defined every time. Additionally the agents have to (re-)construct their own social position and modes of interaction with regard to space. This is affected by the framing of educational knowledge (Bernstein 1977) and the social binding to one’s peers (Breidenstein 2008).

Within the theoretical framework outlined above we seek to

1. Analyze social goods/artefacts (for example the position of tables) and their symbolic meaning
2. Reconstruct elements of the peerculture before the rearrangement of the seating order
3. Reconstruct the (possible) dissolution and realignment of the social structure during and after the process of rearranging the seating order
4. Identify agent practices resulting from the rearrangement in combination to the existing structure and peerculture.

Our explorative research aims on identifying space as a relevant resource for (re-)constructing social structures in school.

Eventhough our ethnographical data is collected in a german school, the findings will be transferable to international contexts. Questions about spacial sorting are essential for understanding social dynamics in school and an international discussion is overdue.

Bernstein, B. (1977) Class, Code and Control, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Breidenstein, G. (2008) Peer-Interaktion und Peer-Kultur, in Helsper, W. & Böhme, J. (Eds) Handbuch der Schulforschung, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Bourdieu, P. (1991) Physischer, sozialer und angeeigneter Raum, in Wentz, M. (Eds) Stadträume. Die Zukunft des Städtischen, Frankfurter Beiträge Bd. 2, Frankfurt/New York, pp. 26-34. Hummrich, M. (2011) Jugend und Raum. Exklusive Zugehörigkeiten in Familie und Schule, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Löw, M. (2001) Raumsoziologie, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft. McGregor, J. (2004) Space, Power and the Classroom, in FORUM, Volume 46, No. 1, 2004, pp. 13-18.