The Space Beyond Equity: A Blueprint of Radical Possibilities in School Design

Abstract

School facilities are increasingly seen as essential to achieving educational equity. By foregrounding often taken-for-granted school spaces, this conceptual article seeks to situate school design within broader antiracist efforts in education. To that end, I make a few critical contributions: (a) I shift attention to the social construction and contestation of school spaces; and (b) I develop a framework for dealing with racialized imaginaries of school spaces that goes beyond conventional equity applications. Applying this framework to school design literature and planning documents, I derive a blueprint to examine minoritized school spaces that encompasses aspects of culture, wellbeing, and power.

Constructing an Educational “Quality” Crisis: (E)quality Politics and Racialization Beyond Target Beneficiaries

“…Perhaps most critically, the power of arguments aimed at maintaining educational quality in schools has precluded us from asking collectively what is “possible or desirable” across schooling contexts (Syeed, 2022, p. 769). Getting underneath this problem—one entrenched in the racial politics underlying legitimated policy discourses—requires more than investigating whether there is an association between educational equity and quality.…”

Status Quo or Innovation? Transforming Teacher Education in Hostile Times

“…Increases in confidence when taking standardized tests (p. 197) These findings correlate with the general expectations placed on schools. From a policy perspective, Syeed (2022) discusses the importance of equityminded learning environments and outlines how school design, community engagement, and learner-centeredness (captured in the above-mentioned list) are critical to fulfill this opportunity.…”

Mechanisms of Exclusion: Group Homogenization and Deficit Thinking in Integrated Schools

“…Meshulam and Apple (2014) found a well-intentioned integrated school ended up discriminating against Black students when it implemented district or state policies that subverted the school’s goal of integration. Recently, Syeed (2022) showed how school facilities can be racialized and exclusionary by endorsing an esthetics mirroring white, Eurocentric culture and taste.…”