Using your own educational experiences, what did the learning environment look like? Describe and draw a sketch of what your classrooms looked like as you went through the grades. How did your classroom space indicate power relationships in your classroom? Did the space in your classrooms provide you with opportunities to engage with all students in your classrooms? How did this space make you feel? What could teachers do to make classroom spaces more relational?
Most of my classrooms consisted of a “typical” setup: where the teacher’s desk was at the front of the room, and the students were collected in a forward-facing mass of desk that (sometimes) were pre-determined by a seating arrangement. This setup gradually loosened as I got older, and we were given more freedom to move where we wished in the classroom. Nevertheless, these structural boundaries prevented me from engaging freely with everyone in the classroom. It seemed to indicate that the teachers were the ones in power, and that they could dictate what types of interactions would be allowed, and where the source of knowledge lied. Even though I never thought about it this way, we were often expected to take the teacher’s words at face value, instead of coming into our own understandings. This relationship could be classified as “I-It.”
Power relationships varied when I was in high school, depending on the teacher. I immediately made a connection when you mentioned the “closed doors” you often see while walking down the hallways. When a door was closed, I would usually keep walking and come back later. In this sense, the power relationship made me feel hesitant, and even anxious to approach certain teachers. At the same time, there were many teachers who used their power to create a relational energy in the classroom. In one of my grade-twelve English courses, we would have the biweekly opportunity to rearrange our desks in a circle and share the poetry and stories we had written. This learning space promote a balance between power relationships: instead of listening solely to the teaching, we could seek out the wisdom and understandings of our fellow peers. I believe that this is an accurate model for how teachers can make learning more relational. We need to get away from lecturing at the front of the classroom, and instead listen to our students and learn from them, as they learn from us. Only once we listen to their ways of knowing will we know what has to be taught.
