asesoramiento al gobierno y a otras instituciones

Section 4.6 has identified that in answer to my third research question (how are teachers negotiating with the learning spaces at City Green College?) teachers feel they do have some autonomy in accessing the most appropriate spaces for their learners and are confident that they can negotiate with their peers. However, this autonomy and negotiation of space is evidence that the teachers are attempting to negotiate access to classrooms to avoid teaching in the open learning spaces. The data from my interviews suggest that this could be due to the teachers’ own internal image of what it is to be a teacher and their perception of what they think their students expect of learning spaces. Part of the preference for a classroom is also due to teachers believing they needed the security and familiarity of a classroom when pressured with performance management observations of practice. The teachers felt that they need a classroom to create the foundations of their good practice and that the open learning spaces have too many variables, such as noise, different styles of soft furniture and other students wandering through. These obstacles prevent teachers from focusing on meeting

4.7 Conclusion

The senior management of City Green College stated that they had

confidence in the professionalism of their staff to choose the best spaces for their students. SM1 stated:

Teachers have a choice to conduct activities within the classroom, outside of the classroom and online.

However, the majority of teachers continued to teach within a classroom, albeit supported by the online learning spaces available through the VLE. The interviews with the senior managers identified that they did have a vision of the learning spaces being blended effectively to allow teachers to use more innovative pedagogy. However, the senior managers admitted that this was not being implemented in the way that they had hoped and that more effective training was needed to support teachers.

The interviews with the middle managers evidenced that they were keen to develop the teachers' practice, but were concerned by the lack of training or investment in time to develop new curricula to support teachers’ work in the new learning spaces. They stressed that they trusted the professionalism of their staff to negotiate with each other to identify and use the most appropriate space for their learners. However, the neoliberalist agendas of marketisation of education and de-professionalisation came through strongly in the

interviews with the middle managers and the teachers. Both groups

expressed a desire to teach in a classroom and saw the classroom space as a foundation to achieve their performance management targets and to identify with their subject and as a teacher (see TC4's comments in 4.5.3).

Teachers felt that they had received no guidance regarding how the different learning spaces could be used and their expected role within these spaces. The middle managers had stated that moving from using a classroom to a blend of learning spaces involved a significant ‘mindset’ change, as the

identity of a teacher had moved from a person at the front of a classroom, to a facilitator and enforcer within the open and online learning spaces. SM4

stated that this transition had been difficult to visualise, as the teachers did not know what teaching and learning would look like in the new spaces and they expected the teachers to 'get on with it' (SM3) and find solutions. If they were to be measured through their performance, the teachers felt that they needed a classroom. In a classroom, they felt that they were in control and could monitor the learning and work towards the accountability targets against which their practice was going to be measured. Their perceptions of education and achieving positive results against prescribed criteria and targets made them feel like a teacher. Altering the space in which teaching and learning takes place affects the confidence of the teacher (see 4.6.4) and in addition, TC5 stated ‘staff anxiety is constantly challenged by the I.T.’ and TC8 added:

‘I do not think the middle managers understand the possibilities of digital learning. Teachers do not have time to support online learning’ The data from my observations and interviews goes part way to address my research questions:

1. In which spaces does teaching and learning occur at City Green College’s new building?

2. Is there an expected transformation of teaching through the use of the new learning spaces?

3. What issues do teachers face when negotiating with the new learning spaces (gaining access and using the different types of learning

Exploring the observation data for question one identified that the majority of the teachers were using classrooms and most were using online spaces to support teaching and learning. However, only one taught solely in the open learning spaces and only two made use of a blend of the three spaces. This is in conflict with the interview responses by the senior managers who stated that they had a vision of the new learning spaces in City Green College being used to complement each other (see 4.4.3) and allow teachers to `be more innovative with pedagogy’ and therefore transforming teaching from didactic to a more independent learning. In answer to my third research question, teachers stated in their interviews that they had to adapt the spaces, often making the open learning spaces a representation of a classroom (see 4.6.1). In their interviews, the teachers described that they had a perception

empowerment to be able to negotiate with their peers to access the spaces they felt most appropriate for their learners. However, this negotiation was used to attempt to access classrooms in preference to the open learning spaces they had been originally timetabled to use.

Chapter five discusses the role the theoretical framework played in the analysis of my findings. It also explores in more detail the connections between the data in my study and literature written about new college

buildings and learning spaces. An examination of the themes of teachers’ use of space, teacher training and teacher identity, underpinned by the effects of neoliberalism, help to establish more substantial answers to my research questions.