Papers by Elke Altenburger
Journal of Interior Design
Transparency has become a key component of K-12 school architecture, intended to support active l... more Transparency has become a key component of K-12 school architecture, intended to support active learning and foster lively social environments. But transparency’s social affordances are complex. Previous scholarship has demonstrated visibility allows for natural surveillance that may impact vulnerable users differently than their less vulnerable peers. Thus, the interdisciplinary research team surveyed user perceptions of transparent features of non-classroom spaces in a contemporary U.S. middle school building. After determining patterns of perceptions using latent class analyses, variations across classes regarding participant demographics, health, well-being, and family functioning were assessed. We identified three classes of responses. A “multiple affordances” class ( n = 41 parents, 52 children) largely composed of participants unfamiliar with the building, whom perceived both advantages and disadvantages to glass spaces. A “glass is safe” class ( n = 52 parents, 39 children) ...
Children, Youth and Environments
This ethnographic case study examines how a school building designed to promote both student enga... more This ethnographic case study examines how a school building designed to promote both student engagement and safety supports school practices that prioritize minimizing risk (Biesta, 2014). Student voices focus on the connotations of a tall fence and alarmed doors that deny the teenagers' access to exterior circulation and social spaces. The author found educators embracing crime prevention through environmental design strategies to enforce a closed campus policy. The resulting educational environment, which prioritizes students' containment in order to secure sufficient attendance rates, leaves the teenagers feeling betrayed and untrusted.
Children, Youth and Environments, 2023
This ethnographic case study examines how a school building designed to promote both student enga... more This ethnographic case study examines how a school building designed to promote both student engagement and safety supports school practices that prioritize minimizing risk (Biesta, 2014). Student voices focus on the connotations of a tall fence and alarmed doors that deny the teenagers' access to exterior circulation and social spaces. The author found educators embracing crime prevention through environmental design strategies to enforce a closed campus policy. The resulting educational environment, which prioritizes students' containment in order to secure sufficient attendance rates, leaves the teenagers feeling betrayed and untrusted.
International Journal of Art & Design Education, 2022
This article reports about a study developed to understand the effectiveness of instructional str... more This article reports about a study developed to understand the effectiveness of instructional strategies to manage sketch inhibition in design students through studio-based pedagogy. Sketch inhibition among students and recent graduates of design programs is a prominent aspect of the prevailing digitization of the design industry and education. While traditional and digital media are ideally complementary tools to facilitate the complex process of designing, studio instructors struggle to effectively integrate both into their students' conceptions and practices. Primary data sources were ethnographic fieldnotes, semistructured interviews, and students' responses to open-ended survey questions. Whiteboards used as an impermanent medium, requests for quantity of sketches, and gentle enforcement of time limits were incorporated into studio practices on the foundation of theoretical grounding. Students understood the purpose and advantages of using hand sketches at strategic moments during the design process. Inhibited students responded to this combination of interventions by relaxing enough to focus on engaging with the relevant design tasks rather than focusing on how best to avoid them. Production of rich records, documenting their projects' progression, served as supporting evidence that sketching had become a more normal and accepted part of the design process than for previous studio cohorts. The authors suggest more experimentation with these strategies and propose that sketching instructors prioritize and nurture 'thinking sketches' over 'persuasive sketches' to transfer attention from the representation of design solutions toward the design process and the development of mature design solutions.
International Journal of Art & Design Education, 2022
This article reports about a study developed to understand the effectiveness of instructional str... more This article reports about a study developed to understand the effectiveness of instructional strategies to manage sketch inhibition in design students through studio-based pedagogy. Sketch inhibition among students and recent graduates of design programs is a prominent aspect of the prevailing digitization of the design industry and education. While traditional and digital media are ideally complementary tools to facilitate the complex process of designing, studio instructors struggle to effectively integrate both into their students' conceptions and practices. Primary data sources were ethnographic fieldnotes, semistructured interviews, and students' responses to open-ended survey questions. Whiteboards used as an impermanent medium, requests for quantity of sketches, and gentle enforcement of time limits were incorporated into studio practices on the foundation of theoretical grounding. Students understood the purpose and advantages of using hand sketches at strategic moments during the design process. Inhibited students responded to this combination of interventions by relaxing enough to focus on engaging with the relevant design tasks rather than focusing on how best to avoid them. Production of rich records, documenting their projects' progression, served as supporting evidence that sketching had become a more normal and accepted part of the design process than for previous studio cohorts. The authors suggest more experimentation with these strategies and propose that sketching instructors prioritize and nurture 'thinking sketches' over 'persuasive sketches' to transfer attention from the representation of design solutions toward the design process and the development of mature design solutions.
Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting, 2020
This multiple case study (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Stake, 2006) of three new rural high school libraries,... more This multiple case study (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Stake, 2006) of three new rural high school libraries, located in two states in the U.S. Midwest, and the school communities they serve is part of a long‐term research agenda grounded in a critical perspective (Anderson, 1989). The study is devoted to deepening the understanding of the relationships between teenagers’ student peer culture, commonly perceived as intrinsically problematic in the U.S., and the contributions of informal learning environments and non‐classroom spaces to school social climate (Voight & Nation, 2016). I found that school libraries are places prone to promoting positive school climates.
Children, Youth and Environments
This comparative case study examines non-classroom spaces within two rural, midwestern high schoo... more This comparative case study examines non-classroom spaces within two rural, midwestern high schools in the U.S., relying on a critical pedagogy of place perspective (Gruenewald, 2008). Participant descriptions focus on the interplay between school building characteristics and local authority structures. The juxtaposition of two demographically similar populations led by administrators of similar mindset, in different physical settings, highlights the influence of school building types in supporting or undermining place-based authority processes. The authors argue that purposeful alignment of social, physical, and organizational aspects can foster positive school climates. They recommend involving vulnerable students in the evaluation of environmental stressors in non-classroom spaces.
Children, Youth and Environments
For decades, adults at Sendak Middle School (pseudonym) have relied on an institutional morning r... more For decades, adults at Sendak Middle School (pseudonym) have relied on an institutional morning routine I call the Wild Walk to feel in control of the social environment in the hallways before the start of instruction. Students are expected to slowly walk in loops through their building, monitored by teachers who try to ensure that the teenagers do not stop or move against the prescribed walking direction. This field report is an ethnographic case study that illuminates students’ perspectives on the effects this disciplinary practice has had on their school social life. While the Wild Walk promotes social interactions between and with adults, it provides obstacles to social interactions between adolescent friends.
Most public schools in the United States were designed and built in the second half of the last c... more Most public schools in the United States were designed and built in the second half of the last century. Their buildings typically consist of classrooms and narrow, locker-lined hallways. The former clearly belong to the teachers and best support lecture-style instruction. The latter are the locations for social interaction between students during their breaks. Many educators, administrators, and researchers worry about teenage behavior in high schools. Student peer culture is commonly understood as problematic. In response, break times typically are minimized, supervision routines are designed to be seamless, and educational policies regulate disciplinary institutional responses to acts of violence between students.
Children Youth and Environments, 2021
This comparative case study examines non-classroom spaces within two rural, midwestern high schoo... more This comparative case study examines non-classroom spaces within two rural, midwestern high schools in the U.S., relying on a critical pedagogy of place perspective (Gruenewald, 2008). Participant descriptions focus on the interplay between school building characteristics and local authority structures. The juxtaposition of two demographically similar populations led by administrators of similar mindset, in different physical settings, highlights the influence of school building types in supporting or undermining place-based authority processes. The authors argue that purposeful alignment of social, physical, and organizational aspects can foster positive school climates. They recommend involving vulnerable students in the evaluation of environmental stressors in non-classroom spaces.
Environmental Education Research
Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable featur... more Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable features of the building and offer unique opportunities to deliver environmental education (EE) through multiple channels. This study examines three case study TGBs across the United States. We present results from a mixed-methods study involving a youth survey (n = 311), youth Photovoice project (n = 29), and focus groups and interviews with adult key informants. We sought to understand how school facility design, school culture, curriculum, and teachers as role models provide multiple channels for EE, with a particular interest in the physical built environment of these three unique schools. Basic green building knowledge and environmentally responsible behaviors were detected at all three schools. We found, however, that two of the case study schools, despite the access to TGBs, were not communicating sustainability through diverse channels, and the EE outcomes for students were disjointed and tepid. The third and most established TGB offered sustainability messaging through numerous channels and the result for students was a more holistic and connected understanding of green buildings within the larger ecological context.
Environmental Education Research
Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable featur... more Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable features of the building and offer unique opportunities to deliver environmental education (EE) through multiple channels. This study examines three case study TGBs across the United States. We present results from a mixed-methods study involving a youth survey (n = 311), youth Photovoice project (n = 29), and focus groups and interviews with adult key informants. We sought to understand how school facility design, school culture, curriculum, and teachers as role models provide multiple channels for EE, with a particular interest in the physical built environment of these three unique schools. Basic green building knowledge and environmentally responsible behaviors were detected at all three schools. We found, however, that two of the case study schools, despite the access to TGBs, were not communicating sustainability through diverse channels, and the EE outcomes for students were disjointed and tepid. The third and most established TGB offered sustainability messaging through numerous channels and the result for students was a more holistic and connected understanding of green buildings within the larger ecological context.
Journal of Learning Spaces, 2021
This multiple case study (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Stake, 2006) of three new rural high school libraries,... more This multiple case study (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Stake, 2006) of three new rural high school libraries, located in two states in the U.S. Midwest, and the school communities they serve is part of a long‐term research agenda grounded in a critical perspective (Anderson, 1989). The study is devoted to deepening the understanding of the relationships between teenagers’
student peer culture, commonly perceived as intrinsically problematic in the U.S., and the contributions of informal learning environments and non‐classroom spaces to school social climate (Voight & Nation, 2016). I found that school libraries are places prone to promoting positive school climates.
Children, Youth and Environments, 2019
For decades, adults at Sendak Middle School (pseudonym) have relied on an institutional morning r... more For decades, adults at Sendak Middle School (pseudonym) have relied on an institutional morning routine I call the Wild Walk to feel in control of the social environment in the hallways before the start of instruction. Students are expected to slowly walk in loops through their building, monitored by teachers who try to ensure that the teenagers do not stop or move against the prescribed walking direction. This field report is an ethnographic case study that illuminates students’ perspectives on the effects this disciplinary practice has had on their school social life. While the Wild Walk promotes social interactions between and with adults, it provides obstacles to social interactions between adolescent friends.
Environmental Education Research, 2017
Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable featur... more Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to engage building users with the sustainable features of the building and offer unique opportunities to deliver environmental education (EE) through multiple channels. This study examines three case study TGBs across the United States. We present results from a mixed-methods study involving a youth survey (n = 311), youth Photovoice project (n = 29), and focus groups and interviews with adult key informants. We sought to understand how school facility design, school culture, curriculum, and teachers as role models provide multiple channels for EE, with a particular interest in the physical built environment of these three unique schools. Basic green building knowledge and environmentally responsible behaviors were detected at all three schools. We found, however, that two of the case study schools, despite the access to TGBs, were not communicating sustainability through diverse channels, and the EE outcomes for students were disjointed and tepid. The third and most established TGB offered sustainability messaging through numerous channels and the result for students was a more holistic and connected understanding of green buildings within the larger ecological context.
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Papers by Elke Altenburger
student peer culture, commonly perceived as intrinsically problematic in the U.S., and the contributions of informal learning environments and non‐classroom spaces to school social climate (Voight & Nation, 2016). I found that school libraries are places prone to promoting positive school climates.
student peer culture, commonly perceived as intrinsically problematic in the U.S., and the contributions of informal learning environments and non‐classroom spaces to school social climate (Voight & Nation, 2016). I found that school libraries are places prone to promoting positive school climates.