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The phrase ‘out-of-school’ inherently refers to the whereabouts of learning. This chapter thus discusses the role of place in learning itself and in its research. The idea of place does not envelop only physical locations, but rather how these integrate with social dynamics, personal meanings and attachments and with the matter of power and inequalities. Reflecting on the case studies presented in the book, the chapter focusses on two issues. First, it considers what role place plays in the constitution of different forms of learning. It questions where ‘out-of-school’ learning actually takes place (at home, in the community, in other institutionalised environments) and how these places differ in terms of relationships between children and adults as well as among children themselves, in terms of materialities and embodied activities and in terms of rules and expectations facilitating the learning process. It also considers how places like home, community and school are connected, revealing patterns of power and agency that foster and transform children's learning experiences. Second, the chapter notes that place also influences the process of researching out-of-school learning, showing that researchers' emplacement is critical for the form and scope of knowledge research can produce. Examples in the chapter show the importance of where the research activities are located, where researchers engage with their participants, how their presence sits with the pre-existing power dynamics that constitute the place itself and how the question of emplacement has both epistemological and ethical implications in research on children's learning.

Accompanying the recent concern for the quality of our nation's educational infrastructure, a growing body of research connects the quality of school facilities to both student outcomes including achievement, behavior, and attitude as well as to teacher attitude and behavior. Less is known about the mechanisms of these relationships. This paper aims to examine the link between school building quality and student outcomes through the mediating influence of school climate. Results build upon those of a recent study that confirmed a link between the quality of school facilities and student achievement in both English and Mathematics, as well as the mediating role of school climate. This qualitative follow‐up study explores the complicated intricacies of how a school building's physical properties influence teaching and learning.

The study is structured according to a collective, instrumental case study design. Individual, focus group, walk‐through and photo‐interviews, as well as observations inform the inquiry. Two high‐poverty schools are identified from the earlier quantitative study because the ratings of the quality school facilities by their faculties fall within the upper quartile. These two schools, one urban and one rural, are selected purposefully for this study, maximizing learning from cases rich in information.

Results of the research indicate that ongoing interactions between the original design, the day‐to‐day reality of the built environment, and the occupants of that environment help to define the learning climate of these schools. Reciprocally, the climate helps to shape the interactions that take place, fostering environmental understanding, competence and control and supporting academic learning. From the data, several broad themes related to building quality emerge as central to this interaction between the built environment and building occupants, including movement, aesthetics, play of light, flexible and responsive classrooms, elbow room, and security.

Through the stories told by occupants of these two schools, we gain further understanding of the interactions between certain building conditions and design features and how these reinforce and enhance the social environment of school, helping to foster a sense of belonging within a place, a sense of control and competence, and a sense of collective commitment to the place and its purposes. As school designers balance considerations of durability with flexibility, the voices of these occupants may serve to argue for the inclusion of design features that allow occupants some measure of control over comfort and use factors. The broad themes related to building quality that emerge from the data include movement, aesthetics, the play of light, flexible and responsive classrooms, elbow room, as well as safety and security.

Due to the complexities of place and the limited knowledge of citizenship education in rural contexts, the purpose of this paper is to examine civics teachers’ perceptions of place in rural schools and its influence on their decision making about the curriculum.

A qualitative case study design was utilized. Four 12th grade civics teachers were sampled across three rural schools in a southern state. Data came from interviews, classroom observations and teaching artifacts. A constant comparison method of data analysis led to the emergence of a major theme: the paradoxical treatment of place in civic education in rural schools.

Participants implemented place-based pedagogies while simultaneously promoting the narrative that students leave their home communities after graduation due to limited post-secondary opportunities (i.e. place-based learning for future (dis)placements). Participants reconciled leaving narratives and the displaced futures of students by emphasizing “the basics” devoid of place.

The paradoxical treatment of place, as influenced by teachers’ perceptions and civic sensibilities, contrasted with theoretical perspectives on place-based education that emphasize inhabiting and attending to place. Findings suggest the need to prepare rural civics teachers for place-conscious civic pedagogies to challenge paradoxical treatments of place and engender democratic investments in rural communities.

The Education Reform Act and, in particular, the Local Management of Schools will demand different skills, understanding and differing roles of senior management in educational establishments. This text draws on written assignments and experience of teachers and headteachers who piloted an MBA programme, designed specifically for senior teachers. Topics such as customers, product, price, promotion and the notion of teachers as a salesforce are unfamiliar to educators. They draw attention to the kind of strategic planning which will take place in schools as they take over responsibility for delegated budgets. All of this is new territory for the majority of state schools and this collection hopefully provides a useful resource.

The concept of children's alienation from, and reconnection to, nature has gained international interest. The purpose of this paper is to explore how forest school as a growing phenomenon in the UK is promoting this reconnection to nature as well as benefiting children's well-being. At the same time, forest school is providing children and young people with a more divergent learning experience, away from the structural pressures of the neoliberal classroom. With its emphasis on play-based learning in wooded areas, and the freedom to make connections and spatially engage with what is around them at their own pace, such engagement in these “alternative” learning spaces can support the development of a post-human discourse and sensibilities. This is fundamental in developing children's emotional connection in promoting pro-environmental behaviours and their attitudes towards valuing and protecting the non-human.

This paper draws on field notes documented during forest school leader training undertook by the author from April 2017 to May 2018. Further data were collected in the form of participant observations of forest school sessions in three schools; semi-structured interviews with the head teachers of these schools and two forest school practitioners. Supplementary data will also draw on the experiences of a group of second-year education studies university students after completing a module on forest school and outdoor learning, led by the author.

This article finds that the more children engage with wooded areas and interact with the natural environment and other creatures within that space, the more it affords meaning to them. This in turn promotes a sense of belonging and environmental stewardship, particularly in relation to non-human creatures. This article also finds that where schools provide forest school opportunities on their sites, such provision is conducive to supporting more creative practices within the “spatialities” of the neoliberal classroom.

Neoliberal education policy with its focus on high stakes testing and performance outcomes increasingly shapes the spatial practices of school life. Consequently, time spent outdoors and its relationship with intrinsic learning has declined in many schools. With many schools placing less importance on outdoor learning, children and young people have become further alienated from engaging in different ways with their environments. Further, data highlighting the link between forest school and children's interest in plants and other animals have not been the subject of much research.

An ever-increasing emphasis is being placed on the concept of cross-institutional educational initiatives. Among these are university–school partnerships, seen as possessing immense multidimensional potential. The model of university–school partnership espouses distinctive advantages: it promotes close collaboration on an array of pedagogical elements, a manifold of opportunities for inter-professional learning, a unique course delivery, and the development of innovative curriculum materials. There is a consensus that effective teaching calls for more than possession of craft skills and knowledge, but should go beyond traditional pedagogical bounds, in which the innovation in new educational models is embedded in a nexus of relationships involving close multi-faceted, cross-institutional collaborations, incorporating elements of informal education. The proposed chapter aims to address the theoretical discourse and practical application of such partnerships, guided by the conviction that an effective partnership constructs new enabling structures that span the boundaries of school/university, placing an increased focus on learning for all stakeholders. It aims to supplement the existing theoretical discourse by presenting an implemented cross-institutional partnership as a case-study – a university class of intercultural competence – undertaken in cooperation among the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University, and High School No. 8 in Kraków. The case study aims to illustrate how a cross-institutional partnership contributed to the development and implementation of innovative and active teaching methods, placing a particular emphasis on elements of informal education. Through a variety of methods, such as outgoing seminars, peer-mediation, and city games, the outlined partnership model serves as an effective example of innovative practices in higher education.

The Chicago School of Sociology heralded a new age: that of the rise and establishment of sociology as an academic discipline in the US. It also spurred on an intellectual tradition in ethnography that focuses on a wide array of methodological tools and empirical data with a focus on the specificity of place that continues to live on in contemporary urban sociology. Yet, its traditions have also been extensively criticized. Burawoy (2000) is one preeminent scholar, who has denounced the Chicago School as being parochial, ahistorical, and decontextualized from the national and international processes that shape cities. Instead, he calls for a move toward “global ethnography,” one that focuses on “global processes, connections, and imaginations” (Burawoy et al., 2000). Increasingly, US urban sociologists study research sites that are located outside the US and pay attention to how global actors and/or transnational connections influence US dynamics. Given this trend, what, if any lessons can global and urban sociologists take away from the Chicago School? In this chapter, I highlight three such lessons: (1) the global is central to city life; (2) rooting our work in the specificities of place helps extend and build theory; and (3) the School still provides useful conceptual and methodological tools to study the global. In doing so, I argue that scholars should recognize the plurality of approaches to global ethnography and how each approach can further our understanding of how the global shapes social life.

As part of the UK Government’s strategy to address the current shortage of primary school places is the construction of standardised designed schools. The UK Government has been facing an uphill battle to meet the demand for the ever-increasing number of school places it requires. This paper aims to explore the use of standardised school design in addressing the problem of primary school places in the UK.

Due to the exploratory nature of this investigation, a pragmatic research philosophy is utilised and mixed-method data collection techniques are used. Quantitative data collection is in the form of a survey involving 306 construction professionals and stakeholders; this has been consolidated using qualitative data collection in the form of nine purposefully selected semi-structured interviews.

The research highlighted the influence that people and their perceptions have on the successful implementation of standardisation. The results show that a high level of misunderstanding exists around the concept of standardisation and its definition. Standardised design has shown to have a remarkable influence in reducing the cost and time required for delivering the construction of new schools.

Due to the exploratory nature of this research, the results obtained have not been wholly conclusive but have instead provided a contribution to the area of standardisation in construction.

The research has uncovered that, to truly promote and drive standardisation in the delivery of schools, a joint approach is required with designers, contractors, clients and manufacturers, working in partnership to develop successful solutions. The paper will, therefore, help the key stakeholders delivering standardised schools in UK to fully understand the concept and turn the challenges into opportunities.

If our school closes, we lose our community. (Opunake & Coastal News, 2002, p. 1)

This chapter presents results of a study that investigated the social information grounds of 45 Māori students ages 16–18 when they are at school.

A mixed research method was used. The quantitative approach was based on a survey questionnaire that was distributed to the students to gather data about their social information behaviour in four schools. The qualitative approach used six focus groups of students to discuss the behaviour.

Māori students exchange, share and seek information within their social networks in six different places in their schools. These places are best described as social information grounds, as defined by Fisher, Naumer, Durrance, Stromski, and Christiansen (2005).

The research identifies the importance that Māori students place on information obtained through interpersonal transactions particularly within their social networks. These social networks play an integral role in assisting Māori students to understand the social and educational environment of which they are part.

This chapter focuses on information grounds and indigenous teenage youth, an understudied area of research. It uses the information grounds theory to explore the social networks of Māori secondary school students in New Zealand.