This book is about the classroom the most important meeting place for teachers and pupils in
an education building. Our knowledge however about what happens inside this space is limited.
In many respects the classroom is still the black box of the educational system. To open up
this box this volume brings together scholars from the disciplines of Art Architecture
History Pedagogy and Sociology. They present a wide variety of new perspectives methodologies
and sources for studying classrooms. The book examines images and representations of classrooms
(photographs paintings and pictures on school walls) writings and documents inside the
classroom (school exercise books teachers' log books and observer reports) memories and
personal experiences of classrooms (egodocuments from teachers and pupils and oral history
interviews) the space and design of classrooms (architecture school murals and the
transformation of space) and material objects in the classroom (school furniture primers for
reading and school wall charts). The essays are illustrated with a unique collection of more
than fifty photographs of classrooms in Europe.
