Spaces that ‘hold’ us, spaces that ‘stretch’ us: a transdisciplinary study into positive learning experiences in South Africa

This paper investigates how spatial conditions affect learning experiences in Africa. The qualitative study asked postgraduate students and lecturers to share recollections of how everyday learning spaces affected their learning, to discover meaningful and transformational experiences. The transdisciplinary group of participants represented Architecture, Education and Theology. The research is situated in South Africa, an example of low- and middle-income countries. Structural inequalities and resource constraints are evident in limited school and classroom infrastructure, negatively impacting the quality of education for the majority of South Africans. Participants were asked to write retrospective letters as a participatory-inspired arts-based method. Inductive data analysis revealed various types of learning spaces, their conditions, and associated learning experiences. It was found that the abstraction of certain spatial conditions encourages interactive pedagogy despite physical limitations, resulting in learning experiences that can ‘hold’ and ‘stretch’ students. Meaningful and transformational experiences emerged in spaces that ‘hold’ and spaces that ‘stretch’, in which students feel safe before they can grow and develop. Spaces that ‘hold’ can occur in inadequate learning conditions, but in which students feel valued, comfortable and emotionally safe. Spaces that ‘stretch’ prompt students to express freely, exercise their agency, be challenged to develop personal identities and foster meaningful relationships with other people and with nature. Various learning spaces and conditions enable positive experiences, but are not innovative learning environments, nor are they custom-designed. Instead, they are everyday learning spaces that are the norm in a local South African school.