Educational Spaces and the 'Whole' Child: A Spatial History of School Design, Pedagogy and the Modern Australian Nation

This article combines perspectives from architectural history, educational history and social history to examine the development of Australian schooling in the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on the period following World War II to the 1970s. In these decades, there was increased interest in Australia and internationally in pedagogical approaches that embraced the development of the ‘whole’ child, and fresh ideas about the design of schools and classrooms, including specialised facilities, that emphasised the importance of space and place to learning. This article surveys the relevant if disparate historiography of education and design and provides an overview of the Australian school in the post‐war period. It argues for greater historical recognition of the relationships between school design and pedagogy for understanding the history of educational policy and the experiences of schooling in modern Australia.