Conference Agenda

This paper draws on the seminal research by the Building Performance Research Unit (BPRU), implemented on 48 comprehensive schools in central Scotland, opened between 1958 and 1966. Headed by Thomas Markus, this unit from the University of Strathclyde, brought an innovative modus operandi to school building appraisal. This research project provided the framework to pre post-occupancy studies in schools, later widely taken as mandatory.

The work of Thomas Markus is well-known for the book Buildings & Power from 1993. Its contents reveal a critical synthesis of several methods of interpretation, but it also underlies a blend of references, of which some are strictly analytical (e.g.: graph methods), while others are almost philosophical and Foucaultian. Hence, the theoretical stance of Markus will be traced, concerning an early approach on the research programme on ‘building performance’, launched at the University of Strathclyde and early sponsored by the MPBW and RIBA.

The Building Performance Research Unit was founded in 1967 and led by Markus, along with his team of researchers: P. Whyman (architect), D. Canter (psychologist), T. Maver (operational research scientist), J. Morgan (physicist), D. Whitton (quantity surveyor) and J. Flemming (systems analyst). The theoretical models and outputs of this research team, applied to the comprehensive schools Scotland, were then published profusely – at the same time encouraged and criticised –, as the title of an article on the Architects’ Journal in 1970 unravels: ‘Tom Markus is alive and well…’ (p.538).

Additionally, this paper also brings previous and parallel research efforts on this environmental paradigm, as Peter Manning’s studies at the Pilkington Research Unit. Hence, the research path and interests of Markus, right from the second half of the 1960s reveal how different ontologies of architectural research were evolving, in-between the two cultures announced by C. P. Snow (1961). On the one hand, Markus was close to the Glasgow arts centres, where music and drama for children was produced, and where he played the cello. On the other hand, he was a critic of building research, which still missed evidence and logic in its methods and outputs. The environmental research was, in fact, an output of those interrelating experiments, attempting “bridges with other faculties” (March, 1976), while architecture became a recognised discipline within University.

Finally, this paper argues that the contemporary interest on environmental issues, as proven by the subject matter of many interdisciplinary research projects at the present – known to be highly fundable –, is actually a restating of some pioneer proposals around catch words as ‘environment’ that triggered some funded research programmes, like the one from Markus and his Building Performance Research Unit.

It is expected that today’s knowledge, might help to critical (re)situate the values of BPRU’s research agenda, but also its irresolvable shortcomings for the time. This seminal background, we claim, might bring added value for the current plethora of educational studies on learning environments and the relationship between pedagogy and space, increasingly ubiquitous and diverse.

Recent years have seen a surge in research on student mobilization and protest (Pickard 2019). To a large extent this is a response to the renewed engagement by youth in climate politics – sparked by Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future – but also due to the prominent role of students in movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Hong Kong protests. Analyzing how and why students protest, as well as conditions for doing so, is central for understanding and responding to recent student activism. As noted by Bessant, Messinas and Pickard (2021, p. 5) especially political action by secondary and high school student has tended to be neglected both in current and historical studies. The paper addresses this lacunae. Apart from the general lack of systematically studied historical cases of school student protests in different national contexts there is a specific shortage of studies on students engaging in issues of school politics (but see Cunningham & Lavalette 2016). Also, scholars have not considered the role of organizations in student politics to a satisfactory degree. The paper can thus contribute with knowledge about students protesting against more concrete issues, not only regarding social and climate justice, as well as how student politics comes in different forms depending on context, not only sporadic and temporary but also highly organized.

The paper studies the massive student-led protest campaign to abolish school-grades in Sweden during the 1970s and 80s. At one point, in 1978, this campaign mobilized tens of thousands students in demonstrations all over Sweden (Landahl, forthcoming). The purpose of the paper is to learn more about how and why this issue emerged and became so important for Swedish students, how student addressed this issue through different forms of collective action, and the role of student organizations in facilitating the campaign. Sweden, with its institutional heritage of popular mass movements centered around large, hierarchical yet democratic, formal organizations (Henriksen, Stromsnes & Svedberg 2019), constitutes a critical example for studying organizational aspects of student mobilization. In accordance with this heritage Swedish students in secondary and high school education have been organized in national mass associations since the late 1930s (Johansson, forthcoming). In the post-war period, especially in regards to the grading-issue, there is reason to talk about a Swedish school student movement.

Theoretically the paper will utilize two concepts from research on social movements: political opportunity structures and contentious performances (McAdam, McCarthy & Zald 1996; Tilly 2008) in order to analyze how the campaign emerged, it’s relation to the broader political environment, and the forms of collective action used throughout the campaign. Furthermore the paper will draw on insights from organization theories, especially theories on interest and movement organizations, to analyze the interactions of the associations within, between and in relation to the state (Micheletti 1994; Zald & Ash 1966; Ahrne 1994). Finally the concept of framing, familiar to scholars of protest, will be employed to analyze what ideas of schooling sparked the campaign and how the associations framed the issue (Benford & Snow 2000).

In Sweden and the other European countries, intensive reforms began after 1945, where the goal was to democratize the school, which in many countries led to a compulsory secondary school (högstadiet). A central idea was multiple access to education for everyone no matter where you lived and what social class you belonged to. Another important idea was related to teaching and pedagogy, more specifically that the already established student-centered perspectives became increasingly important. These aspects are well investigated (Tisdall, 2020; Depaepe, 2000; Ward, 2015; Oftedal Telhaug et al, 2006; Englund, 2006) But, a central aspect was access to school buildings. The construction of schoolhouse that could accommodate new groups of pupils and were adapted to new modern teaching principles was therefore important. When the implementation of secondary school intensified in the 1960s, it was emphasized that access to modern school buildings was central to the implementation of the reforms (Cf. Rasmussen, 2021; Clark, 2010; SOU: 1948:27). Previous research on, for example, the period 1840-1900 points out that schoolhouse construction often was a local complex process with many actors involved. The advent of schoolhouses should be understood in relation to economic, social and cultural processes claimed by some scholars (Westberg, 2017).

When it comes to postwar school reforms, the premise has often been that it was a national project run by leading national politicians and bureaucrats. (Cf. Sass, 2022; Krupinska, 2022). There is also previous research that emphasizes national pedagogical associations, teacher-training programs and national teacher pressure when explaining the emergence of compulsory secondary school (Cunningham, 1988). However, in line with the research that emphasized local, social and economic processes for understanding school development during the 1800s, I would also like to look at the local aspects of the introduction of compolsury secondary school (Westberg, 2017). By focusing on the processes that led to new schoolhouses at the local level, our knowledge of postwar school reforms can be broadened.

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the school building process of secondary school buildings 1950-1970 in Denmark and Sweden. This is done through two case studies of the planning and construction of schools in two medium-sized cities.

Theoretical inspiration has been taken from institutionalism and the idea of path dependence regarding the municipality's actions (cf. March & Olsen, 1989). I assume that the school buildings process was influenced by local history, such as how the municipality planned, built and financed schools in the past. However, I also see that formal rules, national institution and national guidelines influence construction. Examples of such institutions are the authorities' model schools.