Conceptualising curricular space in busyness education: An aesthetic approximation

Abstract

This article outlines a conceptual framework for conceptualising students' experiences of curricular space from an aesthetic perspective. The curriculum is conceived as a three-dimensional, aesthetic artefact that elicits sensory responses and judgements about meaning that can impact learning. Space is conceived in terms of three dimensions that may either be produced or foreclosed by curricular structures and content: autonomy space, reflective space and cognitive space. Together, these spaces enable imaginative space, which is important for innovative and creative thinking. The Japanese concept of ma is proposed as a fruitful way of thinking about space in curricula not as a wasteful, inefficient or mere void to be filled but as the element that enables learning to result from exposing students to structures and content.