Belonging in Early Childhood and Social Education Program: belonging as Spatial and Affective Practices

This paper foregrounds the study life of students in Early Childhood and Social Education through the concept of educational belonging, conceptualized as situated, relational, affective, and spatial practices that are continually renegotiated. As an affective and spatial practice, educational belonging foregrounds that places, spatial designs, and interiors play a constitutive role in shaping study life, including students’ study experiences and learning processes. The paper is based on a research project conducted at University College Copenhagen, which investigates the significance of educational architecture for students’ learning processes and sense of belonging within their education. Drawing on a substantial body of data generated through architectural plan interviews, the research project offers insight into how the design and atmosphere of educational spaces and places co-constitute students’ sensory experiences of belonging. The analytical parts of the paper illuminate how students’ narratives about their positioning within classrooms reveal that teaching and learning situations are social and affective events, in which students are recognized as occupying specific student positions, such as serious, nerdy, or disengaged.