What I Learned at Recess: The Hands-Off Curriculum of Education’s Unstructured Spaces

• In Event: Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Biographical and Documentary Research SIG Poster Session

Abstract

The purposes of this research are to:
• locate the structures of education’s “unstructured” spaces and times, such as recess, lunch, the hallway, and the schoolbus;
• examine the implicit and inferred purposes of these spaces, as informed by participants’ memories; and
• explore the lasting impact of these spaces (learning) on participants’ views of themselves, others, schooling, and world.
By exploring the representation of implicit and lived curricula as filtered through memory, this research expands the bounds of what counts as a learning experience, as well as the depth of impact of these experiences. The research prompts consideration of site and student specific structures that help to define “self” and “other” through implicit and inferred messages.

Author

• Wade Tillett, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater