Disciplinary dilemmas: learning spaces as a discussion between designers and educators

As an architect and academic, I have been attempting to engage in conversations outside my discipline around the theme of education with a particular focus on how space can support learning. Currently undertaking a Doctorate of Education as the only non-cognate student, I am struck by the different languages that the disciplines of architecture and education use. We each have our own shorthand for capturing and communicating complex ideas. Architects and educators come from different tribes with different ways of viewing the world. These different languages support effective communication when we are working within an academic discipline but can alienate and confuse when we are attempting to work in interdisciplinary ways. The context of this paper is a research project called 'Smart Green Schools' funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) as part of their Linkage Grant program. The aim of the Smart Green Schools research is to investigate the relationships between pedagogy, space and sustainability. Our team is supported by nine industry partners including the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) (Victoria), the Government Architect (Victoria) and a range of architecture and design firms which specialise in school design. The five chief investigators come from the diverse fields of architecture, education, educational planning, urban design and sustainability. There are two PhD students; one who was a science teacher prior to accepting the ARC scholarship and the other, an architect