The politics of space in art education

Poststructuralist theory of space argues that by investigating spatial issues, such as the arrangements of buildings and the distribution of people and objects, it can reveal insights into the power hierarchies of people and places (Soja, 1996; Grosz, 1995; Foucault, 1977). In this paper, I adopt this premise to analyse the spaces of visual arts education. To do so, I explore two key areas that emerged from interviews with three secondary visual arts teachers: firstly, how the visual arts are positioned within schooling spaces; and secondly, how the spaces within the art classroom are constructed and negotiated. From this discussion, I examine the politics and tensions surrounding the positioning of visual arts education in secondary schooling contexts