Supporting Social Equity Through Informal Spaces on an Urban Campus

Author

Eve B. Klein, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Setha Low

Committee Members

Michelle Fine

Rebio Diaz Cardona

Lystra Huggins

Todd Levon Brown

Subject Categories

Applied Behavior Analysis | Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis | Environmental Design | Environmental Studies | Higher Education | Other Education | Other Psychology | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Social Justice | Urban, Community and Regional Planning | Urban Studies and Planning

Keywords

sociospatial analysis, environmental psychology, equity and inclusion, phenomenology, predominantly Black institutions, educational design

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on applying research to design in the setting of higher education. Specifically, it explores the informal spaces outside the classroom at a predominantly Black college in an urban setting. The existing structural challenges facing college students are many, including issues related to financial resources, mental health/wellness, family responsibilities, psychosocial identity formation, and structural racism. These challenges were compounded by the events of the spring of 2020, when a heightened awareness of anti-Black racism, combined with the hardships of COVID-19, brought college campuses to a close and masses of people to the streets to protest the unjust killings and to assert the importance of Black lives.

The dissertation examines historical, demographic, and narrative data to study informal learning spaces as sites in which students reimagine themselves and negotiate their own status in their learning communities. This inquiry was conducted at one college campus, Medgar Evers College, in the CUNY system. Using the theoretical frameworks of education as a liberatory process and phenomenological and embodied experiences, this dissertation employs sociospatial analysis to understand and inform the design of educational facilities in ways that support equity and inclusion. Paramount among these considerations is recognizing the experiences, dreams, and abilities of people in the community. Also significant is the need to expand knowledge of the meaning of student experiences in learning environments to purposefully apply it to resist and overcome systemic barriers. Considering differences in perspectives and the impact that culture has on experience, the dissertation applies the lenses of phenomenology, embodiment, and attunements and offers a multi-modal approach to understanding liberation in this context.

While education has long been seen as a pathway to individual and collective empowerment and freedom, predominantly Black higher education institutions were often modeled on structures that simultaneously suppressed equality for Black people and assumed that the values of Black students were based on the value systems of a White world. Not only are pedagogies important to revisit and revise, but the political economy that schools and design practices operate within are also set within the neoliberal systems that maintain structures of racial capitalism. Awareness around how these systems impact the experiences students have in school spaces is valuable, as school administrators, planners, and designers seek to provide supportive higher education spaces that are often at odds with external sociopolitical forces.

To imagine a just and equitable college campus and bring it into being, this research demonstrates the value of applying a cross-disciplinary theoretical framework to the practice of creating equitable spaces that support learning. This research produced sociospatial tools to support design that promotes social equity and belonging in schools, helping architects and school leaders respond to complex conditions where inequity persists.

The study found that (1) each student has their own set of spatial experiential pillars that form their way of navigating the built and sociospatial environment in order to learn and feel supported; (2) sociospatial meaning differs for each student and can be understood by recognizing how they describe the combination of experiences they seek out when they are on campus; and (3) the original vision for the college, as articulated by material markers and historical narratives, continues to influence how students navigate their way through the campus and their education. Educators, planners, architects, and scholars can apply the lessons from this research to center student voices in the planning and design of schools and integrate the values of the school and students into spatial ecologies of the school.

Recommended Citation

Klein, Eve B., "Supporting Social Equity Through Informal Spaces on an Urban Campus" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6055