Abstract:
School built environments (SBEs) are critical places of human experience.
Although disparities in teaching and learning opportunities exist in basic
education, it is unclear whether meanings of SBEs communicate to users
manifest these disparities. This study explored the lived experiences of SBE
users to understand how meanings communicated to them manifest inequality
of educational opportunities in the context of Ghanaian basic education. The
study collected verbal and visual data from ten participants purposively
sampled from two basic schools in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem
(KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region of Ghana. Hermeneutic
phenomenological analysis of the textual data included contrasting users’
experiences, messages, and meanings emerging from the conversational
interviews, close observation of physical spaces, and photographs of the SBEs.
Four main themes namely: physical, functional, psychosocial, and aesthetic
realities, emerged from the analysis to inform the central theme of realities of
being-in-the-world of SBEs. Participants’ lived experiences were described as
negative and positive. Besides, the SBEs communicated meanings of ‘neglect’
and ‘support’ to their users, which perhaps manifested inequality in
educational opportunities in the context of social democracy. The study
concludes that positive and supportive SBEs are more likely to enhance
teaching and learning opportunities and help users fulfil their aspirations than
negative and unsupportive SBEs. The results from this study deepen SBE
understanding and contribute to the extant SBE knowledge. However, further
research is necessary to strengthen the claim that users’ meanings of SBEs
manifest inequality of educational opportunities.
