--- >From upcoming chapter by Gallego and ColeThe Cannonical Pattern: The Case Study of Westhaven Although the precise numbers differ somewhat from study to study, and keeping in mind the proviso that the structure of activities varies, even in the most homogeneous of classrooms, the vast majority of American elementary school classrooms are dominated by the cultural pattern that we have identified with the recitation model and which Phillips refers to as "the teacher acting with the whole class at once" participation structure. An excellent idea of the overall process that recreates this dominant pattern is provided by Norris Brock Johnson's (1985) study of a school he calls Westhaven. Johnson's study is unusual in the concrete detail with which he reveals the interconnections among different levels of context that constitute classrooms including close attention to the architecture of the school and the ideology of the local community. His study provides an unusually full picture of the emergence of the dominant pattern over the course of the age-graded curriculum from Kindergarten to 6th grade at the same time that he places the developmental pattern in its broader institutional, community, and ideological context. Johnson states the basic contextual/ecological perspective clearly: The school buildings children are required to frequent and the special areas with which and in which they interact are much more than passive wrappings for classroom life. The buildings, spaces and associated artifacts that make up public school environments of traditional design (Gump and Good, 1976) physically manifest and replicate core themes in American society and culture. Sociocultural information is presented to children in public school both consciously and unconsciously through physical and spatial school environments as well as through teachers in classrooms (Johnson, 1985, p. 15). This starting point makes it clear that the relationship between people and the environments they construct is reciprocal (Sarason; 1971/1996). Buildings and architectural spaces are products of human social and cultural activity that simultaneously shape the processes that produce them. Johnson (1985) describes how the physical arrangement of classrooms and school buildings not only facilitate explicit practical functions (e.g. the separation between classroom areas and playground areas) but also how they reveal the implicit assumptions of the participants (e.g., that schoolwork and play do not mix). He goes beyond this general level of analysis to show that deep unstated assumptions pervade the physical construction of the school and the activities that occur there. For example, while it is true that play and work are not believed to be appropriately mixed for 6th graders, the same is not true of kindergartners. When viewed through a contextual/ecological lens, it is possible to see how assumptions about age-related developmental differences are built into the overall architecture of the school as well as the physical properties of each classroom and the way that activities are organized there. [insert photo here of 3 classrooms: lower/middle/upper] At Westhaven elementary school approximately 30 students are assigned to each classroom. In the earlier grades the children are small and their furniture is small. In the older grades, the same number of children are present in a classroom, but their desks are larger to accommodate their growing bodies, so they are relatively more crowded and mobility is restricted according to age-grade level. In the preschool classroom children sit at desks pushed together or at a large table. There is a set of toy stoves, a toy kitchen, a large rug, and ample space for storing books and toys. Johnson writes that these arrangements orient children toward behaviors and types of interaction that reinforce classroom norms and values of cooperation and interdependence. "The free play, mobility, and comparatively unstructured activities associated with this grade are congruent with the physical and spatial characteristics of the classroom. Throughout the school year, preschool children are conditioned to adhere to predominant classroom cultural and social themes through their interactions with specific furniture shapes and furniture social arrangements" (p. 33). These convergences extend, of course, to the social relations that characterize the preschool classroom which are designed to initiate children into the culture of classroom life. In this sense, the preschool classroom (as its name implies) is deliberately designed to be transitional. The children learn to accept the authority of the teacher, but this authority is exercised in a "parent like" way that Johnson refers to as in locus parentis behaviors characterized by nurturance and accommodation. (He notes that all of the teachers in the lower grades are women; the only men are in the upper grade classrooms). A great many of the activities that occur in this room focus on learning routines, self-maintenance and control, and the ability to follow the sequences of activities in a timely and orderly manner. As Johnson traces the spatial arrangements and activities to higher and higher grades, a regular, converging, change is seen in the physical layout of the room, the forms of activity that occur within the room, the relationship of the room to the building it is in and the school campus as a whole. In Kindergarten the toy stoves and sink are gone. Children still sit together at tables in groups, but the tables are separated to form five distinctive groupings. By second grade the rug area has disappeared, and by 5th grade students are no longer grouped at tables, but sit in their own chairs, bolted to the floor, in neat rows, with all desks facing the front of the classroom where the teacher sits at a desk facing them. Now there is no sanctioned play in the classroom, it is out on the playground. The range of classroom activities is greatly reduced and the recitation script is fully implemented as the normative cultural order of the classroom. The blend of functionality and value expressed at the classroom level is also illustrated in the physical arrangement of the school building. That is, the building, layout and equipment are points of reference for action. They become elements in action and organize the normative and functional order. [insert picture of elementary school building layout] The sociocultural themes of separation and specialization of domestic tasks are represented in the architectural forms associated with rank and stratification. For example, the elementary school building is organized for the division of labor into specialized tasks. Learning areas are separated and isolated from the Office and support areas (lunchroom, supply rooms, maintenance, and so on). The administration area is located strategically near the school's main entrance to monitor behavior and restrict access of parents or other visitors. This order is illustrated by the prominent posting at the front of the building which instructs all visitors to sign in at the main office. These modes of surveillance represented in the architectural organization of the school grounds are consistent with larger societal trends. For example, Foucault (1979) observed that the traditional school classroom's physical arrangement with students in rows facing forward and with the teacher on a raised platform at the front of the room, enabling surveillance of students by the teacher, was developed in the same time period (roughly 1820-1840) as the development of prisons whose architecture enabled surveillance of all inmates from a central observation tower, or the Panopticon. The resemblance of school and prisons does not 'escape' notice, evident in students complaints that school is like a jail, that they are treated like criminals or when teachers comment that they feel "locked in" (Johnson, 1985, p. 243). insert photos of campus map The segregation of the students is purposeful and deliberate. Johnson (1985) states that a great distinction is made in Westhaven between elementary, middle and secondary school in regard to the differential rank, status, and prestige. A student's passage through the elementary building to the middle school mobile trailers to the high school building involves crossing several sociocultural boundaries. Segregation of the children is strictly enforced e.g., carrying messages back and forth requires special passes. Johnson (1985) reports that becoming a student is a process of cultural conditioning in which children are pressed to adopt the way of life of the classroom, the classroom culture, as their own. For instance, many of the features found in the Westhaven preschool were associated with the modification of the values and behaviors children bring to school. 'The social system of classroom expects norms for behavior not merely to be obeyed by children but be internalized by them as well "(Johnson, 1985, p. 51). A distinction is made between those children who have internalized customary classroom norms, e.g. good students, and those who have not, e.g. problem students. To some degree the ability to adhere to norms of decorum is also used as the basis for academic sorting. At Westhaven the sorting of children within age groups happens early. Preschool students are ranked, divided then placed in different kindergarten rooms. The schooling of children ranked in to "high" and "low" groups occurs in different classroom spaces, designated as "high" and "low" classrooms. The spatial separation between the ranked subgroups is important and makes their different status and rank more distinct. Johnson (1985) noted that as the grade level increases, high and low sessions between grade levels grow more similar than high and low sessions within each grade level" ( p. 243). There are differences in instruction including more public ridicule and monitoring of students by the teacher but less literacy instruction in the "low" session than in the "high" sessions. As Mehan and his colleagues have shown, this kind of tracking is almost impossible to undo without explicit, deliberate institutional efforts (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard & Lintz, 1996). Differential treatment according to gender was also noted throughout the children's schooling experience. These patterned gendered roles apply to both students and teachers. The association with a mother-like figure in the preschool is consistent with the themes of nurturance and tolerance encouraged in the early grades. However as expectations for children change (to perform academic tasks and produce products) so too do the desirable attributes for the teacher. In the upper grades, male teachers are associated with more instrumental task-oriented activities. Different bodies of knowledge and subject areas are associated with males (e.g., wood shop) and females (e.g., art and music). In addition, classroom bias regarding females was strongly expressed in the upper grades. For example, girls were routinely delegated to carry out classroom housekeeping chores. The author noted a, "...harem-like quality to the classroom as the male teacher crowded out younger males (students) and was surrounded by prepubescent females " (p.242). Johnson's analysis of Westhaven richly supports the ecological view that the physical environment is a set of "symbols representing ideas and practices in the social realm" ( Rappoport , 1976, quoted in Johnson 1985, p.15) which store social and cultural information. They concretize dominant sociocultural themes, make visible the conceptual order of sociocultural system and serve as "material manifestations of metaphysical ideas" (Leach, 1976, p. 36).