Chapter 3: Territoriality, Inter-Disciplinarity, and School Space

Space and time are inextricably linked in schools. The timetable, despite its name, is simultaneously a spatial representation of blocks of time, and a temporal representation of the use of space. As a paper document, in which time is chopped up into boxes of determinate length and parceled out among teachers and between subjects, the timetable represents time using two-dimensional space. In constructing a timetable, pieces of paper or pins or other symbols are physically moved around until they fit together in the completed jigsaw that is the school week; these spatially organized symbols represent temporal blocks in which particular groups of students have to be taught particular subjects.