Cultural Confluence: A Spirited Learning Environment
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Abstract
Education has been at the forefront of all cultures since the
beginning of time. Success, often described and held to
different standards throughout the world, has often relied on
its instructors, setting, and facilities. As technology develops,
its role in today’s schools and educational facilities increases.
Many of these environments do not have the facilities to keep
up with the ever-changing technologies that the instructors
must use to stay relevant.
Along with these facility needs comes the constant needs of
its users to feel safe, welcomed, and included. Native American
learners struggle with their traditional cultures and fitting
those traditions into the larger context that is the 21st Century
society. This thesis research provides architectural solutions
to the shifting needs of today’s learning from traditional to
21st Century environments. Educational spaces that induce
student learning are also engaging for those students and
can bridge even the largest of cultural gaps.
Research investigates and analyzes learning methods that
are successful and precedents that effectively demonstrate
strategies or salient qualities. It also examines architectural
conditions that support an encompassing variety of instruction
methods. Research also demonstrates cultural solutions
to healing the anxieties of the Native American students in
the local area while potentially affording benefits to alternative
learning strategies for Non-Native students.
Architecture for engaged learning should express shared
meanings and enhance potential for cross-cultural discovery
and inclusion.