Psychoanalytic Approaches to School Architecture

School architecture is generally understood to promote sharing of knowledge, foster student/teacher interaction, and maintain discipline. Other theories promote the enjoyment of seeing and using the voice, the importance of thinking, and the ways we are shaped as individuals (psychoanalytic theories). The aim of this project to explore and analyse how the space is used so to consider how it could be redesigned for other purposes.

What will you be asked to do?

The project lead will accompany a group of students who have opted into the observation throughout their school day in lessons and break time. He will observe who participants choose to speak to, alongside their movements, gazes, and directions in public spaces, recording these in hand-written field notes. Only public spaces will be observed, including classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, dining halls, and sports areas. 

Notes will only be taken when in a public space and no dialogue will be recorded. Notes will only refer to participants as 'teacher no.#' or 'student no.#’. There will be no other information gathered or written down, including demographic data. The school and its location will remain anonymous. Should you opt out of the study, you will not be included in the field notes or any of the data. If desired, you will receive a one-page summary in the month following the observation. Please tick the appropriate box on the consent form to opt in.

Privacy Statement

In order to undertake the ‘Psychoanalytic Approaches to School Architecture’ research project, we have been provided information about you from various sources. Some of this information is your personal data. Under data protection law, where we have processed your personal data which we have obtained from someone other than you, we have to provide you with very specific information about the source of than information, what we do with it and what your rights are.

The University of Birmingham’s web page ‘Data Protection - How the University Uses Your Data’ (opens in a new tab) sets out much of this information, including how to ask any questions you may have about how your personal data is used, exercise any of your rights or complain about the way your data is being handled. The rest of the key information you need to know about how we used your personal data is set out below.

Who is the Data Controller?

The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT is the data controller for the personal data that we process in relation to you.

What data are we processing and for what purpose will we use it?

We collected and processed your personal data to conduct the ‘Psychoanalytic Approaches to School Architecture’ research project. That data was observations of who participants choose to speak to, alongside their movements, gazes, and directions in public spaces, recording these in hand-written field notes. Only public spaces were observed, including classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, dining halls, and sports areas. Notes only taken when in a public space and no dialogue was recorded. Notes only refer to participants as 'teacher no.#' or 'student no.#’. There is no other information gathered or written down, including demographic data. The school and its location will remain anonymous.

What is our legal basis for processing your data?

The legal justification we have under data protection law for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for our research, which is a task we carry out in the public interest.

Who will my personal data be shared with?

We will not share your data with any third party.

Sometimes, external organisations assist us with processing your information, for example, in providing IT support and (including BEAR Research Data Storage). These organisations act on our behalf in accordance with our instructions and do not process your data for any purpose over and above what we have asked them to do. We make sure we have appropriate contracts in place with them to protect and safeguard your data. If your personal data are transferred outside the European Union (for example, if one of our partners is based outside the EU or we use a cloud-based app with servers based outside the EU), we make sure that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data.

How will my personal data be kept secure?

The University takes great care to ensure that personal data is handled, stored and disposed of confidentially and securely. Our staff receive regular data protection training, and the University has put in place organisational and technical measures so that personal data is processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in data protection law.

The University has an Information Security Management System based on ISO27001 with a range of controls covering the protection of personal information. Annual security awareness training is mandatory for staff and the University is accredited under the NHS Information Governance Toolkit, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and is in the process of gaining Cyber Essentials Plus for defined services.

In relation to this project: after the notes have been transcribed, data will be stored on University of Birmingham One Drive with a passworded folder in word documents. The notes will be destroyed. The data will be retained on the University eData Repository system and deleted after 10 years on 06/12/2036. You will be fully anonymised throughout the process, including in all notes, transcriptions, and analysis. You also have the right to withdraw from the process at any time, however as there is no way to identify the participants based on research notes, data cannot be withdrawn after the study has taken place. Data may be used for published research articles, monographs and presentations. All data complies with legal requirements The EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (which supplements the GDPR).

What are the choices about how information is used?

Your rights to access, change or move your information are limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. This means that participants cannot see or change their data held and the research team will keep the research data about you that they already have.

Where can I find out more about how my information is used?

You can find out more about how we use your information by contacting the University of Birmingham Data Protection Office:

The Data Protection Office, Legal Services, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT

Email: dataprotection@contacts.bham.ac.uk Telephone: 0121 414 3916