Foucault's Heterotopia And Pedagogical Space

This essay prompts educators to think critically about how we represent and cultivate pedagogical spaces in our educational institutions. In Michel Foucault’s 1967 lecture titled Des Espace Autres, Foucault introduces his three-fold taxonomy social spaces, including heterotopias. This article facilitates the normative work of educators in terms of conceptualizing the social spaces of our schools and their relations to the social structures of power. Foucault’s heterotopia re-complicates our understanding of the evolution of pedagogical space and the cultural influences that produce it.