School furniture as learning agents: historical and contemporary reflections

Abstract

This article invites reflection on the role of school furniture, understood as chairs, tables, or desks, in the current educational context. It proposes an understanding from Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which considers non-human elements as agents that form networks and establish connections in school environments, potentially actively intervening in learning processes, pedagogical practices, and teaching conceptions. Historical background is presented to argue that the classroom performs through its furniture the ways in which children have learned in the past and continue to learn today. Four news stories from the chilean educational context, published in digital news outlets and newspapers, are presented as examples, allowing us to question whether school desks and chairs still translate 19th-century education conceptions associated with a passive, unidirectional transmission approach to knowledge and the immobility of the body confined to school benches. Finally, the reflection highlights the importance of considering the characteristics, arrangement, and no conventional use of school furniture as elements that, in conjunction with students and teachers, can support the achievement of inclusive, participatory, and collaborative learning approaches.