What kind of place is school to learn? A comparative perspective from students on the question

In 1972 Howard Becker argued that “school is a lousy place to learn anything”. However, Becker’s analysis was based on a comparison of ethnographic studies of on-the-job learning with an ideal typical representation of school. This paper revisits the issue of whether and how schools may be a lousy place to learn by listening to and interpreting the perspectives of students themselves. We draw on a sample of 300 interviews with students conducted in the context of researching what and how students learned in a program called FUSE Studios, which we have previously conceptualized as “an alternative infrastructure for learning in schools”. We asked students whether and how FUSE was different from their other classes, and their responses provided us with a unique window into what students think of school as a learning environment. Herein, we share their perspectives and draw implications for future learning sciences work.