Human experience exists within space; it is the studio for the stories of our lives. Bounded by time, location and personal experience we assign our own meanings and feelings to them, and they become personal, symbolic places: some are unique to us, imagined places where we act out stories or dreams; most are part of the natural world.

Most spaces, though, are built or controlled by others; these constructed environments can become places where we may, or may not, like to be.

This research examined spaces and places of children's lives through the material worlds of their neighborhoods and schools, focusing on the visible environment outside of the school building. The intersection of school and community, it is a material embodiment of, and evidence toward, how a community's resources are apportioned to

important aspects of children's developmental years. These visible representations speak of that society's values and goals for the children for whom they (we) are responsible.

This examination used multiple research tools, primarily using visual approaches such as current photographs, archival images and data, descriptive census materials and maps. Historical documents, (many of which are now digitized), as well as other academic literature, local journalistic efforts and school district publications added important materials for analysis.

Findings lead to deeper understanding of ways that visible, material worlds of schools and neighborhoods -- past and present - can reflect, and direct the experiences of childhood today, and often mirror those of children past. These visual and narrative approaches contributed to understanding the importance of material evidence in revealing

inequity and class differences in ways that children, then, must &ldquodo school &rdquo

This study looked at ways of understanding how schoolyards might act as meaningful places in children's developing sense of identity and possibility. Photographs and other images such as historical photographs and maps were used to look at how built environments outside of school reflect demographic and social differences within one southwest city. Intersections of children's worlds with various socio-political communities, woven into and through schooling, were examined for evidence of ways that schools act as the embodiment of a community's values: they are the material and observable effects of resource-allocation decisions. And scholarly materials were consulted to examine relationships in the images to existing theories of place, and its effect on children, as well as to consider theories of the hidden curriculum and its relationship to social reproduction, and the nature of visual representation as a form of data rather than strictly in the service of illustrating other forms of data. The focus of the study was on identifying appropriate research methods for investigating ways to understand the importance of the material worlds of school and childhood. Using a combination of visual and narrative approaches to contribute to our understanding of those material worlds, I sought to expose areas of inequity and class differences in ways that children experience schooling, as evidenced by differences in the material environment. Using a mixed-methods approach, created and found images were coded for categories of material culture, such as the existence of fences, trees, views from the playground or walking in the neighborhood at four Tempe schools. Findings were connected to a rich body of knowledge in areas such as theories of space and place, the nature of the hidden curriculum, visual culture, visual research methods including mapping. Familiar aspects of schooling were exposed in different ways, linking past decisions made by adults to their continuing effects on children today. In this way I arrived at an expanded and enriched understanding of the present worlds of children communicated as through the material environment. Visually examining children's worlds, by looking at the material artifacts of everyday worlds that children experience at school and including the child's-eye view in decision processes, has promise in moving decision makers away from strictly analytical and impersonal approaches to decision making about schooling children of the future. I proposed that by weighting of data points, as used in decision-making processes regarding schooling, differently than is currently done, and by paying closer attention to possible longer-term effects of place for all children, not just a few, there is the potential to improve the quality of life for today's children, and tomorrow's adults.