Aesthetic Pedagogy as Emotional Architecture: A Conceptual Framework for B.Ed. Classrooms

Abstract

Aesthetic dimensions of teacher education are frequently marginalized in favor of curriculum delivery and assessment, despite substantial evidence that learning environments significantly influence emotion, cognition, and professional identity. While existing research has examined learning environments and affective processes largely as separate domains, few conceptual frameworks theorize their systematic integration within teacher education. Addressing this gap, this conceptual paper advances the notion of aesthetic pedagogy as emotional architecture, proposing it as a unifying construct that explains how designed learning environments function as affective, cognitive, and identity-shaping structures in Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) classrooms.
Drawing on environmental psychology (Evans, 2006; Barrett et al., 2015), aesthetic education (Eisner, 2002; Greene, 1995), sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), affective neuroscience (Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007), and teacher identity research (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009), the paper develops a five-dimensional conceptual framework comprising spatial aesthetics, visual culture, multimodal creative practice, emotional climate, and professional identity formation. The framework theorizes emotional climate as a mediating mechanism linking aesthetic design and pedagogical practice to the formation of professional dispositions. By conceptualizing aesthetic pedagogy as a foundational emotional infrastructure rather than a decorative enhancement, the paper contributes a theoretically generative model for understanding how teacher education environments sustain emotion, meaning-making, and identity development. Implications are discussed for curriculum design, institutional policy, and future empirical research in teacher education.