Schoolyards' design and gender issues in Palestine

Abstract

This research is about relationship between gender, students’ needs and the physical form of schoolyards. It is aimed at investigating whether and how the needs of both male and female students influence the physical form of schoolyards in Palestine. The aim is to develop a better theoretical understanding of the relationship between students’ needs in relation to gender, and the physical form of schoolyards. This will enhance the knowledge about how to design schoolyards that support students' needs, so that both male and female students can use these yards comfortably and conduct different types of activities without any restrictions. To achieve the purpose of this study, different types of governmental schools from different cities in the north, middle and south of Palestine were chosen for investigations. Direct observations, questionnaire and interviews were used as main methods for data collection. The results showed that gender influenced different components of schoolyards’ physical form which are interrelated with components of both curricular and non-curricular needs.