Dr. Sandra Duncan is an international specialist on early childhood environments. She has conducted extensive research on the psychology of places and spaces — specifically how children engage with built environments and natural surroundings. Sandra applies and blends the pedagogical theories of Piaget and Vygotsky with the approaches of Reggio Emilia, Montessori, and Waldorf when creating holistic designed places for young children.
Her acclaimed framework, The Potential Place, encourages us to create and design learning environments at the intersection of child and space — where the spatial conditions of emotions (kinship, power, awe, thrill, and refuge) reside.
Sandra is a former owner of multi-site and multi-state early learning campuses, a former president of a national educational publishing company, and a publisher of two well-respected education journals. She is also the author of more than 100 educational articles and seven books focused on environmental design for young learners, and the designer of four furniture collections: Sense of Place, Sense of Place for Wee Ones, Sense of Place for School Age, and Sense of Place for Infants.
Sandra is adjunct faculty at Nova Southeastern University, where she guides doctoral students through their dissertation research. She is currently writing an academic textbook that aligns educational theories, approaches, and curricula with the design of built learning environments.
She has also designed and currently teaches university courses on learning environments, and collaborates with architects, interior designers, and educators to create extraordinary places and possibilities for children and students of all ages.
Sandra is eternally grateful for the many opportunities she has had to work with dedicated educators and transform hundreds of environments into extraordinary and inspiring places for young children.