Can my classroom be a portal? Can I make the liminal space an exciting and safe place to be?
- Jo Blatch
- Sep 4, 2017
- 3 min read
The uncertain place between what you thought you knew and what you need to know can be unnerving, vulnerable, even terrifying. It can be a paralysing experience to not know what you don't know; when you don't know how to get there. This experience can be called the Liminal Space.
To be a courageous learner; someone who is prepared to admit that they might not have all the answers, but is motivated to find them; is my aim. But even more so, to inspire and support my students in joining them on the journey to courageous learning would be my ultimate goal as a teacher.
The Liminal Space can be a place of unravelling, of decay and breakdown, of throwing all the cards in the air, or of knocking down all of the building blocks without much of an idea about how they need to be rebuilt. It can be a place of grief and letting go of precious beliefs and understandings. It might be a place of shame and embarrassment as previous thoughts crash up against a new reality. It could be a lonely, dark space where foundations have fallen away.
The Liminal Space may just be a wondering, a what if... , a time where you play with the possibility of an alternative, a brazen rebellion where previous conceptions are dumped in favour of the potential better option. It might be exciting to blaze a new path to who knows where, in the realm of your own world view.
It is the place where the old goes to die and the new is born.
We have all experienced this space at various times in our own lives. We have watched as friends, students and loved ones wrestle with understanding, belief, faith and knowledge-just-out-of-reach. I can remember the paralysis of not 'getting' something in Year 9 Maths class. Knowing that the answer was right there for the taking, but having no idea what my road-blocks were. No amount of my teacher actually jumping up and down beside me, yelling emphatically, "Yes!! You can do it!! You do know this!! Come on!! Just do it!!", was making a scrap of difference. I was stuck. Lost. In the dark. Alone. Everyone else was on the other side.
What I needed was a companion in the liminal space. A community of people to make it OK that I didn't get it...yet. I needed to dump my old thinking safely, in a way that reassured me there was a new answer just around the corner. I needed a chance to explore some solutions without fear. Have a go and talk about why that didn't work.
I would love my classroom to be a place where the traversing of the Liminal Space is an adventure. I'd like to go there with my students. We can learn some things together. We can explore the possibilties, and shake off the old thinking, together.
I hope that I will never be a teacher on the other side, shouting discouragements to those still coming through the portal. I would like to think that as my students cross the threshold into our classroom they do so knowing that learning can and does happen; that we can ask crazy questions; we can try ideas on for size and throw some back into the pile; that it's safe to say "I don't know yet" and "I'm not sure".
Here is a diagram I have created to try to visualise the land that is the Liminal Space.
Please leave a comment or tweet if this makes sense to you too.
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