Tag: education
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Cavendish Spaces For Multi-Sensory Learners and Those with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities
Cavendish learning spaces are based on flexibility, interaction, movement and the role of embodied responsive experiences. We reject the boundaries of traditional classroom settings and look at how they not only restrict embodied experiences but lead to disembodied experiences and can cause harm.
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Is there a version?
Is there a version? [This is adapted from a blog post of the same name available online at http://theeverythingiknow.substack.com. The blog is subscriber-only, but subscriptions are free.] During the first UK-wide coronavirus lockdown, there was a television programme called Staged. It involved David Tennant and Michael Sheen, amongst others, playing fictionalised versions of themselves, talking to each…
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Home Education and De-dogmatising
I first became interested in home education not long after my first child was born. It seemed the natural follow-on from the style of parenting I’d come to embrace (at the time known as ‘attachment parenting’). Typically for an autistic person (although at the time I had no clue I was autistic) I did what…
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The Road to Neuronormative Domination: Thorndike won, Dewey lost. Skinner won, Papert lost.
Thorndike won, and Dewey lost. I don’t think you can understand the history of education technology without realizing this either. And I’d propose an addendum to this too: you cannot understand the history of education technology in the United States during the twentieth century – and on into the twenty-first – unless you realize that Seymour…
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An Open Framework For Neuroqueer Learning Spaces
In Neuroqueer Heresies, Nick Walker (2021) describes embracing neuroqueering as a verb. When considering Neuroqueer Learning Spaces, we need to reinterpret, rethink, redefine, and reimagine what those spaces may look like and the journey required to be able to facilitate them. We are considering whether we can use the template Walker created for designing autism courses as a template for…
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A Short Rumination on Our Journey to Neuroqueer Learning Spaces
We fought for the right to learn differently, and lost. The journey was instructive. We found ourselves along the way. We found community among other neurodivergent and disabled people. We found vocabulary, vocabulary like “neurodiversity”, “neurodivergent”, “neurotypical”, and, more recently, “neuroqueer”. …intentionally liberating oneself from the culturally ingrained and enforced performance of neuronormativity can be…
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Concision and Why Sheets
Chomsky uses the term concision to discuss the way mainstream media outlets respond to power. Having concision means that ideas which align with forces of power in our society need no explanation and those that do not align with those forces of power need significant explanation. This allows the narrative of the “state religion” to…
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The Path to Equity Begins with Neuroqueer-Sensitive Learning Spaces
If you tell me where or how to sit, I’m unlikely to do either. If you tell me that I can’t leave a room, I will leave – absent serious restraints – and I won’t come back. If you cover up the windows, or if there are no windows, I will leave and not come…
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Neuroqueering Learning Spaces: An Exploration
This piece is by Helen Edgar of Autistic Realms. “Intentionally liberating oneself from the culturally ingrained and enforced performance of neuronormativity can be thought of as neuroqueering” Walker, 2021 neuronormativity = a set of norms, standards, expectations and ideals that centre a particular way of functioning as the ‘right way’ to be neuroqueer = subvert, defy, disrupt,…
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Call for Submissions: Neuroqueer Learning Spaces
Open Invite: Neuroqueer Learning Spaces We’re requesting community writing and art about neuroqueering education, play, and learning spaces. Ryan of Stimpunks and Helen of Autistic Realms are collaborating on a project. Any community work will be shared on the Stimpunks website and some work may be included in our chapter submission for Nick Walker’s new…
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Creating Cavendish Space on a Budget
Design for nervous systems, not aesthetics. What Is Cavendish Space? Cavendish Space: psychologically and sensory safe spaces suited to zone work, flow states, intermittent collaboration, and collaborative niche construction. Cavendish Space – Stimpunks Foundation Cavendish Space is a regulation-centered learning environment built around three spatial archetypes: Our advocacy for Cavendish Space and caves, campfires, and…

