Liminal learning moves

Abstract

This thesis examines liminal learning by inquiring what it is, where is it found and how does it happen. I practice and develop artistic, relational and reciprocal methods in order to find answers to these questions. Liminal learning is explored, practiced and created through three essays. Each essay invokes liminal learning in unique yet interconnected ways.

Informed by artistic and educational practices and the creative theories of Gloria Anzaldúa, Katherine McKittrick and poetry, I create a methodology that treats thesis-writing and knowledge-production as making art. The metaphoric methodology is the first essay, a creative process that uses metaphor for expanding theories and practices of in-betweenness. It suggests ways to produce knowledge from liminal learning and ways to practice liminal learning. The metaphoric methodology is used in the second essay to move through the spatial imaginary of structures and leaks. Liminal learning is made by examining dominant institutionalized academic structures as well as the leaks within those structures. The essay draws from interventions I was involved in at a specific time and space but the metaphoric methodology assists in relating them across time and space. The third essay transcends the time and space specificity of education as represented in the site of the school, into a more expansive one. Water as school practices knowledge production critically and creatively, further demonstrating educational and pedagogical approaches to consider.

The three essays show different suggestions for how liminal learning moves. By reflecting different art forms and their stories, the thesis aims to open up the discourse on the relations of art and education. The praxis of liminal learning further theorizes, practices, and creates the in-between as an orientation towards transforming education.