The Idiosyncratic Classroom

The Idiosyncratic Classroom

Share this post

The Idiosyncratic Classroom
The Idiosyncratic Classroom
It's a new dawn, it's new day, it's new ... and I'm feeling ...

It's a new dawn, it's new day, it's new ... and I'm feeling ...

Reflection Friday #1

Bevan Holloway's avatar
Bevan Holloway
Jan 27, 2022
∙ Paid
Share

Here’s something for you to digest

The benefits of play-based learning for all ages

Here’s a prompt to focus your reflection

It’s the end of term.

You’re sitting down after the last day of school and

you're feeling good !!!

Satisfied, 
                            perhaps even 
...

(proud?)

Why?

What happened during the term, what skills did you draw on, that helped to create that feeling?

Close your eyes and imagine it.

Here’s something that made me think me this week

I’m reading a fantastic book by Rebecca Priestley called Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica.1 Part III starts with this quote from Donna Haraway.2

I am arguing for the view from a body, always a complex, contradictory, structuring, and structured body, versus the view from above, from nowhere, from simplicity.

Now, of course, my brain went: education!!!

I thought about the way the view from a body - that which is grounded in the classroom and the daily experience of the teacher and students - is valued much less than the view from above.

I thought about those times when I saw my students’ work at a higher level than external assessors because I saw more in it, thanks to me knowing more about them.

I wondered why education systems are so scared of the fine-grained understandings of those who are working ‘from the body’.

Why is the view from above prized so much? Why is that the one associated with rigour and validity?

Leave a comment

Here’s a challenge for you

Write down what you imagined in the prompt.

Can you go one step further?

  • Commit to two things you will do to give what you imagined a shot at becoming reality.


Future directions?

I’m keen for paid subscribers to have a say in what the Smata Bulletin covers.

So, is there something - an idea, a theory, some research - that you would like the Smata Bulletin to explore?

Please reply to this email and let me know.

1

You can listen to an interview with Rebecca Priestley about the book here.

2

Taken from her journal article Situated Knowledges.

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 SMATA Ltd
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share