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 imagining neuroqueer learning spaces. It has prompted us to question the differences between being neurodiversity-affirming, having everyone’s needs met, and then stretching those possibilities into neuroqueer learning spaces that enable unknown potential to flourish. Once you are free from the reigns of neuronormativity, the learning possibilities of radical inclusivity with cognitive and somatic liberty will be endless.
Yunkaporta (Sand Talk, 2020) talks about being a ‘strange attractor‘ (pg82), which seems very much in line with neuroqueer ideology. To be a strange attractor in education means taking a risk and disrupting the order and current system. There is enormous negativity around words such as risk, anarchy and chaos, but as Yunkaporta reminds us, chaos means having no structure and being rhizomatic, and anarchy means having ‘no boss’. He asks if we could have a structure without a boss or management system. Neuroqueer learning spaces need to be de-hierarchical; we need a community of people, not masters and students. We need empathy, trust, and mutual respect for the uniqueness everyone can bring to adults and children’s learning environments. Deep learning is rhizomatic; it does not happen linearly.
The current education system is causing so much harm to so many young people whose needs are not being met; their mental and physical health is suffering as a consequence, with some having no access to any meaningful education at all. If the current system isn’t working, tightening the reigns further on behaviour and attendance policies isn’t going to help; it will cause more harm. We need to create spaces where words like normal, typical, and even divergent become irrelevant so children feel safe to be themselves and can learn in ways that enable their bodyminds to be liberated.
Audre Lorde (1982) says, “Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses…”. Neuroqueer environments are spaces for everyone to be neurodivergent, to be constantly evolving and expanding and reimagining themselves. We need to look for the slightest opportunity to make a change and find possibilities for playing, learning, exploring and opening up curiosity.
Being engaged, curious, playful and able to explore and move freely are essential components of learning to which everyone should be entitled. This is also reflected in the work of Alexander (Play Radical), who wrote a beautiful and inspiring Playful Manifesto. Their aims echo what we’d like to include in our own Neuroqueer Learning Spaces Manifesto;
“Create space to celebrate and recognise the infinite ways we play, communicate, and relate to each other as children and adults. And, in particular, lift those types of play that are often unseen or ignored and ways of communicating or relating that are often not valued by wider society.“
(Max Alexander, Play Radical)
We are forming the beginning of our Open Framework for Neuroqueer Learning Spaces on the work of Walker’s (2021, pg144–156) ‘Guiding Principles for a Course on Autism’ which asks:
“What if both the education of youth and adults and the training of educators included the explicit understanding that no neurocognitive style is more “correct” or “normal” than any other and that the work of mutual accommodation is both an essential part of a proper education and an essential preparation for being a participating citizen in a civilised society?”
An Open Framework for Neuroqueer Learning Spaces.
(open for discussion, just the beginning…)
- Balance
We don’t want to strike a balance between the neurodiversity paradigm and the pathology paradigm. We are wholly and intentionally rejecting the pathology paradigm as it has been shown to cause so much harm, especially to neurodivergent and marginalised groups. Nick Walker (pg 72) stated, ‘To create a better future, one must first be able to imagine a better future‘. Audre Lorde (1983) suggested we need to create tools not just to dismantle the education system but to build a new house (in this case, a learning space) that empowers educational facilitators and young people. We want to avoid rebuilding the same education, but just in a different way; we need something different and neuroqueer learning spaces.
Why Sheets — Anti-Behaviourism
We are deeply aware of the barriers young people and their families face in today’s education system. Families can not wait years for an education revolution; they need and deserve some tools to help their child tomorrow morning after breakfast when they may have to meet with a head teacher. We hope that by providing small steps such as our Why Sheets inspired by Alfie Kohn(2019), we can offer support and help families reclaim agency and autonomy for their children battling behaviourism, school-induced anxiety and systemic exclusion so they can self-advocate. These resources will also be invaluable for professionals who need well-researched neuro-affirmative resources to support their work. These are short-term answers and are more of a lily pad for the more radical reform needed.
2. Facilitators and Guides
Neuroqueer learning spaces should be nonhierarchical and rhizomatic. This means that we need to shift away from having teachers and students and instead need facilitators and guides. Guides walk alongside children, follow their leads and interests, and support them in developing curiosity and deeper learning. Mutual respect can be formed when there is no hierarchy when you are ‘in it together’; it also develops creativity and enhances communication.
We need to guide and facilitate young people’s movement between Cavendish learning spaces in their own time, as described in our previous writing (Cave, Campfire, Watering Hole). We need a diverse range of people as guides and facilitators. This includes people from all backgrounds, cultures, and needs groups. Other than safeguarding issues, there is no reason why anyone should be excluded. With the right support, everyone has something they can bring that could inspire others to learn more.
3. Adults must embrace the neurodiversity paradigm and be willing to explore neuroqueer theory with an open mind.
When designing an autism course, Walker (2021) suggests that it is “not enough for the instructor to be autistic; they need to be autistic with a substantial history of active participation in autistic culture and community, including autistic rights activism, resistance to oppressive cultural and professional practices based in the pathology paradigm, and a celebration of autistic pride”.
Everyone who facilitates neuroqueer learning spaces must fully embrace neuroqueer theory, as Walker (2021) defines it. Neuroqueering is open to everyone but requires a lot of unlearning, relearning, creating and recreating. There are likely many routes people have travelled and are travelling to get here. For those facilitating neuroqueer learning spaces, people will need to be neurodivergent; if not born neurodivergent, they will need to engage in neuroqueering to become neurodivergent, to diverge their bodyminds from culturally ingrained performance of neuronormativity. Those who are neurodivergent will need to be open to diverging further against neuronormative expectations and be willing to explore the potential of neuroqueer learning spaces.
4. Marginalised Voices Must Be Central
Marginalised voices must be central to the learning space so they can reclaim power and autonomy. Students’ resources also need to be more diverse and reflect indigenous cultures. Total communication systems and access to alternative and augmentative communication need to be standard, and the freedom to move indoors/ outdoors and between Cavendish Learning Spaces (cave/campfire and watering hole) at home, in educational settings, and multisensory environments is essential.
5. Truth Is Where It Is
Non-disabled people and non-neurodivergent people have primarily led the discourse about disability and neurodivergent people so far. Marginalised groups have largely been excluded, silenced or misinterpreted. By having a diverse range of educational facilitators and guides from marginalised communities, first-hand knowledge can be passed down and shared to challenge that narrative and promote a re-storying and validation of experiences.
6. Educational Facilitators / Guides Must Model Neuroqueering
Most educational settings “reflect ableist and neuronormative values of the dominant culture” (Walker, 2012). Students are rewarded for conforming, and those who don’t or are unable to conform are discriminated against. We need educational guides to declare their learning space as a ‘zone of freedom‘ away from neuronormativity. In the words of Audre Lorde (1983), ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.’
7. Educational Guides Must Model and Invite the Embodied Expression of Neuroqueering
Educational facilitators must embrace neuroqueer theory and have an embodied approach to education, such as that suggested by Aldred (2023). We need to expand potential and provide a safe space for self-liberation where adult facilitators can shed neuronormative habits and children can grow up without the need for that shedding. We want children to have the freedom to be and become who they want to be. Educational guides must declare the learning space a “zone for free experimentation with shedding habits of normative performance and actively exploring, practising, reclaiming and cultivating non-normative modes of embodiment.”
Merleau-Ponty (1945) stressed the importance of nurturing relationships and fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness in our communities. For communities to happen, we need to start with the relationships of those we are with and the children we work with in schools and other settings. All our children deserve to feel safe and valued so their differences, unique interests, and ways of being are celebrated with others in an embodied, connected way of being together.
McGreevey et al. (2024) research offers a humanistic framework for “An Experience Sensitive Approach to Care With and for Autistic Children and Young People in Clinical Services“, which we feel will provide a secure base for creating a neuro-inclusive setting. “The experience sensitive approach is a coherent, neuro-inclusive framework that promotes a dignified, respectful, personalized approach to care”, which we believe will be equally valuable and essential as a foundation for neuroqueer learning spaces to promote:
Insiderness
Agency
Uniqueness
Togetherness
Sense Making
Personal Journey
Sense of Place
Embodiment
As Walker suggests, “introducing the practice of neuroqueering embodiment into the classroom (learning space) is an excellent way to introduce neuroqueering as a concept.” We are embracing this and would love for you to share your ideas to help develop this concept.
This is a community project. Feedback welcome.
If you’d like to add your signature to support our anti-ABA/anti-PBS/ anti behaviourism WHY SHEET resources, then please follow the links below:
To find out why we are anti-behaviourism, click here: ANTI-BEHAVIOURISM
Adding your signature to our resources will help add weight and give families the extra confidence to use these to advocate for their young people. Please click here: ADD YOUR SIGNATURE.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact us Ryan Boren at Stimpunks or Helen Edgar at Autistic Realms.
References
Alexander, M. (2020). A Playful Manifesto. Play Radical. https://playradical.com/about/what-is-play-radical/
Kohn, A. (2019, March 6). The Why Axis — Alfie Kohn. Alfie Kohn. https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/why/
Lorde, A. (1982). Learning from the 60s Accessed from, BlackPast: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s
Lorde A. (1984a). The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house (Comments at the “The personal and the political panel,” Second Sex Conference, New York, September 29, 1979). In Sister outsider (pp. 110–113). Sister Visions Press. (Original work published 1979)
(LittleRad.org also has a copy of the original source)
McGreevy, E., Quinn, A., Law, R., Botha, M., Evans, M., Rose, K., Moyse, R., Boyens, T., Matejko, M., & Pavlopoulou, G. (2024). An experience sensitive approach to care with and for autistic children and young people in clinical services. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678241232442
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961. Phenomenology of Perception. London : New York :Routledge & K. Paul; Humanities Press, 1974.
Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities. Autonomous Press.
Yunkaporta, T. (2020). Sand talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. HarperCollins.