Neuroqueer Learning Space Manifesto

The contemporary classroom is a bastion of neuronormativity. We neuroqueer to fight for the right to learn differently.

Behaviorism denies flexibility and choice and is the antithesis of Neuroqueer Learning Spaces (NQLS). We are not only against the idea that people need to be fixed to fit into neuronormative ideals, we are offering NQLS as a transformative space of healthy power dynamics.

Fundamentally neuroqueer learning spaces that enable “freedom of embodiment” and “cognitive liberty” are needed for radical inclusivity. Learning facilitators need to be ‘space holders’ so children’s bodyminds are allowed to live and learn authentically.

We need to deconstruct, dismantle and un-learn as part of the neuroqueering process to lift the burden of neuronormativity that is weighing our children down.

…a radical shift in perspective … requires us to redefine our terms, recalibrate our language, rephrase our questions, reinterpret our data, and completely rethink our basic concepts and approaches.

Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (pp. 17-18). Autonomous Press.

We are asking: How can we transform and liberate the expectations of neuronormative education and create neuroqueer learning spaces?

We are suggesting: A neuroqueer transformation = unlearning, collaborating, creating.

Definitions

neuronormativity = a set of norms, standards, expectations and ideals that centre a particular way of functioning as the right way to function.

neuroqueer = subverting, defying, disrupting, liberating oneself from neuronormativity.

neuroqueering = the process of being neuroqueer and transforming oneself or a space as an act of liberation from neuronormativity

embodiment = staying present in our own bodies to sensations, emotions and the external environment without going into dysregulation without going into fight/flight/freeze/fawn.

regulation = tending to and responding to the body’s needs.

cognitive liberty = the idea that individuals have the right to absolute sovereignty over their own minds and their own cognitive processes.

somatic liberty = freedom of embodiment, freedom to indulge, adopt, and/or experiment with any styles or quirks of movement and embodiment, whether they come naturally to one or whether one chooses them. the freedom to give bodily expression to one’s neurodivergence.

human scale = the number of people than we can possibly form trustworthy relationships with within human cognitive limits (according to Robin Dunbar’s research, a human can maintain a maximum of 150 relationships at any point in time).

radical inclusivity = working together to dismantle systemic barriers and create neuroqueer spaces where everyone has freedom to embrace cognitive and somatic liberty.

space holder = someone who can create and hold a safe space for a person so they can be themselves around them, knowing they will not be judged, they will be understood, valued and have an authentic meaningful connection.

Considerations

1. What might education look like in a system in which the acceptance, inclusion, and accommodation of every sort of bodymind represents an unquestioned baseline? (Walker, pg 77–79)
2. Students must be free to be neurodivergent, to act neurodivergent, to look and sound neurodivergent. (Walker, pg 152–153)
3. The classroom must be declared a zone of freedom from the dominant culture’s pervasive requirement that everyone strive to constantly perform neuronormativity. (Walker, pg 152–153)
4. All social environments and learning spaces that exceed human scale, i.e. that involve more people than we can possibly form trustworthy relationships with, are inherently unsafe. (Bettin)

We love the work of Max Alexander (Play Radical). They began their Playful Manifesto, saying,

“This is a manifesto that begins but will never end. This is a translation of my world into yours….This is a protest of the notion that there is any correct way to live.”

Playful Manifesto

We are expanding this ideology into Neuroqueer Learning Spaces (NQLS) and creating a Neuroqueer Learning Space Manifesto. This is a beginning that will never end. 

This is a protest of the notion that there is any correct way to live.

Playful Manifesto

Freedom

…freedom of embodiment—that is, the freedom to indulge, adopt, and/or experiment with any styles or quirks of movement and embodiment, whether they come naturally to one or whether one chooses them—is an essential element of cognitive liberty, and thus an essential area of focus for the Neurodiversity Movement. The freedom to be autistic necessarily includes the freedom to give bodily expression to one’s neurodivergence.

Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (pp. 142-143). Autonomous Press.

Features:

• NQLS are a “zone of freedom from the dominant culture’s pervasive requirement that everyone strive to constantly perform neuronormativity.”

Principles:

• Enable cognitive and somatic liberty.
• Provide freedom “to be neurodivergent, to act neurodivergent, to look and sound neurodivergent.”
• Enable free movement between spaces both indoors and outdoors.
• Dismantle the whole category of normality.
• Therapeutic support of any kind should be made available to anyone who wants it but must be consent-based and not imposed by other people.

Embodiment and Regulation

Exceptional learning and growth organically flow from body comfort and regulated nervous system. These conditions activate curiosity and discovery, connection and resilience. Impactful learning will only take place if the nervous system has capacity and regulation.

Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing

Embodied Education aims to integrate the body into learning spaces, and so careful consideration of the following policies and procedures are important for changing the paradigm in learning and sharing – which regulates the nervous system and promotes health and the intelligence of the body.

Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing

Features:

• NQLS are embodied.

Principles:

• Help people get in touch with their own mind and body.
• Understand that there are no ‘bad’ emotions or feelings… only emotions or feelings that need attention and care in different ways.
• Foster body — energy understanding. Some will learn/explore/play better in the morning some in the afternoon or even evening.
• Orient ‘Discipline’ towards win-win problem solving using a multipartial perspective

Access

Conflicts between the access needs of different individuals should be negotiated in class as part of the learning process.

Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (p. 152). Autonomous Press.

Principles:

• Negotiate the access needs of different individuals in de-powered dialogue.
• Provide de-powered dialogue spaces to discuss sensory clashes — to work out how to be together and when to take time apart.
• Collaboratively co-create rules/boundaries with by those who wish to participate, and use methods to be truly inclusive.

Self-Determination and Self-Organization

The distinct boundary Between teacher and student should not exist. We are all educators and learners (See Aucademys’s Educator-Learner ethos) depending on context. Sometimes I will teach, other time I will learn. Education should feature omni-directional learning rather than a hierarchical system.

Features:

• NQLS are led by the learner.
• NQLS are consent-based, with humility in that nobody else can know what is right for anyone else, including what is important or necessary for the other person to learn. Things can be offered but people should not be pressured, persuaded or seduced/manipulated into taking part. 
• NQLS are spaces where students can explore educational rhizomes in a Self-directed way without fear of choosing the wrong path.

Principles:

• Prioritise enabling children to tune into and negotiate with their instincts and ideas.
• Provide freedom to leave in the middle of an interaction without explanation. Embrace the “Law of Two Feet”.

Safety and Safeguarding

Because of our different bio-social responses to stimulus, autistic people have significant barriers to accessing safety.

Discovering a Trauma-Informed Positive Autistic Identity | by Trauma Geek | Medium

Psychological safety is a condition in which you feel (1) included, (2) safe to learn, (3) safe to contribute, and (4) safe to challenge the status quo—all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way.

All human beings have the same innate need: We long to belong.

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation

Life inevitably includes exposing ourselves to risks and unsafe spaces. However we can only learn if we are embedded in a safe social ecology of care – if we have a genuinely safe place to retreat, compare notes, and engage in omni-directional learning. This is how we contextualise and consolidate new experiences into new insights, tapping into the collective lived experiences that are available to us at human scale, via trustworthy relationships.

Features:

• NQLS are psychologically safe.
• NQLS are sensory safe.
• NQLS are physically safe.
• NQLS are human scale.

Principles:

• Provide sonic damping materials indoors. Decrease echo and complex sounds.
• Recognise the value of risk and work to enable risk taking… recognise that risk is not just physical but social, emotional and sensory.
• Recognise that, however neuroqueer the space is, anyone who enters that space will be carrying various levels of oppressive, painful, limiting expectations and experiences from the ‘outside world’. They will often not start from ‘neutral’ but from below neutral. Care and attention needs to be given to these experiences and time (maybe a lot) will likely be needed for each child to be able to feel safe enough to experience this neuroqueer joy and potential.

Flexibility

Flexibility makes a big difference in inclusion.

Disabled People Have WFH For Years. Companies Catch Up

There is no one size fits all when it comes to accessibility. Instead of choosing who to prioritize and counting tradeoffs for certain choices like universal high contrast mode, the obvious solution would be to let the user choose.

Similar approach can be taken with any accessibility work at a large scale. There is no blanket ‘accessibility mode’ or ‘accessibility setting’ (save for basic compliance) that will fit everyone’s needs. Giving the user full control to set up what works best for them is always the better choice.

Twitter’s new font and Last of Us 2: an accessibility lesson to be learned | by Anna 4erepawko Mészáros | Aug, 2021 | UX Collective

NQLS 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 harm.

Features:

• NQLS contain resources and materials that give children the capacity to physically and sensorilly change parts of the space.
• NQLS is a space where in children can explore the educational rhizome without fear of taking the wrong path.

Principles:

• Value planning in the moment and changing direction /being responsive
• Be responsive to changes in medical, phyiscal, mental and sensory needs and validate experiences and voice of the young person.
• Provide moveable creation — weather good — move outside- involvement in nature. Weather worse — tactile play.
• Embrace multi-sensory learning opportunities. 
• People need to be free to attend as and when works for them rather than being obliged to attend on set schedules, and bodily autonomy in terms of meeting the needs of the body as personally suitable rather than on fixed group schedules
• Allow for a more personalised mentoring and coaching approach vs only ‘classes’, and allowing autodidacts to do it their way whatever that may be
• Realise that there is NO ‘subject’ that everyone needs to learn/master – there are people who can’t text-read who do fine in this world even before the tech we have now. Each person will discover what it is that they personally need to master, and then should have the resources and support that feel right to them
• Compulsory schooling laws and prosecution of parents for non-attendance has been shown by research to disproportionately oppress neurodivergent families and should be scrapped in favour of social support and inclusive collaborative provision of diverse educational options
• Understand that dyslexia is often self-resolvable when there is no age benchmark and brains and motivation and creativity are allowed to find their own way. Many people learn to read and spell playing video games or texting, which is completely valid.

Play

There is nothing more human than play.

Humans were designed to learn in play. In fact, nearly all mammals evolved this way.

Play’s Power

Principles:

• Value open-ended play materials
• Feature messy exploratory play areas — material mixing.
• Feature space for play which needs no justification or other ‘outcome.’
• Prioritise curiosity and exploratory learning

Niche Construction

Niche Construction

In Nature: Helping to ensure the thriving of an organism by directly modifying the environment in such a way that it enhances that organism’s chances for survival.

In Culture: Helping to ensure the thriving of a child by directly modifying the environment in such a way that it enhances that child’s chances for success.

Neurodiversity in the Classroom

Features:

• NQLS are spaces filled with curiosity, wonder, joy, risk, empathy and kindness.

Principles:

• Enable niche constructions of Cavendish Learning Spaces with Caves, Campfires, and Watering Holes (inspired by the work of David Thornburg, 2013).
• Provide learner cocoons- to allow flow/ hyperfocus/ transition/ regulation/ wonder.
• Offer space within spaces to learn, be and become.
• Provide a variety of spaces that allow a free flow between small-group interactions, space for bigger groups, and many spaces for solitude – including hidey-holes. Where possible allow personalised ‘territory’/private space that a person can set up with what they need for self-regulation

Communication and Collaboration

Communication is access.

Communication is opportunity.

Communication is justice.

CommunicationFIRST

We believe good ideas can come from anywhere. 

Communication is our oxygen, and we communicate frequently.

Diversity in Ideation – Automattic Design

Features:

• In NQLS, a ‘conversation’ between adult and child or child and child can be multi-sensory, take multiple forms and take place over a long period of time.

Principles:

• Embrace a Total Communication System and honour the use of alternative communication methods.
• Work with the whole family and listen to everyone’s voice.
• Enable, encourage and create conditions for people to find ‘shared languages’ and/or create shared vocabularies with each other. Be those made of words, sounds, stims, movements, play…
• Accommodate different understandings of how individuals experience time. Those described as having ‘delays’ aren’t needing to be always ‘catching up’ but are enabled to exist on their internal timeline. Adults are skilled at jumping between different timelines to be with children on theirs.
• Provide zones of sharing and listening.

Magic

I think weirdness is Magic. I think weird is almost synonymous with magic.

There’s this normal and very mundane world that tries to make magic impossible, that has very set ideas of normal. 

Normal includes this addiction to the illusion of certainty, these ideas of everything has to stay within our very small limited conceptions, and what’s outside of that, what’s outside of the knowable and certain, is the magic.

And so weird, I think about it like the word Queer, as a verb. There’s this act of weirding, of letting the Magic in, of making cracks in the normal to let all the magic in.

Nick Walker, in conversation, edited, David’s Divergent Discussions: Weird Pride Day Panel- David with Dr. Nick Walker, Fergus and Tanya – YouTube

The weird and the magical have always been deeply tied up.

Magic and the Weird – Weird Pride Day

Viewing the world with a sense of enchantment is a deeply powerful thing.

Magic and the Weird – Weird Pride Day

Neuroqueering is ‘where the magic happens’ (Nick Walker at ITAKOM 2023 & Weird Pride Day Talk 2024).

Features:

• NQL offer an infinity of in-betweens.
• NQLS create serendipity.
• NQLS are incubators and catalysts for authentic becoming.
• NQLS are emergent.
• NQLS are process-driven and not outcome-driven.
• NQLS are rhizomatic and will keep expanding.
• NQLS are where the magic happens.
• NQLS centre the magical amalgumation of metacognition, intuition and knowing.

Knowledge and Epistemic Justice

When they speak, it is scientific;
when we speak, it is unscientific.
When they speak, it is universal;
when we speak, it is specific.
When they speak, it is objective;
when we speak, it is subjective.
When they speak, it is neutral;
when we speak, it is personal.
When they speak, it is rational;
when we speak, it is emotional.
When they speak, it is impartial;
when we speak, it is partial.
They have facts, we have opinions.
They have knowledges, we have experiences.
We are not dealing here with a peaceful coexistence of words,
but rather with a violent hierachy, which defines
Who can Speak, and What We Can Speak About.

Who Can Speak? by Grada Kilomba in ’Decolonizing Knowledge‘ (2016)

Principles:

• Centre lived experience learning.
• Centre internal knowing — gnosis.
• Centre bodymind knowledge and wisdom.

Conclusion

Our aim is to facilitate a shift in culture and approach towards an embodied, holistic model. By raising awareness of the problems and supporting curiosity. Additionally, we want to create safe and trauma-informed spaces for embodied learning and facilitation, where individuality, divergence, and innovation are valued, celebrated, and encouraged. We believe that exploration, discovery, and creativity should be the foundational values in these spaces. We also acknowledge that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process, and that intuition is considered an essential point of reference. Finally, we believe that gut instinct should have the final say in decision-making.

Embodied Education

Contributors

• Helen Edgar, @autisticrealms, www.autisticrealms.com (Parent & Early Years /Primary Teacher, Writer).
• Ryan Boren, @stimpunks, www.stimpunks.org ryan@stimpunks.org(Parent & Co-Founder and Creative Director of Stimpunks).
• David Gray-Hammond, @emgntdivergence, www.emergentdivergence.com (Mentor, Independent Advocate, Independent Researcher).
• Kay Louise Aldred and Dan Aldred @kaylouisealdred, https://www.kaylouisealdred.com/ Teachers & Published Authors (Kay is also a Theologian).
• Pernille Fraser @pernillefraser
  www.pernillefraser.com (Multidisciplinary Artist, Volunteer Visual Arts Ed- Ought Journal of Autistic Culture. Independent slow researcher).
• Max Alexander www.playradical.com (Play worker, Artist, Writer, Thinker and Wiggler).
• Je’anna Clements (Self-Directed Education Facilitator and Facilitation Trainer) www.horizontalcommunication.org and www.jeannaclements.com and www.fhree.org
• Jorn Bettin (Autistic Collaboration Trust) jornbettin.com and autcollab.org

This is a community Neuroqueer Learning Space Project initiated by Ryan Boren (Stimpunks) and Helen Edgar (Autistic Realms).

Inspired by Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities. Autonomous Press.

This is a community project. Feedback welcome. Please contact us.

License: “Neuroqueer Learning Spaces Manifesto” by Stimpunks Foundation, Autistic Realms, et al. is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0