In this episode, we interview Jamy Wheless, who is a well-known US-based animator. We build on our conversation of the threshold concept, focusing on how we can help learners when they are in these marginal, threshold spaces. Jennifer Berger, a teacher educator at George Mason University, in her work on liminality, takes up the idea of threshold spaces, but rather than looking at what topics these could be across different disciplines, she thinks deeply about how to support learners when they find themselves in these threshold moments, what happens as what she calls the ‘edges of meaning making or knowing’. She writes about this as a “liminal space where can come to terms with the limitations of our knowing and thus begin to stretch those limits. This makes the liminal zones between our knowing and not knowing both difficult to understand—because they are constantly moving and being redefined—and also of central importance to our work as transformational educators”. Understandably, being at the edges of knowing is a variable experience for her students. While some love it, and find joy and transformation in difficult spaces, others experience anguish.

Her paper talks about the responsibility of the teacher in these moments of liminality. She identifies three different responsibilities for teachers: 1. helping students find and recognize the edge, 2. being good company at the edge, and 3. helping to build firm ground in a new place. We will use Jamy’s stories to see examples of how teachers take on these three responsibilities.

Resources: Jamy Wheless IMDB profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1924367/

Berger, J. G. (2004). Dancing on the Threshold of Meaning: Recognizing and Understanding the Growing Edge. Journal of Transformative Education, 2(4), 336–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344604267697