The Liminal Space is the Upside Down.

Like me, you may be asking yourself 'what the hell is the liminal space?'. Well you can relax because you're not alone in thinking this and I'm going to attempt to explain my interpretation of it to help you out.

The liminal space is often described as being a transitional space or a place in between leaving one place and entering another. Stranger Things fans think Upside Down.

Until this week I had been fairly confused about what the liminal space was, I still am. It's a confusing space by definition. I was thinking more of physical transitional spaces such as hallways, spaces in the room where students transition between classes. outside areas etc. Which I suppose can still be considered as liminal spaces.

But after this week I have begun to understand more about the abstract state of liminality. Even that sentence sound daunting. It is and it isn't. One liminal space which comes to mind and which we all experience throughout our years of schooling is the transition between one year level to the next.

When I think more about this concept I think particularly about the younger years when learning goes from play-based to becoming a lot more structured. And in the older years when students go from year 6, from being the eldest at the school and are expected to be role-models to year 7 when they are suddenly at the bottom of the school again.

How do we prepare children for this change? Currently, I don't know. Of course there are things we can do as teachers to ease students into these changes. Gradually placing students in scenarios to prepare them and teaching them strategies to cope with transition. However, i'm not sure that there is a way to completely prepare students for the liminal. What do you think?