Design, disability and play: the animal politics of education

ABSTRACT

This article draws out the materialist import of the turn towards universal design in learning. Bringing Brian Massumi's recent work on play together with disability studies, it identifies design as integral to the embodied dynamics of classrooms. Contrasting neo-Darwinist presumptions with materialist insights by thinkers like Tim Ingold, the chapter makes the case for pedagogical methods that exemplify play. On Massumi's terms, play is instinctual, proffering a resource for undermining the despair of normalising scripts. If learning involves play, then there is lived abstraction at the heart of becoming. And if teaching involves design work, teachers become more responsible for their own pedagogical stylings. Taking up Margaret Price's work on disability, the article explores flexibility as an ethos that ideally suffuses all instruction. Design work can create playful classroom territories, but it can also reinforce the despair of exclusionary spaces. The article makes the case for flexibility as an existentially transformative dynamic.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability studies
• Brian Massumi
• universal design
• evolutionary theory
• new materialist theory

Acknowledgements

I thank the editors of this special issue for wonderfully helpful suggestions. I also thank Kyle Kinaschuk for excellent and insightful research assistance. An early version of this article was presented at Towson University's 38th annual Philosophy colloquium, and I thank the participants for engaging feedback. Many friends’ shared pedagogical reflections that appear in this article; thanks in particular to Namrata Mitra, Tara Pedersen, Katja Pettinen and Emily Anne Parker.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Universal Design principles have been translated into universal design principles for learning or instruction (King-Sears 2009): (1) Be accessible and fair; (2) Provide flexibility in use, participation and presentation; (3) Be explicitly presented and readily perceived; (4) Provide a supportive learning environment; (5) Minimise unnecessary physical effort or requirements; and (6) Ensure a learning space that accommodates both students and instructional methods.