Negotiating Liminal Spaces: Purposeful Pedagogy in Diverse Classrooms

This paper starts with a personal exploration of my life as an African immigrant in North America. I inhabit a liminal space, and this paper explores negotiating life as a person “inbetween” worlds. Notable theories have been put forward concerning liminality (Anzaldúa, 2002, Ledgister, 2001; hooks, 1984). I discuss the origins of liminality and its various permutations with the aim of clarifying what it means to inhabit this space. Liminality represents a powerful vantage point that accords inhabitants, “not just one set of eyes but half a dozen, each of them corresponding to the places you have been…..” (Said, 1988, p. 48). I acknowledge the ability of liminars to analyze circumstances differently, creating alternative ways of knowing and being. My discussion will draw from personal experiences, postcolonial, and feminist theory. In conclusion, I suggest how we can create purposeful pedagogy considering the changing demographic face of our classrooms