Abstract

What do we mean when we talk about events? Can we even (really) say we know what an ‘event’ is? To begin thinking about teaching in terms of the event is to begin thinking about all of those things that happen in our classrooms that we don’t and can’t control. Thinking the event means thinking about the unthinkable, the unforeseeable and ultimately the unknowable. It is about letting go of a concept – almost impossible to relinquish – that teaching and learning are transparent entities: understandable, limitable, predictable, something we can and do know about. Thinking about the event is thinking about what actually happens, not what we think should or ought to happen in our classrooms.