ABSTRACT
This vignette tells the story of a Makerspace from inception to implementation, in my Western Australian public school. As always throughout my teaching career, it started because I wanted to give kids a chance to be seen in a different light, to bring things to the table, to validate what they are able to do. I wanted them to be free to have a go at and be deeply interested without the burden of measured performances. I wanted to help them to resist their perceived ontologies placed upon them by ‘the system’.
To forge our Makerspace we literally started with a pile of garbage. Together, my students and I, with no external help, turned it into something kids own and I run. Our Makerspace might not be the kind of shiny STEM example found on glossy school brochures, but as the students and I work, talk, make mistakes, and laugh, we follow and break the rules, showing what learning can look like when it is reclaimed by those doing the learning. It is ‘soul work’ that connects with the hearts and minds of students.
