This book explores the practical and psychological factors that regulate teaching and learning in the classroom, and illustrates how hope and creativity may arise out of unforeseen, non-standard, or turbulent conditions.

Written at the intersection of curriculum theory and psychoanalysis, this volume offers an original pedagogical stance that seeks to ameliorate the impact of the classroom’s regulated and standardized environment. The author’s approach to classroom education suggests that teachers investigate students’ psychological entanglements to explain and transform difficult classroom experiences into productive, educative ones. By promoting an ethos of ironic engagement in teaching and learning, this book also demonstrates the importance of playfulness, imagination, and a readiness to make mistakes in classroom settings.

This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, and policy makers in the fields of curriculum studies, teacher education, educational psychology and classroom management.