Imperfect design and teaching for uncertainty

Educational discourse often conveys ideals of perfection, via optimisation, seamlessness, and ‘guaranteed’ learning outcomes. Teaching and learning are, thereby, framed as linear, controllable processes where educators implement evidence-based methods and students respond in predictable ways. In practice, higher education is shaped by imperfection: misalignments between intentions and outcomes, messy interactions, unpredictable constraints, and social, material, and institutional conditions. Rather than failures, such imperfections are both inevitable and generative. Analysing autoethnographic vignettes of teaching practice through an epistemic games lens, we show how deviations from design intentions create unexpected learning opportunities through domesticating (working with rather than correcting) imperfection. We call for a shift from the pursuit of perfection toward more open, critical conversations with students about teaching, learning, and disciplinary knowledge. Our analysis highlights the value of acknowledging complexity, creating space for student agency, and embracing emergence over optimisation as a guiding principle for educational design and practice.