The embodied academic: body work in teacher education.

 

Abstract

Over the last decade, the body and the sensory have become more of a focal point of public discourse, with the body now seen as an identity project (Freedman and Stoddard Holmes, 2003; Orbach, 2010; Shilling, 2012), a part of our selves that we can manage, mould and shape to fit the image we would like to represent. As such the body and the sensory have also entered the realms of teaching and teacher education and the practices of teachers and teacher educators. I, too, have developed a more nuanced understanding of embodiment and the role of the body – my body – within my practice as teacher educator.  But what is it that makes me an embodied practitioner? What does my embodied practice look like? Is there a difference between being an embodied teacher and an embodied academic? Am I an embodied academic? In my contribution to this book I explore my journey from a secondary teacher to teacher educator to lecturer, a journey that signifies for me the transition from a teacher interested in embodiment to an embodied teacher and finally to an embodied academic. I explore embodiment in teaching and teacher education. This leads to an analysis of body work in teaching and teacher education. I conclude my chapter with a call for bringing bodies into practice.

 

Reference:

Brown, N. (2019). The embodied academic: body work in teacher education. In: Leigh, J. S. (ed.). Conversations on Embodiment across Higher Education: Teaching, Practice and Research. London: Routledge, 86-95.