Bodily Learning 2021 conference

EMAL was represented at the Bodily Learning 2021 Conference April 22-23, Organised by NTNU in Trondheim Norway – this time virtually due to the pandemic, see the details of the conference here.

EMAL member Camilla Groth held a keynote presentation at the conference.

EMAL members Hilde Margrethe Hegna and Trine Ørbek gave a presentation entitled: Embodied teaching and learning in higher education – a review.

Abstract

Performative research has gained extended attention in research literature the last 20 years. Researchers within this «performative turn» has begun to explore how relational, affective and emotive experiences are significant to teaching and learning. This paper presents and critically discuss the results from a systematic literature review on embodied teaching and learning in higher education. The aim of this study is to gain an overview of existing empirical research, to detect research gaps and make suggestions for further research. The review is based on systematic searches within 11 databases conducted in September 2020, resulting in 1281 hits across a range of disciplines in higher education. Through an inclusion/exclusion process, the number of articles were reduced to 347. In order to explore embodiment as a research field in higher education, we analyzed these articles through Bourdieu’s concept of research habitus. We paid primarily attention to research subject(s), geography, journals, methodology, theoretical perspectives and researchers. To further explore the concept of embodiment in teaching and learning, we chose to examine the articles contextualized within teacher education. These 80 articles, based on empirical studies, were analyzed through Rodemeyer’s understanding of Husserl’s levels of constitution of embodiment: intersubjective community, interpersonal intersubjectivity, active constitution, passive synthesis and primordial/hyletic flow. These reciprocal levels are interpreted as the following analytical entities: embodied intersubjective community in higher education, embodied interpersonal intersubjectivity between educators and students, cognitive awareness of embodied experiences, bodily awareness of embodied experiences, sensory experiences. Preliminary results shows that embodiment in higher education is a fragmented research field in terms of geography, methodology, theory, disciplines, journals and researchers. In teacher education, the studies are mainly focusing on cognitive awareness of embodied experiences. We identify a research gap between embodied interpersonal intersubjectivity/bodily awareness/sensory experiences and teaching and learning.