What Is the Body Doing in Educational Theory and Justice-Oriented Pedagogy? Taking the Body Turn

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This 90-minute session includes four paper presentations, a chair and a discussant to facilitate questions and commentary about different theoretical entries for understanding the body/bodies in educational research and justice-oriented pedagogy. The four papers highlight original empirical studies in middle grades, high school, and teacher education that demonstrate the necessity of tending to the body in scholarly and pedagogical ways. Each of the four papers draws from and extends different traditions for making sense of the body including: Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and feminist phenomenologists, Butler’s feminist poststructural and performance theories, de Lauretis’s feminist theory of imaging, Gee’s sociocultural discourse theory, Bourdieu’s sociology, and feminist geography. The Chair will introduce key issues and objectives for the session and the Discussant will provide a brief commentary about the four papers presented and facilitate an interactive discussion.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Section 1: Critical Perspectives and Practices

Chair

• Grace Enriquez, Lesley University

Papers

• Learning to Read Bodies Differently in Education - Hilary E. Hughes-Decatur, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Embodying English: Performing and Positioning “White Teacher” in an English Classroom - Elisabeth Johnson, College of Staten Island - CUNY

• “The Personal Has Become Political”: The Presence of a Secondary Teacher’s Body in the Classroom - Christine Ann Mallozzi, University of Kentucky

• Orienting Bodies in Space: Riding the Bus in Teacher Education - Stephanie R. Jones, University of Georgia; Rachel Monette, University of Georgia

Discussant

• Elizabeth M. Dutro, University of Colorado