Bodily Induced Aporia as a Catalyst for Transformational Learning

• In Event: 58.083 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 58.083-17 - Transgressive and Transformational Learning in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This philosophical paper explores ‘transformational learning experience’ under the ancient Greek concept of aporia. Aporia, introduced as an educational term in the Platonic dialogues, is the experience of blankness, confusion, and disassociation with former assumptions that follows inquiry or a dialectic learning process. While we often associate this term with mental exercise, this paper uses literary and philosophical examples from Dewey and a case study of Plato’s dialogue the Phaedrus to argue that in fact aporia should be acknowledged as an equally imperative embodied experience, inviting more than merely mental capacities to participate in learning. A theory of bodily-induced aporia may offer new research pathways toward justifying school attention to environmental education.

Author

• LeAnn M. Holland, Teachers College, Columbia University