Embodied Encounters: Toward a Pedagogy of Relational Witnessing and Discomfort

• In Event: Building a Pedagogical Repertoire for Teacher Educators to Support Dispositions for Equity

Abstract

Objectives: This paper turns to embodiment as a schema for teacher educators to help teacher candidates foster their development of dispositions for equity based teaching. Embodiment means the everyday, authentic presence a teacher has in and out of the classroom. We explore the development of embodiment of equity-based teaching by exploring the ways in which teacher educators leverage embodied knowledges to work toward transformation for educational equity.

Perspectives: We draw from King’s (1991) notion of “dysconsciousness.” We acknowledge that many teacher candidates enter preparation programs with an un-knowing frame of reference for the existence of systemic racism and the “accepting of the existing order of things as given” (p. 135). Dysconsciousness can be rooted in inhabiting spaces where whiteness is an invisible norm. For all teacher candidates and teacher educators, dysconsciousness is a phenomenon in the classroom that must be dealt with across racial and cultural experiences.

We also draw on feminist scholars (Lorde 1984; Boler 1999) who take up emotion as transformative moments and sites for learning. Emotion, as a physical response to situations, is not treated as a binary process of thinking as logical and emoting as irrational. Rather, emotion is a timely experience triggered under particular circumstances and is a physical experience that can teach us about ourselves when we confront sensitive issues such as race, difference, and equity.

Methods: We draw on interviews with teacher candidates and teacher educators in a research university context. The participants have engaged in the adoption of an assessment of equity-based dispositions and have actively worked on new curriculum and pedagogical approaches for developing these dispositions with teacher candidates.

Results: We identify three ways that teacher educators leveraged embodied knowledges that supported teacher candidates in becoming critical pedagogues.

Identifying the missing knowledge of dysconscious racism. Previously, the underlying assumption of our pedagogies was to change candidates’ beliefs. We focus on the pedagogical methods taken up by teacher educators in the process of coaching their candidates through the sometimes uncomfortable process of 'waking up' to new dimensions of consciousness towards equity-based teaching.

Coaching candidates to practice embodiment. Embodiment of equity-based pedagogies requires attuning to new environments, becoming aware of one’s physical presence, and developing an unsanitized representation of one’s commitments to equity. Our pedagogies center on coaching candidates through taking calculated risks of trying new equity-based practices and language; actively “pushing” candidates into places of deeper examination of why they enact particular practices; and supporting them in daily exploration and experimentation.

Assisting and supporting identity development. This shift in consciousness changes the way one sees the world and themselves. This process leads to changes in identity for candidates and teacher educators as they move towards understanding themselves as a more critical pedagogue and advocate for equity.

Significance: This paper advances understandings of developing embodied and affective knowledges in teacher preparation. By bearing witness to the intensities and vulnerabilities afforded by these knowledges, teacher educators with teacher candidates can work toward transformative practices for equity.

Authors

• Justin Phillip Jimenez, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Mistilina D. Sato, University of Minnesota

• Jehanne Beaton, University of Minnesota

• Amanda Christine Shopa, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities