Embodied Relational Knowing: Expanding Privileged Forms of Knowledge in Schools

• In Event: Traversing Boundaries Together: Centering Disabled Ways of Being and Knowing

Abstract

In this study, drawing from feminist disability studies (Garland-Thompson, 2005; Hall, 2002) and embodied relational knowing (Freiler, 2018; Thayer-Bacon, 2010), we illustrate how students demonstrate varied ways of knowing as they navigate relationships with their teachers, even when those ways are not privileged in the context of daily instructional routines. Our findings illustrate the importance of teachers forming trusting relationships with students by being sensitive to their initiations for embodied relational communication and the knowing that can result from these interactions. We posit that privileging multiple ways of knowing based on authentic interactions would open horizons for these students’ schooling experiences.

Authors

• Charna D'Ardenne, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Karen Erickson, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill