Impacts of an Embodied Learning Workshop Project in Building a Regenerative and Restorative Learning Environment for Newcomers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Embodied Learning for Holistic Development (Table 8)

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a workshop project for immigrant women designed using embodied learning, situated solidarity building and transnational feminist praxis. The research aimed to evaluate the impact of a holistic pedagogical model on newcomer education, focusing on embodied learning and a strengths-based approach to challenge damaging colonial and deficit logics imbued in the current education-migration system. Research findings demonstrate how the holistic pedagogical approach created a space of renewal which improved well-being by remedying some of the stress incurred in migration journeys. This project also resulted in increased confidence and intercultural community connectedness. Results of this research have significant implications for illuminating the possibilities of holistic educational approaches to enhance migration education and intercultural community building.

Author

• Emily Dobrich, University of Toronto - OISE