Projektdetaljer
Beskrivelse
This pilot project explores embodied learning in anthropology. The aim is to advance knowledge of bodies as agents and resources in academic knowledge-making. Embodied learning is a well-established element of learning within aesthetic and craftmanship traditions, increasingly in primary and secondary education, and while not officially part of the curriculum, anthropologists of science have also long documented the importance of embodied learning for the success of graduate students in medicine, chemistry, biology, and geology. Similarly, within anthropology it is a well-established fact that the researcher’s body and emotions play crucial parts in anthropological fieldwork and analysis. But what is it that makes embodied learning so crucial, not least for academic knowledge practices, and how can we become more attentive to the potentials of these dimensions for knowledge making?
This study holds that:
Intellectual creativity draws on underexplored kinesthetic and affective dexterities that can be recognized, trained and refined through alternative learning methodologies and in communities of practice
To explore this hypothesis, we employ three research questions:
• What are the features of embodied learning?
• What is brought into light if we explore bodies as agents and resources in academic knowledge-
making?
• What kinds of creative potential for research can be released and nurtured by explicitly training kin-
esthetic and affective sensitivities and attention?
To respond to these questions, the study has a dual focus: academic knowledge practices and alternative embodied learning methodologies. More specifically, it explores current anthropological research and teaching practices and, experimentally, brings three alternative embodied learning methodologies into these: contact improvisation, storytelling, and bodily-emotion-attention training. Anthropology is an especially privileged site to examine embodied knowledge practices, due to the centrality of the researcher’s body and emotions in fieldwork and analysis. By exploring existing practices and examining the results of introducing the three embodied learning methodologies into teaching initi- atives, the study shall advance knowledge of bodies as agents in anthropological knowledge-making. The study brings together an international team of collaborators with experiences in embodied learning methodologies. The Interacting Minds Centre, AU hosts the project.
This study holds that:
Intellectual creativity draws on underexplored kinesthetic and affective dexterities that can be recognized, trained and refined through alternative learning methodologies and in communities of practice
To explore this hypothesis, we employ three research questions:
• What are the features of embodied learning?
• What is brought into light if we explore bodies as agents and resources in academic knowledge-
making?
• What kinds of creative potential for research can be released and nurtured by explicitly training kin-
esthetic and affective sensitivities and attention?
To respond to these questions, the study has a dual focus: academic knowledge practices and alternative embodied learning methodologies. More specifically, it explores current anthropological research and teaching practices and, experimentally, brings three alternative embodied learning methodologies into these: contact improvisation, storytelling, and bodily-emotion-attention training. Anthropology is an especially privileged site to examine embodied knowledge practices, due to the centrality of the researcher’s body and emotions in fieldwork and analysis. By exploring existing practices and examining the results of introducing the three embodied learning methodologies into teaching initi- atives, the study shall advance knowledge of bodies as agents in anthropological knowledge-making. The study brings together an international team of collaborators with experiences in embodied learning methodologies. The Interacting Minds Centre, AU hosts the project.
Status | Afsluttet |
---|---|
Effektiv start/slut dato | 01/08/2020 → 15/10/2021 |
Fingerprint
Udforsk forskningsemnerne, som dette projekt berører. Disse etiketter er oprettet på grundlag af de underliggende bevillinger/legater. Sammen danner de et unikt fingerprint.