ABSTRACT
Using researched perspectives of bodies and embodiment, alongside dramatic structures, where bodies are foregrounded, this article looks closely at bodies and embodiment inside of school settings. Specifically, it investigates a community in Southern Ontario and the perceived, affective, relational, and critical ways that study participants story their identities about their bodies. Findings suggest that body image itself (i.e. how youth perceive their bodies) and embodiment (i.e. how youth use their bodies for communication and learning) are vital but sometimes invisible topics in today’s school settings, where bodies are continually interpreted, admired, shamed, moved, rejected, and positioned. Though drama and other subjects like the arts focus on embodied ways of knowing and offer unique opportunities for learning, they can also hold unique challenges in school settings.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Kari-Lynn Winters
Kari-Lynn Winters is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education at Brock University. Her research interests include exploring embodied literacies across a range of diverse contexts, drama in education, children’s literature, and authorship as social, semiotic, and critical assemblage.
Mary Code
Mary Code is a teacher and activist with a passion for creativity in education, 21st century pedagogy, and intersectional feminism. She graduated in 2015 from Brock University’s Master of Education program, and has since gone on to pursue her love of teaching and learning. She currently teaches English, drama, and the Social Sciences at Fieldstone King’s College School in Toronto.