Researching embodied learning by using videographic participation for data collection and audiovisual narratives for dissemination – illustrated by the encounter between two acrobats

Abstract

The article concerns doing ethnography in education and it reflects upon using ‘videographic participation’ for data collection and the concept of ‘audiovisual narratives’ for dissemination, which is inspired by the idea of developing academic video. The article takes a narrative approach to qualitative research and presents a case from contemporary circus education examining embodied learning, whereas the particular focus in this article is methodology and the development of a dissemination strategy for empirical material generated through videographic participation. Drawing on contributions concerned with the senses from the field of sport sciences and from the field of visual anthropology and sensory ethnography, the article concludes that using videographic participation and creating audiovisual narratives might be a good option to capture the multisensuous dimensions of a learning situation.

Keywords:

• videographic participation
• multisensoriality
• audiovisual narrative
• embodied learning
• contemporary circus

Acknowledgements

The first author wishes to thank Barbara and Michael, and the other participating students for their time and for allowing her to share their experiences. She acknowledges The Academy of Untamed Creativity (Copenhagen, DK) for allowing access to The Circus Performer Department.