Teaching sensory geographies in practice: transforming students’ awareness and understanding through playful experimentation

ABSTRACT

Various “turns” within human geography (“emotional”, “sensory”, “experimental”, and “creative”) have highlighted the role that the senses play in our embodied and emotional experiences of place, and the need for more sensuous scholarly practices. Resulting work has enriched the discipline theoretically and methodologically, however, the same cannot be said for our pedagogy. Drawing on data relating to one undergraduate Honours option course, this paper highlights the powerful role that sensorially engaged pedagogy can play in transforming the awareness and understanding of geography students. It focuses, in particular, on methods of emphasising the embodied, emplaced and individually constructed nature of knowledge, the critical potential of play in the learning process, and how students might be emboldened to enact performances of understanding leading to a transformation in the person of the student.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential learning
• geography
• undergraduate
• sensory
• play
• knowledge

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Hazel Christie who read several draft versions of this paper and to the journal Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. In 2018 versions of this paper were presented at the Uncommon Senses II conference (Montreal), the University of Edinburgh Teaching and Learning Conference, and the Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference (Cardiff) where the attending audiences provided thoughtful comment and much encouragement. Finally, thanks to Faten Adam (for always saying ‘yes’), Kirsty Allan, Carry Arnold, Andrew Barnett, Mercat Tours, Pickering’s Gin, Beth Muir, Danie Nordahl, Peter Reid, Eduardo Serafin, Silent Disco Adventures, and Kathryn Will without the support and generosity of whom SPSP would not have functioned over the years.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Vannini et al. (2012, p. 67) define sensory intelligence as “a type of intelligence that involves all our senses and the reflexive cultivation of our sensations. Sensory intelligence is the ability to understand one’s and others” sensations. It is the skilled use of sensibility to approach life situations. It is the ability to utilize one’s senses as skills to manipulate and adapt to one’s environment. It is the combined emotional, visceral, and cognitive ability to engage in somatic work’.

2. At least in part; it should be noted that my approach to teaching and learning has been heavily influenced by my experience as an undergraduate student on the “Histories and Cultures of the Transatlantic” course outlined in Cook (2000).

3. Two lectures in Weeks 3–7 are always delivered by guest lecturers. These have included Kate McLean (smell), Jonathan Prior (hearing), George Jaramillo (seeing), Michael Gallagher (hearing), Sophia Lycouris (kinaesthesia), Abbie Garrington (touch) and Ericka Duffy (smell). The order of the themes in Weeks 3–7 is subject to change according to speaker/venue availability.

4. At the start of the course the students are told that they should participate in class activities only when they feel comfortable doing so; should they prefer simply to observe at certain points no comment will be made. Although I accept that the arm stroking activity may be an unwelcome emotional trigger for some students, I feel that strategic use of interpersonal touch in this instance provides a powerful embodied learning experience, far more so than is I asked the students to merely contemplate touching the person next to them. To date, some have opted not to participate (either as toucher, touched, or both); however, it is usually the case that I have to instruct them to stop stroking each other after several minutes when the activity transitions from teachable moment into giddiness at the novelty of the act. Several students have gone on to discuss unsolicited and solicited interpersonal touch in their assessed blog posts; again, students are told at the start of the course that I have a duty of care for their safety and/or well-being and that if they discuss anything that concerns me in their blog I will raise it with the Geography Student Support Coordinator.

5. Inspiration for these are drawn from The Geography Collective (2010), Smith (2008, 2016), and various online resources for primary and secondary school teachers.

6. In 2017–18 the assessment weightings were flipped in response to consistent student feedback. Previously, students submitted a 2000-word five-post blog (40%) and a 3000-word essay (60%).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Edinburgh Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme [Not applicable].