Abstract
This chapter aims to establish embodied movement as both the physical and metaphysical ground for learning, including aesthetic learning in an ecological context. We advocate the moving body as critical to celebrating and deepening childhoodnature. The disconnections from embodiment that have occurred within western cultures and the implications of educational settings that lack an acceptance of natural movement expression and experiential “whole body” learning methodologies are discussed. A double bind arises from the split between mind and body, humanity and nature, and scientific materialism and broader holistic views of science (Moradian, Double Bind: Finding our way back home (manuscript in preparation), 2017). Examples of problems, solutions, and research suggestions are provided through a series of vignettes that offer an analysis of bodily disassociation, or disembodiment, and propose a revitalization of thinking, feeling, and living childhoodnature through the body in and as movement. We suggest that developing a lifelong somatic relationship with our bodies in motion, a relationship in which we bring our attention to our lived (psychosensory-motor) experience, is a powerful way to reclaim that wholeness which allows us to care and connect for self and others, to feel a sense of place and belonging, and to self-regulate our behavior for optimal interaction with our world.
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Acknowledgments
We would also like to thank April Baldwin, Nannette Bertschy, Nerida Godfrey, Jeffrey Gormley, Michael Kleïn, Sabine Meunier, Philippe Nguyen, Corinne Ott and Jérôme Yelnik for generously sharing their experience, insights and research in ways that have helped to expand, clarify and refine our perspectives and understanding.
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Eddy, M.H., Moradian, A.L. (2018). Childhoodnature in Motion: The Ground for Learning. In: Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Malone, K., Barratt Hacking, E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_97-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_97-1
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Childhoodnature in Motion: The Ground for Learning- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_97-2
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Childhoodnature in Motion: The Ground for Learning- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_97-1