Embargo Period

5-3-2019

Degree Name

MA in Conflict Transformation

First Advisor

Ryland White

Abstract

In this paper, I examine definitions of and relationships between violence, oppression, peace, liberation, and embodiment in the context of critical pedagogy in order to construct a theory of critical embodied praxis for social justice and peace educators. Considering the body to be a tangible vessel through which narratives and mechanisms of violence are expressed and maintained, I explore the potential of the body to be a vessel through which liberatory narratives may be generated and shared. After constructing a theory of critical embodied praxis, I illustrate this framework in action through a personal narrative that explores the intersections of my diasporic Jewish and settler identities as they pertain to my work as a critical place-based educator. This analytic narrative tracks my holistic development over the course of several years, indicating the role of critical embodied praxis in my entwined personal and professional transformations. Bridging the fields of social justice education, peace education, conflict transformation, critical studies, trauma studies, and somatics in a cohesive pedagogical framework, I offer critical embodied praxis as a useful practice for anyone committed to critical pedagogy and/or interested in the healing and liberatory capacities of learning and education.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, embodiment, somatics, trauma healing, social justice education, peace education, Jewish identity, settler colonialism, place-based education

Disciplines

Adult and Continuing Education | Alternative and Complementary Medicine | Community-Based Learning | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Dance | Dance Movement Therapy | Educational Leadership | Educational Methods | Educational Sociology | Epistemology | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Feminist Philosophy | Jewish Studies | Kinesiology | Leadership Studies | Other Mental and Social Health | Other Teacher Education and Professional Development | Other Theatre and Performance Studies | Outdoor Education | Personality and Social Contexts | Place and Environment | Politics and Social Change | Psychological Phenomena and Processes | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education | Sociology of Culture | Systems and Integrative Physiology

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