This book aims to define new theoretical, practical, and methodological directions in educational research centered on the role of the body in teaching and learning. Based on our phenomenological experience of the world, it draws on perspectives from arts-education and aesthetics, as well as curriculum theory, cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology. These are arenas with a rich untapped cache of experience and inquiry that can be applied to the notions of schooling, teaching and learning. The book provides examples of state-of-the-art, empirical research on the body in a variety of educational settings. Diverse art forms, curricular settings, educational levels, and cultural traditions are selected to demonstrate the complexity and richness of embodied knowledge as they are manifested through institutional structures, disciplines, and specific practices.

This carefully constructed and thorough collection of theoretical engagements with Augusto Boal’s work is the first to look ’beyond Boal’ and critically assesses the Theatre of the Opressed (TO) movement in context. A Boal Companion looks at the cultural practices which inform TO and explore them within a larger frame of cultural politics and performance theory. The contributors put TO into dialogue with complexity theory – Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, race theory, feminist performance art, Deleuze and Guattari, and liberation psychology – to name just a few, and in doing so, the kinship between Boal’s project and multiple fields of social psychology, ethics, biology, comedy, trauma studies and political science is made visible. The ideas generated throughout A Boal Companion will: expand readers' understanding of TO as a complex, interdisciplinary, multivocal body of philosophical discourses provide a variety of lenses through which to practice and critique TO make explicit the relationship between TO and other bodies of work. This collection is ideal for TO practitioners and scholars who want to expand their knowledge, but it also provides unfamiliar readers and new students to the discipline with an excellent study resource.

Through the narratives of practitioner-researchers, this practical guide shares the proven processes, phases and supports that are most effective for generating living-educational-theories with values of human flourishing. Filled with case studies and continuing professional development activities, this book supports readers to conduct a values-based inquiry to improve their lives, describing and explaining how they influence themselves, others and the places where they live and work. There are four parts to the book, guiding readers through the process of creating and sharing their own living-educational-theory: Part One is designed to meet the needs of the beginning researcher as they start a project to improve their practice. Part Two builds on Part One to address the deeper, more complex requirements of those interested in more academic projects potentially for accreditation at the Master’s level. Part Three is a description and explanation of the history and context of Living Educational Theory Research with a focus on doctoral degrees. Part Four focuses on applying this knowledge more widely to living our educational responsibilities as global citizens. This book will serve as a useful guide, as opposed to a fixed template, to support readers in living their values more fully. It is an essential resource for all practitioners interested in establishing a Culture of Inquiry to create their own living-educational-theories. These are explanations of values-based professional development within their school community and can be submitted for academic accreditation.

In contemporary psychoanalysis, a key concept and aim of clinical practice is to distinguish the boundaries of any mental state. Without this boundary-setting, the patient has nothing but the 'formless infinite' of primitive mental states. Formless Infinity: Clinical Explorations of Matte Blanco and Bion draws on the work of these two authors to explore how analysts can work with patients to reveal, understand and ultimately contain their primitive mental states. Riccardo Lombardi discusses the core concepts of the unconscious, the role of the body in analysis, time and death. He displays the clinical implications of Matte Blanco’s theoretical extension of Freud’s theory of the unconscious, presenting numerous clinical examples of working with psychosis and other severe pathologies. Formless Infinity, a stimulating teaching text for students, trainers and seasoned mental health practitioners, is essential reading for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. It is particularly recommended to analysts interested in widening the scope of the analytic practice by exploring the functioning of the deep unconscious, primitive mental states, psychosomatic pathologies and psychotic conditions.

Women’s lives are often written on our bodies. Yet very little is made of the impacts of embodiment for women in literacy education, both learners and professionals. This volume presents the writings of 26 contributors—teachers, students, and administrators—who examine the rich terrain of personal and professional experiences related to whole person engagement in learning and teaching. These writings provide a compass to guide readers through the bodily landscapes, mindful flights, willful spirits, and emotional embraces. Written with the same desire to open minds, hearts and practices to new understanding, this book builds on the successful style of Empowering Women through Literacy (2009). This new volume appeals to all readers, as the essays, poems, and investigations woven through its pages challenge us to consider the embodyment of women’s learning. Join us on the journey as we travel across many arenas and discover significant ways to comprehend and support best practices in teaching and learning, especially for women.

The idea of complementing borders is appropriately ambiguous with respect to Latin America. People inhabiting cultural borders do not belong to either of the two sides, yet they are contained within the complementation that emerges when two or more cultures interdependently and incongruously interact. In giving an account of complementing borders, this volume alludes to the Latin American context through notions of rhythms and resonances, euphonies and discords, continuous flows and syncopies- all of which are found in everyday life, the arts, politics, economics, and social institutions and practices.

This narrative about the research journey explores the motivation to study practices of environmental education and the privilege that supports the authors ability to do so.

The Authentic Dissertation is a road map for students who want to make their dissertation more than a series of hoop-jumping machinations that cause them to lose the vitality and meaningfulness of their research. Students and tutors are presented with practical guidance for the kind of alternative dissertations that many educators believe are needed to move Doctoral and Master’s level work beyond the limitations that currently stifle authentic contributions for a better world. Drawing on his Cherokee/Creek ancestry and the Raramuri shamans of Mexico the author explores how research can regain its humanist core and find its true place in the natural order once more. Four Arrows provides a degree of "credibility" that will help graduate students legitimize their ideas in the eyes of more conservative university committees. This inspiring book will also help academics who sincerely want to see these alternative forms but are concerned about the rigor of "alternative" dissertation research and presentation. The featured dissertation stories tap into more diverse perspectives, more authentic experience and reflection, and more creative abilities. They are, in essence, spiritual undertakings that Honour the centrality of the researcher’s voice, experience, creativity and authority Focus more on important questions than on research methodologies per se Reveal virtues (generosity, patience, courage, respect, humility, fortitude, etc.) Regard the people’s version of reality The goal of this book is not to replace the historical values of academic research in the western tradition, but to challenge some of these values and offer alternative ideas that stem from different, sometimes opposing values.