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What Is the Role of the Body in Science Education? A Conversation Between Traditions

Kersting, Magdalena ; Amin, Tamer G. ; Euler, Elias LU ; Gregorcic, Bor ; Haglund, Jesper ; Hardahl, Liv Kondrup and Steier, Rolf (2023) In Science and Education
Abstract

Bodily engagement with the material and sociocultural world is ubiquitous in doing and learning science. However, science education researchers have often tended to emphasize the disembodied and nonmaterial aspects of science learning, thereby overlooking the crucial role of the body in meaning-making processes. While in recent years we have seen a turn towards embracing embodied perspectives, there persist considerable theoretical and methodological differences within research on embodiment in science education that hamper productive discourse. What is needed is a careful examination of how different traditions and disciplines, among them philosophy, social semiotics, and cognitive science, bear on embodiment in science education... (More)

Bodily engagement with the material and sociocultural world is ubiquitous in doing and learning science. However, science education researchers have often tended to emphasize the disembodied and nonmaterial aspects of science learning, thereby overlooking the crucial role of the body in meaning-making processes. While in recent years we have seen a turn towards embracing embodied perspectives, there persist considerable theoretical and methodological differences within research on embodiment in science education that hamper productive discourse. What is needed is a careful examination of how different traditions and disciplines, among them philosophy, social semiotics, and cognitive science, bear on embodiment in science education research. This paper aims to explore and articulate the differences and convergences of embodied perspectives in science education research in the form of a dialogue between three fictitious personas that stand for the cognitive, social-interactionist, and phenomenological research traditions. By bringing these traditions into dialogue, we aim to better position the role of the body in the science education research landscape. In doing so, we take essential steps towards unifying terminology across different research traditions and further exploring the implications of embodiment for science education research.

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organization
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
Science and Education
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85150723666
ISSN
0926-7220
DOI
10.1007/s11191-023-00434-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c9459ab0-9fcd-41ff-88d1-feba26a52767
date added to LUP
2023-05-29 12:15:52
date last changed
2023-05-29 12:15:52
@article{c9459ab0-9fcd-41ff-88d1-feba26a52767,
  abstract     = {{<p>Bodily engagement with the material and sociocultural world is ubiquitous in doing and learning science. However, science education researchers have often tended to emphasize the disembodied and nonmaterial aspects of science learning, thereby overlooking the crucial role of the body in meaning-making processes. While in recent years we have seen a turn towards embracing embodied perspectives, there persist considerable theoretical and methodological differences within research on embodiment in science education that hamper productive discourse. What is needed is a careful examination of how different traditions and disciplines, among them philosophy, social semiotics, and cognitive science, bear on embodiment in science education research. This paper aims to explore and articulate the differences and convergences of embodied perspectives in science education research in the form of a dialogue between three fictitious personas that stand for the cognitive, social-interactionist, and phenomenological research traditions. By bringing these traditions into dialogue, we aim to better position the role of the body in the science education research landscape. In doing so, we take essential steps towards unifying terminology across different research traditions and further exploring the implications of embodiment for science education research.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kersting, Magdalena and Amin, Tamer G. and Euler, Elias and Gregorcic, Bor and Haglund, Jesper and Hardahl, Liv Kondrup and Steier, Rolf}},
  issn         = {{0926-7220}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Science and Education}},
  title        = {{What Is the Role of the Body in Science Education? A Conversation Between Traditions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11191-023-00434-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11191-023-00434-7}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}