Corporéité et Apprentissage

Pour une pédagogie au croisement de la philosophie, de la danse et des études féministes

Abstract

This article explores the decloisonnement of philosophy by questioning the contributions of a pedagogy based on the expression of the body, as developed by the performing arts. While the body is a pedagogical resource (Duval et al. 2022, p. 3-4-5), and has been recognized since Antiquity with the teaching of choral art (Plato, The Laws, II 673d; VII 795e), its use remains generally limited in university teaching. We believe that this restriction feeds relationships of domination through the negation of bodily experiences. As bell hooks explains, denying the body feeds the myth of a neutral class, allowing behaviors associated with dominant social classes to be normalized (hooks, 1994). Such normalization restricts the learning of students from non-dominant social groups.

We will therefore attempt to answer the question of how to place corporeality at the heart of learning, as a pedagogical resource and a place of knowledge. In particular, we believe that an embodied pedagogy, inspired not only by feminist pedagogies but also by somatic education and dance studies, would offer a philosophical practice highly beneficial to the development of learners' epistemic agentivity and autonomy.

Questioning the learning's place of the body thus involves several issues, which will guide our discussion: a pedagogical issue, an epistemic issue and a political issue. It is crucial to clarify each of these issues, in order to better understand the potential benefits and risks of the specific engagement of corporeality in learning. We argue for the importance of interdisciplinary research to grasp these three issues, especially as research in dance and somatic education has developed a rich understanding of what learning based on the multisensoriality of our corporeity entails. This multisensoriality is highlighted by phenomenological and enactive approaches to knowledge. These philosophical approaches, in which the place of the body is central, highlight postures, learning dispositions and attitudes that are still often absent from education and society in general. We'll pay particular attention to the relational dimension of physicality, and look at the pedagogical tools to turn it into a pedagogical and epistemic resource.