Embodied wisdom: Meditations on memoir and education by Alison Pryer, Ph.D.
explores the interconnectedness of body, mind and spirit within diverse educational contexts.
Evocative, sensual prose carries the reader on a journey through the personal and the
remembered in a layered series of autobiographical essays, each one affording deeper insights
into the ways in which the inner, emotional life of an educator is intertwined with everyday
embodied practice. This is a provocative text, alive with the richness and complexity of
pedagogical experience, one that acknowledges the presence of the body, the spirit, the
passionate, the subjective, the intuitive, the chaotic, and the sacred in all the relationships that
make teaching and learning possible.
In speaking beyond the limitations of dualistic pedagogy, in its diverse forms and
locations, Embodied wisdom enters at times into unexpected and little explored pedagogical
territories, engaging with educational contexts that our dualistic culture often denigrates,
dismisses, or considers taboo. This work offers readers subtle understandings of the centrality of love, desire and eros in teaching and
learning; carefully examines the connections between powerful family and school pedagogies, including "domestic" violence against
women and childhood sexual abuse; opens up a textual space in which to contemplate the contemporary relevance of the ancient
wisdom of Zen pedagogy; and gives serious consideration to the role that the public pedagogies of popular culture play in the formation
of personal and cultural identity.
The work of healing our dualistic educational culture is a significant political and ethical undertaking - a matter of social
justice. Embodied wisdom is a book that lights the way for those who want to engage in meaningful cultural transformation. It is, above
all, a generative and hopeful text, one that makes possible new kinds of conversations. It will be of interest to curriculum theorists and
teacher educators, as well as those engaged in holistic education, social ecology, women's and gender studies, and cultural studies. This
award-winning, ground breaking exploration of memoir as methodology is also an
exquisitely written resource for those engaged in innovative arts-based and
autobiographical research.
