Using embodies practices with preservice teachers: teaching and reflecting through the body to re-think teacher education

This action research describes how three teacher educators invited preservice teachers to be in their bodies, or learn through “embodied pedagogy.” We wanted see how this pedagogy helped preservice teachers learn to reflect through their bodies, confront their own bias to cognitive ways of knowing, and ultimately begin to consider the use of embodied instructional strategies. We describe our questions, the activities we designed to help us answer them, and data collected from the first course in a pre-service teacher education program. Finally, we analyze these data and identify themes related to embodied learning and reflection and describe some potential implications for teacher educators. Although at times uncomfortable, we found the body became a tool for reflection whether through experiencing or accessing emotions or for uncovering new meanings and deep insights about themselves.