Interweaving a mindfully somatic pedagogy into an early childhood classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere has been considerable distress in early childhood classrooms due to a cultural bias of Cartesian dualism, which has led to the bullying and disappearance of Body in education. Efforts of bringing about shifts in pedagogical practices toward holistic, bodily views of the self must be supported and developed. However, with classrooms that are filled with less movement and play, the marginalization of Body is of major concern. Interdisciplinary educational settings may be rich in exposing potentials and challenges of a nondual pedagogy implemented in unconsciously dualistic classroom cultures. The purpose of this article is to describe the barriers to implementation of a Mindfully Somatic Pedagogy, as well as affordances to young children throughout a preschool yoga class over an academic year. This research provides a basis for understanding how a Mindfully Somatic Pedagogy can curate holistic, first-person experiences of young children’s bodily selves within a classroom. Likewise, differing expectations of Body from adults in classrooms can lead to mixed messages for children. Understanding how bodily experiences afford young children’s development and teachers responses to Body in the classroom is informative in understanding the roles a school culture can have on the relationship between child development and teacher pedagogy.