Walking as a Way of Knowing: An Autoethnography of Embodied Inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand and describe the role of walking in my own ways of knowing and to explore how walking itself is an epistemological process by using personal narrative to examine and story my experience. I used an embodied narrative research method, known as evocative autoethnography, in which I explored my own innate ways of knowing, including intellectual, embodied, emotional, and spiritual knowledge. I collected data using field notes, reflective journaling, reviewing past writing, and artistic interpretations of experiences such as photography and poetry. I compiled my data into a series of short essays, stories, poems, and photographs to take the reader into my personal experience. Through my year of collecting data and the process of narrative inquiry, I found that walking made me feel alive and connected to the world around me, while also exposing some of the ways Western structures of knowledge, which privilege objectivity, are inadequate to support holistic human growth and development. I found that walking made me confront many of the ways in which society is hostile to embodied experiential learning, and this hostility is a form of epistemological injustice and violence. I also found that walking provided a way of healing as the experience was one of deep connection to my own ways of knowing and meaningful experiences of being alive.