Issues of communication and the possibilities for the transformation of perspectives through an experimental dialogue resulting in a mutual, open, receptive, and non-judgmental consideration of the other are addressed in this paper from transdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual standpoints. The warrant for cultivating this type of communicative ability is based on arguments resulting from the assumption of widespread confusion and conflict in intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and ecological relations across the globe. I argue that there are two distinct classes of “reasons” for (...) this proposed practice of dialogue. First is recognition of the need for human individuals to engage in a regular and systematic “social maintenance” of embodied consciousness to forestall the continuous colonization of the past/future on the living present that embodied consciousness entails. Second is the teaching of a skill to creatively and respectfully engage with others in a mutual transformation of perspectives. This paper addresses the general problem of perspectives and reflexivity at the root of the communication phenomenon and by extension – to its scale and to its pathologies in individuals and collectives. It is argued that suspension of judgment, assumption, and habit helps interlocutors to recognize the possibility of holding one's history in a tensional abeyance and to focus on the living present independent of habitualized and reified identities and the embodied manner in which we unconsciously carry ourselves as social or “universalized selves” in social situations. (shrink)

The idea of mentorship has become rather fashionable in academia today. Indeed mentorship is claimed, promoted and even mandated as something we can expect to experience as graduate students. Yet what is it really like to experience it? Drawing on concrete descriptions and phenomenological reflection I attend to graduate students’ actual experiences of mentorship to uncover aspects of the mentee experience for what it is rather than how it is claimed to be. Graduate students’ experiences reveal ways that mentoring moments (...) variously escape us as somehow deficient or in excess of what we expect them to be. From a vantage that attends specifically to the mentee experience, points of reflection are offered for reimagining what the mentorship experience could become. (shrink)

Eye contact, a subtle, pedagogical encounter in our classrooms easily slips teachers’ attention because of its transient nature. Teachers see their students almost every day. Yet, what does a moment of eye contact mean experientially to our students? By asking the question, ‘what is the student’s experience of making eye contact with their teacher,’ this paper represents a phenomenological study that captures this phenomenon and delves into its pedagogical meanings. Through lived experience description and phenomenological reflection, this research shows pedagogical (...) eye contact, a usually taken-for-granted dimension, mediates our pedagogical relation and calls for teacher’s thoughtfulness. (shrink)

My intention in writing this article is to illustrate how I engage with the process of orienting to the meaning of pedagogy by inquiring into several moments in my life where I am able to fully experience its um. I begin this phenomenological inquiry by plunging into my experience on a teeter-totter as a young child, and use the sense of ups and downs as a metaphor for the tensions of weight and weightlessness, comfort and challenge that characterize the pedagogical (...) world. I then attempt to gain a more perceptual understanding of pedagogy by narrowing in on the suspended moment, which becomes a metaphor for the pedagogical moments of support, vulnerability, and opening that emanate from this tension. In these particular moments, I am able to dwell in the spaces in-between my everyday ups and downs and become existentially conscious and pedagogically connected to the world around me. By metaphorically connecting each of these moments to my teeter-totter experience, I illustrate how embracing the tensions of life and allowing myself to dwell in a suspended moment, deepens my perceptual understanding of pedagogy and influences my current pedagogical practice as a new teacher and master’s student. (shrink)

Issues of communication and the possibilities for the transformation of perspectives through an experimental dialogue resulting in a mutual, open, receptive, and non-judgmental consideration of the other are addressed in this paper from transdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual standpoints. The warrant for cultivating this type of communicative ability is based on arguments resulting from the assumption of widespread confusion and conflict in intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and ecological relations across the globe. I argue that there are two distinct classes of “reasons” for (...) this proposed practice of dialogue. First is recognition of the need for human individuals to engage in a regular and systematic “social maintenance” of embodied consciousness to forestall the continuous colonization of the past/future on the living present that embodied consciousness entails. Second is the teaching of a skill to creatively and respectfully engage with others in a mutual transformation of perspectives. This paper addresses the general problem of perspectives and reflexivity at the root of the communication phenomenon and by extension – to its scale and to its pathologies in individuals and collectives. It is argued that suspension of judgment, assumption, and habit helps interlocutors to recognize the possibility of holding one's history in a tensional abeyance and to focus on the living present independent of habitualized and reified identities and the embodied manner in which we unconsciously carry ourselves as social or “universalized selves” in social situations. (shrink)

The art of riding imagines the human-horse relation in the image of the centaur. In synchronous motions, riding is a dance of sorts, contact of bodies in the skin of the moment. Yet always there is the possibility of fussing, flailing, falling and failing in moments of resistance, evasion and contrariness. Through phenomenological reflection on such moments, riding can be understood not simply in terms of its difficulties of centaurian mastery, but in terms of the postural, positional, gestural, expressive nuances (...) of interspecies communication. It is on the off beats, and within the syncopations and momentary stresses of riding, that resistance can be addressed through quiet insistence, evasions overcome through persuasion, and contrariness can be felt otherwise. Through contemplation of such moments, we find the reminders of a sensual and essential intercorporeality and the configuration of an agogic practice. (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 329-341, April 2022.

Weight loss surgery is an increasingly common treatment for medically defined class III obesity and related comorbidities. A rise in demand has resulted in progressively longer waiting times in Canada, lasting upwards of ten years. Extended surgical waits impact the lives of people pursuing the procedure, no doubt – I wonder in what way? What is the experience of waiting to have weight loss surgery? I sought to explore this question using a human science approach to phenomenology of practice. It (...) is within this broader inquiry that this particular text is situated. The multiple interviews I conducted with people who were awaiting surgery revealed the experiential import of contact, of touch, metaphorical and otherwise, to the overall waiting phenomenon. In this paper I consider this particular dimension of the wait – I question the experiences and meanings of contact that occur within the pre-weight loss surgical period. I reflect on the possible ethical and clinical significance of contact within this particular context while focusing on the relational aspect of the phenomenon, particularly between patient and clinician. Ultimately this deeper understanding of the experience as it is lived may elicit new and possibly more tactful ways of being with, of making contact – as in touch, hearing from or connecting with – within weight loss surgery-related clinical encounters. (shrink)