Book Proposal Form
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BOOK PROPOSAL FORM This information is important for us before starting a discussion about your proposed book. Please complete the document in as much detail as possible, using separate sheets where necessary. I AUTHOR(S)/ EDITOR(S) 1. Name(s) and Full Postal Address(es) of the Author(s)/Editor(s) Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf Free University of Berlin FB. Erziehungswissenschaft Habelschwerdter Allee 45 D-14195 Berlin Germany Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anja Kraus Linnaeus University Department of Education and Teachers’ Practice Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Universitetsplatsen 1 351 95 Vaxjö Sweden 2. Telephone Number(s) Anja Kraus: +46 (0)470 70 84 02 3. Fax Number(s) 4. Email Address(es) [email protected] [email protected] 5) Brief note about the Author(s)/Editor(s) (including previous publications) Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf is professor of Anthropology and Education at the Free University of Berlin, where he is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Historical Anthropology. He has also served as a member of the university’s Collaborative Research Center (SFB) »Performing Cultures« (1997-2006), the »Languages of Emotion« cluster (2007-2014) and Graduate School »InterArts« Studies (2006-2015). Wulf has authored, co-authored and edited a large number of books which have been translated into more than 15 languages. He has held many visiting professorship positions and conducted research stays in many parts of the world. He is currently serving as vice-president of the German Commission for UNESCO. Selected books in English: Gil, I. C., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2015). Hazardous future: Disaster, representation and the assessment of risk. Boston, MA: De Gruyter. Hüppauf, B.-R., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2009). Dynamics and performativity of imagination: The image between the visible and the invisible. New York, NY: Routledge. Kamper, D., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2017). Looking back at the end of the world (New edition). Cambridge: MIT. Kontopodis, M., Varvantakis, C., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2017). Global youth in digital trajectories. London; New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Michaels, A., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2012). Emotions in rituals and performances. New Delhi: Routledge India. Michaels, A., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2016). Exploring the senses: South Asian and European perspectives on rituals and performativity. New Delhi: Routledge India. Wulf, C. (2013). Anthropology: A continental perspective. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Wulf, C. (2015). Critical educational science. New Delhi: Critical Quest. Wulf, C. (Ed.). (2016). Exploring alterity in a globalized world (First South Asia edition). Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Wulf, C., [et al.]. (2010). Ritual and identity: The staging and performing of rituals in the lives of young people. London: The Tufnell Press. Prof. Dr. Anja Kraus is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Education at the Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden and is the academic leader of the international scientific network “Tacit Dimensions of Pedagogy”. 2003-2013, she was previously Professor of Education at the University of Education Ludwigsburg, Germany. Selected Books in English: Bergstedt, B., Herbert, A., & Kraus, A. (Eds.). (2012). Initiating learning. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Bergstedt, B., Herbert, A.-K., Herbert, A.-K., Kraus, A., & Wulf, C. (Eds.). (2012). Tacit dimensions of pedagogy. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Herbert, A.-K., & Kraus, A. (Eds.). (2013). Praxeology as a challenge: Modelling the tacit dimensions of pedagogy. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Kraus, A. (2015). Scholarly principles in teacher education. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Kraus, A. (2016). Perspectives on performativity: Pedagogical knowledge in teacher education. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Kraus, A. (Ed.). (2017). Scenarios of knowledge at universities in change: Perspectives of the humanities, the educational and the cultural sciences. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Kraus, A., Buhl, M., & Carlsburg, G.-B. von (Eds.). (2014). Performativity, materiality and time: Tacit dimensions of pedagogy. Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann. Book Title: Learning Bodies: Epistemological Approaches (working title) II DETAILS Please let us have the details requested below on separate sheets if necessary. 1. Brief Synopsis: (500–800 words) which will be a statement of aims outlining the rationale behind the book. i. What is your book about? The essays in this volume bring together a wide range of interdisciplinary scholarly research on children and young adults in school, with a specific focus on the body. In situating the body at the center of educational practices, the authors follow a spectrum of historical, conceptual, empirical and practical-pedagogical approaches and traditions. The core argument of the book is as follows: on t, a superficial level, learning settings in schools are designed without regard to bodily needs and corporal interactions. However, thorough analysis reveals that schooling is composed of a broad spectrum of bodily expressions, processes of adaptation, internal conditions, personal abilities, motivations, subjective perceptions, individual appropriations, concepts and the like. These aspects determine the success of the learners. Focusing on bodies as the vehicles of learning enhances perspectives which view young adults’ bodies primarily either as obstacles to learning due to factors such as weakness, deviance, deterioration, risk, or as objects, as in the context of physical training. Today, the well-described and established essentialist and naturalist prism of the objectified body is questioned by scholars pursuing diverse discursive lines and utilizing ethnographic, phenomenological, poststructuralist and dialogical approaches. Those traditional trajectories are, however, increasingly being replaced by dynamic conceptualizations which take difference, hybridity, dissemination and interaction into account. This places the diversity, complexity and ambiguity of the settings in the foreground, be they socio-political or otherwise, these in turn being educational realities. One realizes that it is not only norms, but also objects, spaces, bodies and artefacts that create practices and require their modification. Hence, especially in pedagogical situations, the social setting is seen not as merely given, but as constituted by historical and cultural conventions, conceptual approaches, methodological and methodical presuppositions and the like. Most of these influences are tacit. Harry Collins (2012) distinguishes relational, somatic and collective tacit procedures. The inherited and adopted habitus (Bourdieu, 1972) also comes into play, as do diverse tacit modes of constitution of practices such as emergence, reinterpretation, differentiation and consolidation; together, these form social and educational relations and dispositions. In short, corporeality influences the learners' attention practices, learning and meaning-making. Lesson planning and teaching are thus always combined with a “hidden curriculum” (Jackson, 1968) which is not solely contingent upon the acts performed by the teacher. The book provides an overview of corporeality in school from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. ii. What are its main themes and objectives? The book proposes to answer the following questions. 1. How is bodily learning envisioned in governmental papers, i.e. in policy standards and norms, in curricula? 2. What bodily materials and processes are involved in becoming knowledgeable? 3. When can a common epistemological being be identified in the context of bodily learning, and when is knowing contingently and culturally constructed? 4. How are the meanings of body language deciphered? 5. How is the relationship between verbal and nonverbal messages processed? 6. How is simultaneous expression captured? 7. How do multiple actors process the interactivity of physical expression between them? 8. How are body-related knowing and values defined in various cultures, societiesand communities? 9. How do different body concepts shape the questions we ask? iii. How is your book different from or more innovative or better than existing books? A number of scholarly works have been published in English on the topic of this book project, epistemological approaches to corporeality in the school environment, in English- speaking, Scandinavian and Asian contexts. The book can be seen as a complement and an updated complement to Coffey, Budgeon and Cahill (2016) (for the English-speaking countries) and Juelskjaer, Moser and Schilhab (2008) (for the Scandinavian countries). It departs from the German perspective in terms of the academic discourses and questions related to society, education, and school. To date, comparable research on Germany has only been published in German (Kamper & Wulf, 1982; Kraus, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012; Langer, 2010). In recent decades, Germany’s increasing importance as a global player has spurred increased international interest in German society and culture. One prominent observer, the German-British political scientist and liberal politician Ralf Dahrendorf, described German education (Bildung) as the nation’s most outstanding achievement prior to the Second World War (cp. Dahrendorf 1965). However, the recent history and current state of German education is virtually unknown to anglophone academic audiences, despite the