Abstract

Teaching is not only intellectual — it is emotional, embodied, and shaped by identity. Lecturers carry generations of knowledge, memory, and experience in their bodies, all of which influence pedagogical practice. This body mapping workshop invites educators to reflect on their teaching through an anti-colonial and feminist lens. Using an asset-based approach, participants explore where care, knowledge, and healing reside in the body. The process is intended to support deeper awareness of how emotion, race, and power are carried and expressed in the classroom, offering a creative space to imagine more inclusive, embodied, and justice-oriented approaches to teaching and learning.

Session and activities

50-minute Body Mapping Activity

• 10-minute introduction

• 20-minute body mapping
  Participants are asked to represent their body freely on A2 papers.
  They are then asked to draw or write in or around the representation of their body, reacting to the following prompts:

• • Where does care live in your body?
  • Where in your body do you hold the knowledge you teach? Where do you hold the knowledge you don’t teach – or were told not to?
  • What would it feel like to teach from a place of healing – for yourself and for your students?
• 20-minute sharing session
  The task is followed by a reflective session where participants share their experiences going through the body mapping and explore how the newly found awareness might impact their practice.