Preparations for Oct 28/29

Hi Everyone:

I hope you are having a wonderful long weekend.

It is a treat to follow your blog entries. The entries for "self-care practices" show a diversity of interests and yet much unanimity in what self-care means. We'll pursue this very practical and important dimension of our HEAL MEd when next we meet. I've invited Lehoa Mak (who at least a couple of you know) to share her HEAL inquiry and the practice that has evolved from it. That will be on the Friday evening. And Randy Persad will again join us on the Saturday afternoon to help us further explore the therapeutic practices of self-care.

I trust I have responded to your narratives that you sent to me. If not, it likely means I have overlooked your email somewhere, so send me a follow-up message. And come prepared to talk in small group conversation about where your inquiries are headed.

For our next meeting we'll turn our attention to "pedagogies of health education, promotion and care." By the word "pedagogy" I mean those relational aspects of our work as teachers, therapists, health care workers, trainers, instructors, advisors, coaches and so on.

You are all addressing "pedagogy" in some way or other in your narratives. So I hope that our further exploration of some relational, pedagogical concepts will be useful to you.

Thinking in general about pedagogy, we can consider how to construe this helpful, caring relationship as one that is animating, health-inducing, and life-sustaining. We customarily speak about our professional work with the terminology of procedures, programs, courses and instructional plans that provide the general direction for our actions and interactions with others. But those frameworks and that terminology do not necessarily capture the moment to moment sensibilities and personalized relationships we create with our clients, students, patients, participants, athletes, parents and the communities we serve. Pedagogy is ultimately a relational practice of attending to particular people with particular needs in particular situations. It is a way of being responsive to those whose lives are invariably unique and whose circumstances are usually idiosyncratic.

And yet, given such particularity and idiosyncrasy, there are still some general ways of understanding this responsiveness, certain generalizable practices that work better than others, and theoretical perspectives that highlight essential commonalities within and across diverse fields of pedagogical practice. Always there is a theorizing, or 'refined way of seeing,' that can work for us.

We can address the observable features of this relational practice we call "pedagogy" through attention to the stances, as well as the postures, positions, gestures and expressions, that demonstrate very visibly the practices of being responsive to and responsible for others. We can address, also, the affective dynamics of our respective "pedagogies of health education, promotion and care" by considering the kinesthetic, energetic and flow registers of pedagogical vitality.

The attached readings are intended to provide a backdrop to our discussions and inquiries. The one by Max van Manen on "Modalities of body experience in illness and health" provides concepts for how we can situate ourselves physically in relation to one another. It will allow us to talk a little more about body-mind matters in pedagogical relation to our health interests. The piece by Lloyd and Smith on "Interactive flow in exercise pedagogy" is an example of relational dynamics in a setting familiar to many of you. It will hopefully allow us to consider the dynamics of pedagogy through examples taken from more than just exercise settings but where physical interactivity is nonetheless apparent. The third piece, on "The first rush of movement," is one to which I referred in our first class. It presents a child-oriented, pedagogical viewpoint that revolves around a telling feature of physical vitality. Again, insert your own sense of being focused on clients, students, patients, athletes, and others.

There are also the four chapters of the "Social Determinants of Health" on "Education" (chapters 9-12) to prepare us for another rich seminar. These readings are important for understanding the wider educational context (particularly in regard to k-12 schooling) for any consideration of agency and relationality as being central to health education, promotion and care. Please come prepared to contribute your insights based on reading the "Education" chapters.

For those of you interested in human-animal relationships there is "The Mane Event" happening October 21-23 at the Chilliwack Heritage Park (Yale Road exit off the Canada #1 Highway.

Link: https://chilliwack.maneeventexpo.com/

In previous years we have attended this event to observe the postural, positional, gestural and expressive aspects of animal communication. But I decided this time that the social, cultural, economic and ecological determinants of certain domestic animals' lives, as evidenced at events such as this, can just as easily get in the way of appreciating the relational possibilities. We will do a farm field trip later in the HEAL program that allows us animal interactions and the opportunity to reflect on how these mostly nonverbal interactions can inform our professional lives. But, again, for those of you with particular interests in human-animal matters and are looking for an outing, "The Mane Event" is a relatively inexpensive and interesting outing.

See you all in a couple of weeks.


Cheers,

Stephen.