Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education

The primary focus of this book is on extending existing work on understanding and researching professional practice, within the broader area of research and scholarly concern in professional practice, learning and education. That is, and more specifically: How and in what ways does attending to the body contribute to what is called practice theory and philosophy? §The intellectual foundations of such a project are diverse: philosophical works including Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Schatzki; feminist literature, particularly Butler, Grosz; sociology of the body as per Shilling and Turner, etc. Familiar poststructuralist theorisations from Foucault, Derrida and others are also pertinent, with a distinctive focus here on how bodies and practice are to be thought together. §The book is organised in two main sections, framed by an Introduction and a Conclusion. Following an Introduction, the first section Conceptualising the Body/Practice Nexus comprises three framing chapters. These pose broader conceptual questions and lay out relevant theoretical terrain with which subsequent chapters will relate. The next section Studying the Body/Practice Nexus comprises seven chapters, each specifically focused on a particular kind of professional practice, with particular emphasis effectively on the professional practice fields of Health and Education. These chapters take different approaches to exploring the body in professional practice, but share the broader commitments outlined above. As the chapter outlines below show in more detail, these link to a range of professional contexts, including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, school education, higher education, and research itself. The book concludes with an invited commentary on the book as a whole and/or a concluding chapter by the editors.