The Relationship Between Nigerian University Students' Body Literacy Level and Their Awareness of Embodied Learning

Introduction

Knowledge and understanding of our own bodies as well as the primary experience of our bodies matter. This is because the body, as a fundamental source of knowledge, comprehends issues before our heads fully understand what is at stake (Clark, 2005; Mejiuni & Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Exploitation, 2012). Having understanding and respect for our bodies help us have an open and compassionate perspective on life such that we become attuned to how our physical experiences affect the choices we make in relation to ourselves, to our fellow human being and our environment (Bond, 2011). The body can provide important insights into how students relate to their learning context and how educators can effectively design learning to engage diverse learners (Yoo & Loch, 2016).

Bodily knowing is free from the interference of the mind’s filtering process and acts as the source of all other forms of knowing, as logical reasoning and conceptualisations are derived from our bodily experiences (Campbell, 2009; Steihaug & Malterud, 2008; Palmer, 1998). Lakoff and Johnson (1999) also conclude that “our sense of what is real begins with and depends crucially on our bodies” (p. 17). When we observe embodied practice, we realize that we come to know through the body as our experience and subsequent emotions are interpreted through the body (Matthews, 1998; Michelson, 1998).

Today, the increase in health, beauty and fitness industries has increased attention given to the body, body literacy and embodied learning, as evident in the advertising slogan ‘look good, feel good’ (Coffey, 2012, p. 4, as cited in Featherstone, 2010 & Crawford, 2006). Ishikawa and Kiuchi (2010) provided the World Health Organisation’s definition of health literacy as “the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health” (p. 2). Body literacy fits within this definition because our bodies exist within sociopolitical and environmental contexts. It is the self-knowledge gained by a woman’s learning to observe and chart the cyclic signs of fertility and infertility, together with other health and wellness observations (ASHOKA, 2007, as cited in Mejiuni et al., 2012).

However, body literacy must be understood beyond specificity to women, and their reproductive concerns. Since health is generally seen as a set of ideas that has connections with one’s responsibility, or as a feeling, identity and the experience of the self, body literacy cannot be detached from the learning processes (experiential learning and self-awareness) that is involved in understanding one’s health and identity. This connection of understanding one’s health and one’s identity feeds into one’s engagement with embodied learning. In this sense, experiential learning and self-awareness become key connecting processes with which we situate body literacy within embodied learning, which itself is a process of recognising that we know with our bodies as well as our minds, to reclaim our wholeness as learners and that the body is the site of learning for what is most true, and authentic for us as individuals. It is the domain of intuition, a kind of gut knowing, and is manifested in decisions, big and small (Clark, 2005; Mejiuni et al., 2012).