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Showing posts with the label What is knowledge?

Post Interview Field Notes

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General recurring elements:  - There seems to be a generalized idea that empathy  +  acknowledging   students are some of the most important things a teacher can do. - Dancers feel like the human  connection is the best thing a teacher can give them. (This was the overall number one thing that stuck with them the most...). - Having  long-term goals is one of the most important things (psychologically) for dance injury management. - Men seem to prefer a  more competitive learning environment than women. When I first approached the book Decolonizing Methodologies , I truly struggled to understand the connection with my work/research/MA...it made no sense to me. But one sentence resonated with me...and that was along the lines of 'understanding our responsibility as a researcher'. We can't go, ask people to share parts of their lives, leave...and expect that nothing has changed in them, and in us. Something DID. I took it as my 'mission', in this fieldwo...

Back to School

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I've been out of university for almost 10 years now... and what a privilege it feels to be able to go back to school. I am studying because I WANT to study... not because I HAVE to, or because I have something to prove... . What a shift in perspective... . And how internally revolutionising this feels.  I am incredibly grateful for all the intellectually stimulating exchanges this course is offering me. For the questions it is raising in me, the structure for reflection it is providing me, and for showing me new directions in which to watch . I feel like I am uncovering every day a new layer of understanding of the question: ' Who am I as a learner ?'. I hadn't questioned this for a while... and just by doing that I feel like I have unlocked a new chapter  of my journey, and I have a new pair of goggles with which to explore the world.  Although my daily life has pretty much stayed the same... the way in which I approach things has completely changed. I have a refound s...

Knowledge & Epistemology

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Our Module 1 Handbook got me thinking on one thing... What is knowledge to me? And how have I gained it? As I asked myself this question, a multitude of thought threads started tangling up in my brain, so I thought a mind map would be the best way for me to seek some clarity. I am no mind map expert, nor the best visual artist, but this was an extremely elucidative exercise for me.  I am going to share it here on my blog, in the hope that it can initiate conversations.  After doing that, I thought I'd make some research into the topic. As I was looking on the Internet for the meaning of knowledge , this word kept coming up: EPISTEMOLOGY. Extremely simplified, epistemology  is the study of knowledge. It is the branch of philosophy that questions what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for knowing something.  Amongst a variety of tasks, epistemologists work on determining the nature  of knowledge. They divide knowledge  into two main categories: proc...