The Critical Physiotherapy Course 2020

The first free, online Critical Physiotherapy Course for 2020 returns on 14/15 May

Anne Langaas & Anne-Lise Middelthon – Bodily ways of knowing

This session will dig deep into Anne and Anne-Lise’s chapter for the upcoming book Mobilizing knowledge, due out at the end of the year.

Here is the abstract for the book. The introduction to the book is also attached below.

This chapter explores how students of physiotherapy learn about and through a myriad of bodies. We propose that there is such a thing as a competent physiotherapeutic body and that there are distinctive ways of acquiring this body. We consider elements of physiotherapy education that, despite being effective in cultivating bodily knowledge, are not necessarily recognized by students as doing so. Our inquiry suggests that elements of physiotherapy education operate in a tacit manner that are not always accompanied by explicit theorization, exploration, clarification, or questioning of either bodily ways of knowing or of the intercorporeality of physiotherapy practice. Acknowledging that some core elements of the profession’s knowledge base operate tacitly is of importance, as this kind of bodily knowledge is among the inescapable elements at work in the intercorporeal practice of physiotherapy. This work aims to make explicit tacit aspects of physiotherapy education, in order to advance a deeper understanding of what it might mean to develop a competent physiotherapeutic body.

In the session, Anne and Anne-Lise will talk about the ideas they explored in their chapter, and how these ideas might affect how we now think and practice physiotherapy.