A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education

'Tracey Ollis has written an important and insightful book. A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education provides us with a nuanced and very thoughtful discussion of how people become activists, a critical issue during a period when social and educational activism is ever more necessary.' - Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

'In A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education Tracey Ollis does a brilliant job theorizing about similarities and differences in two types of adult activists-lifelong and circumstantial. Using case study methodology, the author powerfully chronicles the subjects' embodied pedagogy of activism despite their different life trajectories and reasons for engaging in activism. This book makes a significant contribution to the fields of adult education, critical pedagogy, and community organizing, and it offers a highly original understanding of the nature of activism and the reality that all successful learning - for students in general and for activists in particular - goes beyond mere issues of cognition and must encompass students' sense of justice, and their strong emotional and spiritual connections as well! A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education is not only illuminating but it reminds us that life-long learning is part and parcel of any aspiration for a democratic life.' - Lilia I. Bartolome, Professor of Applied Linguistics, College of Liberal Arts, University of Massachusetts Boston

'Activism is, thankfully, alive. 'Occupy' is the cry everywhere at present. In this book, Tracey Ollis shows how activists learn from what they do. Activism is an informal, emotionally-charged form of practice, where reflecting-in-action (to use Donald Schön's famous term) is itself educational. Ollis shows with case studies and conceptual innovation how popular protests and timely readings of opportunism can come together in really successful adult learning for activists of all kinds. For those who want to understand resistance better, read here how circumstances can drive the social and political changes you value and, more inspirationally, how you can create those circumstances through what you do through your embodied learning from, and amidst, activism.' - David Beckett, Associate Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education