Interaction and Embodiment in Craft Teaching

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe the embodied interaction between the teacher and students in a textile class from the sociocultural viewpoint. We focused on the embodied interaction between the teacher and the students and analyzed how the physical materials and the tools mediated appropriation of the craft knowledge. The analysis of embodied interaction is important for the development of craft education; by analyzing teaching and learning of craft in classroom brings forward various hidden means of interaction and multidimensional aspects related to learning craft skills. The study described in the present article was based on the videographic method, and it consisted of approximately 5 hours of video data for making garments in a textile class. Activities of 9 seventh-grade girls alongside their teacher were recorded. In this study, the focus was on the interaction between the teacher and the students in learning and teaching situations of the sewing phase. The method of data analysis was based on observation of episodes of embodied interaction.  The results showed how the teacher demonstrated various skills with gestures. It appeared to be essential that the teacher use multi-faceted gestures so as to elicit students’ advancing in their zones of proximal development. The results revealed students’ embodied understanding, as well as how the tools in a craft class mediated cultural information.