Embodied Intersubjectivity and the Vitality of Cultural Meaning: Narratives of Communicative Musicality in Learning and Teaching
Human learning is inspired with the purposes and feelings of individuals who seek conscious, in-the-moment cooperation. It is social and co-created through mutual attunement of the movements of body and mind. In school, the interested learner needs to be encouraged by a skilled teacher sensitive to the rhythms of the child’s friendly, open vitality. They co-create shared projects in play, with movement and language, developing meaning and learning in sympathetic collaboration. From infancy, projects of imagination are expressed by the body and voice with the creative forms of 'communicative musicality' – gestural narratives created in rhythms of movement, felt, seen and heard. They anticipate being responded to with love and care. Learning within these embodied narratives incorporates affective, energetic, and intentional components to produce schemas of engagement that structure knowledge, and become meaningful habits held in memory. The rituals of culture and technical skills develop from the psycho-motor structure of human nature, with its vital impulses of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self.