243 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. Loftus, E. A. Kinsella (eds.), Embodiment and Professional Education,
Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives 8,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4827-4_17
Chapter 17
Embodiment and Professional Education:
Implications for Practice
Elizabeth Anne Kinsella and Stephen Loftus
Abstract In this chapter, we review some of the themes that have emerged from the
rest of the book. We also take a look at trends that suggest themselves for further
work and development in the feld of embodiment and professional and higher edu-
cation. Key ideas that emerge are action, practice, story/narrative, arts, performance,
intersubjectivity, emotion/affect, healing, technology, intersectionality, and institu-
tional structures. Taking the lens of embodiment to these themes can reveal insights
that offer the chance to deepen our understanding of what professional education
(and professional practice) is all about. Embodiment also offers us a means to
engage with the ontological aspects of professional education, and practice, and
integrate these with the epistemological. The goal is to provide our students with a
more integrated education that prepares them for the realities of professional prac-
tice by addressing their humanity in its fullness.
Keywords Embodiment · Epistemology · Ontology · Professional practice ·
Professional education
What might it mean to take embodiment seriously as an organising framework for
professional education? The answers are far from straightforward, and they reach
further than we initially imagined. The ‘embodied turn’ or the ‘corporeal turn’
offers a fundamental paradigm shift from our traditional ways of thinking about
knowledge, with profound implications for professional practice and professional
education.
E. A. Kinsella
Institute of Health Sciences Education, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
e-mail: elizabeth.kinsella@mcgill.ca
S. Loftus (*)
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, MI, USA
e-mail: loftus@oakland.edu