Critical encounters: enacting social justice through creative and body-based learning

Debates about what constitutes a socially just education remain a central concern in these complex times. Embodied and creative practices in schooling offer a pedagogical approach that can respond to social justice within schooling and classrooms. This paper draws on pedagogies that utilise the body and creative practices as a method for engaging students who have historically been marginalised in schools and the learning process. Transforming classroom practice through a model of engagement is explored in relation to teaching mathematics outlined through a case study involving a Creative and Body-based Learning (CBL) initiative in four classrooms across two schools. This work describes the journey of students, teachers and artists working collaboratively with CBL and how emotion, creativity and embodiment positively impacted student learning in these highly diverse and underprivileged schools.