ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the phenomenological pedagogy developed by Max van Manen and discusses the ways it can contribute to the movement literacy model for physical education, particularly in relation to embodied experiences. Briefly re-stated, their critique was that in sport literature, there is a tendency to use the term phenomenological in inappropriate ways, where the usage departs from the philosophical project of phenomenology. When van Manen traces the origin of phenomenological pedagogy, he refers to the so-called Utrecht School, a group of educators, psychologists and psychiatrists who were educated in phenomenological philosophy. Practical knowledge, in a communicative sense, is provided by those phenomenological and interpretive bodies of knowledge. In terms of pedagogical practice, the Utrecht School restructured social situations based on their situational analysis in order to create an improved educational situation. In the context of physical education, many have made a similar critique of healthism and its objectification of the body.
