ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how students of physiotherapy learn about and through a myriad of bodies. We propose that there is such a thing as a competent physiotherapeutic body and that there are distinctive ways of acquiring this body. We consider elements of physiotherapy education that, despite being effective in cultivating bodily knowledge, are not necessarily recognized by students as doing so. Our inquiry suggests that elements of physiotherapy education operate in a tacit manner that are not always accompanied by explicit theorization, exploration, clarification, or questioning of either bodily ways of knowing or of the intercorporeality of physiotherapy practice. Acknowledging that some core elements of the profession’s knowledge base operate tacitly is of importance, as this kind of bodily knowledge is among the inescapable elements at work in the intercorporeal practice of physiotherapy. This work aims to make explicit tacit aspects of physiotherapy education in order to advance a deeper understanding of what it might mean to develop a competent physiotherapeutic body.
