ABSTRACT
Education is a powerful site for both the (re)production and disruption of weight-based oppression. There is a small but growing literature in “fat pedagogy” and scholars from diverse disciplines have examined students’ and teachers’ experiences, curriculum documents and teaching resources, educational interventions, pedagogy, educational policy, school culture, and the learning environment, while others have shared personal experiences of weight-based oppression or thin privilege in educational settings or critically reflected on their own pedagogical attempts. Research has attended to various levels of formal education (i.e., elementary, secondary, post-secondary) as well as informal education (e.g., activism, media, public pedagogies) but, not surprisingly since the field is nascent, there remain significant gaps and an urgent need for further research. As well, a number of tensions have begun to emerge in the field including the role of weight science, how or even whether to make pedagogical use of teachers’ and learners’ embodiment, and the role of advocacy in education. In this chapter, we will offer a rationale for fat pedagogy, identify its historical influences, review both scholarly research and various practical interventions in the field, identify future research and professional needs, and conclude by revisiting the “Fat Pedagogy Manifesto” as we look to the future.
