ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a movement phenomenon that is essential to leaning movements: practising. It makes a case for practising movement as a central and valuable part of movement education by first clarifying the epistemological grounds of practising. Situating the phenomenon in relation to dominant epistemological approaches to learning, I argue that it adheres to a practical epistemology and concerns the development of practical knowledge. After that, I present an outline for a phenomenological account of practising, which describes the subjective and intersubjective structures of experience involved in it. Regarding the subjectivity of practising, I distinguish between continuity and discontinuity. Through this, I analyse practising as an ambiguous repetition of difference that involves both an active striving for refinement and an openness for negativity and uncertainty. Regarding the intersubjective dimension of practising, I focus on the reciprocal relation to others and to social norms, which I analyse by distinguishing between affectivity and distancing. I use this distinction to analyse the tension between imitating good ways of moving and resisting social norms and values that inhibit one’s ways of moving. The chapter aims to provide an understanding of practising as an inherently meaningful phenomenon that merits further pedagogical investigation and attention in movement education.
