Learning to Teach-in-Relation: Community Service Learning, Phenomenology, and the Medicine Wheel

Abstract

The focus of this phenomenological research project is to delve into the question of ‘what it is like’ for teacher candidates to experience the phenomenon of learning to teach-in-relation in the context of a community service learning project. A sense of the phenomena of learning to teach-in-relation emerges as the five teacher candidates make and play with hula hoops beyond the initial intention of cultivating joyful physical activity on campus. This research is guided by van Manen’s (1997) phenomenological approach to researching lived experience, as well as an Indigenous research framework based on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the medicine wheel. Within the relational and embodied framework of the medicine wheel, the following six significant themes shifted perceptions of what it means to teach: 1) waiting to learn; 2) shaping community; 3) learning in movement; 4) sitting with students; 5) learning with students; and 6) embodying a flexible practice.