Human beings are described by many spiritual traditions as ‘blind’ or ‘asleep’ or ‘in a dream.’ These terms refers to the limited attenuated state of consciousness of most human beings caught up in patterns of conditioned thought, feeling and perception, which prevent the development of our latent, higher spiritual possibilities. In the words of Idries Shah: “Man, like a sleepwalker who suddenly ‘comes to’ on some lonely road has in general no correct idea as to his origins or his destiny.” In some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness. Other traditions use similar metaphors to describe the spiritual condition of humanity:

The Human Condition.

Subtractive Schooling: US-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring: A. Valenzuela

Introduction to Phenomenology

The Science Question in Feminism

Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory

Drawing from the theories of feminist new materialism, this article looks closely at the ways children and things, particularly fabric remnants, work together to coconstruct stories. The data prese...

Vibrant Matter The Intra-Active Role of Objects in the Construction of Young Children’s Literacies

"Bumblebee's in trouble! We need your help!"Zack stood over me, hands on hips, eyes focused downward where I sat at the picnic table on the far left corner of the playground. A rising fourth grader, he was no longer the African American boy I knew, but had transformed himself into Wolverine, a character from X-Men. Now he stood there in a superhero costume that he had slightly outgrown, searching for answers to a problem I was unsure how to respond to immediately."I have no idea where Bumblebee is," I explained to Zack and the other "superheroes" that surrounded me. Zack's eyes widened a bit, and without hesitation, he pointed his dark brown fingers to the empty table space in front of me."Did you forget that we gave you the location communicator?" he asked matter-of-f actly, as if I had been monitoring the location of each superhero on the playground the entire time.It is this moment of interaction between Zack and me that theorists Deleuze and Guattari (1987) might call "two lines . . . constantly interfering, reacting upon each other, introducing into each other either a current of suppleness or a point of rigidity" (p. 196). I had the choice to be supple or to be rigid, knowing each choice would produce a different trajectory for Zack's imaginative play and his willingness to engage me in that play. I responded in the most supple way I knew how in the moment:"Oh! I forgot you had given me the communicator earlier today. Sorry."And so my assignment at "Superhero Headquarters" began. Reaching down, I made electronic noises as I typed into a pretend keyboard, lodging myself into the world the kids had already created, brought to me, and asked me to join.In this article, I build the argument that children's play can be read as embodied literacies. First, I introduce Zack and the community at an informal education center where I was a researcher for eleven months. Then I present the theoretical concepts most important for my data analysis. These theoretical concepts are also woven throughout my narration of the children's play and my analysis of how the performance of embodied literacies spark what I call muchness-or intellectual moments of fullness (Thiel, 2013). In the conclusion, I suggest that classroom spaces be open to following lines of flight (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) during play as one way to create learning spaces that attend to social-class-sensitive teaching practices (Jones & Vagle, 2013) and create opportunity for muchness.Context: South Woods and the Awesome ClubhouseThe community center where this research took place sits in the middle of South Woods (pseudonym), Zack's working-class neighborhood, in a small, rectangular house with worn beige siding that is identical to the surrounding rental properties. The community center opened in May 2013 through a partnership with the local Food Bank and the university. The center, coined "The Awesome Clubhouse" by the children during the inaugural summer, serves as a free after-school and summer activity space where children also receive lunches in the summer and after-school snacks during the school year. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy of education, class-sensitive pedagogies, and theories of social critique and justice, the Clubhouse aims to provide an atelier-like environment where children are seen as full of potential, competent, and capable of building their own theories and of expressing themselves in many ways (Hewitt, 2001). On any given day, the Clubhouse bustles with the energy of 20 to 40 bodies between the ages of 2 and 13 years of age, all eager to engage with university-affiliated researchers and/ or preservice teacher interns.Until I became a researcher there, I didn't know the neighborhood existed; it is off the beaten path and tucked away from more visible places in the broader town. I was welcomed as a visitor in this community despite the fact that my white skin might be read as "middle class academic. …

"Bumblebee's in Trouble!" Embodied Literacies during Imaginative Superhero Play

This post-qualitative research analyzes the spatialized practices of young people within a working-class community and how those guided the opening and facilitating of a local community center. Seeing place-making as a social and political act, the authors were inspired by Heath’s classic study and argument that children’s education might be better served if educators understood and built on their community-based language practices. Writing through theories of new materialism, spatiality, and children’s geographies, we build an argument for spatial justice by considering the ways educational scholars and educators might understand and build on children’s community-based spatial practices.

Childhood Geographies and Spatial Justice: Making Sense of Place and Space-Making as Political Acts in Education

Posthumanism and Literacy Education : Knowing/Becoming/Doing Literacies

In this article, the authors (re)think writing as an ethical endeavor to explore and to cultivate more inclusive orientations for writing research and teaching. Situated in posthumanist scholarship...

Jaye Johnson Thiel

Papers

Vibrant Matter The Intra-Active Role of Objects in the Construction of Young Children’s Literacies

"Bumblebee's in Trouble!" Embodied Literacies during Imaginative Superhero Play

Childhood Geographies and Spatial Justice: Making Sense of Place and Space-Making as Political Acts in Education

Posthumanism and Literacy Education : Knowing/Becoming/Doing Literacies

Encounters With Writing: Becoming-With Posthumanist Ethics: