Navigating Performativity in Embodied Learning: The Transactional Aesthetic Body as a 4E Ecological-Emergent Framework
Pål Christensson
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) May 26, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20378400 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that hyper-instrumental, accountability-driven school environments exert downward causation that narrows students' perceptual posture into tense interest and produces aesthetic blindness; the resulting transactional friction, manifesting as sensorimotor breakdowns and "bodily jolts," can act as a precognitive catalyst for reattunement and expansive learning. |
Abstract
The emergence of 4E (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) cognition has catalyzed a pedagogical shift toward embodied learning, challenging traditional Cartesian dualism in educational practice (Gallagher, 2017). However, while contemporary research highlights the benefits of sensorimotor engagement for conceptual understanding, the field currently lacks a cohesive framework to explain how macro-structural educational policies actively constrain or enable these micro-level bodily dynamics. To bridge this conceptual gap, this article introduces the Transactional Aesthetic Body, an ecological-emergent framework synthesizing 4E cognition, ecological psychology, critical realism, and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2015). This article argues that hyper-instrumental school environments, driven by accountability and performativity, exert downward causation that formats the classroom affordance landscape (Ball, 2003; Gibson, 1979/2015). This systemic pressure compels students into a narrowed perceptual posture of tense interest, ultimately resulting in aesthetic blindness (Petitmengin, 2017). By analyzing the learning of compass-and-straightedge geometry as a paradigmatic case of instrumented embodied interaction (Abrahamson & Sánchez-García, 2016), the article demonstrates how the structural clash between the organism's enactive capacities and institutional constraints generates transactional friction. This friction manifests empirically as sensorimotor breakdowns and visceral "bodily jolts", acting as necessary precognitive catalysts for emergent reattunement and expansive learning (Vestergaard & Risør, 2024). Ultimately, this framework provides educational researchers with a novel methodological lens to analyze how institutional structures physically resonate in the flesh, offering critical implications for the design of equitable and sustainable embodied learning environments (Doddington, 2021).