Releasing Silent Texts: Narratives of Reflective Arts Performance and Special Needs Education

Abstract

Narratives lie in metaphorical spaces of exchange that encourage release of silent texts, spaces where voice is aesthetic reflection in performance, expression of vulnerable and embodied pedagogy of daily living and learning. I share my fictional and non-fictional autobiographical narratives of a special needs student while questioning teaching practices and re-viewing blurred borders between self-made definitions of educator, learner, and researcher. With undergraduate university education students, I share narratives of my work with special needs children as I explore invested reflective silent spaces in re-listening and re-hearing beyond fringes of the teacher/student relationship. Students share narratives of vulnerability, self-reflective re-hearing with image and sound, multi-layers of storytelling in separate and shared living landscapes.