Unswaddling pedagogy: Imagining a new beginning to the practice of Imaginative Education

My intention in this thesis is to introduce the concepts of swaddling, non-swaddling and unswaddling pedagogies, and to raise awareness and build trust in the somatic capacities of young children. These somatic capacities should be taken into account within any pedagogical setting and relationship in order to enable a smooth pedagogical transition and transformation from the Somatic to the Mythic Kinds of Understanding (KsU) as conceptualized and described within the theory of Imaginative Education. By emphasizing the pivotal role of the Somatic KU in a child’s learning journey, and by accentuating new and existing cognitive tools (CTs), I seek to connect the as yet theoretically disconnected Somatic and Mythic Understandings of Imaginative Education. Future research should attend to continuing to minimize the losses of children’s somatic capacities through their pedagogical journey.