What happens when an educator / researcher encounters a theory that includes herself? Such is the case of my encounter with enactivism. Varela, Thompson and Rosh's Embodied Mind (1991) was a catalyst for a community of U of Alberta scholars (students and professors alike) that had been exploring Maturana and Varela's work on the biology of cognition (Autopoiesis and Cognition, 1980). Thus, primed for an encounter with a new text, the Alberta math education group of the 1990s delved into the text reading it alongside a number of research projects into learning and teaching. Working in that context with colleagues (in our hallway conversations, seminars and research meetings) and fellow researchers (through their texts) I began to live differently. I couldn't help but do so since Maturana and Varela's work taught me that observing (and explaining) is an act that not only brings forth my observations and my explanations, it brings me forth. Enactivism taught me that as an educator / researcher I am fully complicit in the world—I do not (indeed I cannot) take a bird's eye view and observe without contributing to the observation. I will offer examples from my research (mostly with others) to illustrate the ethical imperative that for me emerged from enactivism.

Bio:

Dr. Elaine Simmt is a mathematics education professor in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. In her research she explores teaching and learning using complexity thinking and the theory of enactivism. She has explored questions related to teacher curiosity, explanations in mathematics, attending to diversity and reforming mathematics education through local actions, mathematics for teaching, and building capacity for teacher development in rural and remote communities. Naturalistic research conducted in schools and professional development contexts has led to Dr. Simmt's interest in investigating research methods and designs suitable for studying the complex and contextual phenomena of teaching and learning. Dr. Simmt serves as the Associate Dean Graduate Studies and the Co-Director of the Centre for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta.