IT’S AN ART TO SUSTAIN YOUR BODY IN SCHOOL Learning about your body moving in classroom practice

Abstract

Purpose: The study is about learning body movements in classroom praxis. The aim is to analyse the so-called ”micro-movements” in a classroom practise, by how pupils use and acquire body, bodily movement, positions and positioning in the classroom. The study is hence specifically set on pupils’ somatic interactions in the classroom and how a group of pupils interacts and defines (themselves and others) using their explicit bodily senses.

Theory: The study’s theoretical stance emphasizes the interaction between space and bodily movement as elementary for learning and at any moment present. By that it is placed in the field of somatics, originally initiated by Hanna (1973) and building on theory of Husserl and phenomenological, holistic concepts as well as embodied cognition. A body that is, always present, whether we are aware of its role or not.

Method: Methodologically it is designed as a critical discourse investigation It uses observations of classroom practice during five different lessons in four different classrooms in three different schools. The analysis builds than on cartographic maps and takes a position of being both opposite and complementary to structures that generate hierarchy orders as well as impersonal communication.

Results: The results show how pupil and teacher positions are produced in the ways teachers constantly create and need control and surveillance. This seems to form the very core of the ’ruling’ arrangements in the classroom, in which movement as well as sensory inter-activity is understood, defined and spatially ordered, predestining pupils’ somatic learning. Pupils respond to given tasks and create movement to find their individual position in classroom practice. In conclusion the results show a possible misconception of classroom practice, where demands for quietness create the ideal of being still.