Improvisation In Teaching Profession: An Embodied Approach For Inquiry

This abstract presents the main features of a PhD research project which is developing in different scholastic contexts in Lombardy (Italy). Its aim is to describe the phenomenon of improvisation in teaching, namely the ability of teachers to grasp what’s in the here- and-now of children contribute and environmental situation, realizing creative connections between their original intention and what is given from the world around. This posture is fundamental whenever a pedagogical action aims to take into account children as active participants of learning process, since none of democratic teaching methodology can overlook what comes spontaneously from children and reality. The perspective of this study is to describe improvisation focalizing teachers’ bodies: their tensions, movements, gazes and locations in the space of the classroom when unforeseen elements emerge in the pedagogical relationship. Improvisation is increasingly considered an inherent part of teaching, as evidenced by a growing interest in literature in the last 20 years. The axes of research in this topic are nowadays directed towards teacher training or theoretical understandings, while there are less contributions oriented to describe what actually happens in classrooms. This lack of literature manifests the need for an understanding rooted in schools’ reality, in qualitative studies where teachers are considered active sources of knowledge. The epistemological framework of Embodied Pedagogy [1], which enhances the sense perception and the holistic participation of body, mind and emotions in educational contexts, informs this study, besides the theory of educational dispositive [3]. This study aims to enrich the understanding of the pedagogical value of the bodily presence of teachers. In order to embrace an embodied perspective towards the complex phenomenon of improvisation in teaching, I opted for a qualitative approach, expressed by an ontological position which can be considered phenomenological, and a methodology which comprehends ethnography, visual ethnography [3] and arts-based methods [4]. My axiology, lastly, entails a vision of schools as democratic and collaborative contexts. The research currently involves 5 teachers of two schools of different grades, located in two provinces in Lombardy. From a starting slot of observations for each teacher, the study entails a following phase where teachers are involved in an improvisational theatre training, where they’ll discuss their insights about their embodied participation in improvised moments in classrooms and in the training experience. Also, interviews will be performed for data triangulation. Eventually, the epoch where this study takes place opens new questions and possibilities, such as, despite the spatial and movement restrictions imposed by the pandemic, how teachers’ bodily presence is affected and how they find ways to improvise pedagogically building contexts and activities where children are protagonists. [1] Gamelli, I., Pedagogia del corpo, Cortina, Milano 2011 [2] Ferrante, A., Che cos’è un dispositivo pedagogico, Franco Angeli, Milano 2017 [3] Tobin, J., Hayashi, A., Using video for microanalysis of teachers’ embodied pedagogical practices, Research in Comparative and International Education, 10(3), pp. 326-336 [4] Mc Niff, S., Arts-Based Research, in Knowles, C.J., Cole L., Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, SAGE Publications, 2007