Body and movement are essential aspects for children and young people to find their identity. As people position themselves in space with their bodies and how they deal with their own bodies is crucial for their personal experience and appropriation of space (Löw, 2013). While the gender ratio in terms of enjoyment of physical activity is still balanced at primary school age, it changes from the onset of puberty: children whose body perception is associated with more shame mention at first reaction that they enjoy exercise and sport at school less - this mainly affects girls and TIN* people (trans, inter- and non-binary). This aspect should be viewed from an intersectional perspective, according to which several discrimination mechanisms (such as gender, social origin, ethnic origin, religion, physical and/or mental disability, language, etc.) of a person work together (Crenshaw, 1989).

Physical activity in everyday school life mainly takes place as part of PE lessons and is usually based on the principle of competition, in which personal performance is assessed annually with school grades. Some children can lose the joy of exercise in the process. Yet this is incredibly important for their mental and physical health, especially when pupils spend almost the entire day in the school building as part of all-day schooling, as well as for their cognitive performance, which is expected of them in class (Ostermann, 2009).

35 pupils of compulsory school age were asked about their exercise preferences, among other things, as part of 18 group interviews. Their interview transcripts were analyzed using Mayring's summarizing qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2012). The results of the interviews made it clear that girls definitely have a need for more movement, but that they often lack the opportunities to do so. As desirable movement units during the breaks, they mentioned small-scale play opportunities such as hula hoop, ball and jumping games, but also space-consuming games such as tag, hide and seek, etc., for which there is often a lack of space in the current situation.

One approach that addresses this need is the Danish concept of "Movement in Between", which focuses on informal and unjudged movement in breaks. Activating elements in the classroom offer pupils in different settings the opportunity to move in a non-competitive and playful way (Friis & Moltke n.d.). Ideas from gender-specific design of open spaces (Studer 2002, ÖISS, 2004) are adapted for the school building. Movement in Between is also an easy concept to implement for existing schools, as it does not require a lot of space and the non-combustible play elements can also be used in corridor zones.

In this way, children can approach and develop movement and body awareness in accordance with their respective nature and their physical and psychological development, they can test out the movement possibilities unobserved, at their own pace and without judgment, and develop the self-confidence necessary for the active appropriation of space based on these experiences.

An extensive body of critical literature has explored the changes in the university during the neoliberal era, focusing on the impact on students' roles and identities (see, for example, Brooks, 2022; Antonucci, 2016). However, there has been limited investigation into the everyday, ethnographic, and geographical dimensions of these changes, which significantly influence students' experiences of university (as education institution, and as architectonical space).

This contribution stems from an ethnographic study within a university student movement in Cagliari (Mobilitazione studentesca) advocating for the right to education. The movement began during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to improve living conditions within student residences. The pandemic, as a total social phenomenon (Petrillo, 2021), raised questions about the day-to-day aspects of university spaces, revealing issues such as perceived service quality, declining user numbers and funds, and a corporate approach to the right to education during institutional stress.

In comparison to previous discussions (cf. Cuzzocrea et al., 2023), this contribution delves deeper into these structural aspects, examining how university spaces (both as services and architectures) are experienced. The student movement's conflicting and political perspective allows us to analyze the interplay between the crisis of the student welfare state, student identity, the sense of belonging, and the daily realities of university spaces.

The Cagliari student movement begins as a rection and a protest related to the management of student residences during the pandemic and policies of access and exclusion from spaces. Expanding its focus during the pandemic, the movement began addressing issues in dining halls, study rooms, and libraries, defining a geography of the (denied) student welfare (Smith and Hubbard, 2014). This emphasis on study and living spaces provides a fresh perspective on the construction of student identity and the ability to envision oneself as a student, evolving during protests and challenging moments in academic journey.

In their protest, students distanced themselves from the binary representation of students as either passive and privileged or hypersensitive and fragile (cf. Finn et al., 2021). Throughout the protest, participants began to define themselves as 'students,' grounded in an understanding of their material needs and desires, in relation to educational and university life spaces. This exploration, from a cultural standpoint, sheds light on the processes of subjectivation within the university institution and the role of post-austerity policies in a context of poly-crisis.

Discussions about space and architecture within the university often seem to focus more on the student and how changes to architecture influence learning and pedagogy (Boys, 2015; van Merriënboer et al., 2017; Berman, 2020). However, universities are not only spaces for teaching and learning, but also spaces of knowledge production. This production occurs in the classroom, lecture hall or lab, but it also occurs in more informal spaces in the university such as lobbies, cafes, canteens, and common rooms. University buildings around the world are in a constant state of flux as spaces are updated, redesigned, or purpose-built.

Based on my own experience of ongoing and extensive renovations to the building I work in, architects (and possibly university management) seem to undervalue the interactions that take place in these informal, transitory spaces, meaning that they are often neglected or being erased from the university campus. Staff and student social spaces are being co-opted and turned into teaching spaces that are often not fit for purpose. Staff are losing their offices and being moved into open-plan areas that are not conducive to academic work or supervision of students. Transformations to the space and architecture of the university is fundamentally shaping how students and staff members interact with each other, creating a situation in which staff must adapt to maintain their pedagogical and professional practices within institutional constraints.

This presentation draws on questionnaires (n=18) and interviews (n=5) with master’s level tutors about their experience of returning to the physical university campus after the Covid-19 pandemic. This period is of interest because it highlights the way that we might use physical spaces differently post-pandemic as a result of new technologies, approaches and skills learned when we were forced to be physically distant from each other. Some staff have adapted to use technology as a novel way to break down barriers between staff and students in tutorials. For example, Ameena has developed a new approach to tutoring her students that allows her to break down hierarchical power dynamics by “appearing as another box on the screen” rather than a teacher at the front of the classroom. Others reported that meeting virtually means more flexibility and more chances to ‘check-in’ rather than waiting to meet in person for longer periods of time.

However, several participants also mentioned the isolation that comes with reduced time on campus, missing the spontaneous and informal interactions they had on campus with colleagues and students. Data suggests that how staff work has been changed by the pandemic, with some staff embracing the flexibility that has come with increased technology use (Smith, Plum, Taylor-Smith, & Fabian, 2022), and others impacted more negatively by the lack of suitable office space.

In France, the inclusive paradigm is put in place with practices established over time, in a school form (Vincent, 2008) which is translated into classroom arrangements, pedagogical practices (Perrenoud, 2017), and the conformation of student’s bodies (Foucault, 2003). The student’s body is at stake in the medical discourse (Morel, 2014, Savournin, 2016, Kohout-Diaz, 2017) and neo-liberal (Bruno, Clément, Laval, & Clément, 2010), which spreads across the school. At the heart of teaching practices, one element remains behind pedagogical concerns: the body of the schoolchildren. What is the importance given to the body of the student, as support of his singularity (Dizerbo, 2016)? Has the normative dimension of the school form been exceeded to take into account the physical needs of students (Macherey, Pirone, Ottavi, 2020). In class, what is the importance given to listening to the needs and desires of schoolchildren, as well as to their bodily needs (need to move, rest, drink, speak with a comrade, etc.)?

Our communication will be based on the results of our thesis work in educational sciences which concerns research conducted in a primary school hosting a ULIS device (class reserved for students belonging to the category of disability, these students must spend at least a few hours in an ordinary class as part of their «inclusive schooling»). For this research, we participated in the life of this school, and we used a qualitative methodology of ethnological orientation. We implemented a participant observation, interviews with each teacher, observations in each class, two questionnaires and a focus group.

The results show that the physical manifestations of schoolchildren remain mostly negatively perceived by teachers, as hindering learning. The classical schoolform always the majority, waits for pupils' silence and stillness. The elementary bodily needs, even if they are recognized by the teachers during the interviews, are finally not taken into account once in class, the body of the student and his needs remain overlooked in the inclusive approach.

Faced with this observation of a normative pedagogical functioning, constrained by a school form difficult to question, we will propose a way to question this rigid school organization by using cultural and artistic mediation. We will report on an artistic project whose methodology consisted in leaving the school and moving around the city, to be able to question the pedagogical organization of classes. This project took place in a college and several primary schools.