Conference Program

This contribution explores the role of the body in teacher education within a perspective oriented toward the construction of a democratic school. (Biesta, 2023). Embodiment is conceived not merely as a functional or technical dimension, but as an epistemological, relational, and ethical device capable of redefining teaching and learning processes. (Csordas, 1994). Building upon the paradigm of embodiment, this work recognizes it as the very foundation of the cognitive experience. In this perspective, learning is not a purely abstract process but an event rooted in action and sensory perception, where the body acts as a dynamic interface between the self and the world (Stolz, 2015; Varela, Thompson, Rosch, 1991).

Starting from a Foucauldian perspective, the organization of space and time within the institutional contexts often force both students and teachers to behave in a stereotypical, mechanical and impersonal ways, using the body as a vehicle of surveillance and punishment rather than as a tool of trasformation, awareness, and spiritual growth. (Foucault, 1975). In contrast to this vision, several prestigious pedagogists of the past such as Paulo Freire (1970;1996) and bel Hooks (1994) suggest an alternative approach, based on the intrisic nature of the body to exercise its ‘voice’. Free movement, gesture, and mimicry enable the person to become an individual, an active participant in society, possessing agency and empowerment.

Indeed, the relationship between embodiment and movement reveals profound symbolic and relational dimensions. In formative practices, the body and movement can become a tool for building self-awareness, cultivating the ability to reflect, inhabiting the world, and developing complex expressive abilities. (Mezirow, 2016). In this sense, the teaching-learning process is a transformative pathway in which movement functions as a catalyst for a disorienting dilemma.By engaging in non-habitual motor patterns, the individual dismantles rigid meaning schemes, triggering a process of embodied critical reflection that makes pedagogical transformation more profound and visceral.

Specifically, this paper focuses on body percussion and dance movement therapy as multimodal devices capable of combining visual, tactile, verbal, and kinesthetic aspects. (Danzì, 2023) These practices foster an embodied exploration of personal, relational, and physical space (Mignosi, 2017, 2019; Gamelli, 2011) according to an holistic vision of the individual. The research presented aims to demonstrate, how through body practice, educational processes become tools of trasformation, enabling individuals to flourish and manifest their potential as active and engaged citizens.