Movement Doesn't Lie: Teachers' Practice Choreutical Analysis

Abstract

Identifying and describing teaching practice is not an easy task. Current educational research aims at explaining teachers' work focusing on the concept of practice. Teachers' practical knowledge is a sensitive and tacit knowledge, produced, and effused by the body. In this perspective, the teachers' work can be considered as an expressive activity. Starting from the view of teachers' work as a performance, this article tries to illustrate a conceptual way of analysing the teaching practice. The paper reports first results of two case studies involving three primary school teachers and two middle school teachers, respectively. Data collection includes non-participant observation with field-notes, videotaping, and R. Laban's notation system (Labanotation). The present paper draws attention to a particular category of analysis, the dance. Research results highlight how it is possible to interpret teaching as dance. The authors attempt to interpret teaching as dance. Emphasizing the role of body and movements, research results highlight how it is possible to interpret teaching as dance. Suggestions are discussed for future educational research.