The big unexpected: exploratory and improvisational ideas to rethink presence in teaching

Abstract

The seemingly paradoxical challenge of organizing and managing bodily experiential workshops in an online format is at the basis of this article. These workshops were addressed to university students (future teachers and educators) of the University of Milan-Bicocca and represented a precious occasion for the Embodied Pedagogy teaching research group for gaining new awareness on some embodied aspects of teaching. In particular the reflection focused those solutions that revealed successful in Distant Teaching and could represent valid tools for teaching in presence. These elements refer to pedagogical categories of body, space and time and can contribute to revitalize the quality of “presence” in teaching, overcoming any worthless  opposition between real and virtual. We analyzed these experiences developed during the pandemic emergence in order to suggest ideas and strategies to manage unexpected events, which are always part of teaching profession.