Paper short abstract:

This paper concerns the reflection on school micro-policy concerning the regulation of student's mobility and spatial performances, having in mind the importance of body, movement, emotions and power in schooling experience.

Paper long abstract:

The systematic observation of spatial regulation in schools, along with the interpersonal and group dynamics that evolve from the way space is distributed, challenges us to look deeper into how school micro-policy is emotionally oriented. In addition, analysing student's mobility and spatial performances, which are tightly controlled by school administration and staff, tells us things about the importance of body, movement and emotions in schooling experience.

The 'domestication' of student's bodies and movements is not an easy task. Each school year brings new spatial configurations, in search of a renewed balance between 'opening' and 'closing', in order to defend and (re)build adults' territories. The way space is distributed and given sense is a continuous and quarrelsome process, which involves some structuring elements - centre/periphery, school staff/students, class time/break.

The reflection on this territorial dimension, in the context of school's daily functioning, obliges us to look at space mobility and occupation as important individual, group and institutional resources. While experiencing their distance from decisions considering the distribution of these resources, students engage in different transgressing practices, learning that adult's vigilance can be breakable.

This ceaseless movement of spatial prohibitions can be experienced by students as important sources of frustration. Nevertheless, they contest and rewrite these impossibilities, tacking advantage of its recreational potential. These performances comprehend different choreographies, some of them in clear confront with school administration and staff, other in more discreet configurations.