“Bodily well-being practices” in schools: The implications underlying an attempted definition

Both elementary and high school curricula prescribe educational activities aimed at student well-being. Many references to well-being in these curricula are based around and refer to engaging in “bodily practices.” In this paper, we examine the academic and social practices that teachers can draw upon to improve the well-being of their students, in order to make them responsible for managing their own well-being, as per the institutional recommendations. Defining these academic and social practices and, at the same time, reflecting on them and their common and specific features leads us to consider and discuss the issues underlying this attempt at a definition. These include the categorization of so-called “bodily well-being” practices at school in the professional literature, the place and role dedicated to the body in the social practices to which they refer, and finally, the assignment of purposes to these activities in schools.