Dancing around the edges: dance in the primary school classroom (original) (raw)
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Dance ANYway: Towards a Pedagogic framework for Primary School Dance
International Journal of Arts Education, 2018
Standardised curricula and the movement away from practical, hands-on learning has permeated Australian education over the past few years. The Arts have become even more marginalized, and Arts areas such as dance are almost non-existent. In their places, we see the domination of static, desk-bound, technology-mediated, instructivist teaching and learning. The researchers aimed to create an antidote to this teaching model. This research examined student and teacher experiences of dance to develop an easy to follow, engaging program that can be implemented not only by specialist Arts teachers, but also by generalist classroom teachers. The Dance ANYway framework is based on a “socio-kin-aesthetic approach,” which integrates collaborative, embodied, and creative learning and teaching to provide teachers with easy-to-follow, practical strategies for integrating dance into the curriculum. Available at https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/dance-anyway
International Journal of Education Through Art, 2014
This article uses autoethnographic writing in a research study that encompasses aspects of a personal and professional journey to locate dance within school cultures. Critical Discourse Analysis was utilized to investigate factors impacting on the construction and realization of a dance curriculum for all primary school students in Australia. The investigation is informed by Bourdieuian and Foucaultian approaches to reveal discourses, struggles and the effects of power in the construction of a new school dance curriculum within the context of political and micro-political interests related to dance education. In the neo-liberal context of the globalized idea of a national curriculum, dance as a learning experience in schools is usually located at the bottom of a deeply entrenched curriculum hierarchy. The article provides insight into the dance curriculum deliberation and settlement process, contributing to arts curriculum development research.
Showing What We Can Do: Assessment of Primary School Dance
The International Journal of Assessment and Evaluation, 2016
In Australia, Dance is one subject in the National Arts Curriculum for early childhood and primary education. In many schools, dance is taught for the minimum time necessary to satisfy the system requirements of a summative grade that can be included in midyear or yearly reports. A qualitative study of the nature of dance education in two primary schools, collected data from video, observation, interviews with teachers and focus group discussions with children showed evidence of holistic learning achieved through Dance. In this paper, data are researched to look for evidence of the meanings that teachers and children attach to assessment in the context of dance education. Following an examination of various definitions of assessment, this paper looks at the relationship between pedagogy and assessment in general and in relation to Dance education. Pedagogy and assessment in Dance education will be unpacked using a socio-kin-aesthetic perspective and drawing on literature and findings from this qualitative study, 're-packaged' to present an approach to assessing dance intended to be useful to generalist classroom teachers.
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Journal of physical education and sport, 2016
IntroductionDance, in its artistic nature, possesses a great potential which enables the development of physical, cognitive, creative, expressive and emotive capacities. It also transmits a sense of values and attitudes which make it possible to share emotions and ideas with other individuals. Furthermore, it is a scenic art which can be used as a powerful tool for social-educative action and intervention (BOE, 5 June 2010).A large number of researchers promote dance education in schools, since it promotes students' selfesteem and self-comprehension (Giguere, 2014), as well as favoring positive attitudes, satisfaction and intrinsic motivation (Stivaktaki, Mountakis and Bournelli, 2010). Dance is an important part of education because it helps children to understand their own culture and thus participate in a diverse society (Pitsi, Digelidis and Papaioannou, 2015).According to Vicente, Urena, Gomez and Carrillo (2010) the contribution of dance to the social, physical, intellectu...
Teachers as agents of change in curricular reform: the position of dance revisited
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This paper reports findings from a recent large-scale survey of PE teachers' perceptions of teaching dance and compares them to results of a study completed 10 years previously (MacLean, 2007). The current position of dance is examined in light of the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in 2010, a national initiative in Scottish schools that provides a unified flexible curricular framework for children aged 3-18. Dance remains part of the PE curriculum but also for the first time in Scotland occupies an additional position within the Expressive Arts (EA). Teachers are positioned as agents of change tasked with greater autonomy, flexibility and responsibility in curriculum design. The inclusion of dance in both PE and EA provides potential for teachers to design curricula that excludes dance from the PE curriculum or alternatively use the opportunity to increase dance provision. Currently, little is known about the impact CfE has on the provision and position of dance or the factors that impinge on teachers' decisions regarding the inclusion of dance in the curriculum. To further such understanding, eighty-five secondary school PE teachers responded to a questionnaire concerning dance opportunities within the current school context. In addition, the original participants from MacLean (2007) research were reinterviewed to identify and explore the factors that enable teachers to achieve agency when teaching dance. The results indicated that collaborative planning, united goals and collective action had enabled teachers to significantly increase dance provision in schools. Teacher attention had shifted from concerns about individual capacity to a focus on the level of social, cultural and material support in providing valuable educational experiences in dance for all pupils.
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Dance Matters, 2012
Keeping abreast of political and policy changes can be difficult at present, due to the seemingly endless educational reforms that are being spearheaded by our new coalition government. This article offers an insight into the Tickell Review (2011) and the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, DfE, 2012) framework, in an endeavour to show how these can positively impact on our dance work with children in the early years context.
New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2019
This paper explains the design, development and delivery of a curriculum-integrated dance programme across four primary schools in Auckland, New Zealand. Four teachers and their respective classes (101 children in total) were part of the programme. Each class participated in 18 dance sessions at their schools during school hours. The dance educator delivered the dance programme and collaborated with each class teacher for planning and implementation. Various topics related to science, mathematics, English and Māori culture were covered in accordance with the term focus of each class teacher. The core values from the New Zealand primary school curriculum and New Zealand arts curriculum were embedded in the dance programme. The applicability, transferability (to other participant groups), challenges (such as time and venue) and evaluation design associated with the dance programme are discussed. Teachers’ reflections are embedded with researcher observations as they describe the significance of the dance programme.
Framing Dance Only as Art: The Philosophical Conundrum of Dance in Education
Dance Education in Practice, 2022
This article explores various historical moments in the academic disciplines of dance and physical education in which “dance as art” was debated, points to various considerations in how dance is framed in educational settings, and argues for prioritizing dance offerings for all students by resisting the urge to compartmentalize dance as discretely an art form. This approach offers an opportunity for collaboration between education professionals in dance and physical education to work together to support the ideal of providing dance for all.