Dance Pedagogy and Education in China: A personal narrative of teaching in, about and through dance education 9811931925, 9789811931925

Table of contents :
Acknowledgements
About This Book
Contents
About the Author
1 The Teacher Is at the Heart of Education
1.1 My Formative Years
1.2 Here I Am: Teaching Dance in Universities in New Zealand and China
1.3 The Reflective Practitioner: Teaching In, About and Through Dance
References
2 My Stories: Auto-narratives of Experience
2.1 A Philosophical Context
2.2 Reflecting on my Teaching
References
3 Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance Education
3.1 A Springboard for Dialogue
3.2 Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance
3.3 Dance Education Theories Underpinning My Focus on ‘In, About and Through’
3.3.1 Modern Educational Dance
3.3.2 The Study of Dance: Choreography, Performance and Appreciation
3.3.3 The Midway Model
3.3.4 Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE)
3.3.5 Theory of Multiple Intelligences
3.3.6 Somatic Education
3.4 Summary
References
4 New Directions in Dance Education and China
4.1 Contemporary Dance Education and China
4.2 Summary
References
5 Teaching Dance Education in the Beijing Dance Academy
References
6 Reflecting on my Teaching
References
7 Conclusion
Index

Citation preview

Dance Pedagogy and Education in China A personal narrative of teaching in, about and through dance education

Ralph Buck

Dance Pedagogy and Education in China

Ralph Buck

Dance Pedagogy and Education in China A personal narrative of teaching in, about and through dance education

Ralph Buck Dance Studies Department University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand

ISBN 978-981-19-3192-5 ISBN 978-981-19-3193-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Melisa Hasan This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO Chair on Dance and Social Inclusion University of Auckland, New Zealand

Kotahitanga o Ngā Iwi o te Ao Mātauranga, Pūtaiao, Ahurea Whakahaere

Ko te Heamana o UNESCO mo Kanikani me te Whakauru Pāpori Waipapa Taumata Rau Aotearoa

“The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of views contained in this book and for opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.”

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the ongoing support of family and colleagues who encourage and challenge me to share my love for dance education. I am especially grateful for the Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China, who gave me the wonderful opportunity to teach and to learn within the Beijing Dance Academy dance education programme. I especially thank Professor Xu Hang, Dr. Jin Jin and Hongmei Qu for their planning and flexibility in accommodating my schedule. I also thank Dr. Jin Jin and Dr. Longqi Yu for their generous support in translating lessons, and providing guidance in my journeys through Beijing and China.

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About This Book

My experience of teaching dance at the Beijing Dance Academy, China, is at the heart of this book. Through a critical examination of personal practice, my story is unpacked, highlighting pedagogical issues, trends and ambitions that reflect many contemporary dance education issues in China and arguably elsewhere. I value diversity, participation and inclusion, and my dance education pedagogy reflects this. My examination is informed by constructivist ideals that recognise interaction and dialogue. This book posits that dance can be repositioned and valued within education contexts when pedagogical strategies and objectives are framed in terms of teaching and learning in, about and through dance. The book begins by introducing my context, and the issues that inspired the development of this book. Chapter Two outlines a rationale for writing the book as an auto-narrative and how a reflection on practice is relevant for teachers. Theories of metacognition are utilised in order to draw attention to how teachers can value their experience in order to examine opportunities and challenges that arise in their classrooms. Chapter Three, briefly examines the meaning of the phrase ‘teaching and learning in, about and through dance education’ and provides a rationale for using these three small words. This chapter also provides a theoretical context of dance education frameworks that inform my perceptions of dance education. Chapter Four provides a brief overview of contemporary trends, issues in dance education, specifically in China. The heart of the book is found in Chapter Five where the auto-narrative of my

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teaching within the Beijing Dance Academy, China, describes my practice and reflects on what and how I teach. Chapter Six reviews my experience and discusses meanings of teaching and learning in, about and through dance education as found within classroom relationships. The book concludes in Chapter Seven, reminding teachers to value their daily judgements and value their role as the teacher in the dance classroom.

Contents

1

The Teacher Is at the Heart of Education 1.1 My Formative Years 1.2 Here I Am: Teaching Dance in Universities in New Zealand and China 1.3 The Reflective Practitioner: Teaching In, About and Through Dance References

2

My Stories: Auto-narratives of Experience 2.1 A Philosophical Context 2.2 Reflecting on my Teaching References

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Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance Education 3.1 A Springboard for Dialogue 3.2 Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance 3.3 Dance Education Theories Underpinning My Focus on ‘In, About and Through’ 3.3.1 Modern Educational Dance 3.3.2 The Study of Dance: Choreography, Performance and Appreciation 3.3.3 The Midway Model 3.3.4 Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE)

1 1 3 6 9 11 11 14 16 19 19 21 26 26 28 29 30

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CONTENTS

3.3.5 Theory of Multiple Intelligences 3.3.6 Somatic Education 3.4 Summary References

32 34 36 36

4

New Directions in Dance Education and China 4.1 Contemporary Dance Education and China 4.2 Summary References

43 45 48 49

5

Teaching Dance Education in the Beijing Dance Academy References

53 81

6

Reflecting on my Teaching References

83 94

7

Conclusion

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Index

103

About the Author

Associate Professor Ralph Buck Ph.D. is Head of Dance Studies, and Associate Dean, International, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research and teaching focuses on dance education curriculum, dance pedagogy and community dance. Ralph is the UNESCO Chair on Dance and Social Inclusion, and is currently working within several international dance research and service organisations such as, World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE). Ralph’s teaching and leadership has been recognised by The University of Auckland Distinguished Teaching Award, 2008; Award for Leadership, 2010; Excellence Award for Equal Opportunities 2006 and, Creative Arts and Industries Research Excellence Award, 2016. Ralph has several international academic appointments including Visiting Professorships at Northwest Normal University, China and Beijing Dance Academy, China. His research in dance education is published in international journals and he has delivered invited key notes and master classes in China, Australia, Columbia, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Denmark, New Zealand and Fiji.

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CHAPTER 1

The Teacher Is at the Heart of Education

Abstract This chapter introduces me as the author and provides an insight into my experience in teaching dance education. The context of the book is outlined, and I discuss the issues and ideas emerging from classroom experience gained in Australia, New Zealand and most pertinently, tertiary dance experience gained in China. Critically examining my own teaching practice within the Beijing Dance Academy, China, I establish the focus on teaching and learning in, about and through dance. Keywords Dance education · Chinese dance education · Teachers’ meanings of dance · Personal meanings of dance

1.1

My Formative Years

I am a teacher. I have taught primary and secondary school children, children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities, the elderly, teachers and tertiary students. I have taught in schools throughout Australia and New Zealand in the capacity of classroom teacher, visiting guest artist, teacher in-service provider, dance specialist and recreation centre coach and coordinator. More recently, I have taught mostly tertiary dance education students in New Zealand and in China. I am a strong advocate for dance in the education context. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_1

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I am a dancer. I consciously began dancing at a school ‘social/disco’ at the Bowraville Church of England hall, Australia. I call myself a dancer because I dance. Throughout my childhood, throughout my physical education teacher training, as I travelled the world, and as a teacher, I danced. It felt good. I did not receive any formal dance preparation as a youngster. However, when I was 26 years old and jaded from competitive sport, I took a beginner adult ballet class. I loved it. I had to be physical, I had to think and the dance had to look good. With the guidance of an excellent teacher, I attended more dance classes and eventually decided to study dance for a Master of Arts in the UK. A formative experience while in England was working with Wolfgang Stange and the Amici Dance Group. Wolfgang was a community dance teacher, choreographer and dance advocate who worked in the main with adults with varying abilities. Wolfgang’s emphasis upon inclusion and participation resonated with my views of education and my experience of dance, that is, we all can dance and learn about ourselves and others through dance. This view has become an automatic assumption as I enter classrooms to teach dance. At the age of 30, I asked the artistic director of an Australian dance company if I could join her contemporary dance company in order to appreciate the artist’s perspective as I wrote the Queensland dance curriculum for teachers. I attended daily class and after approximately 5 months, I performed with the company. My curiosity to perform with a professional company was ‘an itch I had to scratch’. The whole company experience was enjoyable and I am grateful for the director’s understanding. The experience crystallised for me what I loved about teaching. The teacher, and particularly the primary school teacher, performs and choreographs all day; creating, and organising ideas in ever-shifting choreographies of relationships; directing and building others’ abilities for expression, creation of knowledge and articulation of ideas. I left the experience with the dance company realising it’s the thrill and slog of teaching that most vividly captures my imagination, stimulates my creativity and fulfils my desire to help people learn about themselves and others. In Australia, and predominantly in the state of Queensland, my passion for dance education led me into leadership positions within professional networks and teaching. I was employed to write dance education curriculum, develop dance education teacher resource kits and provide dance in-service for classroom teachers, teachers who were both keen and hesitant to teach dance. Over a ten-year period, teaching mostly primary

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school teachers in their own school contexts, teaching at conferences, speaking with regional teacher advisers, principals, teachers, students and parents, I made recurring observations of the teachers and myself. I felt some sense of achievement in working with teachers at ‘that’ in-service, in ‘that’ classroom, on ‘that’ day, and yet I could only guess at what each teacher genuinely believed or practised in respect to dance, nor did I have access to teachers’ classrooms after such sessions. Increasingly, I reflected upon these sessions in relation to the teacher’s classroom practice, pondering: ‘Did I address concerns specific to them and their classroom context? Were we sharing similar conceptions of and visions for dance in the classroom?’ The answers remained unclear. Over the years in Queensland, I designed teacher support activities in response to these and other questions and enjoyed some success in devising and implementing the dance curriculum. However, the repeated observation that teachers were hesitant or even fearful about dance fuelled my feeling of dissatisfaction and led to the present research.

1.2 Here I Am: Teaching Dance in Universities in New Zealand and China Twenty years later and now as an Associate Professor at University of Auckland, New Zealand and with Visiting Guest Professorships at two Chinese universities, the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) and Northwest Normal University (NWNU), many more questions arise. And yet the main questions as stated above are concerned with the learners in that lesson in that classroom on that day. While my teaching is now directed towards dance students completing tertiary degrees, who are heading for careers as dance specialist educators, performers, choreographers, researchers and dance managers, questions continue to arise. The students I teach now are not the generalist primary school teachers who I have researched in the past. My current postgraduate and undergraduate students come to dance with a degree of expertise and confidence in dancing. And here arises another possibly larger set of issues for me and for these budding young teachers. The young experts and preservice teachers I deal with now in New Zealand and in China have often forgotten what it feels like to be terrified in a dance lesson, to be ignored, to be marginalised, to be bullied in a dance class or to hate dance. My current students live in a world of dance, and they are distant from most

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people’s reality where they feel quite unsure of dance and certainly don’t feel included. As the UNESCO report on the Futures of Education (2021) argues, teachers are the most significant factors influencing educational quality and play the lead role in ensuring all students are included in education, in a dance class. I have long been an advocate for inclusion of all people in dance (Buck, 1998, 2003) and presently as the UNESCO Chair for Dance and Social Inclusion (2020–2023), I remain committed to inclusive education practices and policies. As the report from the International Commission on the Futures of Education, UNESCO (2021) states, If education is to help transform the future, it must first become more inclusive…Factors that shape these inequalities and exclusions must be clearly identified if policies and strategies are to support marginalised students. (p. 23)

Developing understandings of pedagogical practices that foster inclusion, for a better society, has been a motivating force in my research. I have been interested in what excludes students from participating in dance and the provision of supportive learning environments. As I have travelled China and observed the growth in dance education, my interest in fostering inclusive dance education remains constant. In this book, my focus on pre-service dance teachers studying dance education at BDA supports the view that teachers are at the forefront of transforming society. My current experience as a lecturer in tertiary dance education reminds me of my early memories of when I led primary school teacher workshops in schools throughout Queensland. Many teachers commenced their inservice sessions clinging to their chairs or the wall, laughing about their personal inability to dance, silently grimacing and/or outright refusing to physically participate (usually disguised with an excuse). Some teachers happily joined in, encouraging peers and enthusing about dance. These teachers were in the minority, and yet at the end of such sessions and days, every teacher would have participated, with the vast majority happy about their experience, commenting that dance offered something for the children in their classroom. Then, as I do now, I return to my office and reflect: ‘What do teachers think dance is? Why are they so anxious? Why do they feel excluded and/or want to be excluded? What causes that pained look on their

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faces?’ Then in turn: ‘What did we do that reduced their anxiety for that session, and would they hold on to that feeling long enough to instigate something in their classroom?’ Now as I teach young dancers to become dance educators who will teach in diverse contexts such as primary schools, secondary schools, dance studios, retirement homes, hospitals and diverse community contexts, I am concerned with how I teach these future educators. How will they flex with, and respond to diverse contexts and effectively include diverse learners in dance? How can these future dance educators respond to students and learners who are trying to hide, who are grimacing, who are choosing to be naughty students so as they will be reprimanded and hopefully removed from the dance classroom? I am ever curious about what teachers think dance will look and feel like in their classroom, and how they will include the learners in the lesson. How do the teachers account for the expectations of curriculum or the organisation/studio/community centre employing them? Of late, I have turned to reflecting extensively on my own practice, trying to understand what and how I teach dance education. I am still good at teaching dance according to students’ evaluations, University teaching awards and invitations to be a Guest Professor in Dance Education in several leading Universities in China. I am reflecting on my teaching mostly when I am teaching in China. It is here that my assumptions, habits and biases are revealed and I have to constantly unpack, explain, reorientate activities such that my aims and actions are clear or at least slightly understood. Without a doubt, it is a humbling if not humiliating experience to be stared at by 60 young dance students who clearly do not know what I am trying to do. Time and again, when teaching in China, I have been assured that the students want to be in the lesson and they are eager to learn, and yet their hesitancy and appearance of being disinterested provides mixed messages. I have since learnt that the students are keen. It is after many such lessons that I began to seriously reflect on what and how I teach. I was curious, as I was in Queensland so many years ago, what is it about dance that brings these students into these tertiary studios and what is it about dance education that puzzles them so. What is it about teaching how to teach that is so troublesome for people who have decided that they want to be a teacher of dance? It remains that I want to know what teachers think of dance in their classroom, and what they will teach, for ultimately the purpose of such

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support is always to enhance children’s education. The strategies for connecting with the students however, seem to be regarded with little import. It is as if the ‘magic of dance’ is enough to transfix all students, and that like a balm that you might rub on your leg, students will magically become dancers, or that teaching a 5-year-old girl is the same as teaching a 16-year-old girl or an 85-year-old man with dementia, or a 26-year-old male beginner ballet student.

1.3 The Reflective Practitioner: Teaching In, About and Through Dance The rationale for teaching dance in any curriculum not only has to appease the visionaries, but also appeal to the classroom teacher in such a way as to encourage the implementation of the curriculum. How dance is argued for, and articulated in the curriculum provides an important link between theory and practice, and a clear indication of what is valued and meant by including dance in the classroom. Beyond the curriculum, however, it is the teacher who has to connect with and engage the dance student; to help learners relate to the dance activity/curriculum; and, with the learners build a shared understanding of the relevance of dance education. I have turned to my own teaching practice to examine ideas and issues that shape how, what and why I teach. As I look deeply into my own dance lessons and unpack my actions against theory, I hope that this book can reveal details of teaching dance that feel real and speak to the reader who is as troubled by dance education as I was many years ago. Most of my reflection is in respect to dance education within formal contexts, that is, within tertiary and school education systems administered by national and state governments. In this book, I mostly reflect on my teaching in the Beijing Dance Academy, China, and use this as a mirror to review my practice as undertaken within formal education systems in China, New Zealand and Australia. The Beijing Dance Academy is regarded as the leading dance institution in China (Jin, 2017). First founded as the Beijing Dance School in 1954, it followed the Soviet Union’s dance pedagogy with a focus on technique excellence (Lv, 2000). BDA became China’s first tertiary dance Academy in 1978, dominating professional dance training and performance across China ever since (Lv, 2008) (see https://en.bda.edu.cn for more). I hold to the view that the teacher lies at the heart of education. The teacher, being responsible for translating the curriculum and

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for guiding children’s learning, is the critical player in what occurs in the classroom, the locus for education. It seemed apparent that an understanding of teachers’ lived experience (Connelly et al., 1997) is a fundamental requirement to effect the establishment of dance as part of the curriculum in any meaningful way. Reviewing this assumption within a Chinese context is pertinent as teachers in China are increasingly critically reflecting on their own practice (Rowe & Xiong, 2020; Rowe et al., 2020). Connelly et al. (1997) supported the need to start directly with the teachers’ practice in order to capture their experiential view. Stating, ‘Our research shows that to more closely relate ideas about teaching and learning with the practice of teaching and learning, we need to be concerned with what it is that teachers know and with the knowledge environment in which they work’ (p. 674). In support of this view and with respect to the teachers’ situated knowing (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000; Rowe & Xiong, 2020; Russell & Bullock, 1999; Schön, 1983), I set out to explore my own meanings of dance in my classrooms in my everyday workplace contexts, working directly with my own teaching narrative (Heshusius, 1994). It may seem that this reflective approach is dealt with in the dance education literature, yet I argue, as did Tina Hong (2001) writer of the dance component of the NZ arts curriculum who summed up the challenge: Understanding as to what dance will entail is already beset with popular misconceptions…it is obvious that there is much to be done to both demystify dance and educate the school and general population as to the scope and value of dance. (p. 5)

These perceptions of ill-ease and apprehension, echoed in my local, national and international conversations and observations, drove me to reexamine dance education and how I teach it. Without doubt, I’m aware of others’ concerns for the need to revisit meanings and practices of dance education (Koff, 2021; Meiners, 2017) and even more recently dance pedagogy in the online COVID pandemic context (Martin & Heyang, 2021; Peipei & Qinqin, 2020). As I teach my students at the University of Auckland, I have come to describe my practice as ‘teaching and learning in, about and through dance’. This short phrase seems to help the students to understand the

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complexity of dance education in a simple way. Teaching and learning in, about and through dance points to the different and integrated skills, competencies, attitudes that are learnt and taught consciously and unconsciously throughout the dance lesson. I have noticed that time and time again I return to this phrase. Now as the Head of the Dance Studies Department at University of Auckland, I have even used this phrase to sum up the philosophical approach that underpins the wider notion of dance education within our undergraduate Bachelor of Dance Studies. As an invited international speaker at many conferences, I also return to this phrase to briefly sum up what is unique about our degree. I have lost count of the number of times that dance scholars around the world have questioned me about how we educate our students to meet emerging demands of society and to keep dance relevant in diverse contexts. They are surprised that the degree is not a conservatoire degree. They are surprised that we don’t have ballet as a core part of the curriculum; that we don’t teach a specific contemporary dance technique such as Graham or Cunningham; and that we accept students from diverse backgrounds, who have diverse body types and diverse dance interests. Again, as I teach in China, I am forced to very clearly explain my meanings of all that I do, and hence explaining ‘teaching and learning in, about and through dance’ has become a necessary rite for me. And yet, it is not that easy to explain, well let’s just say I have struggled at times to articulate what I mean. It is to this struggle that I turn to in this book. I feel there is something in these three words that captures the spirit and content of dance education that remains under valued by dance artists, school teachers, parents, school principals and dance students themselves. When a dance student at the Beijing Dance Academy asked what I meant by this phrase, I decided that yes, I need to write something about this phrase that not only helps me, but also helps other teachers and students understand how this phrase can capture the complexity and importance of dance education. This book however is not a philosophical treatise. I am a teacher, and I want to speak to teachers by embedding the discussion in my teaching practice and reflection about that practice. I wish to explain my teaching in an accessible manner so that teachers and dance education students may connect with the reality issues, challenges and opportunities portrayed. This book will value my auto-narratives and my experience gained over the years of teaching in diverse contexts.

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I have provided presentations, workshops and observed dance classrooms in action across China at tertiary, primary and secondary institutions such as, Peking University, Beijing; Northwest University, Lanzhou; Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing; Zhejiang University, Hangzhou and Dulwich Colleges (Primary to Secondary Schools) in Suzhou, Shanghai, Beijing. I have, however, chosen to focus on my experience in the Beijing Dance Academy, China, as it was within this context that I really tried to understand my practice through the eyes of teachers and learners who came from a very different culture and with a different historical focus. I am understanding my practice predominantly within Western literature and theory. This critical insight may not necessarily relate directly to the Chinese context. However, I believe it is valuable to connect different contexts and pedagogical traditions through a personal narrative. To some extent, I believe my experience is revealing cultural and pedagogical similarities and differences informing teaching and learning. As stated, there is no intent to reveal a better or worst pedagogy. This book aims to reveal how intimate narratives of experience can help us to learn to be more pedagogically relevant as we enter diverse international dance classrooms. The following section explains why an auto-narrative approach is a valuable way for understanding teaching practice. Metacognitive theory offers a lens for reflecting on my years of practice and a brief review of teaching and learning in, about and through dance is provided. I then turn to the Chinese context and Beijing Dance Academy. The heart of the book follows as I reflect on teaching dance education students within the Beijing Dance Academy.

References Buck, R. (1998). Everyone can dance: Inclusive strategies for years 1–10. Education Queensland. Buck, R. (2003). ‘So, do I need my Tutu’: Primary school teachers’ meanings of dance education (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Otago, New Zealand. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (2000). Teacher education—A question of teacher knowledge. In A. Scott & J. Freeman-Moir (Eds.), Tomorrow’s teachers: International and critical perspectives on teacher education (pp. 89– 105). Canterbury University Press.

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Connelly, F. M., Clandinin, D. J., & He, M. (1997). Teachers’ personal knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 665–674. Heshusius, L. (1994). Freeing ourselves from objectivity: Managing subjectivity or turning toward a participatory mode of consciousness? Educational Researcher, 23(3), 15–22. Hong, T. (2001). Getting Cinders to the Ball. Dance Aotearoa New Zealand Journal, Summer, (4–6). International Commission on the Futures of Education, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO). (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-100478-0 Jin, J. (2017). Stepping out of the ivory tower: Meanings of teaching dance in schools in China (Unpublished PhD thesis). Dance Studies, University of Auckland. Koff, S. (2021). Dance education: A re-definition. Methuen. Lv, Y. (2000). Dance pedagogy (17th Ed.). Shanghai Music Publishing House. Lv, Y. (2008). Dance education in quality education. Primary and Secondary School Principals (7), 36–37. CNKI:SUN:ZXXI.0.2008-07-015. Martin, R., & Heyang, T. (2021). A re-imagined world: International tertiary dance education in light of COVID 19. Research in Dance Education, 22(3), 306–320. Meiners, J. (2017). So we can dance? In pursuit of an inclusive dance curriculum for the primary school years in Australia (Unpublished Ed.D. Thesis). University of South Australia. Peipei, T., & Qinqin, Z. (2020). Shaping and exploration of dance education in MOOC era. Journal of Beijing Dance Academy (2), 121–129. CNKI:SUN:BJWD.0.2020-02-024. Rowe, N., Tuomeiciren, H., & Xiong, X. (2020). Dancing from policy to pedagogy in China: Transgressions, surveillance and resistance from students, teachers and institutional leaders. Policy Futures in Education, 18(8), 995– 1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210320907802 Rowe, N., & Xiong, X. (2020). Cut-paste-repeat? Disrupting authoritarian dance pedagogies in China. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 11(4), 415– 431. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2020.1746927 Russell, T., & Bullock, S. (1999). Discovering our professional knowledge as teachers: Critical dialogues about learning from experience. In J. Loughran (Ed.), Researching teaching (pp. 132–151). Falmer Press. Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books Inc.

CHAPTER 2

My Stories: Auto-narratives of Experience

Abstract Teachers have often shared their practice and lived experience through stories. As we recount our experience of teaching within staff rooms and corridors, we examine what and how we teach in dialogue with self and others. Constructivist theory underpins the value of such interactive meaning-making. The chapter then outlines a rationale for reviewing and examining my own stories and experience of teaching dance education through an auto-narrative method. The book aims to examine my personal experience and in doing so better understand the issues and ideas informing the teaching of dance education within a tertiary context in China. Metacognition theory aids in unpacking personal practice, helping to tease out tacit knowledge, judgements and observations made within the classroom. Keywords Auto-narrative · Constructivism · Personal practice · Metacognition · Lived experience

2.1

A Philosophical Context

Auto-narratives provide tangible, specific reflections on experience (Dewey, 1938; Farquhar & Fitzpatrick, 2019) that may offer readers’ rich insights not otherwise available. In valuing auto-narrative methodology as © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_2

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a means for representing and examining storied experience, much can be revealed about what is happening in the real world of dance education. A constructivist ontology and epistemology places an emphasis on my personal experience of teaching dance education, particularly through my feelings and actions. As a dance educator my ontological stance, and that taken in this book is that there is no single way of knowing and, furthermore, that knowledge is always mediated (Eisner, 1993, 1998; Lincoln & Guba, 2000; Schwandt, 2000). I question the hegemonic realist knowledge traditions in education that distance and objectify learner’s relationships with knowledge and the activity of thinking (Burridge & Svendler Nielsen, 2018; Gardner, 1983; McLaren, 1998). My constructivist orientation towards education, dance and research (Eisner, 1998) places emphasis on an active construction of knowledge, meaning that the participants in the process have views, ideas, biases, traditions and bodies that are integral to the dialogue (Wilkinson et al., 2019). Such dialogue does not occur in isolation, nor is it singular in nature (Anttila, 2007). Dialogues occur within social, cultural, historical contexts, where shared understandings, practices, languages and dances provide conceptual frameworks through which the world may be described and interpreted (Eisner, 1998; Schwandt, 2000). An epistemological concern underpinning this book is that of valuing personal practice knowledge (Carter, 1993; Connelly & Clandinin, 1985; Connelly et al., 1997; Elbaz, 1991). In recognising a constructivist epistemology, I examine my narrative reflections and students’ comments alongside the literature. Making meaning of the experience and reflecting on my intra- and interpersonal dialogue was inclusive of my own and others’ meanings of dance education. This interactive and ‘owned’ process of meaning-making is integral to my pedagogy and it made sense to reflect this theoretical position here. From 2017 to 2020, I was an invited Guest Professor in Dance Education at the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) and annually taught the first-year cohort of undergraduates completing a major in Dance Education. I had consistent access to students at the Beijing Dance Academy and got to know each cohort relatively well. Consequently, in terms of research method, I saw my experience as a case study. Donmoyer (1990), Noor (2008) and Stake (1994) stated that a key strength of case studies is that they can capture a richness of information from various sources, such as documents, participant observation, interviews, artefacts

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and archives. Further features of a case study were outlined by Merriam (1988), ‘A case study is an empirical inquiry that: investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used’ (p. 23). As such, my dance education programme delivered at BDA over eight lessons is seen as one case described in detail through an auto-narrative. The research methods of narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1985) and educational connoisseurship (Eisner, 1998) allowed for me, the teacher, to reveal my personal experiences and beliefs, and allowed for my observations of classroom interactions and reflection upon shared dance activities undertaken in the classroom/studio. The methods value my teaching experience as the starting place for constructing understanding. Johnson (1987) noted that, Personal practice knowledge … encompasses every dimension of understanding by which a person organises and interprets experience in ways that make more or less sense to him or her. …It is a knowledge embodied in and manifested through practices, routines, spatial orderings and aesthetic dimensions of experience. (pp. 466–467)

Life and education can be described and understood through our narratives, stories, metaphors and reflections (Farquhar & Fitzpatrick, 2019). Connelly and Clandinin (2006) comprehensively define narrative research as, People shape their daily lives by stories of who they are and others are and as they interpret their past in terms of these stories. Story, in the current idiom, is a portal through which a person enters the world and by which their experience of the world is interpreted and made personally meaningful. Narrative inquiry, the study of experience as story, then, is first and foremost a way of thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomenon. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adopt a particular view of experience as phenomenon under study. (p. 375)

Further, the different ways we share our experience or ‘story our knowing’ is diverse, reflecting humanity’s diverse ways of sharing our knowing (Bowman, 2006). As a phenomenological narrative, I take Eisner’s position of being an ‘educational connoisseur’ (Eisner, 1998, p. 63) simultaneously acknowledging my expertise and that this expertise is ongoingly

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remade within each lesson. To be clear, I don’t claim a sense of omniscience, nor do I disregard my influence upon relationships and situations within this study. As Clandinin and Murphy (2009) observe, ‘as narrative researchers we study a world that we have helped create. Our complicity in the social, cultural, and institutional narratives that shape landscapes [research sites]…and the temporal, social and place constraints of what we can see as we live our lives alongside participants do not allow a God’s eye view’ (p. 601). Reflecting on present practice through an auto-narrative method acknowledges my experience in curriculum design and pedagogy (Buck, 2003, 2006, 2021) and brings experiential and theoretical insights to the meanings of teaching and learning in, about and through dance as experienced when teaching students in the Beijing Dance Academy. Providing an auto-narrative account provides an opportunity to critically reflect on one’s own values and beliefs while also engaging with others’ values and understandings. Auto-narrative may help readers and the writer to connect ‘self with others, self with the social, and self with the context’ (Njunjuri et al., 2010, p. 3). The auto-narrative aims to provide rich insights into experience without dictating the meaning of that experience. Space is provided for interpretation and insertion of the readers’ imagination into the narrative, enabling a kind of engagement with the reader and the text.

2.2

Reflecting on my Teaching

Metacognition or reflection on my own thinking about, and experience in teaching dance provides a valuable theoretical lens for examining what and how I teach dance. When reflecting on teacher’s metacognition in teaching, Chinese educators and psychologists Jiang et al. (2016) noted, ‘the ultimate goal would be to make students learn well with the assistance of a teacher’s effective teaching’ (p. 403). To this end, Perfect and Schwartz (2002), and Prytula (2012) argue that metacognition plays an influential role in improving teachers’ teaching by asking them to reflect on how they know what they know, and in turn recognising what they need to know to be better teachers. Moreover, as Bennett et al. (2002) note, metacognition has great relevance for understanding real world phenomena. All of this stems from Flavell’s (1979) initial observations that metacognition is about reflecting on the experience and knowledge we have about how we think.

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Key to this book is the view that teacher’s metacognition can help student-learning. As such, teacher monitoring (Fernandez-Duque et al., 2000; Martinez, 2006) and self-regulating (Bjork et al., 2013; Kuhn & Dean, 2004) aspects of metacognition are most relevant to examine. Underpinning this view, is research (Safari & Meskini, 2015) that evidences teacher’s self-awareness as being an essential precondition for enhancing student’s opportunity to learn. With respect to children, Cross and Paris (1988) refer to metacognition as ‘the knowledge and control children have over their own thinking and learning activities’ (p. 131). Hennessey (1999) defines metacognition as: Awareness of one’s own thinking, awareness of the content of one’s conceptions, an active monitoring of one’s cognitive processes, an attempt to regulate one’s cognitive processes in relationship to further learning, and an application of a set of heuristics as an effective device for helping people organize their methods of attack on problems in general. (p. 4)

Definitions of metacognition all refer in some way to how an individual’s awareness of his/her own thinking benefits his/her further learning and application of that learning. In this sense, the argument that all teachers develop a meta-perspective on their teaching is noteworthy. It is this metaperspective that I bring to this present study, where I acknowledge my ‘lifetime’ of teaching experience and how this does or does not translate into new teaching and learning contexts. Drawing upon Flavell et al. (2002), and Jiang et al. (2016), I acknowledge and value their metacognition analytical structure comprising metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience and metacognitive skills. Further to this, Jiang, Ma and Gao provide more details where metacognitive knowledge is further divided into three components: 1. Personal variable: Knowing one’s teaching strengths and weaknesses and how these create opportunity or advantages or limitations in a lesson. 2. Task variable: Knowing the pedagogy required to teach a task, inclusive of knowing assessment criteria and standards and specific conditions or contexts that inform the teaching of a task. 3. Strategy variable: Knowing diverse teaching tactics and knowing when to apply them or not.

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Metacognitive experience recognises feelings and judgements learnt over time through experience. This experience is especially valuable when understanding the learners’ dance journey in terms of process and product, and knowing when to value these throughout the lesson. Metacognition skills respect that dance teachers draw on accumulated knowledge in order to plan units of work and lessons, and monitor and adapt these in the act of teaching. Teachers can regulate their teaching methods and performance automatically, and evaluate the lesson in terms of their own performance and student’s achievement of lesson objectives during the lesson. Metacognition theory draws attention to the knowledge, experience and skills that I value when I teach and when I examine my pedagogy in terms of teaching and learning in, about and through dance in education contexts. As I unpack what and how I teach at BDA, my mind ranges over many years of teaching. Metacognition provides a valuable lens that helps me to reflect on my teaching and enables me to ‘see’ what I do.

References Anttila, E. (2007). Searching for dialogue in dance education: A teacher’s story. Dance Research Journal, 39(2), 43–57. Bennet, L., Schwartz, B., & Perfect, T. (2002). Introduction: Toward an applied metacognition. In T. Perfect & B. Schwartz (Eds.), Applied metacognition (pp. 1–11). Cambridge University Press. Bjork, R., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N. (2013). Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques, and illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417–444. Bowman, W. (2006). Why narrative? Why now? Research Studies in Music Education, 27 (1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X060270010101 Buck, R. (2003). Teachers and dance in the classroom: So, do I need my Tutu? (Unpublished PhD). University of Otago. Buck, R. (2006). Teaching dance in the curriculum. In D. Kirk, D. McDonald & M. O’Sullivan (Eds.), Handbook of physical education (pp. 703–719). Sage. Buck, R. (2021). Whispers of a revolution: Reflections upon dance education in China. Contemporary Dance Research, Shanghai Theatre Academy, 6(1), 83–94. Burridge, S., & Svendler Nielsen, C. (2018). Dance, access and inclusion. Routledge. Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education. Educational Researcher, 22(1), 5–12.

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Clandinin, D. J., & Murphy, M. S. (2009). Comments on Coulter and Smith: Relational ontological commitments in narrative research. Educational Researcher, 38(8), 598–602. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09353940 Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1985). Personal practical knowledge and the modes of knowing: Relevance for teaching and learning. In E. Eisner (Ed.), Learning and teaching the ways of knowing (84th year book of the National Society for the Study of Education) (pp. 174–198). University of Chicago Press. Connelly, F. M., Clandinin, D. J., & He, M. (1997). Teachers’ personal knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 665–674. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry: A methodology for studying lived experience. Research Studies in Music Education, 27 , 44–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X060270010301 Cross, D., & Paris, S. (1988). Developmental and instructional analyses of children’s metacognition and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(2), 131–142. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan Publishing Company. Donmoyer, R. (1990). Generalizability and the single case study. In E. Eisner & A. Peshkin (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate (pp. 175–200). Teachers College Press. Eisner, E. (1993). Forms of understanding and the future of educational research. Educational Researcher, 22(7), 5–11. Eisner, E. (1998). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. Macmillan. Elbaz, F. (1991). Research on teacher’s knowledge: The evolution of a discourse. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23(1), 1–19. Farquhar, S., & Fitzpatrick, E. (Eds.). (2019). Innovations in narrative and metaphor: Methodologies and practices. Springer. Fernadez-Duque, D., Baird, J., & Posner, M. (2000). Executive attention and metacognitive regulation. Consciousness and Cognition, 9(2), 288–307. Flavell, J. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 34, 906–911. Flavell, J., Miller, P., & Miller, S. (2002). Cognitive development (4th ed.). Prentice Hall. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. Basic Books. Hennessey, M. (1999). Probing the dimensions of metacognition: Implications for conceptual change teaching-learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Boston, MA. Jiang, Y., Ma, L., & Gao, L. (2016). Assessing teachers’ metacognition in teaching: The teacher metacognition inventory. Teaching and Teachers Education, 59, 402–413.

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Johnson, M. (1987). Review of classroom practice: Teacher images in action. Curriculum Inquiry, 17 (4), 465–469. Kuhn, D., & Dean, D. (2004). Metacognition: A bridge between cognitive psychology and educational practice. Theory into Practice, 43(4), 268–273. Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 163–187). Sage. Martinez, M. (2006). What is metacognition? Phi Delta Kappa, 87 (9), 696–699. McLaren, P. (1998). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. Longman. Merriam, S. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach. Jossey-Bass. Noor, K. B. M. (2008). Case study: A strategic research methodology. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 5(11), 1602–1604. Njunjuri, F. W., Hernandez, K. A. C., & Chang, H. (2010). Living autoethnography: Connecting life and research. Journal of Research Practice, 6(1), Article E1. http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/241/186 Perfect, T., & Schwartz, B. (2002). Applied metacognition. Cambridge University Press. Prytula, M. (2012). Teacher metacognition within the professional learning community. International Education Studies, 5(4), 112–121. Safari, Y., & Meskini, H. (2015). The effect of metacognitive instruction on problem solving skills in Iranian students of health sciences. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(1), 150–156. Schwandt, T. (2000). Three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 189–214). Sage. Stake, R. (1994). Case studies. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 236–247). Sage. Wilkinson, B. D., Shank, G., & Hanna, F. (2019). Epistemological issues in counsellor preparation: An examination of constructivist and phenomenological assumptions. The Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 12(4), 13.

CHAPTER 3

Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance Education

Abstract This chapter examines meanings of teaching and learning in, about and through dance in an education context. Underpinning these three small words is a shift in the scope and potential of dance within the education curriculum. This chapter begins to capture contemporary educational relevance and opportunities offered by dance education in the classroom. The chapter also provides an overview of dance education theoretical frameworks that informed my positioning of dance in terms of in, about and through. Keywords Teaching and learning · Dance · Relevance of dance education · Arts education · Students’ needs · Teachers’ needs

3.1

A Springboard for Dialogue

‘What do you mean, teaching and learning in, about and through dance?’ This question was quietly asked by an undergraduate dance education major during a class I taught at the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA), China. I stopped the lesson and we discussed what I meant. The students’ puzzled faces and a question from a lecturer ‘do you have any literature

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_3

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on teaching in, about and through?’ made it clear to me that the question, and this way of thinking about dance education required further explanation. In this book, I speak to my experience as the Visiting Guest Professor in Dance Education at the Beijing Dance Academy from 2017 to 2020. My aim is to understand and represent an aspect of my experience of teaching within the Beijing Dance Academy. The auto-narrative offered in this book speaks to what and how I taught dance and metacognition theory is offered as a means for examining my classroom practice that, in turn, may shed light on my understanding of teaching and learning in, about and through dance. My intent is that the analysis will help me to understand what I teach and how, and how I know this knowledge. I suggest that a phrase like ‘teaching and learning in, about and through dance’ may capture emerging educational relevance and opportunities offered by dance education in the classroom. This book provides a springboard for ongoing dialogue that may serve the development of dance education pedagogy as it meets diverse learners and teachers’ needs and aspirations in an increasingly internationalised dance education community (Jin & Martin, 2019; Liu, 2021). Teachers are required to work with diverse learners’ needs and aspirations more and more, and also meet parents’ expectations of their child’s ‘schooling’. In short, questions concerning the relevance of dance in the curriculum (Buck, 2003; Carino, 2001; Creativenet, 2001; Eisner, 1994; Ping & Xu, 2020; Snook, 2021) are real as the curriculum tries to meet diverse expectations held by key stakeholders such as students themselves, teachers, parents, tertiary institutions and employers (OECD, 2018; Scott, 2015; Rush, 1997). This has never been more true in China at present, as wide social reform (Swaine & Tellis, 2000) embraces changes in education. Concerns for broadening the curriculum and valuing diverse pedagogies are evident in the emergence of new policy and new curriculum such as Quality Oriented Dance Education (Lv, 2016) and the national plan for cultivating excellent dance teachers (Bo & Ming, 2021). Moreover, a greater focus on educational equity (Zicheng, 2010) is seen as a means for fostering more inclusion within the Chinese classroom. This change is not easy however with Zicheng and Yichao (2008) commenting on the issues of implementing inclusive education in China. This chapter also examines dominant dance education theories shaping what and how I teach dance education. This theoretical overview provides another context for the ideas expressed by the words ‘in, about and

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through’, and unpacks how different theories place emphasis on different aspects of dance education, and in so doing, shapes what and how we learn and teach dance.

3.2 Teaching and Learning In, About and Through Dance Teaching and learning in, about and through dance in my mind brings dance fully into education contexts. When I use this terminology, I am welcoming the full scope of what dance can offer all learners. Learning in dance has a focus on the practical knowledge of exploring movement, learning repertoire, choreographing, performing and improvising. Learning in dance includes all dance, be that hip hop, Samoan sasa, barn dance, disco, Chinese classical dance, ballet, flamenco or haka as examples. All dance is included. Learning in dance does not impose a hierarchy of one type of dance being more important than another, and nor does it exclude people’s participation. Learning in dance advocates for all learners doing dance. Inclusion is assumed, while also respecting the skills required in gaining bodily competence across a spectrum of dance styles. Learning about dance focuses on the histories, functions and applications of dance. For example, knowing why a dance is valued and who made it, when, where and how respects the people and society that valued that dance. Learning about dance directs student’s attention to the contexts that inform the development of dance and the value dance holds within that context. Learning about dance asks learners to consider the roles and meanings of dance for diverse communities. For example, why elderly people with dementia participate in and benefit from dancing; the purpose of a wedding dance; the relevance of ballet, contemporary dance for dance artists; the history of tap dance and its geo-political journey; the meanings of the Haka when performed by the New Zealand rugby All Blacks; and, why dance is valued in the school curriculum. Again, learning about dance refers to all dance, all dancers and their socio-cultural contexts without assuming a hierarchy that some dances or dancers are more important than others. Learning about dance invites an awareness of individuals’ meanings and experience of dance. Learning about dance examines the social contract between individuals’ meanings and social institutions and stereotypes about who dances, why, how, when and where. For example, people with

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diverse/mixed abilities dance, yet do not have the same access. Why? Males dance, and yet why does wider society struggle with this? Why do health care agencies disregard the role that dance can have for people’s well-being? Many of these concerns have been debated in the literature and there are so many more issues and debates requiring attention. My point is that learning ‘about’ dance can open up the scope and awareness of the role of dance in education and in society. Learning through dance recognises that the process of learning in and about dance provides implicit opportunities for developing a range of skills, attitudes and competencies that are transferable across many disciplines and careers. Learning through dance places value on the journey of learning in and about dance. These experiential journeys, ask students to work in teams, problem-solve, be disciplined, lead groups, articulate and critique ideas, create, collaborate and refine thinking in and across disciplines. Koff and Warner (2001) asked, what does it mean to teach and learn in, about and through dance? They highlight the relevance of teaching and learning in, about and through dance as teachers implement an integrated curriculum. They note that educational needs of children have changed in the twenty-first century, stating ‘Teachers must emphasise the skills that students need for the rest of their lives, rather than focusing primarily on subject specific content’ (p. 142). They highlight that the subject-specific skills (learning in) and contextual knowledge (learning about) provide students a grounding with which to then make meaningful connections across curriculum and life situations (learning through). They acknowledge that learning life skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration, creative thinking are ably learnt through dance and that it is these twenty-first-century competencies that are increasingly sought by educators in order to meet new political and neoliberal agendas (Rush, 1997; Shi et al., 2017). In a classroom lesson, learning ‘in’ dance for example, might look like, teaching a small activity that explores the choreographic element of space and manipulating movement and presenting that sequence to classmates. Learning ‘about’ dance may entail me asking the students to reflect on how their personal history shapes interpretations and ideas about their use of space. In doing this, I more often than not am asking the students to learn ‘through’ dance by asking them to work in teams, think creatively, critically reflect on choices made and tolerate others’ ideas. As such, they are learning behaviours, skills and attitudes beyond

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dance. Over time, this approach to teaching and learning dance develops students’ behaviours, dispositions and intelligences (Lambrinos, 2019). The pedagogical approach also respects that learners are diverse, difference is a reality, and that learners want to genuinely feel that they belong in the classroom. Jean Rush (1997), an esteemed arts education consultant in the U.S.A. noted that as the political landscapes change so do our arguments for the value of arts education within schools. This has never been more true when we consider the growth and change in China with subsequent shifts in education policy (Gao, 2018; Wang, 2011) and political uncertainties sparked by for example Trump and Brexit (Rowe et al., 2018). Kerby et al. (2021) commented on recent challenges for arts education in Australia finding strong support for quality arts education in schools, while also noting ongoing reform of how we value and teach arts education is required. Though Rush (1997) recognises that it is near impossible to gain consensus on what and how to teach any arts discipline. One way forward she argues is ‘acknowledging two things- the value of aesthetic literacy and the non-universality of children’s artistic development’ (p. 3). Or, teacher-led learning ‘in’ and ‘about’ arts education. She goes on to recognise that reform around what and how we teach arts education requires cognisance of wider educational reform. She notes, competencies required by U.S.A. Department of Labour necessary for the modern workplace include: ‘creative thinking, decision making, problem-solving, collaboration and self-management’ (p. 7). She goes on to note that, ‘In this climate, the arts have academic standing because of their ability to convey cultural values and self-esteem … to understand human experience, think imaginatively’ (p. 7). Such competencies are likened to skills learnt through arts education. With an equally strong argument for the better inclusion of the arts within a broader educational context, Robert Donmoyer (1995) argues, ‘In short, I see a less than stimulating and less than fair educational environment. Using the arts as modes of learning [in and about] and methods of teaching [through] may not be a panacea. But it would certainly be a step in the right direction’ (p. 19). Also with the desire to better value the opportunities that dance offers the learner, in 2000 the New Zealand Ministry of Education moved dance from the Physical Education curriculum into the arts curriculum. This was done recognising that within Physical Education ‘the focus of dance is primarily the development of physical skills’ (Hong, 2001, p. 4). This focus in and

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of itself is not bad, just that the arts curriculum recognised that dance offered much more. Hong went on to note that dance under the arts developed the student’s understanding of dance ‘“as a way of knowing”, as aesthetic/artistic and cultural education and as a socio cultural phenomenon’ (p. 4). In the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007), students learn ‘in’ dance where they are learning diverse dances, choreography and performance. They learn ‘about’ dance, examining personal contexts within dance, cultural values that inform the creating and performing of dance, roles and functions, histories, key persons. They learn ‘through’ dance, using dance as a mode of thinking critically, thinking creatively, integrating learning in dance across other disciplines and areas of life and in sum developing twenty-first-century competencies such as leadership, team work, collaboration, creativity, cultural sensitivity through dance. Kerby et al. (2021) support the above by advocating for arts education to be not only based on skill development, but strongly inclusive of critical and creative thinking about how and why we make and value aesthetic knowledge. Related to this point, Mingyuan (2010) commenting on China’s Outline of the National Program for Medium—and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) advocated for more individualized and diversified education in accordance with students’ aptitude. Further to this argument, Pamela Matt (2003) reiterates the importance of individual’s critical thinking within dance science education, and that this requires a combination of knowing skills, facts and issues; being able to apply these ideas in specific contexts and most importantly being able to reason and ask questions. In my and others’ views (Koff, 2021; Mabingo, 2020; Martin & Chen, 2020), it is not enough to have expertise in dance. Students require knowledge about dance, its contexts and functions, such that they can confidently utilise dance processes and products in specific contexts in critical and reasoned ways. Buck and Snook (2020), with a focus on dance pedagogy, advocate for an equal emphasis on both product and process, where students create choreographies and performances but are equally conscious of how and why they went about making, sharing and problem-solving. We, as dance educators, require students to learn and master disciplinary skills, and techniques but also to step back from disciplinary skills

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and consider the applications and meanings of dance for diverse learners coming from diverse contexts. This is important as our communities and our classrooms become more and more diverse. It is here in the classroom, that the teacher is prioritising what is being learnt, and making judgements about learning strategies and lesson content. It is the teacher, in conversation with the learner, who establishes what matters most within a lesson and in the classroom (Biesta, 2012) and this is no different in dance education. Teachers come to education with prior learning and teaching experience (Eisner, 1998; Zhou et al., 2019), and teachers need to reflect on what they know in and about dance, honestly appraising their strengths and weaknesses (Liu, 2021). In doing so, they acknowledge their expertise and limitations. This honest reflection alerts the teacher to what skills and pedagogical strategies they need to develop. It also provides opportunities for the teachers to work with other teachers with different capabilities sharing their strengths and learning for each other. Clearly young learners do not have a depth of experience in a discipline, yet they do have a depth of experience in knowing what matters to them, and how they like to learn, how they like to work with others and how they like to create and express their ideas. Learning through dance takes the view that each learner and teacher comes to the classroom with something, with dispositions and skills albeit limited, and that they can learn how to value and use them within and/or away from dance contexts. Twenty-first-century competencies such as collaboration, problem-solving, creativity are not unique to an education in dance, yet with a critical perspective, dance teachers may better articulate their rationale for teaching what they teach and how they teach. Having outlined meanings of teaching and learning in, about and through dance, above, I am more than aware that teaching and learning dance does not fit or remain in such tidy definitions. Teaching and learning dance is much more chaotic and messy with borders of knowledge and understandings often blurred and boundaries expanded. There is extensive literature that argues for the educational import of the arts in education (Eisner, 1998; Ewing, 2010; Kerby et al., 2021; Lv, 2000; Shi, 2021; Snook, 2021). Of note in this book is my question, can the phrase ‘teaching in, about and through dance’ serve to sharpen the focus of what and how teachers teach dance in our present society?

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3.3

Dance Education Theories Underpinning My Focus on ‘In, About and Through’

My thinking around teaching and learning in, about and through dance did not emerge suddenly nor ‘fall from the skies’. My thoughts stem from my teaching experience and also my understanding of dance education theoretical frameworks. The following section provides a brief account of what I believe to be dominant theories/models that have shaped dance education in school classrooms and shaped my thinking of teaching in, about and through dance. The theories and models that I regard as being influential, as determined by their use, longevity and impact, are Rudolf Laban’s Modern Educational Dance model, Janet Adshead’s Study of Dance model, Jacqueline Smith Autard’s Midway model, Getty Foundation’s Discipline Based Arts Education model, Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and Somatic Education. This list is not a full account of theories on offer, but rather those that I have related too and that have influenced my teaching and learning. As an educator born and raised in Australia and influenced by Western theory and context, I am unapologetic in the fact that it is Western theory and literature that I relate to and have been informed by. In the following chapter however, I do offer a brief account of Quality Oriented Dance Education, which has of late provided me with further insights into dance pedagogy, especially in China. 3.3.1

Modern Educational Dance

I first heard of Laban when training to be a Physical Education teacher in Australia. I later heard of Laban from Wolfgang Stange, and then as I studied for my Master’s degree in the UK. Rudolf Laban (1879– 1958) is arguably the most influential dance in education theorist (Alter, 1996; Hanstein, 1999; Haynes, 1987; Wang et al., 2019; Xin, 2021). Laban’s theories were derived from his direct experience in dancing, teaching dance and observing dance throughout Europe and finally in Englandwhere his theories were translated into the educational context and generically referred to as Modern Educational Dance (Laban, 1948). His analysis of movement led to the development of a descriptive vocabulary and a notation system (Laban notation) that allowed for the observation and recording of all dance. Importantly, Laban acknowledged the implicit connections between movement, feeling and thinking,

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rejecting the ongoing dualistic view of mind/body. This holistic view, that took account of the internal psychological impulse to move, and the physiological manifestation of movement, informed his categorising of movement and also laid the foundation for ongoing theoretical development in dance therapy. Laban identified and, more importantly, articulated movement within the components of weight, time, space and flow. It would be hard to overstate the profound effect these four words have had on the practice of dance in education contexts around the world. In alluding to this import, Alter (1996) noted, ‘Essentially the dynamic variations of (all) movement can be analysed, described, and controlled by understanding these components’ (p. 146). Laban’s extensive classification of movement led to the development of ‘effort/shape graphs… [and] sixteen basic movement themes’ (Laban, 1948, pp. 25–84) and a comprehensive notation system. Foster (1977) summed up the influence of Laban: Fundamentally, Laban made an analysis of human movement and its meaning and application to art, education, therapy, recreation, and industry. The aim of his work was to assist the harmonisation of the individual through the Art of Movement by giving him insights and a heightened perception of consciousness into his physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual relationship and inter-dependencies. (p. 41)

Laban’s work influenced the provision of dance within curriculum in England in the 1940s where educationists such as Lisa Ullmann, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Joan Russell and Marion North refined Laban’s principles and advocated for and implemented dance as a discrete learning area in the curriculum, albeit within the physical education curriculum. Nevertheless, Laban’s modern educational dance theory was later criticised for its inability to relate dance to the cognitive and intellectual realms of examinable knowledge when dance became a subject in secondary schools in England in the 1970s, and then within tertiary education (initially within BEd physical education degrees) (Haynes, 1987). Laban’s work, rooted in practice and experience, did not comply with the emerging conception of knowledge between 1965 and 1980 in England (Adshead, 1981). As Haynes noted, ‘By the early seventies, a number of influential writers had begun to argue that dance education should shift its attention from the psychological/therapeutic orientation towards the more formal and aesthetic conception as an art form’ (Haynes, 1987, p. 154). Such

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writers in England at the time included Janet Adshead, David Best, Peter Brinson, Gordon Curl, Betty Redfern and Louis Arnaud Reid. Laban’s modern educational dance travelled the world through physical education curricula and teacher training programmes (Brinson, 1991). As a young Physical Education student in Australia, one of my first experiences in learning to teach dance was based upon Laban’s analysis of effort, weight, time and flow. Laban informed my practice, strongly shaping how I teach ‘in’ dance. More recently and with more experience under my belt, I am more critical of Laban’s formulaic analysis of movement and his lack of appreciation of cultural context. Karina and Kant (2004), and latterly Koff (2021), draw attention to Laban’s morality regarding his involvement within the Nazi movement during World War II, and also to the universalism of his theory that failed to adequately account for humanity’s cultural diversity and diverse contexts. 3.3.2

The Study of Dance: Choreography, Performance and Appreciation

Janet Adshead (1981), (presently Janet Lansdale) a teacher and social scientist in England, informed by the work of Laban and his critics, went on to develop a coherent account for the study of dance. In doing so, Adshead provided the theoretical rigour required to sustain dance in educational curriculum at all levels of arts education. Adshead argued for dance as a discipline comparable to any other within the curriculum. Adshead (1981) most succinctly argued for dance in respect to Pring’s (1976) criteria, being that a discipline must have: • • • •

Central organising concepts. Principles of procedure, which are appropriate to the activity itself. Criteria of success. Common problems and interests informing inquiry.

Adshead clearly made an argument for dance within these criteria but more importantly, made the argument within the public and academic forum and knowledge debate. Adshead took up Best’s (1978) and Reid’s (1974) philosophies regarding the correlation and distinction between arts and aesthetic education and strongly advocated that the study of dance concerns dance in ritual, social and artistic functional contexts,

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all of which have aesthetic concerns. Her arguments also acknowledged the eclectic and diverse nature of dance. In arguing for the value of an aesthetic orientation to the study of dance, Adshead noted that it is within the arts curriculum that dance will be most ably be understood and explored in educational and academic contexts (Haynes, 1987). In laying this foundation for the study of dance, Adshead articulated the structures and concepts that have identified her work as being crucial to the growth of dance in education in the 1990s (Haynes, 1987; Meiners, 2001). Adshead’s main thesis within the text The Study of Dance (1981) is that, if dance is to be included in the curriculum, then structures and concepts underlying all and any dance must be found, and be articulated as appropriate to the study of dance itself. Adshead developed a conceptual framework around the notions of choreography (making dance), performance (showing dance) and appreciation (reading and analysing dance). These concepts became the centrepiece for her framework that provided the focus for studying all dance within historical, cultural and geographical contexts. In Adshead’s (1988) subsequent writings on dance analysis, she further articulated choreography, performance and appreciation, drawing attention to the spatial and dynamic qualities (derivatives of Laban’s initial analysis). Adshead (1988) developed a model for the analysis of dance that in essence is structured around describing the components of the dance, establishing the form of the dance, interpreting the meaning of the dance, and then evaluating the merit of the dance. As a student of Janet Adshead in the late 1980s, I was profoundly influenced by her conceptualising of dance education. Her recognition of the importance of diverse socio-cultural histories and meanings of dance informed my teaching of dance. Janet Adshead sowed the seeds for my thinking that teaching and learning dance is much more than being a dancer, more than artistic expression and more than training. It was with Adshead that I began thinking of dance education in terms of teaching and learning in, about and through. 3.3.3

The Midway Model

Jacqueline Smith (1976) (later known as Smith-Autard) articulated principles and procedures for dance composition based upon the contemporary Western theatre dance traditions of the day. Like Adshead, Smith responded to the need for greater academic rigour in the study of dance

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in educational institutions. Smith also built upon Laban’s themes, though putting emphasis upon dance as an art form, where students come to know dance as art through actively composing, performing and appreciating dances. Smith’s focus upon dance as art drew upon choreographic practices and traditions, pioneered by the likes of Martha Graham, Eric Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, utilised within the professional dance arena. These practices informing dance in education were derived from a ‘professional model’ (Smith-Autard, 1994, p. 4) and dominated by an emphasis on developing specific artistic skills and products, reflecting a kickback against the ‘free, open and child centred approach which has been labelled modern educational dance, creative dance, and the like…derived from Laban’s ideas’ (Smith-Autard, 1994, p. 4). The Midway Model (1994) aimed to blend: process and product; creativity and repertoire; feelings and skill and objectivity with subjectivity. I fully understand the intent of this model, but I can’t help thinking that in reality, this model supports a much more vocabulary-oriented classroom. I feel that the dominant driver of the model is the training ‘in’ dance to become a dancer. While I think this short sells the scope and power of dance education, I do see the value of how education and professional perspectives can serve each other, through for example, valuing equally the process of making a dance and the product of the final dance. 3.3.4

Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE)

Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE) was a model sponsored by the Getty Foundation in America and based upon visual arts education practice. DBAE was formed upon and characterised by ‘four art disciplines – aesthetics, criticism, history and production’ (Greer, 1987, p. 227; Hanna, 1999; Ottey, 1996). Each of these ‘disciplines’ has a recognised body of knowledge content and mode of inquiry (King & Brownell, 1966) that is interconnected and provides considerable scope for the study of dance. It is argued that the drive behind the adoption of DBAE is the desire for the arts, including dance, to be seen as having ‘academic content’ (Ottey, 1996, p. 31) that may be assessed and accounted for in a manner comparable to other disciplines in the curriculum. DBAE successfully and strongly places dance within the academic curriculum and confirms its legitimacy. Yet, I fear DBAE may be a ‘double-edged sword’ that, through its quest to legitimise the arts and

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dance in academic terms, has unintentionally distanced the teacher from implementing the dance curriculum. There is a gap between the experts’ vision, rationale, terminology and standards for dance, and the teachers’ practice and experience of dance, a gap that may be quite vast in many teachers’ minds and bodies. Ottey (1996) talks of DBAE shifting the pedagogy of dance towards what Paolo Freire (1972) critically described as ‘banking’ (p. 46), whereby the teacher provides the knowledge to be learnt or banked by the student. Other concerns relate to DBAE overly formalising the dance experiences, thereby reducing the liberal nature of the educative experience (Fortin, 1991; Hanna, 1999; Trend, 1992); fragmenting arts practice (Dorn, 1993); undervaluing the relevance of teachers and children’s artistic values (Dorn, 1993); losing the holistic experiential qualities that may be accessed through dance (Broudy (1991) and, valuing achievement outcomes over the child’s creativity (Hanna, 1999). The DBAE model has evolved and been adapted to meet the needs of various curriculum policies in different countries. Its influence was evident in the American National Standards for Arts Education (Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, 1994), and remains evident in the latest 2021 iteration of the American National Standards https:// www.nationalartsstandards.org/. DBAE also influenced the Australian Statement on the Arts for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994), and continues to inform the current Australian Arts Curriculum (Version 8: 2014) https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curric ulum/the-arts/dance/; and, the New Zealand model, The Arts: In the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) https://nzcurr iculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/The-arts. Arguably, I also note that DBAE has influenced the development of Quality Oriented Dance Education (QODE) in China. It was Professor Yisheng Lv, from the Beijing Dance Academy, who upon studying works by Elliot Eisner, Maxine Greene, adapted the American 2005 Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance in the Arts formulated QODE in China in 2011 (Jin, 2017). Although these documents have differences, their intent, structure, outcomes and terminology are essentially compatible. The DBAE has been influential in determining the nature of dance in schools, however the critique of DBAE as noted above is asking us to revisit curriculum in light of contemporary concerns regarding decolonisation and diversity (Koff, 2021). Accepting the ‘curriculum territory’ gained by the

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arguments for dance as advocated for within the DBAE framework, it remains now to ‘close the gap’ between history, curriculum intent and the teachers’ practice in the classroom. For me, DBAE by default informed my views about the centrality of the teacher in education. That is, it is important that generalist teachers see themselves as the professional resources to teach dance rather than referring to dance experts or artists in residence who may teach discreet aspects of the curriculum. Without doubt, my view infers that teacher’s professional development is needed, and this is not in dispute. My own experience inclines me towards the view that long-lasting change will be best effected through the empowerment of individual teachers to become their own resource, looking within and valuing what they know rather than referring to an external voice of authority or expertise (Gallego et al., 2001; Green, 2001). I believe that as Ottey (1996) and others imply, the teacher is at the heart of education and this is where we start. Teaching and learning in, about and through dance relies on the teacher having adequate content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge (Fortin, 1993). DBAE made me more aware of what we teach when we focus on teaching ‘about’ dance education. 3.3.5

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

In 1967 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, esteemed philosopher Nelson Goodman and colleagues across the behavioural and cognitive sciences, education and the arts, established Project Zero, ‘a first-of-its-kind think tank on the relationship between the arts, cognitive development, and education’ (Warburton, 2003, p. 9). The core view argued for by the Project Zero team was that artistic practice was cognitive, contesting the predominant view of the time that the arts were primarily emotive, mysterious and intuitive (Gardner, 1989). In the 1970s, this debate set the context for the two research teams at Project Zero: David Perkins directed research by the ‘cognitive skills’ group, and Howard Gardner led the developmental group that focused upon symbol using skills (Gardner, 1989). ARTS PROPEL was the name given to the subsequent phase of research in partnership with the Educational Testing Service and the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The practical implementation of theory in educational settings was studied. Seeking clarification and understanding of human potential, Gardnerquestioned popular conceptions of intelligence (Gardner, 1983). In

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collaboration with anthropologists, geneticists, psychologists, neurobiologists and historians, Gardnersynthesised children’s symbol-using capacities through his research on the cognitive capacities of individuals with brain damage. In short, the dominant outcome was his theory of multiple intelligences (M.I.) (Gardner, 1983) that articulated ‘seven candidate intelligences’ (p. XI). These intelligences were named as: Linguistic, Logical—mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily Kinaesthetic, Interpersonal and Intra-personal. I have noted Gardner’s expression ‘candidate intelligences’ by way of reiterating his view that intelligence is not a thing found or discovered, as he said, ‘These intelligences are fictions - at most, useful fictions - for discussing processes and abilities that (like all life) are continuous and with one another’ (Gardner, 1983, p. 70). Since then, Gardner has articulated an eighth intelligence, Naturalist Intelligence (Gardner, 1999). Gardner described these intelligences as ‘forms of knowing’ (Gardner, 1989, p. 74), and posited that all humans have some capacity in each, and that they may be developed. Undeniably, as worldwide practice reveals, M.I. theory has struck a chord of ‘truth’ with teachers (Gardner, 1995, 2000) and dance educators (Green Gilbert, 2003; Sevilla, 2003; Warburton, 2003). The argument that there is no single way to ‘know’ (Gardner, 1983), and that there are multiple entry points into pedagogy (Gardner, 1999) resonates with what many teachers see every day. This is most apparent as teachers relook at children’s intelligences utilised within the realm of artistic endeavour. In respect to arts education, Gardner noted the predominant classroom emphasis upon producing art under a process of instruction relying heavily upon traditions of apprenticeship—watch and do as I do. In classrooms where the teacher was gifted or inspired, children’s work often reached a high level. However, there is consensus within the arts education fraternity that arts education is more than the production and mostly re-production of arts (Gardner, 1989; Hong et al., 1998). Based upon his cognitive theories, Gardner (1989) outlined an approach to arts education that was condensed to focusing on the competencies of production (making art), perception (refining art) and reflection (looking to understand art). Implications of the ideas of Gardner and Arts Propel upon dance in schools may be found in their validation of dance as a way of thinking, and as a means for showing that thinking through the holistic self, an integration of mind and body. That there are many symbol systems presenting knowledge and experiences that require particular intelligence

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is well-argued by Gardner and his mentor Nelson Goodman, and not doubted by myself in respect to dance. Warburton (2003) discussed myths, pitfalls and criticisms of M.I. theory as it is translated into classroom practice. A concern regarding the characterisation of intelligence (and even the use of the term—intelligence) as a taxonomy of intelligences, is that M.I. can be mistaken as a substitute for existing means of measuring and ‘packaging’ children’s educational ability and worth. Noting that Gardner has not subscribed to this kind of use (Gardner, 1999; Warburton, 2003), nonetheless in my experience it is occurring, and may therefore inadvertently present a new way of reinstating hierarchies of knowledge and curricula. Gardner’s theories of Multiple Intelligences particularly as applied to arts education are evident in New Zealand schools. By way of evidence, my own children’s primary school, several years ago, made M.I. an integral component of the curriculum and offered after-school introductions to M.I. for parents. In respect to teaching and learning in, about and through dance, M.I. supported my view that dance education can enable the development of competencies beyond actual dance vocabulary, movement exploration and repertoire. 3.3.6

Somatic Education

In the 1990s, the movement philosophies grouped under the banner of somatic education increasingly informed tertiary dance programmes and professional dance practice (Fortin, 1998; Kovich, 1996). Somatic practices such as Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Ideokinesis, MindBody Centring and Yoga, while not new, have been contemporised by their increasing use in tertiary dance education programmes, within dance company training schedules and in the public arena. Somatics encompasses a holistic perspective of movement that Kleinman (2000) referred to as ‘kinaesthetic phenomenology’ (p. 98). Thomas Hanna (1983) described somatics as ‘the art and science of the inner-relational process between awareness, biological function and environment, all three factors understood as a synergistic whole’ (p. 1). While I believe that somatic practice does not yet appear to be directly informing dance curriculum content in schools, there is increasing reference to self-awareness and holistic perspectives of the body/mind within curriculum rationale in the arts and in education at large (Eisner, 1998; Green, 2001). From an educator’s perspective, I suggest, as did

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Green (2001), that somatic practices reference an ideology similar to the liberal, ‘progressive’, personal, and felt dimensions of dance that were first espoused by Laban. Somatics would support a return to focus upon the child rather than the dance, and if educators have learnt from pedagogical swings of the past, this will include acknowledgement of the relationship between the individual and their contexts, provided by curriculum, teacher and community. As conceptions of knowledge broaden and academia responds to epistemological diversity, disciplines such as dance might then return to championing their inherent practices and rationales. Somatics may shift dance pedagogy from an ‘outside-in’ phenomenon, where the body has been regarded as a relatively docile site for enculturation (Green, 2001), to an ‘inside-out’ process where the individual may ‘self fashion…our dancing body’ (Fortin et al., 2002). Within the school classroom, such a process is desirable if diverse interests and bodies are to be respected and where the emphasis should be upon learning through the dancing body, not training for a dancing body. Somatic practices acknowledge the relationship between the self and their body in the construction of their body and their dance. As noted by Green (2001), somatics is about affirming ‘what goes on inside the body rather than a sole focus on what the body looks like or how it “should” behave’ (p. 157). Having just completed a course to be a Yoga teacher in 2022, I caution my earlier thoughts and Green’s affirmation. In respect to yoga as a somatic practice, teachers need to be cautious of not making Western assumptions about the body and pay more attention to the diversity of bodies and the cultural contexts of those bodies. This concern is becoming important as we incorporate somatics within dance therapy/well-being contexts and dance therapy moves into more diverse communities (Ahuja, 2022). I expect that as pre-service teachers and artists gain greater exposure to somatic practice in their education, they will translate this into classroom practice, and curriculum will increasingly flex to represent and better account for the multifarious nature of the dance discipline. Somatic education widens the meanings of learning in, about and through dance, and as noted above, returns the focus of dance education to the learner and what they in their diversity bring into the classroom. In valuing somatic education, I am respecting the need for dance educators to see diversity in their classroom and consequently adjust teaching strategies and content in order to include all learners and maximise participation.

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3.4

Summary

The above theoretical conceptions of dance education provide a context for my understanding of dance education. Bring to these theories and experience my constructivist pedagogical practice, and I begin to see how I developed an interest in articulating dance in terms of teaching and learning in, about and through dance within education contexts. As outlined earlier, the intent of this book is to better understand what teachers know and how they know it, and that a vision statement like ‘teaching and learning in, about and through dance’ may provide a catchphrase for focusing teachers’ attention on learners’ emerging needs and motivations. The above further reveals what I know and how I know it. It also reiterates my concerns that we ensure that dance education is relevant to learners and their future-looking societies.

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Gardner, H. (1995). Time to talk Turkey. Educational Quarterly Australia, 3, 23–25. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. Basic Books. Gardner, H. (2000). The disciplined mind: Beyond facts and standardised tests: The K-12 education that every child deserves. Penguin Books. Green, J. (2001). Socially constructed bodies in American dance classrooms. Research in Dance Education, 2(2), 153–173. Green Gilbert, A. (2003). Toward best practices in dance education through the theory of multiple intelligences. Journal of Dance Education, 3(1), 28–33. Greer, W. (1987). A structure of discipline based concepts for DBAE. Studies in Art Education, 28(4), 227–233. Hanna, T. (1983). Dictionary definition of the word somatics. Somatics, 4(2), 1. Hanna, J. (1999). Partnering dance and education. Human Kinetics. Hanstein, P. (1999). Models and metaphors: Theory making and the creation of new knowledge. In S. H. Fraleigh & P. Hanstein (Eds.), Researching dance: Evolving modes of inquiry (pp. 62–88). Dance Books. Haynes, A. (1987). Changing perspectives in dance education. In P. Abbs (Ed.), Living powers: The arts in education (pp. 141–162). The Falmer Press. Hong, T. (2001). Getting Cinders to the Ball. Dance Aotearoa New Zealand Journal, Summer (4–6). Hong, T., Foley, S., & Thwaites, T. (1998). The arts in the New Zealand curriculum: A review of literature. Auckland College of Education. Jin, J. (2017). Stepping out of the ivory tower: Meanings of teaching dance in schools in China (Unpublished PhD thesis). Dance Studies, University of Auckland. Jin, J., & Martin, R. (2019). Exploring the past to navigate the future: Examining histories of higher education in China in an internationalised context. Research in Dance Education, 20(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 14647893.2019.1566304 Karina, L., & Kant, M. (2004). Hitler’s dancers: German modern dance and the Third Reich. Berghahn Books. Kerby, M., Lorenza, L., Dyson, J., Ewing, R., & Baguley, M. (2021). Challenges, implications and the future of the Australian curriculum: The arts. The Australian Educational Researcher, 48, 901–922. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s13384-021-00488-y King, A., & Brownell, J. (1966). The curriculum and the disciplines of knowledge. Wiley. Kleinman, S. (2000). Summing up: A chronological retrospective or dancing the body electric. Quest, 52(1), 89–101. Koff, S., & Warner, M. J. (2001). Curriculum integration: Teaching in, through and about dance in primary and secondary education. Journal of Dance Education, 1(4), 142–147.

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Koff, S. (2021). Dance education: A re-definition. Bloomsbury Publishing. Kovich, Z. (1996). Mind, body, movement and creativity: A somatic epistemology. Paper presented at the Australian Tertiary Dance Festival. Australian Dance Council. Laban, R. (1948). Modern educational dance. Macdonald and Evans. Lambrinos, E. (2019). Building ballet: Developing dance and dancers in ballet (Unpublished Doctoral thesis). University of Sydney. Liu, H. (2021). If you can dance well, you can teach well?-University perspectives: Professional backgrounds and subject teaching for dance teachers. Dance, 3, 91–94. Lv, Y. S. (2016). The core idea of dance teaching method in quality education. Journal of Contemporary Research in Dance, 1(1), 72–79. CNKI:SUN:WDYS.0.2016-01-018 Lv, Y. S. (2000). Dance education. Shanghai Music Publishing House. Mabingo, A. (2020). Ubuntu as dance pedagogy in Uganda: Individuality, community, and inclusion in teaching and learning of indigenous dances. Palgrave Macmillan. Martin, R., & Chen, R. (2020). The people’s dance: The power and politics of Guangchang Wu. Palgrave Macmillan. Matt, P. (2003). “Critical thinking” in dance science education. Journal of Dance Education, 3(4), 121–130. Meiners, J. (2001). A dance syllabus writer’s perspective: The New South Wales K-6 dance syllabus. Research in Dance Education, 2(1), 77–88. Mingyuan, G. (2010). Study and interpretation on state planning outline for medium and long-term education reform and development (2010–2020). Journal of Higher Education, 31(7), 1–6. CNKI:SUN:HIGH.0.2010-07-001 Ministry of Education New Zealand. (2000). The arts in the New Zealand curriculum. Learning Media. Ministry of Education, New Zealand. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Learning Media. OECD. (2018). The future of education and skills education 2030. Retrieved on 9th February 2019 from OECD website: https://www.oecd.org/education/ 2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf Ottey, S. (1996). Critical pedagogical theory and the dance educator. Arts Education Policy Review, 98(2), 31–39. Ping, X., & Xu, M. (2020). On dance education and dance teachers: Discussing the emotion education and personality education. Beijing Dance Academy Journal, 3, 100–103. Pring, R. (1976). Knowledge and schooling. Open Books. Reid, L. A. (1974). The arts as a unique form of knowledge. Cambridge Journal of Education, 4(3), 153–165.

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Zhicheng, H., & Yichao, H. (2008). Inclusive education: The way forward—Reflections on the theme of the 48th (2008) UNESCO International Conference on Education. Global Education (7), 46–49+45. CNKI:SUN:WGJN.0.2008-07-010

CHAPTER 4

New Directions in Dance Education and China

Abstract This chapter speaks to new directions and needs within education and specifically dance education. The value of developing ‘soft skills’ or twenty-first-century competencies are noted and reviewed in respect to dance education. The second part of the chapter has a focus on the emergence of dance education in contemporary China, noting the interplay between curriculum policy and politics. Keywords Twenty-first-century competencies · Curriculum · UNESCO · China policy · Quality oriented dance education

With a focus on teaching and learning in, about and through, what are the new directions or needs being expressed in educational discourse? As mentioned in the previous chapter, there is a renewed vigour for students to have soft skills (Andrews & Higson, 2008) and twenty-firstcentury competencies (Johnson, 2009; Robles, 2012; Xu et al., 2021) which profile the increasing importance for young people to know how to problem-solve, think critically, think creatively, collaborate, lead, work in teams and be culturally aware. The UNESCO Seoul Agenda: Goals for arts education http://www. unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/ Seoul_Agenda_EN.pdf (Accessed 27 February 2021) has a focus on © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_4

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increasing student’s access to arts education, ensuring the quality of the experience in the arts, and appreciating the socio/cultural/economic value of the arts in diverse contexts. More recently though dovetailing with the above, are the UNESCO Goals for Sustainable Development https://en.unesco.org/sustainabledevelopmentgoals (Accessed 27 February 2021) that articulate 17 goals, aiming to focus civil society’s attention on concerns around climate change, well-being, water, gender and quality education to name a few. The World Economic Forum 2016 published a report titled, New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Wellbeing Through Technology https://www.weforum. org/reports/new-vision-for-education-fostering-social-and-emotional-lea rning-through-technology (Accessed March 2018), noting that children’s well-being lies at the heart of ongoing social and economic well-being and that technology is an untapped resource within education. Karen Bond (2019) published a much anticipated volume titled Dance and the Quality of Life, including 30 chapters from scholars around the world speaking to topics concerning dancing across the lifespan, dance and peace, dance and indigenous identity and dance and well-being. Similarly, Burridge and Svendler Nielsen’s two most recent books, Dance Education Around the World (2015) and Dance, Access and Inclusion (2018), also capture the international mood in their range of authors and topics. More recently, Martin and Chen’s (2020) book speaks to community dance and leadership in China, and Mabingo (2020) in his book discusses Ubuntu and indigenous dance pedagogy. It is noticeable that the list above (albeit my list) does not include texts concerning ‘ways to improve dance technique’ or accounts of national histories. Without doubt, the dance community’s concerns with how dance is valued and used within diverse contexts is at the front of dance education discourse. Clearly the above illustrates that the skills and attitudes assumed under the moniker of Twenty-first-Century Competencies are valued widely. There is an emerging realisation that dance within diverse contexts offers much more than an experience in dancing. Dance education offers a bridge for connecting people with larger concerns such as peace, personal well-being, community well-being, cultural identity (Zheng, 2021). For me, dance is valuable in and of itself, but its greater value is found when we regard dance as a social infrastructure upon which we dance educators can build people’s competencies for improving their individual life and their community. Taking the view that dance education is more than teaching and learning dance steps requires dance educators to see and

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understand how dance can be taught such that students are learning in, about and through dance. The following narratives in this book reveal how I teach in a way that invites the students to learn in, about and through dance. When I reflect on my teaching, two key words I hear often are, ‘what’ and ‘how’. Integral to ‘what’ dance educators are teaching is ‘how’ we are teaching dance education. Shulman (1986) and Fortin (1993) speak to how dance educators may have content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and optimally content pedagogical knowledge. Fortin reiterates the equal importance of knowing what we teach and knowing how we teach. Fortin and many (Buck & Snook, 2017; Freire, 1972; Greene, 1991; Shapiro, 1998; Stinson, 1998; Warburton, 2008) note the two dominant pedagogical paradigms in dance education being transmission and transformative pedagogies. It is acknowledged that transformative pedagogies are inclusive of experiential, inductive, critical, feminist, democratic and similar postmodern articulations of pedagogy (Novack, 1990), while transmissive pedagogies refer to master and apprentice, guru, authoritarian and banking styles of teaching and learning. Within China, dance education pedagogy is equally responsive to changing societies and learners’ emerging needs. Lv’s (2000) Quality Oriented Dance Education (QODE) programme is an example of recognition of maintaining relevant content pedagogical knowledge. As noted above changes in any one context are related to larger political, social, economic shifts. With this in mind, it is worthwhile to look more closely at China’s context and the implications for contemporary dance education in China.

4.1

Contemporary Dance Education and China

Neither dance nor the curriculum operate in a vacuum (Willis & Schubert, 1991), but are a product of the social-cultural-economic community from which they emanate. Curriculum, being ‘theoretical models…and…idealised structures’ (Eisner, 1991, p. 44), which are informed by research in the academic discipline, teacher research and teacher practice, are subject to debate (Rubin, 1991). Nonetheless, curricula in general share a common role in facilitating learning and aiming to change (educate) the child (Lortie, 1975; Newman, 1990), or as framed by Eisner (1991), ‘School curriculum is a mind altering device: it is a vehicle designed to change the ways in which the young think’ (p. 42).

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The rationale for teaching dance in any curriculum not only has to appease the visionaries, but also appeal to the classroom teacher in such a way as to encourage the implementation of the curriculum. How dance is argued for in the curriculum provides an important link between theory and practice and also a clear indication of what is valued and meant by including dance in the classroom. Pertinent to this book, being situated in China, is the question: what is happening in dance education in China? Buck (2021) reflected on dominant issues informing dance education in China and highlighted the emerging importance of developing skills in collaboration, relationship building, pedagogical diversity and communication. Scholars in China (Li et al., 2014; Zhan, 2011) have also noted the emergence of twenty-first-century competencies as a driver in education reform. Zhang (2012) specifically notes the relevance of fostering the importance of the twenty-first-century competencies in primary school education. President Xi Jinping has continued to profile the importance of education in China, and has linked education reform with the One Belt, One Road initiative. On 13 July 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to promote the One Belt, One Road Education Action. The notice pointed out that, The countries along the line (Belt and Road) will join hands to enhance understanding, expand openness, strengthen cooperation, learn from each other, seek common interests, face common destiny, shoulder coresponsibility, and build a One Belt, One Road education community to form equality. Inclusive, reciprocal and active educational cooperation, will promote the development of regional education, comprehensively supporting the construction of the Belt and Road, and work together to promote the commonwealth of the people and carry out cultural exchanges of a wider scope, higher level and deeper level. People from all walks of life know each other and provide support for talents. They will train a large number of urgently needed talents to build “One Belt, One Road” and support countries along the route to achieve policy intercommunication, facility connectivity, smooth trade, and financial access. To: achieve common development; promote deep cooperation in education and mutual learning; work together to promote the development of education in various countries along the route; and, comprehensively enhance the influence of regional education. (Kentpo Klnezikon Epeynon, 2016 [Accessed 29 June 2020])

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On January 2017, the East Asia Marine Cooperation Platform Qingdao Forum http://www.eamcp.net/en/beltandroad/supportpolic ies/20200706418.html (Accessed 18 July 2021) sponsored by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Peoples Republic of China, reported on the Ministry of Culture’s One Belt, One Road Cultural Development Action Plan (2016–2020). The plan pointed out the need to, Accurately grasp the spirit of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, improve the openness of China’s cultural field in an all-round way… We will strive to achieve the following goals: 1. Improve the cultural exchange and cooperation mechanisms; 2. Build cultural exchange and cooperation platforms; 3. Develop a one belt one road ‘brand’ for cultural exchange and cooperation; and, 4. Further develop cultural industry and foreign cultural trade. (n.p.)

In the context of China’s grand strategy (Swaine & Tellis, 2000), a series of opportunities and challenges have emerged in all areas of society. In September 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued a document titled: Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Aesthetic Education (The Central People’s Government, 2015). This was the first such document released since the founding of New China. The overall goal of the document was to comprehensively strengthen and improve aesthetic education (dance, music, Chinese opera, fine arts, calligraphy) in schools. By 2018, a management process and the allocation of resources specific to aesthetic education had been established. The aim was that by 2020, there would be a full implementation within primary and secondary schools of a modern aesthetic education curriculum. Yet, as Jin (2017) revealed, the lack of confident and capable teachers undermined this aspiration. As China increasingly ‘opens up’, or asserts influence (Brady, 2018) under the major strategic framework of One Belt, One Road, the Beijing Dance Academy, as an example, actively promotes cultural advancement, cultural exchange and cultural prosperity. More specifically, cultural growth seen in terms of talent cultivation, artistic creation, educational research and international cooperation and exchange (Zhou et al., 2019). On 12 May 2016, President Guo Lei, of the Beijing Dance Academy led the establishment of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Dance Culture and Art Alliance, with respective dance leaders from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Poland.

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In 2018, this agreement grew to include 23 member institutions from 16 countries, who have since carried out cooperation and exchanges in artistic creation and performance (Personal conversation: Hongmei Qu). More pertinent to this discussion, and in line with the One Belt, One Road strategy, in 2011 Professor Yishen Lv initiated a curriculum project ‘Quality Oriented Education and Dance Aesthetic Education Research’ which was arguably the largest innovation within Chinese dance pedagogy in recent years (Jin, 2017; Qu, 2021). Quality Oriented Dance Education (as the project came to be known), focused on establishing and designing a new relevant contemporary curriculum for teaching dance in Chinese schools (Jin, 2017; Lv, 2014). QODE aims to emphasise pedagogical openness and inclusiveness. There is a greater focus on the individual in the classroom, where an aim is to foster each student’s learning preferences and creativity (Jin & Ziqing, 2021). The key pillars informing the structure of QODE include: observation and imitation; improvisation; integration; communication and collaboration and, creativity and innovation (Hongmei, 2013). An influence of this project has been seen in the increased adoption of the Quality Education values and curriculum in many tertiary dance education institutions throughout China. The impact being that, presently throughout China, secondary and primary school children theoretically now have access to dance education that values everyone’s inclusion within dance as opposed to only the elite students, as was the case in past years. This shift marks a historical transformation where dance education has shifted from being an activity aimed at training professional dancers to being a part of the curriculum inclusive of all students (Jin & Martin, 2019). How well QODE is being implemented, and how effective it is in fostering inclusion is questionable and requires ongoing research (Gui & Chen, 2021). The above attests to changing landscapes in politics, policies and education (Kolb, 2017; Rowe et al., 2020). The present book suggests that the phrase, teaching and learning in, about and through, has merit as dance educators position and reposition dance education in shifting landscapes.

4.2

Summary

When I reflect on the policy and theory that has positioned my understanding of dance education and the current policy context in China, I can see how practice and theory are moving across borders. My very

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presence in Beijing Dance Academy exemplifies this, as does Professor Lv travelling to New York in the early 2000s and observing ten primary schools offering dance education (Jin, 2017). I can also see how the arguments made by Professor Lv under the banner of Quality Oriented Dance Education are shaping the dance curriculum and shaping the delivery (or not) of dance in Chinese classrooms. Dello-Iacovo (2009) suggests that the push for innovative reform in Chinese schools has met with ‘in principle support, but is hampered by insufficient resources, conceptual ambiguity, and conservative resistance’ (p. 241). Again, I’m aware that how we position and argue for dance has to meet the visionaries, such as Professor Lv’s innovation, while also appeasing the parents, teachers, politicians and learners. The next chapter turns to the classroom and provides my narrative of teaching dance and how my repositioning of dance is received (and not) by students within Beijing Dance Academy.

References Andrews, J., & Higson, H. (2008). Graduate employability, ‘soft skills’ versus ‘hard’ business knowledge: A European study. Higher Education in Europe, 33(4), 411–422. Bond, K. (2019). Dance and the quality of life. Springer. Brady, A. M. (2018). New Zealand and the CCP’s ‘magic weapons.’ Journal of Democracy, 29(2), 68–75. Buck, R. (2021). Whispers of a revolution: Reflections upon dance education in China. Contemporary Dance Research, 6(1), ISSN 2096-3084, CN 312131/J. Buck, R., & Snook, B. (2017). Negotiating meanings and examining practice of ‘arts across the curriculum’. Research in Dance Education, 18(3), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647893.2017.1370450. Burridge, S., & Svendler Nielsen, C. (2018). Dance, access and inclusion. Routledge. Dello-Iacovo, B. (2009). Curriculum reform and ‘quality education’ in China: An overview. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(3), 241–249. Eisner, E. (1991). What the arts taught me about education. In G. Willis & W. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry (pp. 34–48). State University of New York Press. Fortin, S. (1993). The knowledge base for competent dance teaching. The Journal of Physical Education Recreation and Dance, 64(9), 34–38. Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Penguin Education.

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Greene, M. (1991). Blue guitars and the search for curriculum. In G. Willis & W. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry (pp. 107– 122). State University of New York Press. Gui, L. L., & Chen, Q. W. (2021). A probe into the smart classroom practiced in the quality dance education of primary and secondary schools. Beijing Dance Academy Journal, 6, 123–128. Hongmei, Q. (2013). On teaching innovation of quality-oriented dance education. Journal of Beijing Dance Academy (4), 82–86. CNKI:SUN:BJWD.0.2013-04-022 Jin, J. (2017). Stepping out of the ivory tower: Meanings of teaching dance in schools in China (Unpublished PhD thesis). Dance Studies, University of Auckland. Jin, J., & Martin, R. (2019). Exploring the past to navigate the future: Examining histories of higher education in China in an internationalised context. Research in Dance Education, 20(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 14647893.2019.1566304 Jin, J., & Ziqing, W. (2021). Insights and reflections of constructivist learning theory on the teaching of aesthetic education in dance in the new era*— Taking quality education dance classes as an example. Art Education (7), 97–100. CNKI:SUN:YSJY.0.2021-07-024 Johnson, P. (2009). The 21st skills movement. Educational Leadership, 67 (1), 11. Kentpo Kinezikon Epeynon. (2016). Education action plan for the belt and road initiative. https://www.kekie.org/419087202204/blog-post-title-twohz9g6 Accessed 29 June 2020. Kolb, A. (2017). Dance and politics in China: Interculturalism, hybridity, and the ArtsCross project. In R. Kowal & R. Martin (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of dance and politics. Oxford Handbooks. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/ 9780199928187.013.57 Li, X. F., Li, J., Yu, L., Zhang, X. N., & Du, B. (2014). The application of PBL teaching method in the training of top talents in computer innovation. Education Teaching Forum, 20, 74–77 (PBL 教学法在计算机创新拔尖人才培 养中的应用研究). Lortie, D. (1975). School teacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press. Lv, L. S. (2014). Introduction to dance. Shanghai Music Publishing House. Lv, Y. S. (2000). Dance education. Shanghai Music Publishing House. Mabingo, A. (2020). Ubuntu as dance pedagogy in Uganda: Individuality, community and inclusion in teaching and learning of indigenous dances. Palgrave Macmillan. Martin, R., & Chen, R. (2020). The people’s dance: The power and politics of Guangchang Wu. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Ministry of Culture One Belt, One Road Cultural Development Action Plan. (2016–2020). http://www.eamcp.net/en/beltandroad/supportpolicies/202 00706418.html. Accessed 18 July 2021. Newman, J. (1990). Finding our own way: Teachers exploring their assumptions. Heineman. Novack, C. (1990). Sharing the dance: Contact improvisation and American culture. University of Wisconsin Press. Qu, H. M. (2021). An analysis of dance course undergraduate teaching practice in quality education. Beijing Dance Academy, 5, 128–132. Robles, M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s workplace. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453–465. Rowe, N., Xiong, X., & Tuomeiciren, H. (2020). Dancing from policy to pedagogy in China: Transgressions, surveillance, and resistance from students, teachers and institutional leaders. Policy Futures in Education, 18(8), 995– 1010. Rubin, L. (1991). The arts and an artistic curriculum. In G. Willis & W. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry (pp. 49–59). State University of New York Press. Swaine, M., & Tellis, A. (2000). Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy, Rand Corporation, objective analysis, effective solutions. https://www.rand.org/ pubs/research_briefs/RB61.html. Accessed 27 June 2020 Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14. Shapiro, S. (1998). Toward transformative teachers: Critical and feminist perspectives in dance education. In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education (pp. 7–21). Human Kinetics. Stinson, S. (1998). Seeking a feminist pedagogy for children’s dance. In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education (pp. 23–48). Human kinetics. Svendler Nielsen, C., & Burridge, S. (2015). Dance education around the world: Perspectives on dance, young people and change. Routledge. The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China. (2015). General office of the state council on comprehensive strengthening and improvement: Opinions on aesthetic education in schools, state council issued (2015) No. 71. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2015-09/28/ content_10196.htm. Accessed 26 June 2020. UNESCO. (2010). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444 UNESCO Seoul Agenda. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIM EDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/Seoul_Agenda_EN.pdf

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Warburton, E. (2008). Beyond steps: The need for pedagogical change in dance. Journal of Dance Education, 8(1), 7–12. Willis, G., & Schubert, W. (1991). Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry. State University of New York. World Economic Forum. (2016). New vision for education: Fostering social and emotional wellbeing through technology. https://www.weforum.org/reports/ new-vision-for-education-fostering-social-and-emotional-learning-through-tec hnology Xu, Y. T., Wu, L. B., & Zhang, J. S. (2021). 21st century competencies in a global perspective and insights. Zhongxiaoxue Ketang Jiaoxue Yanjiu, 2, 1–4. Zhang, Y. B. (2012). The implication of American “21 Century Skills”—And the illumination for Chinese elementary education reform. Comparative Education Review, 5, 86–90. (美国的“21 世纪技能”内涵解读—兼析对我国基础教 育改革的 启示). Zhan, T. (2011). Thoughts on innovative talent cultivation in research-oriented universities. Journal of Higher Education, 1(3), 13–31. Zheng, H. H. (2021). Prospects and suggestions for school dance education. Contemporary Dance Research, 6(3), 90–101. Zhou, X., Guo, L., Deng, Y. L., Wang, W., & Xu, R. (2019). Dialogues: New ideas on the development of Chinese dance education from the perspective of Beijing Dance Academy. Beijing Dance Academy Journal, 4, 9–17.

CHAPTER 5

Teaching Dance Education in the Beijing Dance Academy

Abstract This chapter presents an auto-narrative of my experience in teaching dance education to undergraduate students at the Beijing Dance Academy, China. The auto-narrative charts my sequential delivery of a dance education programme, and in so doing examines my teaching habits, the students’ perceptions of teaching dance, needs of these learners, pedagogical challenges and ‘aha’ moments. Keywords Auto-narrative · Beijing dance academy · Undergraduates · Pedagogy · Dance lessons · Relationships

This chapter describes 23 hours of teaching first and second-year dance education majors within the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA). There are two separate student cohorts. The first 21 hour (seven sessions) relate to cohort one and the second narrative refers to a 2 hour lesson with cohort two. I taught one lesson each day. After each lesson, I sat down and reflected on what happened or not, and this is what makes up the narrative below. The students in the lessons have enrolled in a four-year Bachelor of Dance (Education Major) offered at the BDA. First introduced in 2017, this pre-service teaching focused degree is educating a new type of student

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_5

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at the BDA (Jin, 2017). Even though they are not seeking a performative career they completed a rigorous audition process in order to gain entrance into the BDA, which has the reputation of being the leading tertiary dance institution in China (Jin, 2017). What follows is my narrative of teaching these students at BDA during seven consecutive sessions and then one later session. Session One When working with a new group, the beginning is always the most difficult part of the lesson. Very quickly I have to get a sense of the group dynamics; the peer politics within a group; their motivations; their willingness to play and imagine; their speed of reaction to instructions; their trust in a new/guest teacher; and their relationship with the normal teacher (who I may be contradicting, offending, reinforcing, repeating unknowingly). Lay on top of this the added complications that arise when I don’t speak Mandarin; students speak very little or no English; our need to work through translators; and that I come from a tertiary institution that values transformative pedagogies and yet here I am working in the Beijing Dance Academy, renowned for skill development within a more authoritative pedagogy. As if this is enough, I am also managing many BDA teachers observing and wanting explanations. Yet again, language barriers do not allow clear communication and the teaching spaces, I am working in, were designed for practical/movement, rather than mixed methods teachings (movement and lecture). All of these issues, understandings and challenges are observed, managed and acted upon (correctly and incorrectly) within the first few minutes of a lesson. And so, as always I am a bit nervous at the beginning of a programme of lessons. I need to be clear and precise, yet not rigid and demanding. I need to be friendly and alive, yet maintain a certain distance and status. It is an exacting balancing act that I have experienced many, many times. Indeed, I think I am quite an expert at teaching new groups in new situations and achieving outcomes for the learners and the hosting organisation. Anyway, there I was at 8 am in studio B 4, 11 September 2017, Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China. Besides me was Dr. Jin, a past PhD student from my university in New Zealand and now a current staff member within BDA. In front of me were 47 first- and secondyear students majoring in dance education within a four-year Bachelors of Dance at BDA. The first-year students were wearing white t-shirts and the

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second-year students black t-shirts, both with ‘Dance Education, Beijing Dance Academy’ across the chest in English and Chinese. As with so many of my lessons, I tried not to talk too much at the beginning. I simply asked, ‘Walk around the room in every direction’. Immediately, I knew I was going to have to work hard over the next 3 hours of teaching. Quickly, the students began to follow each other and created a whirlpool of walking bodies. They were happily chatting to each other quite ambivalent to my unstated though firmly implied instruction, to be independent and find your own path among the moving bodies. I again tried not to talk, because of obvious language barriers, but also that is how I like to teach during this stage of a lesson. I walked against the tide of bodies gesticulating that they walk in different directions. From the corner of my eye, I observed BDA teachers looking on and curious about what I was doing. STOP. Yes, I used my voice. I quickly re-stated the task, ‘Walk by yourself and do not follow anyone, weave in and out of each other’. GO. Not much difference. My heart was sinking. I chose a new tact and yelled instructions above the hum of social chatting. I still did not have the students’ attention, and in fact I’m not sure if they thought the lesson had commenced. I gave explicit directions, ‘Walk forward, backward, sideways, touch the floor, the wall, jump, and roll’. We were moving, but still the students only responded when I gave the instruction. If I did not say jump they would not jump. This was a make or break moment. I needed these students ready to make independent decisions over the next week. I needed them to see what I was doing and understand how I was building movement sequences from simple actions. I needed them to initiate their own roll, jump and skip. It did not happen. Again, I changed tack. I needed a way to break through. Moving close to what they might expect, I instructed; ‘walk 8 steps forward, change directions another 8 steps, change direction, and so on, on every 4th step, jump or roll’. They did it. I then went faster. I then introduced an activity of randomly greeting others and saying hello. I had them. At last, they were listening, watching each other and ready to participate.

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In most classes, this opening activity takes 5–10 minutes with many extra complications introduced. This day it took 50 minutes, and I had only just scratched the surface. In the back of my mind, I was furiously re-planning my 3 hours session. The lesson carried on for 1.5 hours and then we had a 15 minute break and did another 1.5 hours. My aim for the day was to focus on building our relationships; examining our values as teachers and emphasising the importance of valuing process and product. The students worked hard and were very patient with me as I searched for a way to explain my points and practices. After 3 hours, I was exhausted. Thankfully the lesson went well, but I really, really had to ‘work it’. Everything went much slower. It was not just the language issue, in fact that was the least of my concerns. It was the blank expressions on the students’ faces. The absolute lack of comprehension of what was being done, and also to my surprise, a lethargy. There were minimal bounce and enthusiasm among the class; more a tiredness. I wanted to ask them ‘did they party all weekend and not get sleep?’ Having said this, I was thrilled, nigh ecstatic, when a young woman quietly asked a thoughtful question about the pedagogical motto/vision of ‘learning, in, through and about dance.’ The question was really good. I asked Dr. Jin if she could translate it and asked if the student could ask the question to the whole class. To my delight, several students replied and an argument arose. Dr. Jin was smiling, and re-assured me the argument was on topic. After a lesson where I spoke way more than I usually do, where I repeated different points and gave different examples, I finished happy that my key points concerning process and product and personal values were made. We did not achieve all that I wanted, but I did foster some creative thinking and action. I caught the subway home, and while standing in the crowded train I re-wrote tomorrow’s lesson plan. I reflected on the lesson, trying to figure out key moments that caused misunderstanding and or breakthroughs. At the heart of the lesson’s slow and confusing start was some very large differences in meanings in respect to: What is dance? What is teaching and learning dance? What motivates my/our teaching? I liked the group of students. They were happy and willing to try the activities and games. It took them a while however, to recognise that my joining in on the class, my rolling on the floor, was not a performance for them to stare at, but indeed was a demonstration of a teaching and learning point: it was an enlivenment of the words I was saying. It felt like

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they had to re-evaluate how to respond to me in the lesson as I worked one to one or 1:3 or 1:47. The concept of ‘the teacher’ was needing to be revalued, re-imagined. At the end of the day, a local BDA teacher came to me and said ‘Your teaching methodology is so different. It is very good. You are very enthusiastic, dynamic’. In sum, after this first lesson, I emailed home and said all was fine. I was tired, a bit concerned, but clear with what I needed to do tomorrow and even more determined that my programme and vision were relevant. Session Two I woke with the sunrise at 6 am. Showered, dressed and packed my bag and checked my lesson plan for the 100th time. I checked I had all my resources—music, books and handouts. Yes, as a 58-year-old male teacher, I rely on having Cd’s, books and printed materials rather than power-points and playlists on my phone (at least I own a phone— I resisted the digital age for several years). I had breakfast and headed for the train at 7am. I arrived at BDA at 7.30 am and waited for Dr. Jin to collect me from the BDA main entrance. Every day, we were in a different studio, and so waiting to meet Dr. Jin at the front gate was part of my daily routine and necessary should I not get lost among the several 100 dance studios, busily filled with 2000 undergraduates and 100 postgraduates and 600 full time teachers. September in Beijing is still hot, the days were 27–30 °C. The sky was magnificently clear and blue on most days. The studios were not air conditioned which I enjoyed, but it did mean that I was sweating profusely. I was very much NOT the well-dressed elegant lecturer, more like the sweaty old man rolling on the floor and laughing and speaking in a strange language. Not that English is strange, but my shorthand slang, colloquialisms, gestures and facial expressions are at best comic and mysterious. Ni Hao, hello, I proudly yelled in my extremely limited Mandarin. Ni Hao, they boomed back. The students were smiling, they were ready, and when I asked them to sit in a circle and follow me they were keen and more in tune than yesterday. Already, they seemed to know that I wanted quite a bit of their energy, their mind, their views and their questions. In particular, several of the 2nd year girls were alive and much more alert to what was going on. I felt that they were ready to ‘play’ with the different opportunity being presented and explore my meaning of teaching dance. I am however, aware that if I interviewed some of the students at this point re my pedagogy, and how the group was dealing with it, they might

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speak to some behind the scenes instruction that they need to follow my teaching faster. I genuinely can’t assume to cause overnight shifts in a student’s appreciation of diverse pedagogies. We sat in a circle, and I asked everyone to follow me. Simple, and yes it was much more effective. But I can only do this for so long before I’m itching for something more playful. I got the vibe that the students were much more ready to ‘play’ today. It made me think that when students have guest teachers, they as much as the guest teacher are feeling the tone and also nervous about what is appropriate or not. Anyway, I introduced the game I call ‘stop light’—where someone (the traffic light) is out front and faces away from the others. The class has to sneak up and try and tag the traffic light person. The traffic light can turn around whenever they want, and everyone has to freeze ‘stop light’. The students knew a similar game, and it worked a treat. I added extra tasks, such as ‘freeze high, middle, low’; freeze in a sporting action; freeze touching someone.’ My focus for this lesson was to discuss and illustrate Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching. While the 2007 New Zealand curriculum has a clear account of such principles, I prefer to refer to the Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching (ELT) as outlined concisely by the Queensland Ministry of Education, Australia (1994). The five principles of ELT are: • Effective learning and teaching is founded on an understanding of the learner. • Effective learning and teaching requires active construction of meaning. • Effective learning and teaching enhances and is enhanced by a supportive and challenging environment • Effective learning and teaching is enhanced through worthwhile learning partnerships • Effective learning and teaching shapes and responds to social and cultural contexts (p. 1). I explained each principle, but again I was conscious that learning by doing would be more effective than by me standing and talking via translation. To learn ‘about’ teaching, we experienced learning ‘in’ dance.

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After quick outlines of the principles of ELT, I taught the Barn Dance. Many who know my teaching would either groan or smile at my decision to teach students in China, an Irish folk dance, fashioned and re-fashioned by years of being adapted to Australian ‘barns’ and Australian people. Yes, it was at this moment that I revealed my nationality and talked about my rural Australian childhood. All relatively irrelevant, but my point here was to illustrate the importance of the teacher building a relationship with the students (Buck, 2003; Lusted, 1986). Sharing history and personal stories is one way that teachers can connect with students. For me, this relationship building is vital and lies at the heart of good dance education. We learned the Barn Dance and I asked the students to adapt their steps by introducing different movements, different rhythms, different use of space and different energy. In essence, we played with Laban’s elements of movement. Though explicitly, I referred to the choreographic elements outlined within the practical knowledge achievement objectives in the New Zealand Curriculum, (https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-NewZealand-Curriculum/The-arts) (Accessed 15 September 2018). It was fun. The students and I were on the same page. I emphasised the teaching strategy of beginning with a simple dance ‘structure’ and adapting it to meet immediate needs and the learners in that space at that time. Using the choreographic elements to manipulate and play with the dance. I repeatedly called this strategy: ‘structure and freedom’. Another key teaching strategy implicit within the activity where students manipulate the elements, is that students have freedom to invent their own/personal dance. The ensuing ownership of the individualised dance is very powerful in engaging often disinterested students in dance. True to form, all of these students were happily engaged and creating very interesting new versions of the Barn Dance. All the while I was reiterating the 5 Principles of ELT. I had hoped to complete a full creative choreographic process in this lesson. I call this activity, ‘Making Ideas Dance’ and I often use the theme of water as the inspiration for movement exploration. I began this process, but I ran out of time. To my delight and amazement the 3 hours went by very quickly. Again, I had not covered all the material I had intended, but that was OK, we were working well and the key points were being made. Today, it was all about structure and freedom, ELT and what kind of teacher do you imagine you want to be. We stopped at 11.30, 10 minutes overtime, it was hot, but we were all in the flow, which as Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (1990) noted, translates as getting that balance

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between safety and risk. Establishing the balance between challenge and boredom is vitally important and requires exquisite perpetual adjustment throughout every moment of every lesson. Looking back at this lesson I wonder, what did we do? It’s crazy, over 3 hours all we did was, warm-up stretch, stoplight game with added statues, learn the Barn Dance and adapt it, and begin a creative choreographic process. Not much in terms of ‘what,’ but we spent much time discussing and examining the ‘how’ of teaching dance. After the lesson, I had a wonderful lunch with two teachers from BDA, Hongmei and Dr. Jin, where we discussed various teaching points and moments in the lesson. We agreed all was going well. Language remains a barrier but this is becoming less and less of a barrier as the students become more courageous in speaking English in the lessons. In respect to language, a challenge that remains is the use of metaphor and irony. Students struggle with abstract expressions that aim to draw out, evoke/stimulate nuanced qualities of movement or expectations. Phrases such as ‘spin like a top’, cause confusion and require time to explain. Dr. Jin who completed her PhD in NZ and who knows my teaching style well, noted that the BDA students and teachers tend to focus on the ‘what’, the content, and the specific and clear answer. I agreed and commented that they tend to not focus on ‘how’ we learn or why. As such, complexities of meanings, processes and interpretations are often overlooked, and also present bigger problems for the BDA students in learning how to teach and to learn. As Confucius stated, ‘By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest’. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famousconfucius-quotes-on-education-and-learning (Accessed 7 March 2022). This is echoed in the Western classroom interactions by educational philosophers such Dewey (1938), Eisner (1993) and Freire (1972). I expressed my intent to keep focusing on the processes of ‘how we learn’ as I felt that this was not explored so readily in what I had seen so far in China, and yet there is an increasing recognition that learning the content within a lesson is not the most important focus nor outcome. Increasingly, the interplay between the teacher and learner is the most valuable learning experience. How we engage with each other; how we energise the space between the teacher and the learner is in my mind the most valuable skill to develop. It is also the most difficult because it is always variable and requires constant improvisation and negotiation.

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Increasingly, the development of holistic competencies are valued within education. Developing skills such as leadership, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, team work, expression and creativity are the valued outcomes and drivers that continue to make face to face teacher/learner engagement relevant. My dance education as delivered today and everyday specifically hones the development of these humanistic pedagogical competencies. As we finished lunch we agreed that the students were opening up to my way of teaching and tolerating my distinctly different emphasis on process rather than product. I also was opening up to the students’ interests and their teaching and learning needs. Session Three I arrived at BDA at the usual 7.30 am. Sitting in the sun I was watching students and staff arrive. I recognised two boys from my class, we happily waved and I tried my newest phrase ‘Zao Shang Hao’ (Good Morning). They smiled and we laughed together at my incompetence. As I reviewed my lesson plan for the 300th time, I quietly noted the importance of these small exchange moments outside the classroom. Again, for me the relationships between the teacher and learner are paramount. What were we going to do today? I was conscious that day 3 was the mid-point of the programme. Me, as a novelty was wearing off, and I felt that I needed substance today. ‘Zao Shang Hao, Dr Jin’, I proudly stated as Dr. Jin arrived. We walked slowly towards the dance studios weaving our way past cars, trees and rose beds. As we walked past one very expensive European car after another, I asked Dr. Jin ‘How come all the staff here seem to be able to afford such expensive cars?’ But that is another story. During our walk, I told Dr. Jin about my venture into the park near my hotel last night. I wanted to see the phenomenon known as ‘Square Dancing’. I described how I sat in the park watching babies, children and their parents play with scooters, trucks, roller blades and badminton and a wonderful game similar to hacky sack—yet the sack has feathers and it flies through the air, beautifully and masterfully propelled by the participants kicking the sack. It turned dark. The families left and then older adults arrived, slowly at first but once the music started many, many women (and a few men) flooded into the paved, park lit spaces. Each zone was defined by different music and different dance styles and sometimes different costumes/outfits. At first glance, it would appear that square dance is for

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older (over 50 years) women, who come and follow a lead dancer. In my mind, this is a type of community dance where participation rather than excellence is the focus. Friendship is part of the community, but really it is about doing the dance. There is minimal talking, ‘simply follow me’. Every dance is repeated many, many times, and copying is the only way for learning. There is no instruction. It suited me fine as I joined in the up the back with the other novice square dancers. It reminded me of line dancing or boot scooting, but to Chinese music. It also seemed that the music was relevant to the older women, not the younger set. I was interested in the absence of youth. But it really didn’t worry me. This was a dance activity for the older community by the older community. I left after 2 hours, but it was clear they were going to carry on. As I walked back to the hotel, one part of my mind was planning activities for the next day. I then decided that in line with the Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching to make activities socially and culturally relevant, I would adapt the Barn Dance into a ‘square dance’. Ni Hao, and we began our lesson. We did games and revised the Barn Dance. I then told them about my square dance experience last night and gave the class the challenge to turn the Barn Dance into a square dance. In small groups, they began to restructure the dance. I then asked one of the second-year students to play some current and popular music. What a great time we had. I selected one group’s square dance version. They taught this to everyone. We did it, again and again and again. It was fun. Everyone was singing and 100% engaged. I’m sure my Irish ancestors would be proud to see how a relatively staid social Irish dance had now become a pop routine for youth in China. Exhausted we sat down and talked about what we just did and why it was ‘successful’. Again we referred to the principles of ELT, but we also discussed the importance of students ‘owning’ their dance. As with the elderly in the park, this dance in the studio was by the students, for the students and no one else. The lesson returned to the Making Ideas Dance ‘water theme’ choreographic process we started yesterday. Slowly and steadily we worked through the collaborative choreographic process. The students worked in groups of three and collectively devised small sequences. I made it clear I was not looking for a demonstration of technical prowess, nor a rehearsed product. I was asking them to focus on how every day actions can be manipulated using the choreographic elements: space,

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time, body, relationships and energy (https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/ The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/The-arts) (Accessed 18 July 2021) into a dance sequence. Throughout this process, I repeatedly referenced the choreographic elements, choreographic devices and choreographic structures as outlined within the New Zealand curriculum (https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/ The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/The-arts) (Accessed 18 July 2021). The students were working well. The groups of 3 were creating interesting choreographies. FREEZE I yelled. And said, ‘Now that you have essentially choreographed a small dance. I want you to now focus on the performance of that dance’. We experimented with music, and I asked them to consider stylising their movements, for example, do it as if it was a: ballet, hip hop, opera, or in slow motion, or as a 5 year old the night before Christmas. Also asked them where do you want the audience? And so they went back to work. Eventually, we all watched each other’s dance. We sat quietly as each group one by one presented their short (2–3 minute) routines. It was fantastic. We all felt the accomplishment. The students were happy with what they made and they appeared to understand the connections between choreographic principles outlined in the curriculum, the principles of ELT and the pedagogic strategy of providing structure and freedom. The students were beginning to see that the values, objectives and content written in a curriculum, and also held in one’s own mind, were important. They could see that knowing a language vocabulary that defined and informed the subject area discipline of dance was important. I also saw that many of the students were definitely comprehending the interplay between ‘what’ you teach with ‘how’ you teach. Pedagogical discipline knowledge as Fortin and Seidentop (1995) noted is ever important. We finished our third day with another brief reflection, reiterating the aims for the day, which were concerned with understanding: relationships between curriculum and dance; relationships between learners and dance; and relationships between teacher and dance. We also discussed values that drive a curriculum and personal values that drive a lesson. While I was focusing on the NZ curriculum in this instance, I stressed that every curriculum is articulating social and cultural values and content. As Eisner (1991) stated, ‘School curriculum is a mind altering device: it is a vehicle designed to change the ways in which the young think’ (p. 42).

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Again, I reiterated the importance of being conscious of our personal values, and how these shape how we teach and hence how students may learn. The day began with a game of the chain tag. We did a square/ Barn dance that we choreographed and performed our own creative dance sequences. We were alive. I felt that we were now a cohesive group and ready to push more boundaries tomorrow. Session Four Another sunny day, another studio. Today, I aimed to get the students to begin to see themselves as the teacher. Up to now I had been involving some students in small leadership roles, such as selecting music, introducing a new warm-up game, explaining my teaching to their peers in Chinese. But I now wanted them all to start planning a 5– 10 minute activity and be ready to teach it to everyone else. This was the plan anyway. Again, nearly as always, the lesson went off on a tangent from the outset. We began with everyone sitting in a circle and everyone contributing a stretching exercise. I really don’t like this activity, but in this context it introduced both the day and simultaneously gave each person a hint of being the leader. I am a firm believer of scaffolding learners into learning experiences (Vygotsky, 1978). That is, gradually making activities more complex, such that more students feel prepared and are more able to succeed. After the stretching activity, they turned to a partner, and we repeated the statue exercise where person A makes a shape, then person B fills the space around person A, without touching each other. We did this experimenting with different bases, that is, on feet, on back and on bum. Then we manipulated speed: fast, slow. Then we did it to music moving between the shapes as fluidly as possible. We were going really well so I continued with changing the roles. This time they could touch; there had to be at least one point of bodily contact always; and, each pair had to travel from one part of the room to another. We were rolling over each other laughing and generally enjoying the improvisation and chaos. I couldn’t stop thinking how different this felt from Day 1. We finished this and got into groups of 4. We did another follow the leader task, where the students stand in a diamond formation, and whoever is ‘front’ is the leader. As the students turn to face different directions each student becomes a leader. Again, this is another activity aimed at creating comfort at leading and also following.

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We eventually moved to the focal activity in the lesson, which was to learn the folk dance ‘Waves of Bondi’, another Irish folk dance. This time the students were in groups of 7 pairs, each partner facing each other. In essence, it is a reel dance with a complex weaving of actions that imitates waves washing up on a beach. This is one of my favourite dances, mostly because of my experience in successfully teaching this dance to rural teenagers in Australia when I was a beginning Physical Education teacher. As I said to these young Chinese students when you are out there in the world of teaching, you want to take risks and dare to introduce children, and in effect the wider community to something new. Also, you want to teach from a place of confidence. Teach what you are confident to teach and then challenge yourself. I remember when I was a beginning teacher, telling the students that we were going to do dance. They laughed, but we did it. I think the fact that I laughed with them, and I also admitted that it was a new experience for me as well helped them relax and take the risk WITH me. I stressed to the BDA students that when you are a teacher, you want to work WITH students, see them as a partnership. Do not play power games and teach at them or on them. I quietly reflected, my constructivist epistemology (Schwandt, 1994) and transformative pedagogy (Shapiro, 1998), teaching beliefs and values are ever present. We learnt the Waves of Bondi, and as usual I asked the students to manipulate parts of the dance. I worry that this ‘learn and manipulate’ strategy gets a bit tiresome, especially when I’m trying to cram as much as possible into a 21 hour teaching programme. But the students were still enjoying the tasks and I was emphasising different choreographic elements, structures and devices each time. Once they all had made a few small changes, I put some tango music on and asked the students to perform the dance as a tango. This was a lot of fun and the students quickly assumed the stylistic qualities of competition tango. We all sat down and rested. As I often do, I asked the students to reach for their pen and paper and get into groups of 3. I gave them a lesson planning pro-forma and we slowly worked through this form. It took a lot longer than expected. This was mostly because the language and activity were not familiar at all. (On this day I also had a different translator, which truly reminded me how having someone who is on the same wavelength philosophically, irrespective of language, is so important). We only did half of the planning activity and I decided to shift the lesson back to more dancing. I decided to change plans mid-course

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because a lethargy was descending upon the students as they struggled with comprehending the lesson planning task. We were already in groups of 3’s so I taught them a threesome dance. The Troika, a Russian Folk dance. Again, they loved it and did it well. Rather than manipulate the dance. I asked them to focus on the skills, the techniques and be ready to perform it as Russian noblemen and women. This is clearly where the students show their strength. They performed magnificently. Again they loved doing it, and several wanted to know more about the music and the dance. I wrapped up the lesson reviewing the aims of teaching structures and teaching how to manipulate the elements to create variations; lesson planning; the importance of working with the students and, in so doing, sharing a bit of yourself. Another 3 hours of teaching seemed to fly by. It was a great lesson, lots of thinking, talking, dancing and creating. They were certainly getting faster and looser. In essence, we were trusting each other much more. Session Five Planning was the aim for today. We began by revising the Waves of Bondi, and playing the game Chain Tag. Again, explaining the game required several attempts as the obvious things you don’t explain in a ‘home’ situation need to be explained in a new situation. Once the aim and rules were clear we played a chaotic game. It was good. I made the teaching point that playing chain tag introduces notions of cooperation and teamwork, thinking strategically, and getting comfortable with holding hands. Surprisingly, the ‘holding hands’ thing remains a very real reason that can kill a dance lesson. Even with these 18-year-old BDA students who have been dancing for many years, they hesitated to hold a boy/girl’s hand, and some even held wrists instead. Anyway, chain tag emphasises the need to make a chain by holding hands, but there is no instruction to hold hands. The excitement of the game is more motivating than the dislike of holding hands. We revised the Waves of Bondi. They did this well. Again, I played with the dance, by putting on some very fast music. This made them coordinate with their partners quickly, shorten steps and intuitively alter the moves to fit the rhythm. At the end, we were hot and gasping for air, so we rested and I asked each student to tell Dr. Jin and me one thing we learnt yesterday. As they described what we did or the dominant memory/feeling, they had to do a stretching activity that everyone

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copied. Slowly we went through the class revising yesterday and calming down in readiness for the planning activity that was today’s focus. The students got into their groups of 3 they were in yesterday and resumed lesson planning. We quickly went over the planning process so far and then handed out a lesson plan pro-forma. I wrote this lesson plan outline on a whiteboard and we went through each section together. There was a deal of confusion around the terms ‘aims, objectives and teaching points’. A confusion also found in my NZ classrooms. We discussed these and I explained the importance of knowing the overall vision or aim of a lesson, while also noting the actual tasks that you want the students to do. As I explained to the students, having a detailed plan provides a clear structure to work with, but it also ironically helps you in flexing away from a plan and going off on teaching tangents (as is always the way in a lesson). The lesson plan, however, helps you remain on task and at the end of the day helps you in achieving key objectives of a programme. In turn, being able to articulate what is being learnt reinforces the trustworthiness of including a dance programme in the curriculum. Principals, parents and students require assurance that the dance programme is valid, that valuable lessons are being taught, and that there is a meaningful and structured plan behind lessons that may often look like chaos and contain too much fun. We spent a long time doing the planning. The students struggled with articulating what they do on paper. But again, I reiterated the importance of this in terms of real world planning and reporting in the school situation, where young teachers have to submit work programmes to their Principal or supervising teacher. We did it. I then asked the students to practice the realisation of their planning. In their own little group, they rehearsed who will speak, who will organise music and who will demonstrate when they teach the whole class. It was to be a 5–10 minute activity, but clarity and organisation were key things I wanted. We finished the session by quickly reviewing the principles of ELT and each group identifying how their lesson plan was acknowledging any or some or all of the ELT principles. Figure 5.1 provides a simple but effective lesson planning outline. Session Six We all learn best by doing. Well, in my experience this is true. I always try to include in my courses some kind of peer teaching experience. Today’s focus was for all students to ‘be’ the teacher. From my ‘Directorial’ perspective my job was about, getting the students into the

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Name of teacher:

Date of lesson:

School:

Year/Class:

Lesson Title:

Lesson Duration:

Lesson focus (Aim): (Big picture aims…)

Lesson objectives: (Key ideas/tasks/ to be done in lesson)

Lesson rationale: (Why is this lesson relevant?)

Activity (what?) Warm up:

Main body Activity:

Activity:

Activity:

Activity:

Conclusion:

Fig. 5.1 Lesson plan

Formation

Equipment

Teaching points (how?)

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Procedure: (Flow of the lesson) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Resources: (music?, props? Computer?, space?)

Post-lesson evaluation Teaching skill application:

Content and procedure:

Teacher performance:

Pupil performance:

Fig. 5.1 (continued)

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mind-set of BEING the teacher; BEING in control; BEING the leader; and BEING observant of and responsive to the students. Also, as the teachers teach, I try to participate as a learner, in role, along with all the other students who are all in role as 5 year olds or 16 year olds or 80 year olds. In a sense, we are all in role as teachers and learners. For some, this amount of role play is too much, but for the vast majority it is a fun and enlivening experience. As each teacher taught, I took notes to provide an overall group feedback at the end. It was important that I did not talk and interrupt the small lessons. I just have to let it all go and trust that the teachers and learners can feel and identify the good and bad moments of every lesson. Surprisingly, over the years I have found that all lessons have merit, and again, so it was today. By and large the students did a good job. They took the task seriously and they, as learners, were respectful of the challenge presented for each teacher. But the day did not begin with the peer teaching. Usually, I begin each lesson with a predominantly social dynamic. Mingling, talking, interaction and waking up type activities. Today, I began with Yoga. I opened the curtains, windows and stood away from the mirrors. Consciously manipulating the feel of the space changed everyone’s vibe and focus. We did some basic yoga. I did not talk or explain, simply began and expected the students to follow. It went well and I would have continued with much more yoga had we had more time. I maintained the ‘no talking’ style of instruction as we revised our A & B statues in pairs exercise. I simply selected a student and modelled a statue and indicated with a gesture what she had to do. She remembered and we did it. All the others quickly caught on and the whole room began to do the statues. I then played a pre-set piece of slow music. As usual, the movement quality in the room changed in response to the music. The students were improvising with ease and control. I then put on much faster music and again through gesture indicated that I wanted a much faster, shape, shape, shape, shape response. The students had to think much quicker and be more careful in controlling their actions. I noticed that some students were more adventurous in exploring the choreographic elements (space, time, body, energy, relationships) but by and large this reticence to explore remains an area where these students require more attention. After 20 minutes of class, I spoke for the first time. I was pleased with how much we had achieved, by watching each other and not waiting for

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instructions. My ‘no speaking’ beginning and strong reliance on trusting the students to figure out what to do without instruction is an effective strategy that helps develop competencies associated with creative thinking, team work, observation, trust and partnering. These competencies are incidental to the main focus of the lesson, but in small amounts and exercised repeatedly in different ways, the students develop these competencies easily through dance. After yoga and statues, I taught all the students a very basic disco dance from the 70s. Again, a dance from my personal history and again it was novel for the students. It would appear that my ‘retro’ dances currently have a certain ‘cache’. Anyway, it really is a basic dance, quickly learnt, which we also quickly manipulated. In groups of 3, they played with the choreographic element of ‘space’ only. Then, I specifically asked them to make their new sequence travel forward. Then I asked them to do their new sequence to a very current piece of hip hop music that one of the students had on their phone. After refining, I paired off the groups and they had to ‘battle’ each other. They performed their different sequences AT each other. I then asked them to ‘up’ the energy in terms of battle power and striving to win. Some expressed this with facial expressions, some became harder, faster and more aggressive. One group claimed power by refusing to make eye contact with their opponents; another group chose to do very small subtle hand gestures. It was great to see how the students responded to this task. Again, it is the provision of specific limitations and the slow spiralling of complexity that motivates the students to engage, to solve problems and creatively out think the other team. We sat down and we talked about how the lesson evolved from a simple disco sequence, into a choreographic task, into a lesson about developing performance skills. We talked about how much I did and didn’t talk. We talked about the importance of exercising understandings of choreographic elements and especially being familiar with the vocabulary so as the students can identify and name what they are actually doing/learning/valuing in a lesson. We also talked about learning through dance and how these learnings are paramount beyond the dance class. It was time for the students to teach each other. They were nervous. I gave them 10 minutes of final preparation time and identified the order in which each group would teach. We did this for 1.5 hours. As I expected

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some groups were better than others, and more specifically some individuals were better than others. At the end, I gave some overall observations and feedback on their teaching. Irrespective of what I was saying I was very pleased to see that they all completed their teaching seriously, and equally impressive was that they attended to the feedback seriously. As with so many student peer teaching classes I have taught in New Zealand, the BDA students had similar weaknesses and strengths. At the end of the class, I gave the following feedback: • Give clear and precise instructions to the learners. Clarity provides focus, security and direction and in turn lessens opportunity for misbehaviour. • Have clear expectations, in respect to what and how you want the students to do in completing the tasks. • Work with the learners. Be among them, don’t linger/hide near the music console. • Be selective and precise with the use of music. Too often teachers ‘hope’/‘use’/‘hide behind’ music as if the music will teach the lesson. Music too often creates stereotypical movement responses and can drown a lesson. Take care and think about what you want to achieve with the music. • Be the teacher and be yourself. This can be expressed in any number of ways but BE IT and believe in yourself as the teacher. In many ways, it is a performance. You have to go into role and play at being the teacher. Again, this can be loud and proud or quiet and calm. • Have a clear point or reason for the activity. Every part of a lesson is part of a tapestry. And you have to weave all the small parts into a larger pattern. Once the students begin to see your logic, your pattern they will respect what you are trying to achieve. We finished and again the students applauded at the end of the lesson. Throughout the week I found this applause an awkward custom and moment and hence tried to ignore it. But really, I need to stand there and accept the applause and honour the students’ expression of thanks. It is all about respect. Session Seven The last session. My aim for the day was to re-cap/review everything we had done, however I still needed to discuss the New Zealand curriculum and finish all the planning activities. So I did not

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begin the session by reviewing or by doing the usual dancing/moving action. We sat down and I gave all the students a handout about the New Zealand Curriculum (http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/). I began by outlining the BIG picture, the vision, values, principles that shape the curriculum. We noted: what do we want for the next generation of children? Do we want them to be creative, culturally aware of own and others’ cultural differences and why they matter, fluent dancers, lifelong learners, confident to accept and solve challenges, motivated to serve society, build networks and so on. We discussed these values and visions quickly, using examples of how I was teaching and how they were peer teaching in the previous sessions. I especially emphasised how their learning ‘in’ dance was also developing knowledge ‘through’ dance. That is, when doing a dance activity it is often more about learning how to be a leader or work in teams. This explanation was word heavy and I relied heavily on Dr. Jin to translate. Importantly, Dr. Jin had a comprehensive understanding of the New Zealand curriculum and my interest concerning learning in, about and through, and as such, she could provide both an accurate and relevant translation. I then moved on to my planning activities. Everyone to this point had planned and taught a lesson. Now I wanted the students to place that lesson within a dance programme. The aim here was for the students to imagine themselves as a dance teacher within a school context and their job was: To plan a 10 week dance programme. It is not as straight forward as you think. There are many different considerations that inform the planning process, and I wanted the students to think about the different factors shaping the process. I had prepared a set of 15 cards with a word that represented a range of issues that would initiate or represent an aspect within the planning process. The words and brief explanation are outlined below. Programme aims: Lesson objectives: Resources:

what is the big picture purpose of the collection of lessons? what are the more specific expectations for each lesson? what props, music, space, handouts, whiteboards, do I need?

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Marketing: Parent’s expectations:

Identifying who are the learners: School’s needs:

Budget:

Researching topic:

Facilities:

Assessment:

Community expertise:

Teaching strategies:

Teacher’s expertise:

how will I promote interest in the dance programme? what do parents expect their children to learn in a dance programme and how is this made clear to them? who is in the lesson in front of you (age, gender, abilities, culture, needs)? what does the school expect of the dance programme? Is the school expecting excellence, participation, representation in competitions? will the dance programme cost anything, for example, performance venue, costumes, lighting and guest teachers? do I need to research information regarding the dance programme’s focus? do I have dance space, do I need a performance venue and do I have adequate change rooms for boys and girls? will this programme be assessed? How will this be done and when and by who? Do I need to have someone moderate the assessment? do I need to engage with the local community and parents who may have more expertise in specific dance vocabulary than me? how will I make the content relevant to the learners? How will I adapt the lesson content to the learners’ abilities? do I have the content knowledge to teach the programme? Do I need to get professional development or get in some teaching support?

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Critical reflection:

Programme Evaluation:

Theoretical content choices:

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Do I need to stop and think about who, what and why I am teaching the programme and consider how to do it better? How will I evaluate the programme to understand what worked, and what could be done better? what level of theory needs to be included in the lesson; how will I support the practice with theory?

I provided the words to the students as cut up cards so as they could arrange and re-arrange the cards as the groups discussed the options and implications. In groups of 3, they spent approximately 30 minutes discussing and arranging the cards. Each group had to then explain their choices to the wider class group. Privately organising the cards is one thing, publicly explaining and justifying choices required the group, to be clear about their reasoning and be able to defend their choices when tricky questions were asked, is another skill set. This took another 30 minutes, but the process of sharing, rationalising and critiquing is very useful. I asked the students to speak in Chinese and that Dr. Jin not translate every word. It was not necessary for me to understand, as I did not need to know every word. I could tell from their cards, their eyes and their gesticulations that nearly every group had considered their options very well. As I said at the beginning of this task, there is no right or wrong process. What is required is a logic and clear rationale for achieving the vision and learning outcomes? Letting go of the expectation that there is a ‘right’ way took some time but during the week we had practiced this idea repeatedly, so it was relatively quick for the students to understand this task. Once we had all shared our planning processes. I then asked each group to design an ‘ideal’ school that would ‘house’ their programme and their lesson. The task was to draw a floor plan (helicopter perspective) of a school. The aim was to invite the students to be as fantastical and imaginative as possible. There were no limits imposed. After about 30 minutes each group had to share their plan with everyone else. Most schools were very ‘normal’ and some more idealistic, with for example, a school located on a collection of islands with bridges or boats connecting the islands. Each island focused on the delivery of different curriculum areas. This

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example always intrigues me. Yes, nearly every group I’ve taught over the last 10 years draws this type of school. At first glance it looks interesting, but it is a classic metaphor for the silo approach to teaching the curriculum. All the subject areas are kept separate and students have to travel to each curriculum area. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just that it is a reinforcement of the status quo. In fact, nearly every school presented, in this session and in past sessions in New Zealand are very similar to schools as they exist now. It’s not so much a lack of imagination. It mostly reiterates the research that states that what shapes teachers’ practice, and sense of education more than anything is their own experience of how they were taught (Andrzejewski, 2009; Butterworth, 2004; Ethell, 1997). So to re-cap, we had planned a lesson, a programme and then designed a school. This process purposefully started with the dance lesson. I wanted to place practice at the centre of those student’s comprehension. The idea that practice is at the heart and that this can direct planning and policy, rather than accepting that what we teach in the classroom is dictated by policy. While I might sound idealist here, it is still important for these young teachers to consider that their practice in the classroom is the priority, not Government policy. The classroom, the lesson, is where the actual education happens, not in the Ministry. Coming to the end of time, I did want to loop back to the beginning of this 21 hour, 7 session, BDA programme. At the outset, I had asked the students to draw a picture of themselves teaching dance. Now at the end of 21 hours of intense dance education I asked a similar question. This time they had to use pipe cleaners (soft wire covered with short fluffy tufts) to build a three dimensional metaphor representing themselves as teachers of dance. Some students struggled with the notion of metaphorical representation but most completed the task really well. I was not so interested in the structure or model the students created. I was more interested in how they completed the task. They did the activity quickly, happily, noisily, talking to each other and with a stronger sense of insight into themselves as teachers. Images of themselves as a teacher included: teacher as a fountain; teacher as twisted plait of colour; teaching as a circle; and teaching as a linked chain. In wrapping up the lesson we revised the Waves of Bondi, remembering how we manipulated the dance. Then we finished on the Troika with a spirited dance where everyone finished in one big circle. From here,

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I asked everyone to sit down. I went over the key teaching and learning outcomes covered over the last 7 lessons (21 hours). We talked about: • Values – what kind of teacher do you want to be? – what will success look like in your classrooms? – how do you help every student maximise their opportunity to learn? – How do you remain true to yourself? • Teaching and Learning IN, ABOUT and THROUGH dance IN – learning dances, choreography and performances ABOUT – history, culture, geography – function and form of dance – key people in history – what is happening in personal dance contexts THROUGH – creativity, leadership, compassion, respect, diversity, team work, relationship, communication. • Always be prepared. – Teaching dance requires great preparation and structure in which tangents and new lesson moments can emerge. • Know who you are teaching. – Always teach the students in front of you, not the students in textbooks or in your mind. – Flex with and relate with the people in the room on the day. • Have a vision – Know where you are going. – Know that at the end of the day you have a clear sense of what MUST be taught/learnt irrespective of all the day to day diversions. • Education not training. We are in the business of education, not training.

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Education requires critical insights and feedback which respects and considers alternative views. Time was up. I finished with loud Xie Xie, THANKYOU. Then the students, standing in a large circle, sang to me. It was a touching and perfect gift. I said goodbye and after many, many photo moments walked out into the night and caught the train home. Another Taste of Teaching Dance Education at BDA: 12 September 2019 As stated earlier, as the visiting Guest Professor in Dance Education at BDA, I taught the students each year or I asked my colleagues to teach for me. Each year I wrote notes and by and large I observed similar lessons and lesson outcomes. However in September 2019 I taught a class where I took a different tone and approach. During the lesson I noticed some changes in my lesson plan and how these impacted on how the students participated. Below is a small narrative that describes this lesson, which more than anything reveals that the teacher is or should always be a learner. From the mist they ran As always, I had a lesson plan, and as nearly always I changed the plan as soon as the students entered the space. I arrived at the studio at the same time as the 54 first-year students. My first glimpse of these ‘freshmen’ was seeing them run through the mist into the dance building. They were all dressed in big puffer jackets as it was 2°. It was a cold morning and at 8 am many were coming to class in their long pyjama pants. I was jealous. I would love to dance in my PJ’s. In the studio, they lined up in the traditional rows with girls at front and boys at back, lining up shortest to tallest. I was introduced to the students by their Dean. The formalities over, I looked at their serious and stiff faces/bodies. I knew my planned warm-up would require too much talking, and I needed them to warm-up. Really, I needed to shift the vibe. I needed the energy in the room to be different, and so we got into a circle. Once in a circle, I began walking forward four steps and back four steps and gestured that they follow. We did this and then went left eight steps and right eight steps. I was speaking English, but really was mostly communicating with my head, tone and face rather than relying on words. I knew the students understood some English (they were much better at

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English than the very first class I taught in 2016), but I wanted to get a momentum of action, and words in English and then in Mandarin were too slow. There is a certain pace that I like at the beginning of my lessons. As I reflect on this, I think it is a characteristic of my teaching style. (1) Get them moving as quickly as possible. (2) Try not to explain what is going on. (3) Use my voice, face and gesture to communicate as much as possible. I also tend to use my humour to exaggerate my meaning and or intent. Anyway, we did the circle dance and added new movements as we warmed up. The classroom loosened and the vibe warmed, with students relaxing. I then taught them a Barn Dance (Australian/Irish folk dance done in partners) mostly because it was a circle dance and had a simple repetitive pattern that fostered participation and community. These two words—participation and community, again and again come to the fore when I reflect on my teaching style. We did the Barn Dance, as expected they were very shy at touching each other and working in a partner formation. This never ceases to surprise me, that these 18-year-old dance students are shy to touch each other especially males and females. And so, I kept with the Barn Dance and added the progressive element where the girls move forward to the next partner and the boys have to greet and hold a new partner. Without ‘drilling’ the right partner holds or hand positions the students fumbled their way into figuring out what was comfortable for them. Again, my intent was not to teach them to perform a perfect Barn Dance, my aim was to maximise participation, comfort, laughter, conversations and allow time for the students to get to know me a bit. At the end of the Barn Dance, the ice was melting and the students were mixing better. We sat down and I asked them to get into groups of three and reflect on what I taught and how I taught the activities so far. What surprised me most on this activity was that they found it unusual or even difficult to get into a threesome and talk. When I visited several groups they knew what the task was, but in terms of speaking to each other and making a shared list this was difficult. I asked some groups to report back on what I taught and how I taught and why I did this. One boy stood up and very quietly said ‘to make the vibe’. I nearly went and hugged him. Yes. I wanted to create a vibe and he got it. I made some notes on the whiteboard. I find the public nature of whiteboards very easy to use and useful in providing a focus point in a lesson.

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I glanced at my original lesson plan and returned to my intent to get the students working in pairs where they act and re-act, do and watch, talk and listen to each other. The key word is dialogue where the students are working together to make something they both own. We did what I call the positive and negative space activity, where person A makes a shape (positive space) and person B makes a shape in and around the space (negative space), then they repeat this making partner shapes again and again. The subtexts of this activity is learning how to collaborate, to solve small movement problems, to be imaginative and play with movement and each other as persons not dancers. As such, the students’ personalities come through, and as a teacher, I can see what work I need to do to foster their animated participation. This activity went quite well after I demonstrated with one of the students. Importantly, the students were moving and talking independently, with some of the students being quite cheeky (which I loved). We did this to slow music, watched each other and then to fast music. I spoke briefly about teaching students about how to watch dance and why it was important. The lesson was progressing quite well and I was coming to the end of 90 minutes. I decided to finish the dance in the same way as I started, in a circle. I gestured to everyone to move into a circle formation as we were twisting and jumping. They were happy to follow my flapping arms and I was really happy that they were flexing with my improvisations and in a way seeing my logic. We finished and I felt very happy with the lesson. Mostly because the students were puffing, laughing, relaxed and looked engaged and ready for more. As stated at the outset, I had a lesson plan but in the end only followed a tiny part of this lesson. It seems a common feature of nearly every lesson I teach in China and well, anywhere. I tend to have too many activities and tend to go off on tangents as I respond to student’s ideas or lack of ideas. A key difference about this lesson from earlier lessons at BDA was that I resisted my usual urge to begin the lesson by walking around and across the room in different directions. This activity has in the past caused me to feel frustrated as the students in BDA really don’t know what is supposed to happen or what I am doing. Today, having begun in a circle I felt the lesson went much better. Because of this simple change the students had a

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more concrete starting point that was more akin to what they understand dance to be. The stand out reflections for me were firstly, that I responded to the student’s situation from the outset. They were cold, I was cold, the room was cold and we needed to get busy quickly. A key principle that I always try and remember is to teach the students in front of you on that day in that lesson, and try and begin with something that is familiar and accessible for all students in the room. In this instance, a circle did the trick. I was also much clearer in demonstrating and explaining the shapes activity. I gave much more time to this and allowed the students to be shy and slow and then get warmer. I also gave more structured ‘rules’ that slowly complicated the activity. In sum I scaffolded the activity better, such that the students achieved smaller more regular feelings of success. Reinforcing their exploration by using music and asking them to ‘perform’ their actions to music, also aligned with their more performative meanings of dance. I know I am a slow learner, but this lesson went much better because I learnt from earlier lessons what was working and what was not. It did take me several lessons over several years to actually shift my teaching, but I did, and it reminded me to ALWAYS be a learner and even as the Visiting Guest Professor, be the learner and pay attention to the students in the classroom. I returned to my hotel, walking in the morning sun. I had a coffee with my friend and reflected on the lesson. I was relaxed and happy, and NOT desperately re-planning my lessons for tomorrow. I felt I had found a happy balance in communicating what I needed with what the students needed. I went shopping and happily tucked teaching into the back of my mind for a few hours.

References Andrzejewski, C. (2009). Toward a model of holistic dance teacher education. Journal of Dance Education, 9(1), 17–26. Buck, R. (2003). Teachers and dance in the classroom: So, do I need my Tutu? (Unpublished PhD). University of Otago. Butterworth, J. (2004). Teaching choreography in higher education: A process continuum model. Research in Dance Education, 5(1), 45–61. Confucious. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famous-confuc ius-quotes-on-education-and-learning. The Open University.

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Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, I. (1990). Adventure and the flow experience. In J. Miles & S. Priest (Eds.), Adventure education (pp. 149–155). Venture Publishing Inc. Department of Education Queensland. (1994). Principles of effective learning and teaching, Brisbane, publishing services for studies directorate, Department of Education. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan Publishing Company. Eisner, E. (1991). What the arts taught me about education. In G. Willis & W. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry (pp. 34–48). State University of New York Press. Eisner, E. (1993). Forms of understanding and the future of educational research. Educational Researcher, 22(7), 5–11. Ethell, R. G. (1997). Reconciling propositional and procedural knowledge: Beginning teachers’ knowledge in action (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Penguin Education. Fortin, S. & Siedentop, D. (1995). The interplay of knowledge and practice in dance teaching: What we can learn from a non-traditional dance teacher. Dance Research Journal, 27 (2 Fall), 3–15. Jin, J. (2017). Stepping out of the ivory tower: Meanings of teaching dance in schools in China (Unpublished PhD thesis). Dance Studies, University of Auckland. Lusted, D. (1986). Why pedagogy? Screen, 27 (5), 2–14. New Zealand Curriculum. https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-ZealandCurriculum/The-arts Schwandt, T. (1994). Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 118– 137). Sage. Shapiro, S. (1998). Toward transformative teachers: Critical and feminist perspectives in dance education. In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education (pp.7–21). Human Kinetics. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER 6

Reflecting on my Teaching

Abstract In this chapter, I reflect on my teaching and the lessons learnt about teaching dance education in China. I examine personal teaching strategies and review these against the literature. This chapter concludes by acknowledging the pre-service teacher status of the students and notes issues for such future teachers to consider as they enter the teaching profession. Keywords Reflecting · Personal pedagogy practice · Relationships · Learners needs · In about and through · Curriculum · Pre-service education

What do I learn about teaching and learning when I reflect on my teaching of dance education? This chapter identifies key learnings and ideas that are then discussed against the literature. I return to the terms of in, about and through and use these as a means to discuss what and how I teach dance education. Learning ‘in’ dance has a focus on developing practical knowledge of dance styles, movement vocabulary, choreographic techniques and performance skill. Developing physical capacity and body awareness provides learners with a personal confidence to participate in dance. Learning in dance often dominates a dance class in terms of time, expectations and © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_6

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lesson content. Learning in dance in many ways provides the vehicle or axis for carrying learning ‘through’ and ‘about’ dance. As described in the earlier narrative, I began many lessons focusing on learning ‘in’ with the simple activity of walking independently. Within this task was my implied objective of learning ‘through’ dance in which each student was to develop independent thinking, as this was a necessary competency that was to be drawn upon in all the following lessons. I have to admit that for these students who came from strong performative contexts, the instruction: ‘walk around the room’ may have not appeared to signal the beginning of a dance lesson. Upon reflection, while I knew the pedagogical context of the learners in BDA, I did not adapt my teaching to meet the students who were mostly coming from a different pedagogical perspective. They were much more familiar with a transmission or authoritarian style of pedagogy (Lusted, 1986; Stones, 1992; Stinson, 1998; Rowe et al., 2020b), which confers the teacher knowing and conveying knowledge to a learner who is ready to receive the knowledge. I was definitely coming from a more interactive constructivist pedagogy (Howe & Berv, 2000) that welcomed interaction (Lusted, 1986), and where the teacher and the learner are active participants in creating knowledge (Amineh & Asl, 2015; Ottey, 1996). In this instance, my desire to teach ‘through’ an activity overrode the initial necessity to learn ‘in’ dance and master walking around the room as a simple physical act. That is, I misread the students’ contexts and motivations and paid too much attention to my desire to teach about independence and improvisation. Again, and again, I reiterate, it is the relationship between the teacher and learner that is the axis of any dance education lesson, and yet, as I discovered above, I too, can forget this in my teacherly desire to gain certain outcomes quickly. The value of discussing my lessons in terms of relationships is supported by the literature and social constructivist theory that attests to the central role of relationships in education. Eisner (1994) argued that educational reform might only occur when complex relationships between educational intent, curriculum, teaching, assessment and systemic structures are seen ecologically or as interrelated. Connelly and Clandinin (2000) also drew attention to relationships that originate within the teaching practice of the classroom, but which are informed and related to cultural and systemic influences out of the classroom. As a non-Chinese ‘dance education expert’, invited to teach in China, I believe that too

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often I ignored the education ecology in front of me and around me. In my earlier narrative, I reflect on how I did and did not drop my desire to educate ‘on’ the BDA students and instead work ‘with’ them. When I reminded myself to be present and listen to what is happening in the classroom, I found more success in connecting with the BDA students. Relationships are integral to theorising about education from a social constructivist perspective. Constructivism rejects the Cartesian epistemology that knowledge is a reality discovered, arguing instead that knowledge is constructed and that an individual makes meaning of the world within ‘an interactional dynamic’ (Gale, 1995, p. xiii). Interplay (Bauersfeld, 1995), sharing (Connelly & Candinin, 2000), negotiation (Eisner, 1998), conversation (Ernest, 1995), dialogue (Fosnot, 1996), interaction (Gale, 1995) and inter-mental functioning (Wertsch & Toma, 1995) are processes that describe the dynamic of the relational dialogue between social and personal constructs as individuals establish personal meanings. It was my intent that these BDA students construct personal meanings of teaching dance education and not rely on stereotypes of what teaching dance might look and feel like, and it required me to initiate dialogic, sharing and interactive activities. Teaching was described by Atkin (1994) as the complex art of facilitating the growth of individuals and two main elements of teaching were identified as ‘developing relationships (with the learner) and designing learning experiences’ (p. 2). During my teaching at BDA, I often spoke to this in terms of how we teach and what we teach. But, also, for me as the guest teacher, I had to develop my relationships with these learners very quickly, in order to support the delivery of my planned learning experiences in order to make my points re teaching and learning. Discussing teachers’ knowledge and teaching, Shulman (1987) examined possible sources of a teacher’s knowledge base and examined processes of teaching, in which the relationships between teacher/learner and also teacher/curriculum content are apparent. When I asked the BDA students to do activities, like draw themselves teaching and draw an ideal school, I was in effect asking them to reflect on what and how they know teaching and learning. I did not want to tell them how to change their thoughts of teaching and learning, but help them recognise their prior knowledge and that their experience of education had powerfully shaped their values. The articulation of personal values is supported by Ottey (1996), who noted that with a diversity of dance practices, functions and meanings in

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society, declaring your ‘agenda’ (p. 33), informed by and situated in social contexts, reveals personal constructions of dance. This in turn allows for personal meanings and relevance to be derived (Gough, 1997/1998). Finding personal relevance was also commented upon by MacDonald (1991) who found that elementary school teachers’ attitudes and beliefs presented one of the core reasons for not teaching creative dance in their classroom. Ethell’s (1997) study, about beginning teachers reconciling propositional and procedural knowledge, revealed the potency of teachers making explicit their personal values and philosophies in order to facilitate change in personal pedagogy. When facilitating change in beginning teachers’ beliefs and theories, Ethell outlined three necessary conditions: ‘make explicit the typically tacit beliefs and theories; expose and challenge the inadequacies of these beliefs and theories; and, allow extended time to explore, elaborate and integrate new conceptions into existing beliefs’ (p. 279). Cognizant that we did not have extended time to integrate all the new conceptions introduced, I nonetheless, hoped that once the BDA students recognised that their experience shaped their views and values, they would be more able to shift them if they wanted. Gallego et al. (2001) noted that reform in primary schools must acknowledge the relationships within the ‘nested social, political, and cultural contexts of the school communities in which teachers and students are situated’ (p. 241). I was very cognizant that I was invited to BDA to share my ‘new’ practice and theory of teaching dance education, while also very aware that these young pre-service teachers would NOT be teaching in New Zealand, but in China. My attempts to ‘nest’ the complexity of relationships between teacher and learner, teacher and curriculum, teacher and dance within our few lessons, aimed to model other ways to teach dance education without ignoring these student’s local Chinese context and history. The relationship between a learner’s experience and wider curriculum concerns was highlighted by Shapiro (1998), as she invited ‘A vision that validates difference’ (p. 8) into the dance classroom. Stinson (1997) also noted the value of examining learners’ experiences of dance in terms of their ‘engagement…in dance’ (p. 50), and their relationship with peers, teachers, family and learning environments (Bond & Stinson, 2000/2001). Interest in relationships between the teacher, the learner and the curriculum is apparent throughout the education literature (Freire, 1972; Grossman, 1990; Grumet, 1990; Holt, 1964; Lusted, 1986; Middleton, 2001; Mosston, 1992; Russell, 1997; Shulman, 1987;

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Willis & Schubert, 1991), and dance pedagogy literature (Fortin & Siedentop, 1995; Hennessy et al., 2001; Moore, 1997; Ottey, 1996; Stake et al., 1991; Stinson, 1991, 1998; Williams, 1989) and inspires ongoing debate and research. As noted in my narrative, when I reverted to a circle dance as the beginning of a lesson, I had much more success in maximising participation and creating a vibe that I wanted. Key to my motivation to have a democratic (Dewey, 1934), inclusive (Musil, 1999) empowered (Ottey, 1996) community of learners (Amans, 2017) is the very first step of seeing who is in the room. As Isabel Marques (1994), a Brazilian dance educator noted, ‘Perhaps we should…stop and look straight into the students before us (not the ones described in the books) and with them seek alternatives’ (p. 17). Throughout my lessons, I was working with the students to establish common understandings, in doing so I drew heavily on my metacognitive experience. My prior experience informed my perceptions that I needed to adjust the lesson in accordance with the learners’ experience and understandings of dance (Buck & Snook, 2017). In constantly adjusting the lesson content, I worked to gain the students’ attention and trust. How I did this was not through articulating a right or wrong, but reshaping the task and negotiating with the students, and with the context, until I found a way that we could connect, and specifically connect with my educative aims. When I morphed an Australian barn dance into a dance more akin to Guang Chang Wu (in Chinese “广场舞”—community based line dance) I was negotiating a way to connect with these students. Taking this barn dance example and reflecting on how I adapted it in terms Metacognitive knowledge (Jiang et al., 2016), I can see my process in three parts, being: Personal variable: I recognised my teaching strengths and taught a simple dance structure that then became the basis for students’ new choreographies. This created an opportunity to learn how to teach ‘in’ dance education. Task variable: The pedagogy required me to translate my knowledge into their context and experience. In doing so, focusing on learning ‘in’ dance, but also learning ‘about’ the barn dance in one culture and appreciating how it could be used in a new context. Strategy variable: I wanted the students to understand how I was teaching, and therefore, adopted a specific strategy that illustrated how

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they could provide dance activities that fostered creative thinking, teamwork and problem solving ‘through’ learning a structured dance and then modelling the freedom to manipulate it. Metacognitive experience recognises feelings and judgements learnt over time through experience. This is especially valuable when understanding the learners’ journey in terms of process and product and discerning when to value these throughout a lesson. After watching and speaking with the BDA students it was apparent that their meanings of dance were strongly informed by their formative experiences in watching, experiencing and interpreting dance, frequently through pervasive cultural stereotypes around body types and physical excellence. The teachers’ meanings of dance were both formed and informed by their individual experience, or as framed by Ernest (1995), their individual perspectives and the social environment were interconnected and in conversation. Their lived meaning of dance was a powerful filter that influenced their understanding of teaching dance education. Reflection on these experiences revealed that they had prior knowledge that shaped their meaning of teaching dance. What I had to do and did not do so well was recognise their prior experience fully and understand that this was their starting point for understanding their meaning of becoming a dance education teacher. Dancing in any person’s language and culture requires doing, physically engaging in a task. The teacher’s task is to help the learner, whoever they are to participate as fully as possible, scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978) dance activities such that they challenge the learner yet provide opportunities for achievement. Maintaining the balance of support and challenge is described by psychologists Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (1990), as maintaining a state of flow. In essence, balancing the familiar and the new, the easy and the hard, the risky and the safe, in such a way that each learner learning ‘in’ dance is fully engaged and achieving personal goals. Within the lessons above the scaffolding was found in fostering the students’ valuing of process, and of making explicit the teaching strategies behind the activities rather than the activity itself. Indeed the students were all dance education majors learning to be dance education teachers and so this aim was relevant. However, helping them to see the relevance was more time consuming than I thought. Again, my experience over many years of tertiary dance education told me that I had to remain with this lesson focus until it was understood, in order for successive lessons to be of value.

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Learning ‘in’ dance may also be inclusive of developing dance vocabulary and techniques. Learning ballet, Chinese classical dance, tap, folk dance, hip hop and so on requires the learner to develop and master specific skills in specific dance activities, genres and styles. Different learners’ have interests, capacities and motivations, when learning in dance and again the teacher must plan and deliver lessons that recognise the learners abilities, needs and aspirations in that lesson. In the lessons described in Chapter 5, I introduced a vocabulary of creative exploration via simple movement finding tasks. Again, as the narrative reveals, the shifting of ‘source of knowledge’ away from the teacher to the interaction between students was initially difficult for the students to grasp. This shift of ‘power’ shifts the ownership of ideas and requires the students to take responsibility for initiating and managing ideas in relation with the teacher and their peers (Howe & Berv, 2000). Dewey (1938) and I concur that developing a democratic classroom is not easy as it shifts power and control, but also invites critical perspectives and a fallible view of knowledge (Howe & Berv, 2000). Nonetheless, the benefits are immense in terms of the personal relevance new understandings have for teachers and the students. Teamwork or collaboration as described above is integral to any of my dance lessons, where the focus is using dance activities as the mode of thinking as well as being the content about which to think. The driver of the lesson remains learning ‘in’, but in a micro sense, the learning was driven by the need for the students to learn ‘through’ collective decisionmaking and problem solving to find innovative solutions (Rowe et al., 2020a). Learning to collaborate was achieved through specific simple dance tasks. The process of learning ‘in’ dance, and how I facilitated the learning provided a subtext very much concerned with learning ‘through’ dance. Learning in dance encompasses choreography and performance. Again, ‘doing’ is the key word, where learners are learning to make dances and learning to share dance. Maintaining sustained dance education practice requires personal connections made through doing. As Holt (1964) noted, “knowledge which is not genuinely discovered by children (students) will very likely prove useless and will be soon forgotten” (p. 125). It is important to reiterate, that like, Connelly and Clandinin (2000), I do not dismiss the value of theoretical knowledge. My issue concerns the timing of the introduction of theoretical knowledge (Grossman, 1992). I suggest that personal histories and narratives are

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sources of knowledge that complement and enliven theoretical knowledge. Given the lived and tacit nature of these personal experiences, they are often overlooked as an initial source of knowledge informing teacher practice. The BDA students I taught, sought and valued the importance of content knowledge. Many students spoke to me about ‘knowing dance content’, and yet these students often considered knowledge of dance would be sourced from literature, professors and their current theory driven teacher education. Similarly, these students wanted activity books, web sites, music resources, video kits, dance steps and technique vocabulary, as they considered these to be ‘the’ sources of knowledge for teaching dance. What I observed is the way these students talked of these sources as objective ‘things to get’, possessions that would make the teaching of dance happen. Many of the students continually looked beyond themselves, and arguably beyond children too, for knowledge that would enable them to teach dance. Regarding this kind of conditioning received in pre-service teacher training where knowledge is erroneously seen as something you acquire to enable teaching, Connelly and Clandinin (2000) commented, ‘knowledge comes from books, teachers, and professors’ (p. 103). Teachers learn that knowledge is external to their embodied and lived experience (Johnson, 1987) rather than ‘listening to their practices’ (Russell, 1997, p. 33). Schön (1983) described the knowledge flow from theory down to practice as ‘Technical rationalism…that fosters a selective inattention to practical competence and professional artistry’ (p. vii). In this sense, knowing is a pre-condition of doing. I was able to observe this attitude in action as the BDA students completed their peer teaching activity. The effect was to deny their peer learners the opportunity to use and reference their own body and context, making it difficult for them to find the sense and relevance of the dance activity. In these classes, I observed the BDA students ‘tuning out’ from their peers’ lessons. Connelly and Clandinin (2000) note the interplay between teacher’s professional knowledge landscapes (curriculum, resources, training) and their personal practice knowledge landscape (experience, feelings, interests, needs). What I found in discussion with the BDA students was that the professional knowledge landscape dominated classroom practice and as such, to be brief, technical excellence trumped creativity, and assessment trumped fun. As noted above, it is not a binary of having one landscape and not the other. The classroom needs to welcome both, and

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as Biesta (2012) argues, it is the teacher’s role to make critical judgements about how to blend the knowledge landscapes and what to prioritise. Within my pedagogy, I often use my life experience about teaching or learning dance in different contexts. Using my own experience hopefully helps the students to open up about their own context and to feel able to trust the learner-teacher, learner-learner relationships. Talking about personal experience of different dances in different contexts helps to remind students that dance is ever evolving and serves different roles for different people (Adshead, 1981). For example, I speak of myself learning the barn dance in my childhood in Australia. Learning ‘about’ dance is as much about personal meanings and histories, as it is about cultural meanings of historic dance, dancers and performances (Buck & Rowe, 2014). When learning about dance, the students understand that all dance and dance experience has history and meaning shaped by place, people, policy and time (Li & Xiong, 2021; Rowe et al., 2018). The curriculum is possibly the most influential policy document that shapes teachers’ teaching of dance education. Moreover, curriculum is created and reflects what that society values as knowledge (Willis & Schubert, 1991). Knowing about the curriculum informs teachers’ understanding about what society expects from an education in dance. I am ever mindful of Elliot Eisner’s (1998) seven premises listed below: 1. There are multiple ways in which the world can be known: artists, writers and dancers, as well as scientists, have important things to tell about the world. 2. Human knowledge is a constructed form of experience and therefore a reflection of mind as well as nature: knowledge is made, not simply discovered. 3. The forms through which humans represent their conception of the world have a major influence on what they are able to say about it. 4. The effective use of any form through which the world is known and represented requires the use of intelligence. 5. The selection of a form through which the world is to be represented not only influences what we can say, but also influences what we are likely to experience. 6. Educational inquiry will be more complete and informative as we increase the range of ways we describe, interpret and evaluate the educational world.

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7. Which particular forms of representation become acceptable in the educational research community is as much a political matter as an epistemological one. New forms of representation, when acceptable, will require new competencies (pp. 7–8). It is clear how these seven statements inform my thinking. For me here, the most important point is that curriculum is made and they are made with the intent to change how learners think. As obvious as this statement is, it is often forgotten by teachers who have personal practice knowledge, and it is often forgotten that the teacher is the key enabler of that change—should they accept that responsibility and expectation (Biesta, 2012). As stated, while learning in dance is often the driver of a dance class or programme, it is erroneous to value dance only for the physical aspect of doing. Learning through dance recognises that in the process of developing physical experience the learner is also learning other competencies. These competencies are often described as the twenty-first century competencies and encompass knowledge of and skills in team work, creativity, problem solving, leadership, listening, compromising and empathy. Such competencies are embedded within each of my lessons, and it would be the focus of another study to analyse how well or not these competencies are understood by students. Rowe et al. (2020a) article concerning the learning of collaboration skills in tertiary education is of great interest here. In many curriculum documents, behind or beside the discipline or subject focus is a set of competencies that learners are to develop and hence teachers to teach towards. The development of key competencies are increasingly seen as important outcomes of education at every level (https://www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings/2021) (Accessed 7 April 2021). Dance has such a set of competencies, and they are powerful in terms of developing learner’s agency and career endpoints (Zheng, 2021). Too often however, when I quiz tertiary students concerning the rationale for including dance in the curriculum, seldom do they reflect on the competencies behind the obvious learning ‘in’ dance skills. I constantly give myself the challenge to make more obvious the competencies that are developed within dance education lessons, and the competencies that dance students are incredibly skilled at. As I return to my narrative and ponder on what key messages drive my teaching and what key points I want pre-service teachers, such as

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these BDA students, to learn, I return to the role of the teacher and the relationships they need to foster with learners and curriculum. In short, teachers are the heart of the classroom. They are the conductor, the choreographer and director as they work with diverse students and foster an understanding of the topic on hand. Teachers and children bring into classrooms diverse meanings of dance that require inclusion, critique and direction. Acknowledgement of these requires initial awareness that diversity exists and that it is a resource to value. The key process and context that takes the fore is ‘education’, and this must consciously be differentiated from the process of ‘training’ that seems to predominate in dance experiences for many teachers and was apparent for these BDA students. Epistemologically, the focus is upon creating knowledge as distinguished from being given knowledge (Eisner, 1998). The process of creating knowledge is inclusive of different dance experiences, different bodies, different concerns and ambitions. It is also inclusive of curriculum concepts, terms and prior research and knowledge. Constructivist pedagogy flexes with classroom pragmatics and is valued for maximising participation and learning where there is purpose, focus and direction. The process of creating knowledge does not mean that the teacher is relegated to that of facilitator or classroom host. The role of the teacher is to bring to the classroom an in-depth knowledge of the discipline and an in-depth knowledge of how to foster diverse learner’s engagement with the topics studied. As Fortin (1993) notes, teachers’ content pedagogical knowledge is about having mastery of the dance content and a mastery in how to engage diverse dance students in ‘owning’ or making sense of that content. Biesta (2012) highlights the crucial role of the teacher in directing the learning, maintaining the relevance of the learning and making critical judgements about what material will be prioritised or actioned in any one lesson. For me, the key word here is judgement. Teachers need to have the courage to make judgements that are in response to the classroom reality, in response to the learners’ needs and aspirations, in response to the literature, in response to the creative explorations happening in the room and most importantly in accordance with their own knowledge base. Here, as I hope was evident in my earlier narrative, the teacher is teaching, conducting the learning process with clarity and purpose, yet with alertness to what is happening in front of them minute by minute. It can be exciting, fun and dynamic as you create a learning environment that challenges the students to deepen their

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knowledge. In my mind, at best, teaching is exhilarating, and at worst boring. Teaching can become boring and teachers can become stale. Most experienced teachers know this feeling and work to find new challenges and upskilling. Pre-service teachers and young undergraduates should be encouraged to critically examine their own meanings of dance and to be cognizant of the fact that they are not the only holder of meaning in the classroom. Teachers need to be allowed the space to acknowledge and explore their own prior experiences of dance, their fears, concerns and successes. It is with and from these that we teach, we begin, and in beginning, we learn what we know and what we need to know next. Reflecting on personal experiences and beliefs about dance may help pre-service teachers to take the initial steps towards teaching dance more confidently. Within pre-service education, curriculum terms and concepts need to be translated from the documents into personal and felt understanding that does not subscribe to a checklist mentality of skills to teach or outcomes to predict. Terms and concepts are ideally introduced as structures that with ongoing use and familiarity assist increasingly refined expression of thinking and meaning. As argued in this book, the emphasis is upon developing opportunities for individuals to think in, through and about dance, rather than learning to dance. This book argues that pre-service teachers’ meanings of dance emerge out of negotiated relationships between children, dance and curriculum in each classroom. Teacher education that focuses upon these relationships and subsequent issues might develop teachers who can create dance programmes and sustain them. The impulse of these teachers would be to look to the classroom relationships as their first resource, finding there a recognisable context from which to seek further knowledge and new dance experience with the children.

References Adshead, J. (1981). The study of dance. Dance Books Ltd. Amans, D. (2017). An introduction to community dance. Bloomsbury. Amineh, R. J., & Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of constructivism and social constructivism. Journal of Social Sciences, Literature and Languages, 1(1), 9–16.

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Atkin, J. (1994). The natural flow of learning: Conditions which enhance and maximise learning. Available: http://www.learning-by-design.com. 13 June 2003. Bauersfeld, H. (1995). The structuring of the structures: Development and function of mathematizing as a social practice. In L. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 137–158). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Biesta, G. (2012). Giving teaching back to education: Responding to the disappearance of the teacher. Phenomenology and Practice, 6(2), 35–49. Bond, K., & Stinson, S. (2000/2001). “I Feel Like I’m Going to Take Off!”: Young people’s experiences of the superordinary in dance. Dance Research Journal, 32(2), 52–87. Buck, R., & Rowe, N. (Eds.). (2014). Moving oceans: Celebrating dance in the South Pacific. Routledge. Buck, R., & Snook, B. (2017). Negotiating meanings and examining practice of ‘arts across the curriculum.’ Research in Dance Education, 18(3), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647893.2017.1370450 Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (2000). Teacher education—A question of teacher knowledge. In A. Scott & J. Freeman-Moir (Eds.), Tomorrow’s teachers: International and critical perspectives on teacher education (pp. 89– 105). Canterbury University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, I. (1990). Adventure and the flow experience. In J. Miles & S. Priest (Eds.), Adventure education (pp. 149–155). Venture Publishing Inc. Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. Minton: Balch. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan Publishing Company. Eisner, E. (1994). Cognition and curriculum reconsidered. Teachers College Press. Eisner, E. (1998). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. Macmillan. Ernest, P. (1995). The one and the many. In L. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 459–486). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ethell, R. (1997). Reconciling propositional and procedural knowledge: Beginning teachers’ knowledge in action. Unpublished Doctor of Philosophy. Fortin, S. (1993). The knowledge base for competent dance teaching. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 64(9), 34–38. Fortin, S., & Siedentop, D. (1995). The interplay of knowledge and practice in dance teaching: What we can learn from a non-traditional dance teacher. Dance Research Journal, 27 (2 Fall), 3–15. Fosnot, C. (1996). Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning. In C. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (pp. 8–32). Teachers College Press.

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Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Penguin Education. Gale, J. (1995). Preface. In L. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. xi–xvii). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gallego, M., Hollingsworth, S., & Whitenack, D. (2001). Relational knowing in the reform of educational cultures. Teachers College Record, 103(2), 240–266. Gough, M. (1997/1998). Towards a philosophy of teaching and learning. Animated, Winter, 26. Grossman, P. (1990). The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education. Teachers College Press. Grossman, P. (1992). Teaching and learning with cases. In J. Schulman (Ed.), Case methods in teacher education (pp. 227–239). Teachers College Press. Grumet, M. (1990). On daffodils that come before the swallow dares. In E. Eisner & A. Peshkin (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate (pp. 101–120). Teachers College Press. Hennessy, S., Rolfe, L., & Chedzoy, S. (2001). The factors which influence student teachers’ confidence to teach the arts in the primary classroom. Research in Dance Education, 2(1), 53–71. Howe, K., & Berv, J. (2000). Constructing constructivism, epistemological and pedagogical. In D. C. Phillips (Ed.), Constructivism in education: Opinions and second opinions on controversial issues (pp. 19–40). University of Chicago Press. Holt, J. (1964). How children fail. Dell. Jiang, Y., Ma, L., & Gao, L. (2016). Assessing teachers’ metacognition in teaching: The teacher metacognition inventory. Teaching and Teachers Education, 59, 402–413. Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason. University of Chicago Press. Li, Q., & Xiong, Y. (2021). Rethinking children’s dance education based on embodied cognition theories. Beijing Dance Academy, 4, 126–132. Lusted, D. (1986). Why pedagogy? Screen, 27 (5), 2–14. MacDonald, C. (1991). Elementary school teachers explain why they do not use creative dance in their classrooms. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 37 (2), 157–166. Marques, I. A. (1994). Terpsichore project: Studying alternatives for dance in education. In W. Schiller & D. Spurgeon (Eds.), Kindle the fire: Dance and the child international (pp. 15–22). Macquarie University. Middleton, S. (2001). I teach. New Zealand Education Review, 6(7), 16. Moore, J. (1997). Dance teaching in the primary school: Voices from the classroom. In D. Holt (Ed.), Primary arts education (pp. 142–164). Falmer Press.

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Mosston, M. (1992). Tug-o-war, no more: Meeting teaching-learning objectives using the spectrum of teaching styles. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 56, 27–31. Musil, P. (1999). From classroom experiences to work of art: Involving dance students in the choreographic process. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 70(5), 35–39. Ottey, S. (1996). Critical pedagogical theory and the dance educator. Arts Education Policy Review, 98(2), 31–39. Rowe, N., Martin, R., Buck, R., & Anttila, E. (2018). Researching dance education post-2016: The global implications of Brexit and Trump on dance education. Research in Dance Education, 19(1), 91–109. Rowe, N., Martin, R., Buck, R., & Mabingo A. (2020a) Teaching collaborative dexterity in higher education: Threshold concepts for educators. Higher Education Research & Development, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/072 94360.2020.1833843 Rowe, N., Xiong, X., & Tuomeiciren, H. (2020b). Dancing from policy to pedagogy in China: Transgressions, surveillance, and resistance from students, teachers and institutional leaders. Policy Futures in Education, 18(8), 995–1010. Russell, T. (1997). Teaching teachers: How I teach IS the message. In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education (pp. 32–47). Falmer Press. Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books Inc. Shapiro, S. (1998). Toward transformative teachers: Critical and feminist perspectives in dance education. In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education (pp. 7–21). Human Kinetics. Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Reviews, 57 (1), 1–22. Stake, R., Bresler, L., & Mabry, L. (1991). Custom and cherishing: The arts in elementary schools. Council for Research in Music Education. Stinson, S. (1991). Dance as curriculum, curriculum as dance. In G. Willis & W. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry (pp. 190– 196). State University of New York Press. Stinson, S. (1997). A question of fun: Adolescent engagement in dance education. Dance Research Journal, 29(2), 49–69. Stinson, S. (1998). Seeking a feminist pedagogy for children’s dance. In S. Shappiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education (pp. 23–48). Human Kinetics. Stones, E. (1992). Quality teaching a sample of cases. Routledge.

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Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J., & Toma, C. (1995). Discourse and learning in the classroom. In L. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 159–174). Lawrence Erlbaum. Williams, G. (1989). Dance education for young children. A review of principles and practices. Early Child Development and Care, 47 , 177–203. Willis, G., & Schubert, W. (1991). Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry. State University of New York. Zheng, H. H. (2021). Prospects and suggestions for school dance education. Contemporary Dance Research, 6(3), 90–101.

CHAPTER 7

Conclusion

Abstract This chapter reiterates the power of sharing personal practice and experience. I note the central role of the teacher in education, and my passion for dance in the curriculum. I conclude by noting my pragmatism, and accept that teaching is not always orderly and satisfying. The book closes on a positive note and reminds the reader to work with learners, with personal experience and with a vision for each lesson, the programme and for dance education. Keywords Passion · Pragmatism · Classroom as community

I love Teaching. I love the thrill of not always knowing what is going to happen. There is always an element of improvisation, and the surprises, be they ‘successes’ or ‘failures’ in teaching constantly provide something new to think about. Hopefully my stories in this book resonate with the reader’s own experience of teaching and learning dance. I hope the personal descriptions take you deep into a dance lesson and in so doing reveal the complexity of what is happening and how. Importantly, I hope I have revealed why I think dance can play such a meaningful role in education. That is, all students can learn in, about and through dance and take something worthwhile into their future, irrespective of their dis/interest in dance. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2_7

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I love teaching dance. The word dance immediately throws up so many ‘barriers’ and fears for other teachers and lots of young and old learners. How many times have I heard the emphatic statement ‘aaahhh, no, I don’t /can’t dance!’ when I introduce myself and a dance workshop. When I hear this, I both quietly groan, but also delight in the forthcoming challenge of getting these ‘non-dancing’ middle-age school principals, or 15-year-old boys, or 65-year olds with dementia, or 30-year-old IT specialists to be dancing within the hour. For me however, dance is an amazing discipline in the curriculum, when its complete potential is unleashed and taught fully. By fully I mean, teaching in, about and through dance in a way that is relevant to both the learner and the teacher. Time and again, I have made the point that education must engage the learner such that they have a sense of ownership and connection with their learning. And while the learner is the focus, in my mind, the key agent for enacting ownership and engagement is the teacher. In my mind, it is the teacher who is at the heart of every lesson. It is the teacher that can make learning exciting or excruciating. It is the teacher that can make the classroom the best place to be. It is the teacher that can make dance relevant and exciting for everyone. It is the teacher who can use dance as a bridge to connect with diverse communities, diverse needs, diverse cultures and aspirations. It is the teacher who can also kill dance within education contexts. I aspire to be that dance teacher who can motivate and excite learners. I want to be the teacher using dance to build communities, both in and out of the classroom, and in the wider world where dis-connection seems to be way too common. I want to be that teacher who aspires to make participants feel that they have something special or significant to offer a group; and that they can connect with a wider group of like-minded people and feel some sense of collective solidarity. I work towards being that dance teacher who wants to make the dance lesson safe. A place where everyone can explore ideas freely through movement and not feel threatened or worried. I am a dance teacher, aiming to build a democratic classroom where there is structure and freedom. The structure providing direction and safety in which ideas and feelings can be played with freely. This book spoke to my experience of teaching dance over the last few years, and as such it might be seen as a snapshot in pedagogical time. Teaching in New Zealand, Australia and China has revealed to me what kind of teacher I am, and I certainly don’t assume I connect with every reader’s sense of teaching dance. I am a ‘hands on’ teacher, where the

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action, be that in a dance classroom or studio or beach or lounge room or forest is where the learning happens. I’m a pragmatic teacher, who does what is required on the day, in the moment, to both survive the moment, but also realise a key educational moment. My lessons are not always ‘pretty’, and really, we as teachers can’t always have perfect wellformed dance lessons. One can’t be too precious at the ‘coalface’. I began this book outlining some of my earliest experiences as a dancer and dance teacher. The issues that prompted this book concerned teachers’ meanings of dance and teaching dance. In turning to my experience of teaching dance in China, I have endeavoured to critically unpack my own practice and my own understandings of theory. I have drawn on many years of teaching dance in schools and in universities and used these experiences as a means for revisiting some of the issues around meaning of dance and teaching dance. I advocate for the central role of the teacher in the dance classroom, but recognise that the relationships they foster with learners, curriculum and contexts are vitally important. Teaching and learning in, about and through dance moves dance education away from the domination of teaching dance steps. These three words open the door to a more holistic education of the child, by recognising their individuality but also their community. Teaching and learning in, about and through dance recognises that dance education can enable better understandings of personal identity, provide opportunities for creative expression, support personal and community wellness and offer many career opportunities. Dance education can be integrated with other curriculum areas, and support learning that is most suitable to the learner. I finish by simply saying, be the best teacher you can, on the day, and in the moment. Roll with the highs and lows, but step into that role of teacher with commitment and genuine interest in the learners and the topic. In short, be with the learner; work with them, with your experience, with the curriculum and with a focus on teaching and learning in, about and through dance.

Index

A Aesthetic education, 47 Adshead, J. (1981 & 1988) (Lansdale), 26–29, 91 Lv, L.S. (2014), 48 Arts education advocacy Donmoyer, R. (1995), 23 Eisner, E. (1998), 12, 13, 25, 34, 85, 91, 93 Ewing, R. (2010), 25 Hong, T. (2001), 7, 23 Kerby, M., Lorenza, L., Dyson, J., Ewing, R. and Baguley, M. (2021), 23–25 Mingyuan, G. (2010), 24 Rush, J. (1997), 20, 22, 23 Shi, B. (2021), 25 Snook, B. (2021), 20, 25 UNESCO Seoul Agenda, 43 World Economic Forum (2016), 44 Australian arts curriculum (Kerby, M., Lorenza, L., Dyson, J., Ewing, R. and Baguley, M.: 2021), 23–25 Auto-narrative, 8, 9, 13, 14, 20

Farquhar, S. and Fitzpatrick, E. (2019), 11, 13 Njunjuri, Hernandez and Chang (2010), 14

B Beijing Dance Academy (BDA), 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, 49, 53–55, 57, 61, 65, 66, 72, 76, 78, 80, 84–86, 88, 90, 93 Jin, J. (2017), 6, 31, 49, 54, 57, 60 Lv, Y. (2008), 6

C Case study Donmoyer, R. (1990), 12 Noor, K.B.M. (2008), 12 Stake, R. (1994), 12 Chinese reform in education Bo, S. and Ming, H. (2021), 20 Gao, Y. (2018), 23 Lv, Y.S. (2016), 20 Mingyuan, G. (2010), 24

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 R. Buck, Dance Pedagogy and Education in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3193-2

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104

INDEX

Wang, D. (2011), 23 Zhicheng, H. (2010), 20 Chinese social reform Brady, A.M. (2018), 47 Swaine, M. and Tellis, A. (2000), 20, 47 Community dance (Amans: 2017), 87 Community dance Guangchang Wu in China (Martin, R. and Chen, R.: 2020), 24, 44 Confucius, 60 Constructivism in education Connelly, F.M. and Clandinin, D.J. (2000), 7, 84, 85, 89, 90 Eisner, E. (1993 & 1998), 12, 13, 25, 34, 60, 85, 91, 93 Ernest, P. (1995), 85, 88 Gale, J. (1995), 85 Lincoln, Y. and Guba, E. (2000), 12 Schwandt, T. (2000), 12 Constructivist pedagogy Amineh, R.J. and Asl, H.D. (2015), 84 Howe, K. and Berv, J. (2000), 84, 89 Lusted, D. (1986), 59, 84, 86 Ottey, S. (1996), 30–32, 84, 85, 87 Content pedagogical knowledge, 45 Fortin, S. (1993), 32, 45, 93 Shulman, L. (1986), 45 COVID Martin, R. and Heyang, T. (2021), 7 Peipei, T. and Qinqin, Z. (2020), 7 Curriculum Eisner, E. (1991), 45, 63 Lortie, D. (1975), 45 Willis, G. and Schubert, W. (1991), 45, 87, 91

D Dance education Brinson, P. (1991), 28 Buck, R. (2003 & 2006), 4, 14, 20, 59 Koff, S. (2021), 7, 24, 28, 31 Lv, L.S. (2014), 48 Lv, Y.S. (2000), 6, 25, 45, 49 Dance education theories Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE), 26, 30–32 Modern Educational Dance (Laban, R.: 1948), 26–28 Somatic education (Hanna, T.: 1983), 34 The Midway Model (Smith-Autard, J.: 1994), 30 Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, H.: 1983), 26, 32, 33 The Study of Dance (Adshead, J.: 1981), 28, 29 Dance in curriculum Buck, R. (2003), 4, 14, 20, 59 Eisner, E. (1994), 20, 84 Ping, X. and Xu, M. (2020), 20 Snook, B. (2021), 20, 25 Dance in diverse contexts Bond, K. (2019), 44 Burridge, S. and Svendler-Nielsen, C. (2018), 12, 44 Mabingo, A. (2020), 24, 44, 89, 92 Svendler-Nielsen, C. and Burridge, S. (2015), 44 Dance pedagogy choreographic process, 59, 60, 62 community of learners, 87 doing, 21, 22, 28, 55, 62, 66, 71, 73, 87–89, 92, 99 feedback, 70, 72, 78 planning, 62, 64–67, 72, 73, 75, 76 play, 4, 54, 57, 59, 61, 62, 80, 99

INDEX

safety and risk (Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Csikszentmihalyi, I.: 1990), 60 scaffolding (Vygotsky, L.: 1978), 64, 88 structure and freedom, 59, 63, 100 what and how, 5, 14, 16, 20, 23, 25, 63, 83, 85 Dance pedagogy in China Buck, R. (2021), 14, 46 Jin, J. (2017), 6, 31, 47–49, 54, 57, 60, 75 Li, X.F., Li, J., Yu, L., Zhang, X.N. and Du, B. (2014), 46 Lv, Y.S. (2000), 6, 25, 45, 49 Peipei, T. and Qinqin, Z. (2020), 7 Rowe, N. and Xiong, H. (2020), 7 Rowe, N., Tuomeiciren, H. and Xiong, X. (2020), 7, 48, 84 Zhang, Y.B. (2012), 46 Zhan, T. (2011), 46 Democratic (Dewey, J.: 1934), 87 Dialogue in dance education, 12, 20 Anttila, E. (2007), 12 Wilkinson, B.D., Shank, G., and Hanna, F. (2019), 12 E Educational connoisseur (Eisner, E.: 1998), 13 Educational landscapes/context Buck, R. (2021), 14, 46 Gallego, M., Hollingsworth, S. and Whitenack, D. (2001), 32, 86 Gao, Y. (2018), 23 Rowe, N., Martin, R., Buck, R. and Anttila, E. (2018), 23, 91 Experience Andrzejewski, C. (2009), 76 Buck, R. (2003), 14 Butterworth, J. (2004), 76 Dewey, J. (1938), 11, 60, 89

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Ethell, R.G. (1997), 76, 86 Zhou, X., Guo, L., Deng, Y.L., Wang, W., and Xu, R. (2019), 25, 47

F Feedback, 70, 72, 78

H Holistic teacher education, 31, 34, 101 Andrzejewski, C. (2009), 76

I Inclusive dance education Amans (2017), 87 Buck, R. (1998), 4 Meiners, J. (2017), 7 Musil, P. (1999), 87 Ottey, S. (1996), 30–32, 84, 85, 87 Indigenous Dance pedagogy (Mabingo, A.: 2020), 24, 44, 89, 92

J Judgement, 16, 25, 88, 91, 93

L Learning about dance, 21, 91 Learning from experience, 14, 15, 25, 58, 60, 64, 85, 91, 99 Russell, T. and Bullock, S. (1999), 7 Learning in dance, 21, 24, 83, 89, 92 Learning through dance, 22, 25, 71, 92 Lesson plan (planning), 56, 57, 61, 65–67, 78, 80

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INDEX

M Metacognition Bennet, L., Schwartz, B. and Perfect, T. (2002), 14 Flavell, J. (1979), 14 Hennessey, M. (1999), 15 Jiang, Y., Ma, L. and Gao, L. (2016), 14, 15, 87 Perfect, T. and Shwartz, B. (2002), 14 Prytula, M. (2012), 14

N Narrative, 7, 9, 12, 13, 49, 53, 54, 78, 84, 85, 87, 89, 92, 93 Clandinin, D.J. and Murphy, M.S. (2009), 14 Connelly, F.M. and Clandinin, D.J. (2006), 13 New Zealand Arts Curriculum, 24, 58, 59, 63, 73 Buck, R. (2003), 4, 20, 59 Hong, T., Foley, S. and Thwaites, T. (1998), 33 Northwest Normal University, China, 3

O OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), 20 One Belt, One Road, 46–48 Brady, A.M. (2018), 47 Zhou, X., Guo, L., Deng, Y.L., Wang, W., and Xu, R. (2019), 47

P Pedagogy

Buck, R. and Snook, B. (2017), 45, 87 Freire, P. (1972), 31, 45, 60, 86 Greene, M. (1991), 45 Shapiro, S. (1998), 45, 65, 86 Stinson, S. (1998), 45, 84, 87 Warburton, E. (2008), 45 Pedagogy (transmission and transmissive), 45 Lusted, D. (1986), 84 Rowe, N., Xiong, X. and Tuomeiciren, H. (2020), 84 Personal practice knowledge Carter, K. (1993), 12 Connelly, F.M., Clandinin, D.J. and He, M. (1997), 7, 12 Elbaz, F. (1991), 12 Johnson, M. (1987), 13, 90 Phenomenology, 34 Policy and Pedagogy Eisner, E. (1998), 12, 13, 25, 34, 85, 91, 93 Kolb, A. (2017), 48 Li, Q. and Xiong, Y. (2021), 91 Rowe, N., Martin, R., Buck, R. and Anttila, E. (2018), 91 Pragmatism, 99 Principles of Effective teaching and Learning, 59, 62, 63, 67 Queensland Ministry of Education (1994), 58 Process and product, 16, 30, 56, 88 Buck, R. and Snook, B. (2020), 24 Propositional and procedural knowledge (Ethell, R.G.: 1997), 86 Q Quality oriented dance education (QODE) Jin, J. (2017), 31, 48, 49 Lv, Y.S. (2016), 20

INDEX

Qu, H.M. (2021), 48 R Reflecting on practice. See Reflective practitioner Greene, M. (1991), 45 Liu, H. (2021), 20, 25 Russell, T. (1997), 86, 90 Schön, D. (1983), 7, 90 Reflective practitioner, 6 Relationships teacher and curriculum, 85, 86, 93 teacher and learner, 61, 84–86, 93 Relationships (Buck, R.: 2003), 14, 59 S Social and Emotional Wellbeing, 44 Student’s needs, 61 T Teacher education, 90, 94 Biesta, G. (2012), 25 Teacher’s lived experience, 7, 90 Teachers’ meanings of dance education in China (Jin, J.: 2017), 6, 31, 47–49, 53, 54, 57, 60, 75 in New Zealand (Buck, R. 2003), 4, 20 in New Zealand (Snook, B. 2021), 20 Teachers’ practical knowledge Connelly, F.M. and Clandinin, D.J. (1985), 12, 13 Teacher’s self-awareness. See Metacognition Teaching and learning in, about and through dance (Koff, S. and Warner, M.J.: 2001), 22 Teaching practice

107

Connelly, F.M., Clandinin, D.J. and He, M. (1997), 7, 12 Heshusius, L. (1994), 7 Rowe, N. and Xiong, X. (2020), 7 Russell, T. and Bullock, S. (1999), 7 Schön, D. (1983), 7, 90 Transformative pedagogies, 45, 54, 65 Transmissive (transmission) pedagogies, 45, 84 Twenty-first-century competencies (21st Century) Li, X.F., Li, J., Yu, L., Zhang, X.N. and Du, B. (2014), 46 Koff, S. and Warner, M.J. (2001), 22 Lambrinos, E. (2019), 23 Ministry of Education, New Zealand (2007), 24, 31 Rush, J. (1997), 22 Shi, B.G., Liu, X. and Yu, F.B. (2017), 22 Zhang, Y.B. (2012), 46 Zheng, H.H. (2021), 44 U UNESCO (United Nations Education Science and Culture Organisation) Chair on Dance and Social Inclusion, 4 Goals for Sustainable Development, 44 International Commission on the Futures of Education, 4 Seoul Agenda: Goals for Arts education, 43 University of Auckland, 3, 7, 8 V Values, 14, 23, 24, 31, 48, 54, 56, 63–65, 73, 77, 85, 86, 91