Dance Education and Responsible Citizenship

Promoting Civic Engagement through Effective Dance Pedagogies

Karen Schupp

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367248703
• eBook ISBN: 9781000103908
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Dance Education, this collection brings together a number of insightful chapters which explore themes relating to responsible citizenship within dance education.

Presenting research, scholarship, experiences, and pedagogical approaches from national and international contexts, and diverse educational settings, the chapters included in this book demonstrate how the study of dance requires students to develop a clear sense of self- and group-responsibility. Including high-level contributions from a range of researchers, educators, and dance instructors, the volume investigates how research and instruction can contribute to building communities; and ensure that dance education reacts to shifting social, political, and cultural norms. Responsible citizenship and civic engagement are examined in relation to course content, pedagogical approaches, systemic practices, and cultural assumptions.

This valuable collection of diverse and insightful chapters will be of great interest to researchers, post-graduate academics, teachers and instructors in the fields of dance and teacher education.

1Arts Education and Citizenship

A Pedagogical Framework

Ilana Morgan

Providing dance education for K–12 students in the United States has involved growth and setbacks in funding and supportive ideology at the national, state, and community levels. The U.S. educational climate often views arts education as frivolous, requiring a continued conversation about the value of aesthetic arts education and its funding requirements. For example, when asked about his recent proposal to eliminate the $4 million annual state subsidy to the Oklahoma Arts Council, State Representative Josh Cockroft replied, “The time has come to set priorities and to exercise spending discipline” (Knight 2013). In these types of arguments, the arts are cast as an extra, undisciplined endeavor that takes away from a prioritized and solid skills-based education focused on reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the 1997 report “Ten Good Reasons to Eliminate Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts,” The Heritage Foundation (1997)—a U.S. conservative public policy think tank—outlined the ways in which it is believed that artist funding promotes pornography and cultural elitism while lowering the quality of U.S. art. Although it has been more than twenty years since this report was released, many of the Foundation’s core arguments can still be found in cultural and political debates surrounding arts funding, arts education, public school budgets, and the value of arts at large in U.S. society. For instance, in March 2018, the Winona School District in Minnesota proposed $1.7 million in budget cuts; this included a plan to eliminate the fourth-grade orchestra, music lessons, and two or three music teacher positions and to reduce the number of high school theater productions (Farris 2018). The superintendent was quoted in the local paper as saying, “Balancing a budget is a difficult task. There will have to be difficult decisions” (Farris 2018). In response, students shared their pleas for keeping their arts programs during these difficult times. One stated, “Music impacts people’s lives extremely. If you take the core pieces away … it will collapse like Jenga” (Collins 2018). Another said that “music gives me a moment to relax and have fun,” and “I only made friends through music” (Collins 2018). Still another student shared that music is what made him feel human (Collins 2018).

How do we describe the goals and values of arts education during continuing disputes that involve budgetary and political perceptions? How do we connect the value of the arts to—as the students just explained—the ways in which we inform our senses of identity and humanity and build our lives? When the arts are easily disregarded as a vital educative component, I argue that we are simultaneously questioning the value of people’s lives, individual identities, and rights. Arts education serves as an important means by which we can support the development of empathetic and civically engaged citizens.

With this in mind, I offer in this chapter a pedagogical framework of goals and teaching strategies to create connections among arts education, civic and citizenship development, cultural understanding, and the development of empathy (as seen in Figure 1.1). I present this framework alongside key moments from our recent U.S. political and social landscape in the hopes that the framework will offer ways to associate and connect arts learning and teaching to prospects of social change, social justice, and civic engagement (as seen in Figure 1.2). I also outline the methodology used to create this framework and provide a definition of social justice and aesthetic education used in this chapter. I then conclude with a short analysis of the philosophical areas which support the development of this framework: aesthetic inquiry as cognition, aesthetic education and empathy, and aesthetic education and social justice oriented citizenship.

Figure 1.1Arts Education Framework.

Figure 1.2U.S. Political/Social Moments and Movements.

I share this pedagogical framework to practically assist those who teach arts in the classroom and those who advocate for arts education inclusion in a democratic public education system. In my experience as a K–12 dance educator and assistant professor of dance, anti-arts-education discourse can be burdensome for arts educators; it requires arts teachers to be both advocates and educators, interchangeably and at all times. My goal is to provide a succinct explanation and overarching umbrella from which to articulate the value and goals of arts education in relationship to citizenship development for K–12 students.

This framework consists of four goals for arts education and six possible areas in which one might put these goals into action. It was developed from specific theoretical and philosophical methodologies as well as from my own teaching perspectives and experiences. Although conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and other groups that propose the elimination of arts funding might not consider arts education to be important to the development of productive U.S. citizens, it is my proposal that arts education and a commitment to creative collaboration contribute to the development of children into compassionate and democratic citizens who can create a more livable world, and become creative and innovative contributors to our country.

A Proposed Framework for Arts Education

The framework has four distinct goals for arts education in the development of social justice oriented citizenship. Further, it addresses why arts education is important beyond immediate arts-based learning outcomes and objectives. This framework is intended to assist educators when thinking about the purpose and meaningfulness of arts learning as they advocate for its inclusion in school settings.

Arts Education Goals

1.Heighten awareness of multiple truths and perspectives;

2.Build skills of negotiating and disagreement;

3.Develop ability to see and articulate difference with respect;

4.Strengthen aesthetic awareness of diverse people, arts knowledge, and artistic perspectives.

Examples of Classroom Practice

In this section, I give examples of curriculum and lesson ideas and verbal prompts for teachers as strategies that provide practice-oriented context for the framework goals listed in the previous section. These practices can be used in the areas of dance, theater, media arts, music, and visual arts; they could also be implemented in non-arts-based classrooms. This section is intended to provide the reader some classroom strategies and is not to meant to be an exhaustive list, as there are many ways one might put the framework goals into practice.

See and Be Seen

1.Find and take time to silently watch complete works of theater and dance with performers who differ from your students in terms of race, class, nationality, gender, and culture.

2.Rather than explaining what students should see in a dance or painting, explain and ask, “Let’s hold our thoughts about what we think, or what you think it means, and focus instead on what you see. What and who do you see?”

Listen to Others

1.Provide written and audio/visual artist interviews and artist statements to learn about how, why, and what propelled the artist to create this way.

2.Ask questions and listen deeply to understand the process and artistic inquiry of classmates. “If the artist describes this trio as an investigation of a sunset, what can we ask to find out more about her process?”

Honor Spaces and Bodies

1.Practice “blind casting” by casting according to ability rather than look, height, race, or gender of an actor, and if applicable provide students information about how choices were made.

2.Define safe practices and support the development of personal agency. “She is telling us she does not want to be lifted during this part of the dance. It is her body, and she will decide if she wants to be lifted.”

Connect Arts Creations to a Larger World

1.Work to weave issues, contexts, cultures, concerns, and celebrations into the arts classroom.

2.Employ a wide variety of arts traditions, philosophies, ideas, and experiences, not only Western perspectives.

3.Ask students what concerns them most. Teach them ways to find out what is happening in the world, and encourage them to use artistic expression to understand, react to, or explore.

4.Encourage analysis of personal context through art making by promoting use of familial stories; political ideas; and personal, family, and cultural histories.

Center the Work and Decenter the Student

1.Practice activities that bring attention and focus through the use of eyes, skin, performance, line, texture, shape, color, relationships, timing, character, space, qualities, and so on.

2.Ask what the artwork or artistic process needs or is asking us to do. “What does this landscape need next in this watercolor, and why? What is present in this work so far, and what artistic choices are becoming revealed as I progress?”

Recognize Stories, Ideas, and People

1.Highlight artworks and artists that are not traditionally represented. Consider artists on YouTube, child artists, elderly artists, artists with differently abled bodies, and those from differing cultural contexts.

2.Find stories of perseverance, heartache, joy, and everyday life from cultures that are both different and similar to students’ communities. Look for common ground as well as stark differences.

Methodology

This research uses a relational and reflective philosophical methodology grounded in a qualitative postpositivist approach. This approach acknowledges that an objective framework for arts education for all situations and learners is not possible; rather, a practical framework that will guide teaching and learning in the arts requires multiple observations, deep reflection, and specific consideration and acknowledgment of differing cultural experiences, worldviews, and, in this case, political and social landscapes. A methodology that will fit these varying needs dictates an approach that could be associated with craft: messy assemblage, experimentation, reflection, and revision as contexts, needs, values, and societal pressures change. This nonlinear relational approach incorporates philosophical analysis of current theories in the area of education, affect theory, and arts education. This analysis, coupled with my own teaching experience, creates the base on which the framework was built.

Norman K. Denzin and Yvonne S. Lincoln (2005), who wrote about qualitative research, drew attention to pragmatic and context-dependent values as being integral to understanding knowledge as “collective knowing” and a “socially constructed and socially distributed phenomenon” (50). This approach requires attention be paid to the experiences and bias of the researcher, especially with regard to a commitment to the socially constructed nature of knowledge. While developing this framework, I reflected on my own personal teaching experiences and values as a dance educator in U.S. public schools, and I sought to continually practice intentionality and awareness of my biases as the research unfolded. I paid particular attention to my social and political leanings, the value that I place on social justice work, and my strong ethical belief that arts are central to a productive life and society. These biases remain present and also propel this work. I offer this acknowledgment of bias and reflexivity to my readers as they engage with this framework.

To further an incorporation of relational constructionism, I wanted this methodology to involve the pointed consideration of moments within the current political landscape in the U.S. Arguments can be made that the political and social points presented are not important and that the educational framework stands on its own without this contextual offering. However, to fully bring into view specific visions and goals of arts education, the political and social landscape—which affects arts education via funding, ethics, goals, and a federally mandated curriculum—must be considered. This idea is supported by Andrew Gunn’s (2015) chapter in the book Theory and Method in Higher Education, which identifies ways that political and policy analysis can be included in education research:

The first category of research we can identify is where policy documents and political events are used as a backdrop to a range of studies. Policy documents and political events provide context to the research questions where they set the scene, although the actual research is not into the political or policy per se. … [P]‌olitical context is of value as it identifies drivers of change and the wider landscape beyond the area of immediate investigation.

(30)

The political moments and movements are meant to serve as a backdrop to the framework, and the reader is invited to consider ideas about teaching and learning in the midst of this landscape. I also encourage readers to consider new political and social issues or moments that they feel support or shadow their own teaching goals and practices.

Social Justice and Aesthetic Education

I found the political to be personal in new ways in 2017, and I viewed certain political visions, presidential choices, and continued social inequities as challenges to arts education in the U.S. Furthermore, I found that President Trump’s choice making as led by the inclusion—or, rather, the exclusion—of others with the phrase “America First!” posed potential risks to an arts pedagogy that seeks to help students celebrate difference while treating others with respect and empathy. The preceding arts framework is civically...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction: A Call to Action: Dance Education and Responsible Citizenship
• 1 Arts Education and Citizenship: A Pedagogical Framework
• 2 Teaching African Dances as Civic Engagement: Pedagogic Perspectives of Teachers of African Dances in North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Asia
• 3 COLLABORATION: An Activity of Responsible Citizenship
• 4 Laying New Ground: Uprooting White Privilege and Planting Seeds of Equity and Inclusivity
• 5 Reframing Dance Appreciation and Dance History to Teach Social Responsibility
• 6 Comm(unity): Promoting Civic Engagement in a Modern Dance Performance Course
• 7 Circle of Love: A Message from Hip Hop
• Index