Getting ‘more and more comfortable’: using an Activist Approach in a dance PE content course

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Despite the value dance can bring to people’s lives, many physical educators find dance intimidating (Goodwin [2010]. “Dance is Not a Dirty Word.” Strategies 24 (1): 10–12.). Teachers’ self-consciousness becomes problematic if they negotiate this discomfort by omitting dance as a movement option (MacLean [2018]. “Teachers as Agents of Change in Curricular Reform: The Position of Dance Revisited.” Sport, Education and Society 23 (6): 563–577.). Given the relationship many physical educators have with dance, teacher educators need to be proactive in how they teach dance content. While many preservice teachers enter programs of study with sport proficiencies, they do not necessarily come with that same level of ability in dance (Rovegno and Bandhauer [2017]. Elementary Physical Education: Curriculum and Instruction. 2nd ed. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.). While teaching dance can glean from studies of pedagogical strategies employed in sports-related content, we cannot rely on such generalizations because of preservice teachers’ embodied discomfort associated with dance (Rovegno [1992]. “Learning a New Curricular Approach: Mechanisms of Knowledge Acquisition in Preservice Teachers.” Teaching and Teacher Education 8 (3): 253–264.). Purpose: This study was designed to listen to preservice teachers and respond with them to help understand and negotiate their barriers to dance. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the use of an Activist Approach (Oliver and Kirk [2015]. Girls, Gender, and Physical Education: An Activist Approach. New York: Routledge.) to teaching a dance content course for physical education preservice teachers. Methods This participatory action research project worked with participants to take ‘action on their own behalf as part of their own communities’ (Merriam and Tisdell [2016]. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, 58. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.). This study occurred in a required dance content course at a United States southwestern university, meeting twice weekly for 50-minutes for 16 weeks from August-December 2019. The Activist Approach to teaching through the lens of Student-Centred Inquiry as Curriculum was used for data collection. Data sources included participant artifacts, focus groups, individual interviews, video recording, researcher journal, and peer debriefing. Data analysis was three-fold. Level one was ongoing for implementation in the course. Level two occurred after the completion of the course. The researchers then discussed together what they noted, which prompted level three to look for connections and motifs that recurred to crystallize the data. Findings We discuss two themes: (1) understanding and negotiating student tensions associated with discomfort in dance and (2) students’ willingness to take risks in dance despite discomfort. Conclusions We discuss our findings in relation to risks preservice teachers were willing to take despite their embodied discomfort. Using the Activist Approach as a framework helped structure a class that allowed preservice teachers to take risks to try new things and experiment beyond their comfort zones. By explicitly helping them identify and negotiate the discomfort to move through it, we offered the preservice teachers a process that will help them move forward so that they can teach kids whether sports, fitness, or dance.