Negotiating the rules of engagement: exploring perceptions of dance technique learning through Bourdieu’s concept of ‘doxa’

Abstract

This article presents the findings from a focus group discussion conducted with first year undergraduate dance students in March 2015. The focus group concluded a cycle of action research during which the researcher explored the use of enquiry-based learning approaches to teaching dance technique in higher education. Grounded in transformative and constructivist learning perspectives, such approaches attempted to develop students’ reflective thinking skills, with a view to enabling them to become active agents of their learning in dance technique. The focus group aimed to explore students’ responses to the teaching approaches used. The author examines the data by drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘doxa’ to discuss how perceptions and expectations of dance technique may be constructed, both on the part of the students and the teacher. The notion of doxa is used as a lens to reflect on some of the challenges around attempting to deconstruct such expectations.