Critical Feminist Pedagogy in Dance Education
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Critical Feminist Pedagogy in Dance Education
This article describes the current move away from mystified knowledge to deconstructed knowledge in the inherent relationship of a student and teacher. Teachers in class need to recognize the diversity of the students and relate to their experiences. This chapter is aimed at examining how the teacher and students relate in dances as well as explaining the different approaches in dance education. Using different examples, personal histories, and case studies, the article sheds light on the foundation for reconstruction of the dance education.
The main aspects that this article seeks to discuss are how students think and value their bodies in dance. Shapiro (1998) argues that most of the bodies are used only as instruments and most people are actually not aware of their bodies. Similarly, she shows that teachers should understand the right cultural values that should be imparted into the students as well as preparing the teachers to be able to accept and freely work with students from different backgrounds other than their own. In conclusion, the author argues whether teachers should continue perpetuating old methods or it is time they discovered other teaching methods in dance education. She places particular emphasis on sharing of connected form of knowledge, which is a feministic way of thinking, as well as active listening to the self-voice and that of others while aiming to perceive the world through different lenses (Shapiro, 1998).
I will support the issues contained in the aricle as supported by other scholars that feminist pedagogy in dance education can be regarded as an important discovery which aims to assist educators in analyzing gender construction. Female pedagogy boosts communication and confidence of the female students which have a great impact on the social relationships.
In the early years, boys and girls were treated differently since girls were engaged in domestic chores as opposed to the boys who were engaged in more interesting activities outside the home duties. This inequality became one of the major motivating factors of the reforms in approaches to education. In the 1970’s, critics had begun questioning the tendency of taking for granted social, economic, and class structures. Different approaches to the educational reform gave way to feminist and postmodern pedagogy. The supporters of feminist pedagogy sought to value each individual’s voice, create collaborative groups of students in class, empower the students, and share knowledge (Garber et al, 2007).
The public education has experienced critical changes with educators being encouraged to recognize the different perspectives that learners bring to class. Pedagogical approaches that support student diversity and encourage inclusion of different perspectives have been popular. Feminist pedagogy is among the initiatives employed to reach all the students. In dance education sessions, feminist pedagogy is employed through self-exploration by the teacher and the students as well as inherently putting more emphasis towards social justice (Desmond, 1999). The curriculum of embodiment, which has been ignored, can be used in today’s teaching to celebrate different aspects of the female gender. According to Stinson (1998), this would enable young girls to celebrate their sexuality as well as reconnecting to their responsibilities of human relationships.
Shue and Beck (2001) show that feminist pedagogy allows educators to center on power relations, especially on communication, to form individual identities as well as social relationships. Teachers using this approach tend to discourage the students’ need to dance in front of the mirror and encourage them to have self-reflection. Dance teachers who are able to effectively practise feminist pedagogy vehemently install self-reflection to the students, which in turn addresses issues of social justice. This not only benefits the girls, but also the boys in the wider social context.
References
Desmond, J. (1999). Engendering dance: feminist inquiry and dance research. In Fraleigh, S. and Hanstein, P. (Eds). Researching dance: evolving modes of inquiry. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Garber, E., et al (2007). Gender equity in visual arts and dance education. In Klein, Susan S. Ed.), Handbook for achieving gender equity through education. (pp 359-380). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Shapiro, S. B. (1998). Toward transformative teachers.In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power, and difference: Critical and feminist perspectives on dance education. (pp. 7-21). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Shue, L & Beck, C. S. (2001). Stepping out of bounds: performing feminist pedagogy within a dance education community. Communication Education. 50(2): p. 125-143.
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. 23-45). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. [Group B: Position Paper]