"I am because we are" dancing for social change

Bibliographic Data

ID6142899
AuthorsMarelize Marx (Nelson Mandela University), Aletta Delport (Nelson Mandela University)
Year2017
Volume6
Issue1
Pages56-71
Publication date2017-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Research for Social Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2221-4070 • E-ISSN: 2221-4070
PublisherAcademy of Science of South Africa (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.17159/2221-4070/2017/v6i1a5
OpenAlexW2617383428
SciELOS2221-40702017000100006
LanguageEN
Citations received3

In postapartheid South Africa, ideas of self, identity, and one's place in society pose a labyrinth of internal conflict and negotiation. In this article, we discuss the potential of a particular 7-week dance education course, offered to generalist preservice student teachers, as a possible location for self-transformation and, ultimately, social change. Our qualitative case study was rooted in symbolic interactionism, with social interactions becoming catalysts for transforming meanings of self in relation to the other. Participants, mostly nondancers, included 80 culturally diverse preservice student teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a first year bachelor's degree in education (BEd). Students shared personal reflections on their dance education experiences via open-ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, and reflective journals. Our data indicate that the students' dance education experiences generated transformative awareness of the self. This consciousness was primarily evoked by close interactions with diverse others through active, bodily involvement in dance education activities, which prompted more profound engagement with the self, stimulating discovery, liberation, affirmation and, ultimately, transformation of the self

Political science · Social change · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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