Issues surrounding the human body are increasingly becoming matters of public, cultural, and educational policy. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has resulted in additional high stakes testing in reading and math, causing many school systems to replace time and funding previously dedicated to physical and health education and with activities focused on increasing academic performance on these standardized exams. While Western culture continues to value thin, beautiful, fit, and young bodies, the education school children receive about daily care of themselves is on the decline. As a kinesthetic, artistic, and holistic practice, dance teaches individuals of all ages about their bodies, engages them in self-reflection and self-growth, and serves as a place for learning. The goal of this study is to investigate the ways in which American elementary students can have more opportunities to learn about and through their bodies during the school day.
In this dissertation, I employ a case study methodology to examine the effectiveness of a professional development initiative for general classroom teachers, “The DANCE Project,” on increasing the time, space, and energy for dance in educational settings. I utilize a variety of qualitative methods including autoethnography, participant observation, qualitative interviews, document analysis, narrative analysis, and poetic transcription to present my data. Findings indicate that factors such as administrative support, previous experience with dance, confidence with the material, and relevance to individual needs contribute to teachers’ willingness and ability to implement dance in their classrooms. Further, the analysis of pre- and post- measures indicate that workshops centered on The DANCE Project’s six-lesson curriculum positively impacted participants in several areas: Teaching skills, classroom management, knowledge/understanding of dance and the ways movement can intersect with other content areas, and implications for increased student engagement and learning.
Based on these findings, I recommend that professional development facilitators provide workshop participants with information about the inherent value of dance, as well as opportunities to experience it; follow up with workshop participants after their attendance to increase the potential for impact of services delivered; and offer beginning, intermediate, and advanced level trainings to engage educators more deeply and consistently. I further recommend that educators, arts administrators, and school authorities strengthen collaborative efforts within the arts and education communities in order to best fill teachers’ professional development needs and students’ learning needs, and that dance educators make dance available to all students, through methods including instruction by classroom teachers and dance specialists, teaching artist residencies, and dance-integrated units.