Abstract In this chapter, the authors seek to create a framework for un-gendering ballet pedagogy. They identify the ways that language, first, impacts the relationships between students and teachers, and suggest the use of terms including “female- or male-assumed” and “feminine- or masculine-read” to acknowledge that the observer or teacher’s perspective is often informed by sociocultural cues that do not necessarily reflect the full spectrum of human experiences, and that the construct of gender is not a fixed point. Drawing on examples of specific actions taken by professional companies and university programs to diversify casting practices, the authors propose a holistic look at the ways students prepare and are prepared to enter the field. They suggest that the pedagogical practice of engaging in “meanwhiles” provides a way to engage in relationships that are attuned to the student and responsive to both specific and fluid, evolving scenarios. The authors submit that the process of continuously co-creating learning environments that honor a wide range of perspectives is a benefit to the integrity, growth, and longevity of both the dancer and the field.

The primary aims of this qualitative interpretive inquiry were to gain better understanding of dance teaching artists’ preparation and preparedness, workplace challenges, and the role and impact of policy and regulations in P-12 schools. A secondary aim focused upon identifying school environments that support effective and purposeful dance teaching artistry. The collective knowledge and experiences of six expert informants provide important insights and critical questions about dance teaching artist status and marginalization, bureaucratic challenges, and obstacles in developing relevant postsecondary programs that value teaching, pedagogy and community engagement alongside artistic practice, technique, and performance. Findings suggest an adept teaching artist adapts to shifting environmental conditions of the school and its administration. A flexible teaching artist carefully devises and revises lesson plans, objectives, and goals in relation to each particular group of students. A receptive teaching artist skillfully hones their pedagogy and teaching methods in alignment with curriculum and curricular goals. A sensitive teaching artist translates and fulfills the needs of the school and the student communities they serve with a strong desire to collaborate with classroom teachers and dance specialist teachers.

Abstract Today’s dance educators enter classrooms populated by increasingly diverse students in which teachers’ pedagogical knowledge necessitates heightened understandings of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexuality. Uncovering taken-for-granted assumptions, dominant stereotypes, and educational structures that reproduce social inequalities in schools requires teacher preparation in social foundations of education. This qualitative study examined an undergraduate dance pedagogy course weaving social foundations content taught through a critical feminist pedagogical perspective over a three-year period. Narrative data were drawn from student (n = 59) writing assignments and discussion posts. Inclusion approaches for social foundations are presented. The range and diversity of student narratives amplify the challenge of, and the need for, the inclusion of social foundations in dance teacher preparation.

This collaborative duoethnography explores autobiographical accounts of two male-identifying dance educators living with/through cancer. The authors generate and analyze two dominant themes—of cancer-specific recovery and life-centered discovery—in relation to their embodied and discursive constructions of masculinity and their shifting identities as male dance educators confronting and resisting societal gender norms. These shifts include the recovery of health and the recovery of perspective in which the authors also elucidate the discovery of previously unacknowledged and unknown aspects of self, the discovery of new avenues of professional fulfillment, and the adaptation of working practices. The article reveals that male dance educators engage in a range of complex negotiations with their masculinity, which is variously shown to be, at times, diminished, fragile, reproductive, recuperative, and subverted, as well as contextually contingent. Calls are made for greater support for dance educators living with/through cancer from formal institutional assistance provided by conservatories, universities, dance studios, and organizations, as well as informal networks of well-being support from the dance education profession itself.

ABSTRACTWhat happens when undergraduate dance pedagogy students observe dance educators’ teaching practices in diverse dance education sectors? Traditional field observation focuses primarily on the teacher, teaching methods, and classroom management. Comparatively, critical field observations examine teacher and learner action equally through rich description of relationships between teacher and student, student and student, and the whole group, including communication patterns and equity, engagement, and pedagogical values and priorities. The authors, a recent undergraduate student and a dance professor, discuss their respective experiences and insights on immersive, experiential learning gained from conducting critical field observations. Discussion also covers informed understanding of pedagogical theory and practice through a social foundations lens. Insights from the critical field observation project are shared from student peers in the dance pedagogy course (n = 18), complementing and expanding the authors’ perspectives in conversation with the diverse range of learning outcomes and deepened classroom-based knowledge.KEYWORDS: Dance pedagogyexperiential learningsocial foundationsteaching methodsfield observations Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Supplementary MaterialSupplemental materials for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2023.2214558.Supplementary MaterialAppendix 1 of this article can be accessed under “Supplemental Material” on the publisher’s website.Notes1. Barr and Risner importantly note, “Today’s dance educators enter classrooms populated by increasingly diverse students in which teachers’ pedagogical knowledge necessitates heightened understandings of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexuality. Uncovering taken-for-granted assumptions, dominant stereotypes, and educational structures that reproduce social inequalities in schools requires teacher preparation in social foundations of education” (Citation2014, 136).2. Various pedagogical frameworks in Module Three of the course include banking method of education (Freire Citation1970), engaged pedagogy and connected teaching (hooks Citation2006), critical feminist dance pedagogies (Shapiro Citation1998; Stinson Citation1998, Citation2005), culturally relevant dance pedagogy (McCarthy-Brown Citation2009), and humanizing dance pedagogy and immersive learning in practice (Risner Citation2021).

Using an autoethnographic approach, this article focuses on the experiences of two male dance educators/researchers living with/through terminal cancer. Autoethnographers analyze their 'unique life experiences in the context of the social and cultural institutions that have shaped the world the researcher inhabits.' Drawn from a larger research project, Dance Educators Living With/Through Cancer (DELC), this collaborative duoethnography comprises the co-authors' self-narrative accounts of life with cancer, which were analyzed thematically. The themes presented center on the public and private aspects of living with/through cancer and reflect the authors' cancer experiences along with their social, emotional and physical dis-ease arising from living cancer lives. Explication of resultant impacts on both personal and professional identities seeks to support others with terminal disease in order to lead reflective and meaningful lives while dying.

This afterword gathers central themes from preceding articles in the issue, including the wide range of P-12 teaching artists’ preparation, parity in the field (gender, genre, race, funding, etc.), professional challenges, and potential to reform supporting policies, and brings them into dialogue with one another. It highlights both the tension and the partnership that exist at the intersection of “teacher” and “artist” identities, and suggests that the sites of pedagogical and policy overlap, divergence, and intertwining also invite deeper inquiry, in the best interest of the student and the community within which the student is located. There are questions about and implications for P-12 teaching artist preparation and work, funding structures, school and community investment, and administrative policy.

Welcome to the ninth special issue of Research in Dance Education. This special issue presents original research on Intersectionality and Identities in Dance. I am grateful to associate editor Doug...

Research in Dance Education – Innovations in Arts Practice aims to inform, stimulate and promote the development of research in dance education and is relevant to academics, dancers, teachers and c...

This professional development article focuses on the promotion and tenure dossier and the ways in which candidates can make their own best case. The authors look closely at three primary documents the candidate not only prepares but also possesses considerable control over in content, tone, and message. The Teaching Portfolio provides a forum for illustrating highly effective teaching and the candidate's pedagogical values and commitments. The annotated Professional Record (or Institutional CV) documents the candidate's achievements in scholarship, creative activity, service, honors and awards, and teaching record. The Personal Statement (or Research Statement) affords the candidate an opportunity to translate achievements into narrative form—illuminating the candidate's expertise and academic journey while highlighting research, creative activity, and teaching accomplishments as appropriate. Recently tenured faculty and senior faculty mentors provide important insights and recommendations, while the authors offer tips and practical tasks for preparing tenure and promotion materials.