Weaving Rastafari Principles in the Contemporary Dance Course: A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Date
2018-08-28
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University of Delaware Library, Museums & Press
Abstract
Dance pedagogy for teaching dance in postsecondary education has seen significant developments in recent decades. Various voices have articulated different but related contemporary approaches to teaching dance that has shifted dance teaching away from its traditional teacher-centered, authoritarian mode to pedagogies that are more studentcentered, democratic and even critical. One underdeveloped dimension in the Western dance pedagogy discourse, however, is the cultural perspective, meaning how dance teachers consider students’ cultural experiences in teaching Western dance. With increasing diversity in schools teachers, including dance educators, are being challenged to find diverse and culturally relevant approaches to teaching (Ladson-Billings, 2006) that will situate the content to be learned within students’ cultural knowledge and understanding. This is so that learning can be more meaningful, students are engaged and empowered in their education, and can achieve. This chapter discusses the author’s experimentation over four years, with shaping a culturally relevant dance pedagogy for teaching contemporary dance, based on the principles of Rastafari, to predominantly Black learners in postsecondary dance in Jamaica and South Africa.
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Citation
Wilson, L. (2018). Weaving Rastafari Principles in the Contemporary Dance Course: A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Dance: Current Selected Research, 9.