Only at the beginning
of my teaching career, different questions appear. What methods work best? Why
do I have a feeling that some methods don’t work with my students? Why are my
students not communicative? Why are they not giving me any feedback? I suddenly
realised that the transition from student to teacher, in terms of getting feedback,
is quite brutal. As a student, we are constantly getting feedback on how we are
doing. Now, there is no one to tell me if I’m doing an okay job. At the
beginning of the week, Adesola asked me on what exactly I want to be fed back
on. Is it about the students’ progression? In a way, it is. But mostly it is about
trying to figure out if my students are understanding and retaining what I am
trying to teach. Adesola explains that this is not necessarily something that
the students can tell me. She notes that teaching and learning don’t have much
of a relationship and that the feedback she prefers to look for is on the
learning environment she is trying to create. This is why I was advised to take
a step back and see what it is that I want to create in my class?
I would love to hear
from you what it is that you are trying to encourage in your class and what you
want your feedback to be about!
Beginning to ask
questions about the purposes of my methods (‘why’ rather than ‘how’) and
searching for literature, I allowed myself to distance myself even more from my
original questions.
I feel the need to
distinguish between my students’ or the community’s expectations to dance and
my own expectations. What is it that my students expect from a dance class? Why
are they dancing? What do I expect from my class? Why do I teach dance? And
finally, where is the interlink?
Once I can see this
correlation, can I then determine in what way I can best respond, remaining
faithful to my beliefs and approaches? Is this going to help me define what I
want to create in my class and consequently about what I want to be fed back
on?
Aren’t those
questions turning around one major topic, namely my identity as a dance teacher
and the professionalism in dance education? According to Anderson (American art
educator and learning handicapped specialist the), “in order for the issue of
the professional identity of the arts educator to be resolved, one must examine
one’s own motives and commitments and view oneself primarily as a pedagogue who
is concerned with the art of teaching a given subject.”[1]
(Professional identity can be
defined as “one’s professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs,
values, motives, and experiences (…) (Ibarra, 1999; Schein, 1978).”[2])
It would be
interesting to analyse what kind of learning situation I want to create or can
create in one specific context, respecting my own beliefs and values as well as
the community’s motives and prior experiences. Therefore, I would have to examine
the motives of my students’ commitment and my own to dance beforehand.
The authors of the
article “Dance Education: Dual or Dueling Identities”[3]
quote Alice from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”: “Would you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from here?” The response she was given concludes nicely
my thoughts and guides me on how I could proceed in this module. The response
is as follows: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get”. In other
words, if I know where I want to get, and where the people I am working with
want to get, through dance, I can choose a route. This route could be the
development of my own identity as a teacher and the learning environment I want
to offer. The feedback will automatically be accordingly, won’t it?
Or did I just find
out what I want the feedback to be about, namely about an environment that
respects each one’s motives and commitments to dance but through my very own
approach, corresponding to the identity I develop for myself as a teacher?
[1] Koff, Susan R, Mistry, Gianna Limone, (2012) “Professionalism in dance
education”, Research in Dance Education,
13:1, pp. 83-97, p. 86.
[2]
Slay, Holly S,
Smith, Delmonize A, (2011) “Professional identity construction: Using
narrative to understand the negotiation of professional and stigmatized
cultural identities“, Human Relations, 64:1, pp. 86-107, p. 86 .
[3]
Cone,
Theresa Purcell,
Cone, Stephen L, (2007) “Dance Education: Dual or
Dueling Identities”, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance,
78:1, pp. 6-?, p.6.
