Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Creative dance is the part of the teaching area of dance in physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) where creativity and spontaneity are foregrounded. This chapter will explore a constituent part of the day-to-day teaching practice of creative dance in PETE: the understanding of the body as a space of experimentation. Further outlined later in this text, the concept body as a space of experimentation implicates a body whose capacity to act in the world is never predetermined and is always open to that which has not yet been done. This is a body defined by its capacity to affect and to be affected. I will further explore important conditions in teaching and tensions in opening spaces for students to engage with that which is undeter-mined and unknown in creative dance teaching in PETE. I will also distinguish and discuss specific movement assignments that provide space for the nurturing of bodies as spaces of experimentation in PETE.

Creative dance, that is to say, movements, with or without music, which allow participants to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings, are sometimes accompanied by a ‘there is no right or wrong way to move’ rhetoric. This may reinforce the impression among physical education teacher education (PETE) students, who often have limited experience of (creative) dance, that there is nothing to practise in creative dance and that this activity is merely directionless movement. In this paper, however, based on Aggerholm's notion of practising movements, we explore an occasion in a PETE course where a magic moment occurred, indicating that the students had practised and ‘figured out’ something that made this moment possible. The purpose of the paper is to explore the knowledge in movement that PETE students were practising as they participated in creative dance. The purpose is also to shed light on what pedagogical practice contributed to enabling such practising. Video documentation and short interviews with students in one PETE course and one continuing professional development course for physical education teachers indicate that the magic moment was made possible as the students’ practised making sense of moving in non-predetermined – creative – ways and appreciating the expressive dimension of movement. Laban's movement analysis framework seemed, along with the teachers’ knowledge of movement, to be an important element in the pedagogical practice that made the magic moment possible.

Creative, expressive dance allows participants to explore movements to express ideas, thoughts and feelings and develop movement capabilities. Physical education teacher education (PETE) students often have limited experience of this dance form and may find that there is nothing to practice and learn and that creative dance is just directionless movements. In physical education (PE), if dance is included in the curriculum, it is mainly through social dancing, aerobic or other training forms to music. A very teacher-centered teaching with pre-determined movements and pre-defined meanings. Creative or expressive dance may give students the possibility to move beyond pre-given movements and explore their movements. This means that the PETE students need guidance in this dance form to understand its value and to feel confident to use creative dance in their future profession.

This practical workshop is based on a Swedish study conducted in the context of teaching Movement and Dance in PETE and a continuing professional development (CPD) course for physical education teachers focusing on practicing movements in creative dance. The purpose of the article was to explore the knowledge in movement that PETE students were practising as they participated in creative dance and also to shed light on what pedagogical practice contributed to enabling such practising. We see the purpose of this workshop as a proposal for how the learning objects in creative dance can be clarified and formulated. In the workshop, we will present some of the tasks and exercises described in the article and use bodily experience as a starting point for reflection and discussion.

The aim is to guide the participants through some dance exercises to explore movement capabilities, work with tools for composition and choreography. Also, to initiate reflections and discussions about our own experience and the main objective of what we offer students to learn when using creative dance in the PETE and PE.

Skolämnet idrott och hälsa har länge varit unikt, inte minst för att lärandet sker i och genom rörelse. Men med en ökande akademisering av lärarutbildningen och en snabb digitalisering av samhället står ämnet inför stora utmaningar. Hur kan vi säkerställa att rörelse inte försvinner när undervisningen flyttar online?

Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa spelar roll, vad som är viktigt inom lärarutbildning och för vad lärarutbildning spelar roll. Vi utforskar, illustrerar och diskuterar campusbaserad och skolbaserad lärarutbildning, övergångarna mellan dessa olika delar av lärarutbildningen samt övergångarna från lärarutbildningen till de första åren som lärare i idrott och hälsa i skolan.  I studien använder vi oss av resultat och återanalyser av genererade data från flera forskningsprojekt om lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa i Sverige, som utforskar antingen campusbaserad utbildning, skolundervisning och/eller övergången från utbildning till yrke. Studien omfattar nio doktorandprojekt och två longitudinella forskningsprojekt finansierade av Vetenskapsrådet. Som en del av vår återanalys genomfördes en tvådagars workshop där forskarna från projekten träffades för att samarbeta och utnyttja sina respektive genererade data. Resultaten efter workshopen analyserades vidare på djupet av de tre projektledarna (Engdahl, Quennerstedt och Larsson).  Preliminära resultat visar att lärarutbildning verkar ha en betydande inverkan på lärares framtida undervisningspraktik i olika avseenden. Fyra preliminära teman har hittills varit särskilt betydelsefulla i analysen, när lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa har betydelse: (a) att undervisa i kunskap om rörelse och rörelsekulturer, (b) tillgodose koherens, (c) ge möjligheter till studentsubjektivering och, (d) utgöra en drivkraft för pedagogisk förändring.  Denna presentation kommer att ge lärare och idrottsforskare insikter i den djupgående inverkan lärarutbildning kan betyda för den livslånga processen att bli lärare. 

The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge regarding how physical education teacher education (PETE) matters, what matters in PETE, and for what PETE matters. We explore, illustrate and discuss campus-based and school-based teacher education, the transitions between these different parts of teacher education as well as transitions from teacher education to the first years working as a PE teacher in school.

In the study, we draw on results and re-analysis of generated data from several research projects on PETE in Sweden, which explore either campus-based education, school placement and/or the transition from education to the profession. The study includes nine PhD projects and two longitudinal research projects funded by the Swedish Research Council. As part of our re-analysis, a two-day workshop was conducted where the researchers from the projects met to collaborate, drawing on their respective generated data. The results following the workshop were further analyzed in-depth by the three project leaders (Engdahl, Quennerstedt and Larsson). 

Preliminary results show that teacher education seems to have a substantial impact on teachers' future teaching practice in different respects. Four preliminary themes have been particularly significant so far in the analysis: (a) content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in cooperation, (b) the importance of content knowledge in movement, (c) campus teaching combined with school field experiences and field studies with a focus on the integration of theory and practice, and (d) explorative ways of working with a focus on becoming a reflective practitioner with emphasis on teachers’ professional identity.

This presentation will provide PETE educators and PE scholars with insights into the profound impact of transitions, or boundary passages (Lawson, 1983), of how PETE can matter for the life-long process of becoming a teacher.

Reference:

Lawson, H. A. (1983). Toward a model of teacher socialization in physical education: Entry into Schools, Teachers’ Role Orientations, and Longevity in Teaching (part 2), Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 3, 3–15.

Creative dance, part of the teaching area of dance in physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE), has been thoroughly studied over the last decades. Creative dance risks a reduced educational impact due to unclear notions of what students and pupils learn when participating in creative dance. This uncertainty can reinforce the impression that there is nothing to learn from creative dance and that this activity merely involves directionless movement. The aim of this study is to explore the key ideas and theoretical perspectives about creative dance in PE and PETE, with the ambition to clarify what characterizes this teaching area in an educational context. A narrative review was adopted to summarize, compare, explain and interpret relevant research studies. In total, 29 peer-reviewed empirical studies of creative dance in PE and PETE were reviewed. The narrative review offers insights into the research field of creative dance in PE and PETE, where ideas about various forms of experience of movement are prevalent. It shows different educational qualities of creative dance as well, as it depicts a learning environment in which embodied exploration, aesthetic experience and subjective expression are of central concern, with numerous elaborate pedagogical considerations.

Kreativ dans, en del av undervisningsområdet dans inom skolämnet idrott och hälsa och lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa, har börjat studeras de senaste decennierna. Kreativ dans riskerar att minska sitt pedagogiska inflytande på grund av oklara föreställningar om vad studenter och elever lär sig när de deltar i kreativ dans. Denna oklarhet kan förstärka intrycket att det inte finns något att lära sig och att denna aktivitet bara innebär riktningslös rörelse. Syftet med denna studie är att utforska viktiga idéer och teoretiska perspektiv om kreativ dans inom skolämnet och lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa, med ambitionen att öka tydligheten i vad som kännetecknar undervisningsområdet. En narrativ översikt användes för att sammanfatta, jämföra, förklara och tolka relevanta forskningsstudier. Totalt granskades 29 vetenskapligt granskade empiriska studier av kreativ dans inom skolämnet idrott och hälsa och lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa. Studien ger insikter i det aktuella forskningsfältet kreativ dans inom skolämnet och lärarutbildning i idrott och hälsa som visar idéer om olika former av rörelseupplevelse. Den visar olika pedagogiska kvaliteter i kreativ dans eftersom ämnet innefattar en lärandemiljö där förkroppsligat utforskande, estetisk upplevelse och subjektivt uttryck är av central betydelse tillsammans med många relevanta didaktiska överväganden.

Physical education (PE), and specifically the teaching area of dance, has been identified as an important pedagogical setting within which young people develop creativity. Creativity is thus an important aspect of schooling. Several studies have suggested however, that dance is seldom taught in PE in ways that acknowledge creative aspects of movement learning, and that students in physical education teacher education (PETE) receive insufficient training in the area of dance. Very little research has been conducted specifically on how teachers and PETE students understand the subject tradition of creative dance. The aim of this paper is to create insights into what PETE students express and experience in creative dance lessons where we specifically explore a pedagogy based on imitation. To address this aim, empirical material was generated through observations and logbooks during a pedagogical sequence of creative dance at a Swedish PETE institution. Deleuzian concepts of palpation and experimentation were used to guide our analysis. The results of this study show alternative ways of understanding what can happen when students participate in creative dance lessons. Our findings contribute to researchers' and teacher educators' understandings of students' experiences of working with spaces of creativity in PETE, and how these experiences can be used in teaching of creative dance.

This paper introduces the concept of ‘affirmative iterations’ as an approach that integrates the realms of educational practices and participatory research. Drawing inspiration from action research’s iterative nature, researcher-practitioners engage in a series of cyclical-sequential interventions (Casey & Coghlan, 2021) that are both educational and research-based. Additionally, we draw on affect theory’s affirmative stance in performing critique (Staunes 2016). Each educational iteration (i.e. lesson/workshop/seminar) is critically engaged with in an affirmative way, through acritical and careful sensibility (Gunnarsson 2018; 2022), building on what works andhow the situated practice can be developed (cf. Wessels 2022). In this way, affirmative iterations offer a productive framework for planning and executing educational practices through an organic evolution while simultaneously researching these practices.This paper explores how affirmative iterations can deepen our understanding of the participatory aspects in three distinct educational practices. The first case study delves into the planning and execution of a series of playful art education ‘walk-shops’. In the second case, ‘dendro educational seminars’ are organized, exploring how craft teachers can develop their approach to wood as a material. The third example highlights a collaborative teaching unit in creative dance in physical education teacher education (Engdahl et al. 2022).These examples demonstrate how each workshop, seminar, or lesson in the series naturally evolves from its predecessor. Researcher-educators collaborate closely with participants, fostering a shared sense of agency and collaboration. This approach aligns with the principles of co-creation and participatory research, enabling practitioners to adapt and innovate in response to the specific needs of the community or participants.

Ny forskning betonar vikten av att ge mer plats åt kreativ dans i undervisningen. Två avhandlingar som rör ämnet idrott och hälsa ger förslag på hur lärare och lärarutbildare kan uppmuntra ett utforskande av rörelse och skapa mer kontinuitet mellan studier på högskola och undervisningen i skolan.