This study constitutes a theoretical and qualitative investigation into the meanings and locations of social cohesion in dance education. Theoretical connections between culture, dance education and social cohesion are explored. The empirical investigation is designed as a qualitative case study interrogating pre-service student teachers’ experiences and perceptions of a particular dance education course in a culturally and politically diverse university classroom in post-apartheid South Africa. Open-ended questionnaires, reflective journals and focus group interviews were employed to generate data. Findings indicate that involvement in creative movement and ethno-cultural dances raised awareness of the Self and the Other, engendering perspective and personal transformation, important requisites for social transformation and subsequently social cohesion in a formerly divided society, such as South Africa. In addition, these dance education experiences provided participants with unique encounters with the Other’s culture. These occurred through embodied experiences of the culture of the Other, as well as through bodily negotiations with the Other. These findings lead me to argue that dance education, as pertaining to this particular course, can facilitate spaces conducive to cohesion amongst culturally and politically diverse participants in post-apartheid South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:20605 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Marx, Margaretha Elizabeth |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | xi, 308 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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