Dance has been a part of the physical education (PE) curriculum in several countries for a long time. In spite of this, studies demonstrate that the position of dance in the subject of PE is contested and that little time is devoted to dance. The overall aim of this article is to examine the position of dance as a pedagogical discourse in Swedish steering documents over time. The empirical material consists of five Swedish curricula for PE over a period of 50 years . Discourse analysis is used to identify organised systems of meaning, including privileged and prioritised values. Our theoretical frame of reference draws on Bernstein's concept of codes. Three different knowledge areas within dance are found in the text material: 'dance as cultural preserver', 'dance as bodily exercise' and 'dance as expression'. Three pedagogical discourses emerge from these knowledge areas: an identity formation discourse, a public health discourse and an aesthetic discourse. The identity formation discourse in earlier curricula focuses on the perpetuation of Swedish and Nordic cultural traditions, while in later curricula, it emphasises the construction of a broader multicultural identity formation related to the understanding of different cultures. The public health discourse constitutes a prioritised understanding of dance as physical training related to a healthy lifestyle. The aesthetic discourse, which has the weakest position over time, represents the valuing of embodied experiences and feelings expressed through movements. This discourse is closely linked to the construction of gender. Over time, a new performance code came to surpass the former competence code in the steering documents. The performance code positions dance in PE as mainly a physical activity with little artistic or aesthetic value. The pedagogical discourse of dance remains within a highly disciplinary framework of social control.

Background: Research has indicated that an aesthetic perspective on movement is lacking in physical education and that exploratory teaching assignments are rare. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore how PE teachers approach the issue of teaching expressive dance and which learning processes students are involved in while dancing. Participants, research design and data collection: Sixty-eight students from three different secondary school classes and four PE teachers at one municipal school in Sweden participated in a pedagogical intervention. A dance education unit built around Rudolf Laban's framework of movement was video recorded. Careful attention was paid to ethical considerations. Data analysis: Using Dewey's transactional perspective as a holistic starting point contributed to dissolve the dualism between individuals and the environment (Dewey and Bentley 1949/1991). The analysis was informed by practical epistemology analysis [Wickman, P.-O., and L. Östman. 2002. "Learning as a Discourse Change: a Sociocultural Mechanism." Science Education 86 (5): 601-623], where the terms gaps, relations and encounters were applied to distinguish various types of transactions. The concept of risk [Biesta, G. 2013. The Beautiful Risk of Education. Boulder:Paradigm Publishers] was utilised to explore how teachers' pedagogical methods interacted with the environment in the pedagogical intervention. Findings: Most transactions occurring during the dance unit were interpreted as narrow transactions, meaning that the students' actions followed responses to the teachers' initiation of a dance assignment. Expanded transactions occurred when the students were given the opportunity and responsibility to find their own solutions to dance assignments. This is interpreted as leading to an expanded purpose, which involves new ways of moving. Interrupted transactions, i.e. when actions were stopped and no encounters occurred, were observed in the form of students hesitating or avoiding participation. Teaching methods involving a certain degree of risk enable creative and non-predetermined movements. The use of unfamiliar music avoided a reproduction of stereotypical dance styles. Dimmed lighting in the sports hall and the opportunity to work in separate rooms helped the students negotiating environmental risks by attending to the organisation and aesthetics of the space. Conclusions: Expressive dance assignments can take teaching in PE in new and expanded directions. The teachers programmed gradually more risks ARTICLE HISTORY

This study problematizes becoming early childhood teachers’ possibilities to develop knowledge relevant to teaching dance. The aim was to analyze the presence and position of dance in Swedish early childhood teacher education syllabi. Discourse analysis was used to identify patterns, regularities, hierarchies and gaps in the steering documents. The empirical material consisted of syllabi of twelve Swedish early childhood teacher programs. The results show that according to syllabi, dance as a subject has a rather weak or non-existent position in Swedish early childhood teacher education. Instead, dance often functions as a tool for learning other subjects, e.g. language and mathematics. The concept “aesthetic” was more frequently mentioned in the syllabi, but it did not explicitly explain what dance knowledge was included in the syllabi content, learning outcomes and examination forms. The frequency of dance differed between the syllabi, which might lead to unequal early childhood teacher education. Further, the potentially weak function and position of dance in early childhood teacher education might limit children’s social democratic life, bodily knowledge and experience of mind-body connection in a holistic sense.

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