«Historia är något som konstrueras, det här är ett val» – om kritisk granskning i danshistorieundervisning

Abstract

This article examines and discusses how teachers at upper secondary school relate to teaching dance history within the course Dance Theory, focusing on the aim that students critically examine various dance history writings. The study uses interviews and open-ended questionnaires, and the material has been analysed qualitatively and discussed in relation to historiographical and norm-critical perspectives. The study shows that a historiographic perspective is important to teachers when they describe their teaching but less important when describing what they think students should gain from their studies. Instead, a general knowledge of dance history and an ability to connect one’s dancing to a historical context are central. The norm-critical perspective is manifested mainly in the teachers’ positioning of themselves, but as I understand it, the critical examination primarily lies within the norm rather than providing a means of looking outside the Western box. The next challenge is therefore to not only review the conditions in which history is created but also question and change the structures that create knowledge.