Researching dance education post-2016: the global implications of Brexit and Trump on dance education

Abstract

The results of the 2016 British referendum on membership of the European Union and the presidential election in the United States of America initiated political changes that will arguably have resounding impacts, within and beyond the UK and the US for years to come. Much of the rhetoric accompanying these political victories appears to confront humanist ideals associated with inclusion, rationalism and transnational exchange. This article argues that these seismic political events in Europe and America will have an international impact on policies, practices and pedagogies associated with dance education, inevitably challenging those who seek to broaden meanings of socially, culturally, economically and politically inclusive arts education. We have gathered the queries of leading dance education researchers from around the world, to better understand how these political shifts are perceived, who feels they may be affected, how they feel it may affect them, and how research into dance education may respond to, and address, these effects. In doing so, we hope to provide a global snapshot of concerns felt by dance education academics in the aftermath of the 2016 British referendum and US Presidential election, and a research framework for investigating the implications of these events on dance education.

Developing Future Physical Education Teachers' Intercultural Competence: The Potential of Intertwinement of Transformative, Embodied, and Critical Approaches

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Dance in Zoom: Using video conferencing tools to develop students' 4C skills and self-efficacy during COVID-19

“…Our findings support the previous notion that employing technology significantly increases students’ 21 st century core competencies, such as creativity, collaboration, and complex problem-solving ( Lai & Hwang, 2014 ). Dance education incorporates learning in, through, and about dance ( Rowe et al, 2018 ). Research into dance education can therefore consider critical questions about the ways we learn to dance, what we learn about dance as a subject, and how dancing helps us learn about ourselves ( Risner, 2010 ).…”

Community dance as a democratic dialogue

“…Scholars such as Stacey Prickett (2016) discuss the capacity for dance to call out social injustice and to provoke further conversation about the impact political systems have on issues of social equity. Conversely, Rowe et al. (2018) show us the mutual relationships between dance and social climate, as they explore the effects of fluctuating US and UK politics on dance education.…”

“…We cannot assume that dance and democracy go hand in hand (Rowe et al., 2018), and the question can be asked: can dance really offer democratizing effects to individuals, societies, and communities? While a definitive answer to this query is not something we aim to achieve, what we do look to reconcile are the ideologies of community dance, dance education policy, and the ever-increasing challenges threatening democracy within a globalized 21st-century world.…”