Shall we dance? : a comparison of student teachers' background and confidence in dance education in relation to gender and age across five countries

Deirdre Russell-Bowie

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paper

    Abstract

    ![CDATA[Until recently, dance education in many primary schools has been mainly taught within the physical education curriculum. With the advent of dance being documented as an important subject with the arts key learning area, with its own creative outcomes and content, it is consolidating its own identity as a serious art form. However, although both research and anecdotal evidence has indicated that fewer boys are involved in the arts, and especially dance, than girls (Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts References Committee, 1995) there seems to be little research examining whether age or cultural background has any relationship to student teachers' background in dance or confidence in teaching dance in the primary school. This study involves 939 preservice non-specialist primary school teachers from Australia, Namibia, South Africa, USA (Illinois) and Ireland. The paper initially identifies the students' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to dance and dance education. Then it examines if there is a difference between the students' perceptions of their own background and confidence in dance education in relation to their age, sex and country. Results indicate that there are significant differences in the means of responses from male and female students, from older and younger students and from students from the different countries in relation to both background and confidence in dance education.]]
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAustralian Association for Research in Education 2005 conference papers
    PublisherAustralian Association for Research in Education
    Number of pages1
    Publication statusPublished - 2005
    EventAustralian Association for Research in Education. Conference -
    Duration: 2 Dec 2012 → …

    Publication series

    Name
    ISSN (Print)1324-9339

    Conference

    ConferenceAustralian Association for Research in Education. Conference
    Period2/12/12 → …

    Keywords

    • dance
    • study and teaching
    • primary school teachers
    • educational psychology
    • attitudes
    • cross-cultural studies

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