Exploring My Inquiry: On Learning About Dance and Early Childhood

    These first few months of the new year at Middlesex University London Masters in Dance Pedagogy and Technique (MAPP) has been particularly challenging.  This because during this module I have begun to shape my research inquiry.  As I have begun to read, write and analyse the ethical implications of my future research, I have embarked upon a great learning journey.

     I am both a dance educator and an early childhood educator.  A few years ago, I was granted a scholarship to study as an undergraduate at the university and since dance as a mayor was not offered, I chose to study education hoping I would mature into a capable dance educator.  I studied hard for many years and graduated humbled by the great amount of knowledge I had been exposed to.  This last year I began my master’s in dance and as I started to read and learn about dance pedagogy, I felt a need to revisit my education studies through the lens of dance education.

     On framing learning, In A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice Moon suggests that “reflective and experiential learning become more sophisticated processes variously following maturation, personal development and education.” (2004).  I always thought of these words in terms of my students, however in this instance the framing of learning has become more complex for me with experience and deeper learning.  The fascinating part has been that the new learning has occurred within the context of restudying and revisiting theory that I believed I already knew.  The knowing and learning has become more complex as I have re-studied and created greater connections between the different disciplines of practise and study.  Quoting Moon was again, perhaps I have improved my learning process, “Learning to learn can be characterised as the improving ability of the learner to manage the framing of her learning in order to fulfil more sophisticated purposes or to cope effectively with more complex material of learning.” (Moon, 2004).

     This analysis is about my learning.  It is about the evolution of my knowing about education and early childhood- it is about reading and re-learning theory and applying it to my current professional practise.  The integration of the knowledge of two disciplines, dance and education has required a complex analytical process that I did not anticipate.  It has been about understanding educational theory from the inquiry of dance.  It is the understanding of learning theory from a new perspective.  In this analysis new questions emerge; ethical considerations arise, and a brand-new reflection ensues.

   The original intention of my inquiry was to analyse dance teacher professionalisation in Costa Rica and to improve the delivery of national dance pedagogy with the aim of raising the training of dancers, starting with the earliest dance levels. 

   Upon researching and analysing literature it became apparent to me the extraordinary benefits that dance, and creative movement confers to students in early years of childhood.  An overwhelming number of authors concurred: notably among them Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Anne Green Gilbert, Anne O´Connor and Anna Daly write about the importance of movement and the impact on other areas of development of the child.  

     Dance benefits all domains of early childhood development: physical, cognitive, linguistic and psycho-social.  Anne O´Connor and Anna Daly advocate through their project Primed for Life, through which early years teachers are trained, “for a wider understanding of the body as a child´s first place of learning.”  (2018).  Through this research I have discovered an urgency of exposing the child to creative movement, a right of the child to discover the dancer within herself.  Movement in childhood development is not a ludic activity just to keep children entertained and tire them out.  All literature confirms that students learn through receiving information through their five senses.  Through locomotion the child breaks away from babyhood and becomes an explorer of the world.  The child´s central nervous system activates, and the dancing child becomes a stimulated, receptive child.  Neural plasticity at its peak in early childhood, a child is alive and ready to grow, mature, develop and learn.

    Dance education is central in early childhood, in optimising the child´s developmental potential.  The freedom of movement, to dance and discover is a child´s developmental right.  Dance for early years does not constitute just an isolated effort to increase the quality of a dance programme.  The outreach of dance and creative movement in the child goes beyond the dancing itself and into all areas of life and development.

     What does this mean in terms of my inquiry and dance in early childhood education in Costa Rica?  This is were my work is directing itself to.  Dance is not accessible to all Costa Ricans, the high cost of dance academies and the lack of government funded programmes make dance an activity of pursuit of the upper socio-economic classes.  Through further research I wish to analyse the potential of incorporating dance education in community centres and government-funded preschools.  This remains for further inquiry and an exciting possibility of application of dance research into the community.  Therefore, creating accessibility to the joy of dance to all children and to the great developmental benefits that dance, and creative movement can promote in early childhood.

Bibliography

Blom, L. and Chaplin, L (1942) The Intimate Act of Choreography. Pittsburgh, University Pittsburgh Press.

Gardner H. (1983) Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Moon, J.A. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

McFee, G. (1992) Understanding Dance.  London: Routledge

Suggested authors to read on Early Childhood Development and Movement/Dance: Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Anne Green Gilbert, Anne O´Connor and Anna Daly (multiple publications by each author)