Deconstructing pedagogies of African cultural heritage dances: Reflections, rationalities, and practices of dance teachers in central Uganda

Abstract

This thesis provides a critical examination of how dance teachers rationalize pedagogies of cultural heritage dances in varied nonacademic environments in central Uganda. The study examined the reflections and practices of eight cultural heritage dance teachers to reveal how application of these pedagogies is a method of thought and inquiry – knowing and thinking, framework of ‘transformance’ – becoming, system of cultural practice – being, and means of creating and expression – doing and embodying. The study was guided by the following key question: How do the dance teachers rationalize pedagogies of cultural heritage dances in various nonacademic environments in central Uganda? Grounded in the Ubuntu worldview and the theory of constructivism, and using a phenomenological qualitative research inquiry, this study was carried out over a period of eight months. The research data was gathered through semi-structured phenomenological interviews, storytelling sessions, and participant and nonparticipant observations. The findings showed that as an idiom of thought, pedagogy facilitates complex epistemological links between the dance teachers, learners, the content knowledge and skills of the dances, and the communities of dance practice in which it is applied. The rationalization of pedagogy by the dance teachers value the individual learners as knowledgeable others, celebrate their abilities to construct meanings from embodied and reflective experiences, embrace the community as an epistemological resource, and integrate the diverse content knowledge of the dance traditions. Individual dance teachers claim agency in processes of locating and deconstructing the dance episteme as thinkers, doers, collaborators, knowers, and inquirers. Pedagogy as a system of knowledge production draws on the multiplicity of dance traditions, individual talents, and cultural identities, and mediates the reciprocal interplay between individuality and communality. The study also explored how the dance teachers situate their pedagogies in the contemporary local phenomena, evolving dance traditions, complex ethnic demography, and emerging institutional frameworks such as schools, dance troupes, and universities. This inquiry sought to reveals the complexity and rational depth of pedagogic thought and its applications in and implications for cultural heritage dances in order to expand perspectives and enrich existing discourses on dance education policy, theory, pedagogy, research, practice, and curriculum development.