Becoming a dance teacher: Chinese dance student teachers’ perceptions of their student teaching experience

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Teacher Development in Arts Education

Abstract

Dance student teachers face theory-practice integration challenges in internships, with limited research on their experiences, especially in non-Western contexts. Guided by phenomenology, this study explores: 1) Valuable internship experiences; 2) Their perceptions of success; 3) Faced challenges and coping ways. Using purposive sampling, 8 Beijing normal university dance majors were studied via interviews, observations, and artifact analysis. Findings: Tensions between university and school pedagogies; peer communities strongly support growth; reflection lacks concrete strategies. It concludes that university-school collaboration, peer communities, and reflective guidance are needed to improve dance teacher education.

Author

• lilin chen, Beijing Normal University