Unforgetting Our Histories: Embodied, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies for K-12 Classrooms

• In Event: Rooted in Culture: Teaching Practices Leveraging Black History and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in Art, Music, and Dance

Abstract

In an era marked by legislative restrictions and curriculum surveillance, this paper reclaims dance as a powerful learning modality rooted in Black epistemologies. It explores how culturally sustaining, embodied pedagogies transform learning by honoring the body as a site of memory, knowledge, and invention. Through three case studies, a multigenerational university-community dance program, and a STEAM-based dance, design, and coding initiative, it examines context-responsive models adaptable to K-12 classrooms, regardless of formal dance training. Drawing on traditions such as griot storytelling and hip-hop, and informed by the author’s work as a student-teacher mentor, the paper introduces a decision-making framework to support movement integration. This work affirms the body as a site of memory, power, and resistance.

Authors

• Valerie Ifill, Drexel University

• Raja Schaar, Drexel University