My life and body through dance: The ontological search for critical meaning in dance education

This dissertation is a journey into the world of dance education within teacher education through the personal examination of the author's role as a dance educator. In particular it is about exploring dance as a viable text in education in support of the introduction of dance as part of the New Zealand Arts Curriculum. It is also a critical and analytical look at the function of dance within the educational curriculum. Of specific interest is the role dance can play in education to address some of the issues that impact our lives socially and culturally.;The author uses a phenomenological methodology to engage in a process of personal and critical reflection or autobiography of the self for the purpose of deepening an understanding of the link between dance and being human. The intent is to look at dance critical pedagogy and as an agent of change and possibility. In essence, therefore, the work pursues a path of social justice through a focus on the body as it is experienced in dance and all the nuances that are housed in and on the body as a result of one's situatedness in the world. It is a search related to how dance as an art form can become a catalyst in the pursuit for social justice.;The work traces the author's role as a dance educator through the exploration of issues pertaining to dance education within teacher education, such as dance as art and as a way of knowing, as well as issues surrounding the body in education. These areas of exploration are followed by an examination of critical and culturally socially conscious perspectives pertaining to dance education in the New Zealand curriculum within the particular locality of Aotearoa/New Zealand.;The outcome is a study that searches those spaces where social justice can be found in dance education through the interpretive lens of the author. The objective was to illustrate what a process such as this might reveal as it pertains to the depth and breadth of body experiencing and how this might look in the actual practice of dance education.