Cut-Paste-Repeat? The maintenance of authoritarian pedagogies through tertiary dance education in China

Abstract

Tertiary dance programmes in China are undergoing significant changes, as graduate attributes are reconfigured to address key employment needs of 21st century knowledge economies. This transformation is challenged by an entrenched culture of authoritarian teaching practices, which maintains former ways of knowing and doing. While this dilemma has been recognized within scholarship in China, the complexity of authoritarian teaching pedagogy, and what sustains it, requires further unpacking for such a transformation to be effective. Through a qualitative enquiry gathering the narratives of dance teachers at tertiary institutions across China, this article investigates how current dance teachers experienced and maintain authoritarian pedagogical practices, and promote these practices to future dance educators.

Keywords:

• dance
• tertiary
• authoritarian
• pedagogy
• discourse
• China

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Notes on contributors

Nicholas Rowe

Nicholas Rowe is an Associate Professor in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland, an Adjunct Professor at Chengdu University, and an Associate Investigator in ArtsEqual, CERADA, Academy of Finland. He is a graduate of the Australian Ballet School and has a PhD from the London Contemporary Dance School. His academic publications explore power, political philosophies and education in the arts.

Xi Xiong

Xi Xiong is a lecturer in the Dance Academy of Sichuan Normal University. She graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy and has a Masters degree in Creative and Performing Arts from the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on critical dance pedagogy in China, especially in the field of tertiary dance education.