From poem to dance: A pilot study

This paper presents insights from a pilot study with the purpose to explore how dance can be understood and developed as literacy in basic education. With basis in a pedagogy of multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; The New London Group, 1996), which emphasizes that education should contain linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial modes of meaning, the intention is to challenge literacy education in school with an embodied approach to literacy teaching and learning. This study is part of my doctoral thesis that reviews a pedagogy of multiliteracies by investigating how literacy is identified in different literacy environments in school and by challenging literacy education with dance.

An exploratory case study (Yin, 2009) in the form or a dance residency will be conducted in grade 5 in Finland. Prior to the case study, a pilot study is conducted in the spring of 2018 to evaluate the research design. In the pilot study, students' transmediation processes from written poems to dance are in focus. Data will consist of video recordings, interviews and field notes. The results are expected to show how and if dance can be understood and developed as literacy in basic education.

References

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). "Multiliteracies": New Literacies, New Learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164-195.

The New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review, 60-93.