An artful encounter with dance – empowering future teachers in cross-sectoral collaborations with the Cultural Schoolbag as an example

Abstract

This article explores how teacher candidates articulate their experiences of a cross-sectoral collaboration with dance students in creating an artful encounter for pupils in primary schools in Norway. Through an arts-based inquiry, using clay as material of expression, groups of teacher candidates were filmed while creating a sculpture representing their processes. The creation process and sculpture were in turn analysed, revealing that the teacher candidates considered themselves to be scaffolding the artful encounter with the children in school, providing them with greater confidence as key personas in these artful encounters, and a better understanding of the creation of art. The analysis regarding the dramaturgy of the collaboration revealed that the teacher candidates experienced being co-creators in the project when they could focus primarily on unfolding the educational potential of the artful encounters.

Keywords

• Arts-based inquiry
• visual thinking
• The Cultural Schoolbag
• co-creation
• dance in education