Suzanne Renner - EdD Candidate

Thesis Title: Teacher Efficacy and Dance in the Curriculum

It has been almost ten years since dance in the arts curriculum was introduced to schools, with the expectation that children would receive a comprehensive dance education that could lead to NCEA qualifications. Classroom teachers’ efficacy, attitudes and implementation of dance have implications for how children will achieve in dance, as well as for shaping the dance confidence and competence of pre-service teachers who they mentor on practicum.

The aim of this research project is to examine the relationships between the perceived dance teaching efficacy beliefs of primary school teachers, the delivery of dance in their classroom programmes and the current factors that support and inhibit their dance teaching.

Generalist teachers of Years 1-8 classes will be asked to complete a questionnaire, which includes a Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy (http://people.ehe.ohio-state.edu/ahoy/files/2009/02/tses.pdf). Analysis of the quantitative data will suggest themes and questions to be pursued in semi-structured interviews with volunteer participants.

It is anticipated that identification and explanations of trends and links between teachers’ dance efficacy beliefs, their dance teaching practices and contexts will inform and provide recommendations for dance teacher education.

Conference Presentations:

Teaching the Teachers: Challenges and Issues in Dance Education (2010). Paper presented at Dancing Across the Disciplines, International Dance Symposium, University of Otago, Dunedin . Pasifika Dance in Education (2009). Paper presented at 11th International Dance and the Child Conference, Kingston, Jamaica. Published in the conference proceedings, pp 108 – 119.

Leaving the Safety Zone: Culturally Inclusive Arts Education (2009).Paper presented in a colloquium with David Bell and Tracy Rohan, Arts in Society International Conference, Venice.

Friday is lavalava day – Celebrating Pasifika cultures as a context for arts teaching and learning (2008). Paper presented atNZARE annual conference Massey University, Palmerston North. Paper published in the conference proceedings CD-Rom. Looking at dance – an exploration of children’s reflections (2006). Paper presented at 10th International Dance and the Children Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands. Paper published in the conference proceedings, pp 150-159.