Quality of working life for higher education dance educators
embodiment, complexity, transformation
pp. 401-421
in: Karen Bond (ed), Dance and the quality of life, Berlin, Springer, 2019Abstract
Quality of life is intimately connected to quality of working life, which has many nuances, including one's desire to perform their work with excellence. Thirty-five teachers in six countries (Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, Portugal, Turkey, and the United States) participated in a study about contrasting experiences of "effectiveness" and "ineffectiveness." The study employs a qualitative research methodology informed by phenomenological hermeneutics, experiential inquiry, and interpretive biography. Data include 70 teaching stories and additional material provided by participants through email dialogue. Participants' narratives about their teaching yielded five categories of description (bodily experiences, emotions and feelings, metaphysical and naturalistic perceptions, interactions with students and colleagues, and self-assessment) and three experiential themes. Meanings are amplified and presented through poetic depiction, followed by discussion of emergent themes of complexity, transformation, and embodiment. As a whole, the study celebrates the complex and infinite possibilities of both dance teaching and the quality of dance teaching life as embodied transformation.