Chapter 4 Aspirations and Challenges
4.2 A Distinctive Educational Purpose: “To Hold Me With Open Arms”
4.2.1 Introduction
Among the teachers interviewed in this study, there was a strong sense that Quality-Oriented Education Dance (QOED) was a worthwhile endeavour: all of them valued its aims and were full of hope that it would support students to be creative. They all also valued how learners can be diverse, and yet still feel a great sense of achievement. Ultimately, they shared an
enthusiasm for how QOED repositioned the teacher-student relationship and celebrated the experience of being sincerely valued by learners.
Themes of creativity related to differences among learners and new directions for the student- teacher relationship are well encapsulated by the following narrative from one of my
interviewees. She reflected on how QOED has the capacity to be a transformative form of learning for children, one that could enable a more equitable experience of creativity in education across all of China.
I went to a rural area to teach. The students who did not have any dancing background changed a lot after 10 days teaching. The change was from the shyness of the first time I met the rural students to the end when they wanted to hold me with open arms.
Every year after I came back from the countryside, I told the trainee teachers in my class, ‘This is very meaningful, so will I try my best to teach this class well, and then you will all spread it to others’.
From this teacher’s perspective, QOED is not just a useful approach to education in a particular context; QOED is an ideal for China that carries a mandate for all those who learn to teach it: to spread this model and way of teaching across China. This is aligned with the agenda of QOED for all students (see Chapter 2). To emphasise this point, the teacher
pointed to the transformative (Mezirow, 2008) impact that QOED could have on any learner, even those “who did not have any dancing background”. This understanding of teaching aligns with Confucius’s idea “in teaching there should be no distinction of classes” (有教无 类) (Analects, 15.39). Other interviewees emphasised how “meaningful” and “valuable”
QOED is and how closely it connects to their own values and worldviews, with one stating that “QOED inspired me” and “…from my heart, I really like this way”. This inspiration implies that QOED empowers teachers to re-imagine their individual understanding of teaching and learning, rather than simply following established teaching practices from the past.
In this section, I explore the different ways in which QOED is valued by the interviewees and start with their reflections on how QOED transforms teacher-student relationships by
deconstructing existing hierarchies within the classroom. They explained how this allows students to form their own meanings and engage in constructive dialogues with the teacher and their peers. They articulated how this, in turn, enables new ideas to emerge and for
dogmas associated with dance and choreography to be transcended, and creative experiences to flourish. Throughout, they emphasised the idealised goals of QOED as deeply worthwhile.
4.2.2 Questioning Hierarchy: “A Party of Three”
One interviewee expressed how QOED attempts to deconstruct the traditional hierarchies between teachers and students:
The students could imagine that the teacher was no longer like the teacher in their usual class, e.g., the teacher is the teacher, and the students need to be below them and just listen.
Recognising that student-teacher hierarchies are deeply entrenched within dance education in China (see Section 2.5), the interviewee’s depiction of students as “below” teachers and passively “listening” is purposefully disrupted by QOED. From her perspective, QOED provides an opportunity for students to re-imagine the classroom relationships. She went on to explain how this act of re-imagining is dependent on a willingness of students and teachers to become closer within their interactions: “This was because we have no distance in this class”. Another teacher extended this perception, describing how this change in teacher student relationships felt:
The process of teaching QOED helped me to immerse myself in the classroom, to communicate with students…. I started to have interactions with my students naturally. When we interacted, I felt very comfortable rather than feeling that I am standing on a higher level than them. It was no longer like ‘they are students, and I am the teacher’.
This radical transformation in student-teacher relationships, and the removal of an assumed hierarchy, could be considered very unsettling for teachers used to very different ways of behaving. To rationalise why this new way of interacting should be considered normal and not a completely imported concept within Chinese pedagogy (Tan, 2016), one of my interviewees used a colloquial Chinese phrase to explain this transition:
When a party of three are walking together, I am sure there must be people I can learn from (三人行，必有我师焉).
This phrase, attributed to Confucius (Analects, 7.22), emphasises that we can learn from everyone, that any individual can teach another person, and that hierarchies are not inherent
to learning in China (see Section 2.5.2). Han Yu’s (768-824) interpretation of Confucius, extends this meaning, suggesting that there is no inherent inferiority of students to their teachers, nor any inherent superiority of teachers over their students (是故弟子不必不如 师，师不必贤于弟子). This usage of a colloquial phrase to justify QOED’s break from normative approaches to student-teacher relationships in China indicates how significant it is for a teacher to feel that QOED is allowing them to reclaim a Chinese traditional pedagogy, rather than simply adopting a foreign approach.
4.2.3 Prompting not Directing: “A Lot of Space”
As another interviewee proposed, this experience of collaborating with students rather than commanding them emerged from the guided learning approach of a teacher, who appeared to be prompting rather than assessing their efforts,
It might also be because of the way of getting along with students: it was a guidance process in class, and the ideas and discussions were entirely based on them.
The idea of being a guide, rather than an authority, within the class was a central theme that emerged as to why my interviewees valued QOED. This can be seen extending from a valuing of a constructivist approach to education (Dewey, 1938/1963; Eisner, 1991), as students and teachers worked together to construct relevant ideas that gave each class more meaning. As one interviewee explained, this involved feeling comfortable with “letting go”
of set class plans and giving the teacher and the students permission to adapt the direction of the class:
QOED class gives students a lot of space, and the teacher and students are engaged in a ‘back and forth’ dialogue. When I gave prompts to students, they gave me feedback.
Based on their feedback, I gave them more prompts. So even if there is only one lesson plan, being involved in it as a teacher is important. Each class may become very different, as I make adjustments based on the responses provided by the students:
I present different prompts based on their responses.
This interviewee noted the dynamic role of the teacher, whose presence within the dance classroom is essential to enable active learning (Buck & Rowe, 2015). This further illustrates Confucius’s student-centred approach to teaching and learning, which emphasises the
importance of dialogue between students and teachers as a means of education (see Section 2.5.2). It challenges the idea that a teacher is simply a deliverer of a prescribed
curriculum and is not empowered to make changes based on what they consider relevant at the time.
As another interviewee noted, “I thought this class was very meaningful, because it depended on the teacher’s guidance and creative ideas”. Inevitably, this involves challenging dogmas related to the curriculum as immutable, and that knowledge and learning are always
dependent on right/wrong binaries. As another interviewee observed, various viewpoints were enabled such as “You could say what you wanted, and you were not wrong in this class”.
This latter comment emphasises the importance of difference, and how difference might be valued within a QOED class, which I discuss further in the next chapter.
4.2.4 Transforming Relationships: “Without This Sense of Shenduan”
As the following interviewee argued, the QOED mandates require a transformation in their teaching practice,
We as educators need to influence these students with a more open mind, give them more opportunities to speak, and give more satisfaction to their participation. We also need to teach them how to participate in collaboration with a happy and exciting mood. And then they have a state of a flow in the process of participation.
This interviewee emphasised the importance of an intrinsic motivation for students, noting that the students’ enthusiasm should be a central goal of the teacher’s purpose. As they noted, this happiness and excitement, and diverse ideas, can emerge when students are provided with opportunities to contribute, and supported to feel included. These concepts of student autonomy, difference and collaborative interaction are not easy to achieve, as explored in the Chapters 5 and 6. My interviewees highlighted, however, that this new understanding of dance classes allows for a purposeful re-imagining of their role as teachers. They suggested that being a QOED teacher requires a significant change in their professional identity and attitudes to students:
I think that teachers need to drop their sense of elevated status (or shenduan身段).
You can still have a teacher’s professional identity without this sense of shenduan.
The above quote indicates that the teachers recognised their former teaching role as
hierarchical and authoritative, involving an “elevated status”, which they find no longer fits
into the new teaching agenda in QOED classes. My interviewees all reflected on how the context of dance teaching in China expects teachers to maintain an authoritarian pedagogy rooted in deeply hierarchical student-teacher relationships, based on wider expectations of authoritarian relationships in the process of learning. As one of my interviewees explained,
I think our traditional way of learning, no matter at what stage, what class or level, always has an irrational belief in authority. This authority can be understood as having many sources: for example, my teacher is my authority, what a famous professor may say is authority, if this person may be older than me, she has more experience than me, she may have authority when speaking. Then the influence of authority on me means that what she tells me, I may rarely question, or even if I have doubts, I will not refute her in front of her.
Here, the "traditional way of learning" is understood to inherently foster a hierarchical relationship between learners and teachers, as learning-teaching always involves the
presentation and transmission of irrefutable knowledge. Research into authoritarian education in China (see Section 2.5) refers to this conceptualisation of learning as involving
authoritarian pedagogy, but these are not limited to the formal education context (though it might be argued that formal education systems in China have reinforced such
conceptualisation). Indeed, the idea of an authoritarian pedagogy could emerge from the societal idea/discourse of shicheng (师承; teacher/master/shifu lineage or teacher-student lineage) (Guo, 2006), which creates the sense of inheriting the teacher/master/shifu’s distinct profession (knowledge/skill). The notion of shicheng highlights the status, skills and
experiences of the teacher/master/shifu enabling the latter’s authority, as the interviewee stressed that a teacher/authority is someone who is “older”, with “more experience” or a
“famous professor”. This conceptualisation of authoritarian pedagogy might therefore be considered an educational “discourse” (Rowe & Xiong, 2020). The same interviewee went on to explain,
From my personal learning experience, I think whether it is traditional culture or our whole thinking habits, it gives me such a feeling. I feel that my authority cannot be completely erased, and students can still feel fear when they communicate with me. For example, when I give instruction, students generally do not question my instruction.
It is possible that this discourse originated from what the interviewee described as "traditional culture", which can be seen as the impact of interpretations of Confucianism (see
Section 2.5). Consequently, it may have become a habitual way of thinking, which the interviewee described as “whole thinking habits”. This extends the idea that one of the
interpretations of five human relations (wulun; 五伦) attributed to Confucianism may have played a part in shaping the discourse, which operates on the belief that the younger, weaker and inferior should follow and respect the older, stronger and superior (Chen, 2003; Zhu, 2020). Based on the interviewee’s statement, the teacher is seen as a dominant and superior figure, while the student is viewed as subservient and inferior. The teacher’s
authority/superiority appears to be maintained through the students’ response of “fear”, which prevents them from questioning the teacher’s directives. It is therefore challenging to
transform this authoritarian pedagogy in China (Li & Du, 2013), as students may still hold on to the expectation of receiving strong instruction and guidance from their teachers and may find it difficult to learn independently because they strongly believe that they could learn better under the instruction of their teachers (Rowe & Xiong, 2020).
An acknowledgment of authoritarian education as a prevailing discourse prompted my interviewees to try to shift this, with one announcing, “I now pay special attention to
flattening the relationship with the students”. This goal of moving away from an authoritarian role and towards a more egalitarian relationship is complex. For some of my interviewees, this “flattening” involved reconstructing the student-teacher relationship as one based on what they perceive to be a more egalitarian relationship: friendship. One elaborated on this:
I try my best to get along with them like friends.… The students feel that I am sincere in my heart, so they are willing to accept me as a friend.
The idea that friendship involves more equality than the teacher-student relationship could also be attributed to the interpretation of Confucianism in relation to its ethical and moral principles, which emphasise mutual and equal relationships between friends (Zhao, J. G., 2022). The transition to teacher-student relationship based on friendship might be considered a complex shift however, as it not only dissolves hierarchy but can also dissolve distance and behavioural expectations. Friendship can involve levels of social interdependence, reciprocity and mutual acceptance that may be difficult for a teacher to maintain with a large cohort of students (Liu, 2017). This teacher went on to present a caveat:
But I think Chinese culture must be Chinese culture. Some of it, such as respect and politeness, can be kept.
The conceptualisation of friendship here remains based upon conditions that my interviewee considers to be inherent to the cultural context. The idea that “respect and politeness” reflects a cultural ideal within student-teacher relationships appeared as a bulwark against a more mutually defined approach to friendship, thus sustaining a more prescribed and authoritative sense of how friend-like interactions may take place.
4.2.5 Peer Relationships: “Learn from Each Other”
The idea that teachers might become friends of students as a means of disassembling the authoritarian educational context was not widely shared among my interviewees. Another one explained that a pragmatic step towards less hierarchical relationships is to remove fear from the student-teacher relationship:
I think the good thing about the relationship between me and my students is that at least the students are not afraid of me. I never let the students feel afraid to meet me.
To achieve this, this teacher explained that they extend their role as advisor to beyond the academic context by showing a willingness to care and provide support and guidance in matters beyond their formal educational needs:
My requirements for students are usually not limited to knowledge. Knowledge is just the core content of my class. As a teacher, I said to them, ‘you can come to me for things other than course knowledge, including problems in your life, problems in your morality, or problems you cannot solve’. Through these aspects, the communication between teachers and students is comprehensive. For example, some students say, ‘I am confused and do not know what to do; I am a little confused at this stage; I think I am almost anxious; I think there is a lot of pressure to go abroad’. When the students come to me, I express concern, so they are not afraid of me.
While this approach extends a sense of care into the student’s lives beyond their academic needs, it nevertheless maintains a hierarchical relationship in which the teacher is the advisor of the student (Guo, 2006). This idea is consistent with the concept of baishi xueyi (拜师学 艺; apprenticeship) in which personal relationships are emphasised: one can only acquire skills/knowledge by living together with a mentor/teacher/master as if they were father and son (Niu, 2019). Within this concept, morality helps maintain the master-apprentice
relationship. It might be argued that this approach extends the authority of the teacher into other matters beyond academia, and that when teachers guide students on issues such as
problems of morality, this positions teachers as powerfully influential on diverse facets of the students’ lives, thereby consolidating the student-teacher hierarchy even further.
Among my interviewees, there were also those who considered that expecting a shift in student attitudes towards teachers, and in particular expecting students to not feel a sense of fear within their interactions with teachers, was not achievable within the current educational climate. Instead, they emphasised the need to foster strong peer-to-peer learning as a means to disassemble the idea that learning inherently requires an authoritarian interaction. As one explained,
The students would think there is a hierarchy between them and me. So I hope they can learn from each other’s trust. As a teacher, I am a guide, not a guide for students to learn from me all the time. I will teach them to trust and relax. I think their courage comes from their classmates. Trust between classmates is certainly greater than trust with teachers because they are nervous when facing teachers.
This insight is particularly significant, as it suggests the role of the QOED teacher in challenging a sense of shenduan needs to extend beyond particular teacher-student
relationships in particular classrooms. It suggests that while individual teachers may attempt to deconstruct their role as an authority in the classroom and reconstruct their own student- teacher relationships in a more egalitarian manner, the fundamental societal shift in education requires, as the interviewee went to say, that “learners become more comfortable learning from those that they do not consider to be superior to themselves”. This particular
conceptualisation of learners as the agents of change presents an emancipatory argument for dance education in China. While it can be argued that it is still important for teachers to appear more friendly or at least less frightening in dance classes, a fundamental mindset shift also has to take place among learners, to become more accepting of the Confucian axiom that we can learn from anyone, and that a person does not need to adopt an inferior status in order to effectively learn.
4.2.6 Conclusion
These reflections from teachers therefore prompted my study to consider the ways in which the current teaching practices of QOED teachers might unintentionally inhibit the growth of such a learning mindset among their students. How are these teachers currently perceiving students and behaving towards students and student relationships in ways that sustain a sense