Becoming an engaged dance scholar through arts-based community engagement projects

Overby, Lynnette Young (author), Crum, Diana (author), Grundstrom, Jill (author), Ott, Francine E. (author), van Wijk, Melissa (author)

Postgraduate dance education students can develop a practice of arts-based, engaged scholarship by applying their disciplinary knowledge in collaboration with community partners to enact projects that benefit local, regional and/or global communities and their own scholarship. The present article analyses seven arts-based research projects required as part of the Studio Seminar course for doctoral dance education students at Teachers College, Columbia University. The specific goals of the research project were (a) to assess the level of community engagement present in seven Studio Seminar projects, (b) to determine whether or not the criteria of “evocation and illumination” were fulfilled in the Studio Seminar projects, and (c) to determine the knowledge gained by the participating students who conducted and reflected upon the Studio Seminar projects. Two cohorts of students participated in the study: Cohort 1 (three par-ticipants), who completed the course in 2021, and Cohort 3 (four partici-pants), who completed the course in 2023. The data were collected and analysed based on the arts-based research evaluation criteria of evocation and illumination, and the community engagement criteria of co-creation, co-implementation, co-assessment and co-dissemination. The results of this exploratory study reveal that the community engagement criteria of co-creation, co-implementation and co-assessment were present in all of the projects, but co-dissemination was only possible for the students who completed their projects in the first cohort. In addition, the arts-based research criteria of evocation and illumination were present in all seven projects. Furthermore, the results of a Community Engagement Questionnaire revealed that the projects had a positive impact on the students’ dissertation goals and their plans for future community engagement projects. In conclusion, providing postgraduate dance education students with guidance in developing arts-based, community-engaged projects assists in their development as engaged scholars.

• Language: English
• Keywords: arts-based research, community engagement, assessment, dance, higher education
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 95–129
• Numbering: Vol. 15, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179296
• UDC: 378:78
• ISSN on article: 2232-2647
• DOI: 10.26529/cepsj.2002
• COBISS.SI-ID: 243420419

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC-BY 4.0 je naveden na spletni strani revije (https://ojs.cepsj.si/index.php/cepsj/about). (Datum opombe 10. 2. 2026)

• Publication date in RUL: 10.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: CEPS Journal: Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal = revija Centra za študij edukacijskih strategij
• Publisher: Pedagoška fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-2647
• COBISS.SI-ID: 254029824

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Postati angažiran plesni strokovnjak prek umetniško zasnovanih projektov za vključevanje skupnosti

Abstract

Podiplomski študentje plesne pedagogike lahko razvijejo prakso angažiranega, na umetnosti temelječega raziskovanja, tako da svoje strokovno znanje uporabijo v sodelovanju s partnerji iz skupnosti pri izvedbi projektov, ki koristijo lokalnim, regionalnim in/ali globalnim skupnostim, ter hkrati prispevajo k njihovemu lastnemu raziskovalnemu delu. Ta članek analizira sedem projektov na umetnosti temelječega raziskovanja, ki so obvezen del predmeta Studio Seminar za doktorske študente plesne pedagogike na Teachers College Univerze Columbia. Cilji raziskave so bili: a) oceniti raven vključenosti skupnosti v sedmih projektih Studio Seminar; b) ugotoviti, ali so bila v projektih izpolnjena merila evokacije (sprožanje estetskega ali reflektivnega odziva) in osvetlitve (prikaz ali osvetlitev kompleksne teme skozi umetniško prakso); c) raziskati, kakšno znanje so pridobili študentje, ki so pri projektih sodelovali in jih reflektirali. V raziskavi sta sodelovali dve skupini študentov: skupina 1 (trije udeleženci), ki je predmet zaključila leta 2021, in skupina 3 (štirje udeleženci), ki je pred-met zaključila leta 2023. Podatki so bili zbrani in analizirani na podlagi meril za ocenjevanje na umetnosti temelječega raziskovanja – evokacije in osvetlitve – ter meril za vključevanje skupnosti, kot sta soustvarjanje in souporaba. Rezultati kažejo, da so bila merila vključevanja skupnosti prisotna v vseh projektih; soustvarjanje je bilo prisotno pri vseh, medtem ko je bila souporaba značilna predvsem za projekte skupine 1. Poleg tega sta bili evokacija in osvetlitev izraženi v vseh sedmih projektih. Rezultati vprašalnika o vključevanju skupnosti so pokazali, da so projekti pozitivno vplivali na študente glede njihovih študijskih ciljev in prihodnjih načrtov za projekte v sodelovanju s skupnostjo. Sklepno lahko ugotovimo, da usmerjanje podiplomskih študentov plesa k razvoju projektov na umetnosti temelječega raziskovanja v povezavi s skupnostjo prispeva k njihovemu oblikovanju kot angažiranih raziskovalcev.

• Keywords: na umetnosti temelječe raziskovanje, vključevanje skupnosti, ocenjevanje, ples, visokošolsko izobraževanje