Traditional Dance Arts in Education; Embracing our Diverse American Tapestry

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Sarrouf, Traditional Dance Arts in Education.pdf (774.39 KB)
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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/10909

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Goucher College MA in Cultural Sustainability

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Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2018-06-05

Type of Work

capstones
Text

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Program

MA in Cultural Sustainability

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This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

Subjects

Folk arts in education
Traditional Dance Arts in Education
Dance in schools
Social Studies and Folk arts education
Cultural sustainability -- Capstone (Graduate)

Abstract

We live in a very diverse world and the United State of America is a country of immigrants. I use the term American Tapestry as a metaphor to represent the multitude of ethnicities, races, languages, customs, beliefs and values of all people living in the United States of America. America includes North America, the USA, South and Central America. For purposes of the paper I am referring to the USA, which is home to many people from the Americas. A tapestry is woven with many different colors of yarn, often textured and the image telling a story. What does it mean to be an American in the United States? I believe that people from all over the world weave our United States America fabric. Whether someone speaks very little English or no English at all, whether someone is brown, black, white, or mixed, whether someone has an accent, is a refugee, an immigrant, native, or whose family dates back to the pilgrims, whether someone is Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim: we all are part of a community, living, working, and participating in what we now call home, the United States of America. We all are weaving our lives together as part of the American Tapestry of the United States. I believe it is our civic duty to educate children about diversity, inclusion and democracy so they can engage in our diverse communities with understanding, awareness and sensitivity. Through this research paper I will share how folklife education helps children to understand cultural participation as a universal human characteristic planting the seeds of cultural democracy to embrace diversity. I will focus on traditional dance as a part of folklife education, to serve as a program for the classroom. I will discuss arts education and the benefits of including dance in the classroom. I will examine the History and Social Science Framework for California Public Schools in order to develop a program that complements the units of study with the goal of embracing diversity. Lastly, I will offer recommendations for what an effective traditional dance arts program should include. This research and its findings are a launching pad to develop a specific program in partnership with teachers, cultural workers and traditional dance artists. Through interviews, research and conversations, this research hopes to illustrate how a traditional dance arts program, grounded in principles of folklife education, can foster an engaging curriculum with social purpose.