When students become teachers

Abstract

Children are the experts of what it feels like to learn to dance as a child. This chapter provides a glimpse into original research conducted with third-grade students in an urban setting, where most did not have either the opportunity or access to studio dance training, learned to swing dance. In turn, they mentored younger children during P.E. across a school year, culminating in an all-school live stage dance production. Participatory action research (PAR) allowed third-grade students to be central to research and inquiry. A non-traditional methodology called poetic transcription captured the essence of emotion and a collective experience expressed by third-graders as they mentored, adding to a perspective of dance instruction in a culturally diverse setting when students became teachers.