Dance education professor, student co-author journal article
Marissa Nesbit, associate professor of dance education, and dance education student Chloe Gosline co-authored “Finding Truths Through Fiction: Reflecting on Young Adult Literature in Dance Educator Preparation,” recently published in the journal Dance Education in Practice.
The article explores the value of incorporating young adult novels into the curriculum for the course Dance Education Methods for the Secondary School.
In Nesbit’s class, in which dance education students learn to plan and lead lessons for middle and high schoolers, students were each asked to choose and read a young adult novel and consider its applications to teaching dance.
“Drawing on research and practice in psychology and teacher education, we first share the rationale for including this assignment in the course,” the authors write in the article abstract. “We then highlight a sample of novels that have been used for this assignment and describe how they relate to the discussion of themes such as asset and deficit views of students and communities, student-led learning in dance, team identities and social issues, abuse reporting and interventions, and injuries and health issues. We reflect on the process of engaging with this assignment and offer suggestions to other instructors.”
“Working on the article was an incredible experience that I was able to take so much away from,” said Gosline, a senior from Raleigh, North Carolina, who is enrolled in an independent study with Nesbit. “I was able to learn so much about the academic writing process. The most interesting thing about this project for me was combining my loves of dance, teaching, reading, and writing. As someone who came into UNC Charlotte as an English education major and then decided on switching to a dance education major, it reminded me that even as a dance educator there are still ways to incorporate my passion for reading and writing.”
Photo, by Landry Hutchens, Chloe Gosline leads a book discussion with dance education students Maddie Worsley, Alexis Holloway, and Abbi Gray.