ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1542371
Creating, Framing, Reflecting -Dance as Embodied Reflective Practice in Professional Development for Physical Education Teachers
Provisionally accepted
- 1Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Medicine and Health, Department Health and Sport Sciences, Munich, Germany
- 2Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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The ability to (self)-reflect has been described as a key competence in the teaching profession and is particularly relevant for physical education teachers as they are exposed to complex, unpredictable, and dynamic situations. As an Embodied Reflective Practice, Educational Dance can contribute to the promotion of embodied self-awareness and embodied reflexivity by consciously foregrounding its inherent reflective components. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between embodied experience and reflection within the narratives of physical education teachers. The study addresses the following research questions: (i) How does the (self)reflective capacity of the participating teachers manifest in the context of creative movement work? What connections between embodied experiences and potential reflections can be found in the teacher's subjective narrative constructions? (ii) What bodily-kinesthetic experiences are encountered? Which (movement-) moments or experiences stimulate reflection processes, and why?The exploratory case study analyzes interview data from physical education teachers (N = 18), who participated in a continuing education course in dance teaching, using qualitative content analysis.The analysis reveals two main categories, namely Moments of Embodied Reflection Processes and Teaching Design as Influential Variable on Embodied Reflective Moments. Various moments of embodied reflection processes are identified: Well-being/Contentment, Letting Go and Engaging, Deepened Sensory Perception, Being Impressed/Being Surprised, Connectedness with Others as well as Irritation/Resistance. A co-occurrence analysis shows that certain moments occur with specific aspects of the teaching design as influential variable for the respective aesthetic experience. Discussion: In the exploratory and creative field of Educational Dance examined in this study, reflections are increasingly tied to an aesthetic experience, serving as a stimulus for embodied reflection processes. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between embodied experience and reflective processes in the context of Embodied and Aesthetic Education. It offers starting points for the discussion of didactic consequences concerning promoting embodied reflexivity. It points out the meaningfulness of embodied/somatic practices in teacher education as fostering an embodied self-perception could be a valuable approach to enhancing self-reflection.
Keywords: Teacher Education, Physical Education, Dance teaching, personal development, Selfreflection, reflective practice, Embodied practice, somatic practice
Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schwender, Rudi and Stortz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tina M. Schwender, Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Medicine and Health, Department Health and Sport Sciences, Munich, Germany
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