Dance Education | Arts & Humanities

The Doctor of Education (EdD) degree program in Dance Education at Teachers College affirms dance as an essential form of embodied experience that shapes learning across diverse global contexts. Through dance education, people of all ages imagine, create, think critically, collaborate, understand culture, shape identity, and communicate meaning about human experiences. Our doctoral community welcomes dance educators who celebrate diverse dance traditions, and who are deeply committed to transforming dance education through innovating educational opportunities for a wide variety of adult stakeholders, such as teachers, artists, administrators, and policymakers. In preparing teacher educators, researchers, and leaders, the doctoral program’s core mission is to cultivate educational experts who forge new pathways in dance education that are accessible, inclusive, equitable, and excellent for all learners.

The doctoral students in our community are interested in researching a wide range of educational issues impacting critically underrepresented sectors of the field. These include PK-12 dance education, pre-professional university learning, high-school to post-secondary transition, university dance teacher preparation, community college dance learners, teacher advancement, dance teacher certification, and educational policy. Our work with doctoral students aims to forge new paths in dance education through critically examining historical assumptions, reflecting on contemporary contexts, engaging in collaborative dialogue, and enacting socially just practices.

Our state-of-the-art Arnhold Dance Education Research Studios will open in September 2024, bolstering opportunities to teach and conduct embodied research. We invite our doctoral students to experiment with and expand their pedagogical practice, develop their teaching repertoire, synthesize their doctoral learning, and build a competitive resume through our on-campus teaching opportunities. The new studios provide unparalleled space to pilot bold teaching ideas in a community that supports pedagogical inquiry, teaching-making, and intersections between pedagogy, artistry, and research. As such, dance education doctoral students can propose to teach in our Morningside Dance Works community-based program or college-wide, credit-based special topics courses. 

Nested in the arts mecca of the world, the doctoral program brings together renowned faculty from across the college with the vibrant dance community of New York City. Teachers College is recognized by scholars as a primary incubator for the development of dance education as a field in PK-12 schools and universities. It has played a principal role in cultivating and empowering dance education leaders for over 100 years.  As the nation’s premier institution in the teaching of teachers in all fields, Teachers College is the ideal place to earn a doctorate in dance education and join the legacy of dance education leadership.

The EdD in Dance Education program offers coursework to prepare doctoral students as teacher educators and researchers with leadership roles. Our courses in Embodied Learning, Dance and Human Development, and Historical Foundations develop content knowledge while facilitating opportunities to examine critical gaps in the field, where innovations have the potential to rapidly advance how we prepare future dance educators, classroom teachers, educational administrators, and policymakers. Charged with responsibilities to inform and educate adults who make critical decisions about dance education, a series of courses prepare students to develop effective leadership strategies in a chosen sector, such as PK-12 schools, private studio settings, university contexts, consultancies, and cultural organizations. These courses, including Adult Learning Advanced Curriculum Design, Teaching and Leadership, Seminar, and Studio Seminar, enhance content knowledge while providing students with the opportunity to design their own related inquiries and engage with the vibrant dance and arts communities in NYC and beyond as they refine their research ideas.

Students also select a specialization area and select up to 6 credits of out-of-program courses to deepen a chosen area of inquiry further:

• Teacher Education – Delves into shaping pedagogical content knowledge, supervising student teachers, and coaching educators.

• Leadership and Policy – Delves into leadership skills, program management, cultural policy, or educational administration.

• Movement Sciences – Delves into the pedagogical application of motor learning, anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics.

• Interdisciplinary – A self-designed track combining aspects of the various specialization areas or delving deeper into one or more specific areas of inquiry, such as neuroscience, social justice education, , instructional technology, spirituality, creativity, peace education, visual art, music, literature, philosophy, human development, or cognition, for example.

As the primary aim of the Dance Education program is to develop experienced dance educators as tomorrow’s dance education researchers, the degree program culminates with a written dissertation and oral defense of an original, student-designed, empirical research study. We believe that the multiple ways of knowing that are embedded in dance practices can serve as the bedrock for developing a research identity and for conducting multi-modal research that is convincing and transformative. Given that individualized research is at the core of the Ed.D. degree experience, students are provided with persistent support in designing and implementing a research study. Through a series of collaborative doctoral and dissertation seminars, students are guided through the research process while developing critical inquiry, reflection, dialogic and argumentative practices that underpin research. As a result  of the seminars, students develop the critical components of their doctoral exam and dissertation research study, including a review of literature, a pilot project , a research proposal, and an IRB ethics review. Students also select from a wide variety of research methods courses offered at the College to tailor their research visions. An optional culminating course, Writing for Journal Publication, prepares students to disseminate their discoveries in refereed publications. After passing written certification exams, certified doctoral students work closely with program faculty members who serve as the dissertation advisors. The culminating dissertation committee includes dance education faculty as well as College-wide faculty selected for related field expertise.

The doctoral program in Dance Education has formal partnerships with Ballet Hispánico in NYC and Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, offering students opportunities for cross-community workshops, seminars, and research. The Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy, and Leadership dovetails with the Ed.D. program and provides students with a dynamic research community where they engage with outstanding educational researchers and guest scholars and participate in dance education consortia, symposiums, and professional learning events.