Dance to the beat, or count, or both...

The movie "Crash" that we saw in class illustrated multiple boundary objects. These terms, artifacts, concepts, etc., were primarily utilized with negative connotations to demonstrate power. Racial and derogatory terms were loosely spewed from the characters lips to confirm perceived power relations. No racial group in the movie was safe from verbal attacks whether stated within a community of practice to reiterate why certain individuals are to remain as outsiders, or used as direct insults to a member of a different community of practice. There were positive instances of boundary objects used in the film, but the negative seemed to stand out like a sore thumb. Wenger (1999) defines boundary objects as: "artifacts, documents, terms, concepts, and other forms of reification around which communities of practice can organize their interconnections" (p. 105).

Keisha Chante and the dancers. (I am the third one from the right.)

Taking a look at how boundary objects have influenced my life reminds me of my experience with dance. As a dancer I have learned two different forms of dance training. To look at the first form of dancing I have learned, let's consider hip hop dance which is a dance style that was created in the streets of New York in the 1970's primarily by Black youth. What differentiates this style of dance from many others is that it is based on freestyle dance moves. Or to put it another way, hip hop dancers create dance moves to the beat of music in an improvisational fashion instead of following choreography. The second form of dance follows structured choreography and use a system of counting which can be seen in dance styles such as jazz, ballet, and contemporary. This system is usually to an 8 count (for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...). This concept of learning to dance is fluent within trained dancer's communities of practice. A dancer's ability to follow counts is a fast and effective way to learn lengthy dance routines, and connects dancers from different countries and genres. Over many years dance pioneers have negotiated shared meanings of dance terms and concepts. It also helps you move ahead in a song if there is a challenging part that needs more practice and you don't want to keep starting the dance from the beginning. Someone with a background purely in street dancing with no formal training may find this very difficult. Statements such as "Let's pick it up from the third set of 8 in 5, 6, 7, 8..." have little meaning to someone who is not familiar with dance counts. To a trained dancer that statement is easily understood. They can quickly go over the first 2 sets of 8 in their head, and be confident at where to begin. Dance auditions are even less tolerable with regards to dancers catching on to a routine. Auditions are pressed for time and are only interested in dancers that can pick up a dance number quickly.

Dance rehearsal time. (I am the first girl with long straight hair.)

This reminds me of the time I was at a dance audition for the TV series Mahalia staring Canadian R&B singer Keisha Chante. One of the episodes had a short music video within it, and local dancers were auditioning to be background dancers. I recall one girl at the audition with a background only in street dance. I have personally seen her dancing and she is a very good dancer. But the choreography in this audition was solely taught with counts and she was unable to follow. Out of the 4 background dancers chosen, I was probably the weakest dancer but I had the look the director wanted, and was advantaged over the other girl as I had experience with dance counts. The girl who was cut also had the look the director was seeking but her dancing appeared weak as she struggled to adequately participate in the formal customs of trained dancer's communities of practice. Had she been exposed to this method of dance training, then I'm positive she would have been selected as a background dancer.

I have also been involved in a dance piece that required nothing more than talent, ability, and speed. When I performed my show "What Iz Hip Hop?" in the Atlantic Fringe Festival a few years back, there was a stomp dance routine within the show. There was no need of dance count usage for my dance troupe! Just hardcore stomp with hands, feet, and crushed pop cans!

The system of dance counts is a shared way of connecting dancers in their communities of practice. However, it also excludes dancers who do not utilize this system such as street dancers. There are many hip hop dancers that do not use this system and yet can dance better than any trained dancer. Some of these dancers are so talented that they can follow a dance count instantly without any background experience. There are also trained dancers that have participated in multiple intensive dance courses that know all the moves yet lack rhythm and talent. They are simply doing the correct moves but can't dance.

Do boundary objects always include forms of power relations? I have not answered this question in my blog, but feel it is a valuable question to pose inquiry. Boundary objects are a way of defining membership and prescribing shared meaning. This can be experienced by some as a positive experience as they feel connected and a sense of belonging. It can also have a negative experience to others who want to belong but feel excluded, or outsiders who feel that membership are exclusive to certain people who possess specific resources. An example of this is post-secondary communities of practice in which participants must pay for education and hold academic pre-requisites. I gave the example of the dance community both inviting members to feel a shared connection, as well as excluding some dancers. Can you think of other communities of practice that represent a form of inclusion and exclusion for the participants that appear to be engaged members?


References


Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity (1st ed.). New York:
       Cambridge University Press.

Picture 1 & 2: Personal pictures I uploaded.

Mahlia TV series (the episode that the dance routine for "Let It Rain"):

... and we learn together

When I began reading Wenger's book, a particular statement stood out to me on the first page of the Introduction: "To assess learning we use tests with which students struggle in one-on-one combat, where knowledge must be demonstrated out of context, and where collaborating is considered cheating" (Wenger, 1999, p. 3). As a recent Elementary teacher graduate this sentence hit me hard. Will I consider collaboration to be cheating? It never occured to me until now that collaboration should be included in student testing. Classroom management is a major focus in teaching practices. Finding ways to "manage" a class is often about using techniques to have students become silent and listen for instruction. Classroom management is imperative and needed for effective classrooms. Teachers can't have their students talking non-stop all day. There needs to be a balance of student collaboration and quieter moments to listen to instruction. Considering that students learn through shared experiences, why is testing always done individually? Is there a way to test students collectively (other than for skills such as team work)? Would this form of collective testing disadvantage students whom enter into new classrooms where testing is limited to individual skills? For example, let's suppose I have a grade 3 class with students coming from earlier grade levels with only individual testing of skills. Imagine that I decide to utilize collaborative testing for my grade 3's to assess all the outcomes. When these students arrive in a grade 4 classroom, would they be overwhelmed when confronted with individual testing? Perhaps a balance of the two strategies should be mandatory for testing purposes. Teachers encourage student collaboration for in-class activities, however, it is not a common method for testing curriculum outcomes.
A change in testing styles needs to come from higher administration to be effective. A handful of classroom teachers doing collaborative testing is not enough to make change. Especially with school demands to have students' test scores increase in two core subjects; Language Arts and Mathematics, it's no wonder that teachers focus so much on individual testing. These standardized tests are completely based on individual ability, and are ONLY offered as independent examinations. When EEMLA (Early Elementary Mathematical Literacy Assessment) tests are passed out to grade 3 students, silence fills the room for this standardized independent testing. Similar testing is conducted with students in grades 6, 9, and 12. With test scores revealing which schools are ranked the highest for achievement, schools with the lowest scores are under significant pressure to get higher scores. This results in teachers preparing students for standardized tests with practice tests weeks before provincial testing. Thus testing the individual for learning appears to fit into this system.
Collaboration seems like an obvious tool for learning, and thus should be utilized more in testing for learning. When we enter the workforce we are constantly faced with learning situations in which we are collectively  engaged in learning and negotiating meaning. Many careers involve employees participating in work place expectations and deadlines with co-workers. Careers such as police officers, nurses, actors, etc. all involve collaboration with colleagues to implement effective duties and build on expertise. Even careers that have a more independent work style involve some form of collaboration with employers or stake holders. Can you imagine a police officer who didn't participate in collaboration with other officers when attempting to arrest a suspect of a crime? It might look something like this:

Officer Ego get's a call that a bank is being robbed. He thinks he has everything under control. He knows the location to go to, what the culprit is wearing, and has been trained on bank robberies in policing school. Why would he need any assistance? "Aha!" he says, "Perhaps I will be promoted if I take down this bank robber by myself". Officer Ego turns off his radio and decides to enter the bank alone with no backup or consultation with any co-workers. Ever so quietly he slides into the bank like the break dance move "the worm"...

Ok so maybe Officer Ego doesn't make an entrance like "the worm". Anyhow, he is in the bank and sees the robber pointing a gun at bank tellers while they are desperately filling bags with money. This lone officer creeps up behind the criminal and slams him to the floor in a wrestling move. Feeling like a hero, Officer Ego puts hand cuffs on the thief and guides him towards the front door. Suddenly, there is a gun pointed to the back of the cop's head and a lady hand cuffs the officer to a rail. She then puts the bag of money in her large purse, unlocks her friend's hand cuffs, and directs everybody out of the bank ordering them not to say a word. By this time other cops have arrived to the scene and rush into the bank. The two villains slip through the crowd and into a getaway car with all the money. Officer Ego did not get a promotion!

Although this was a silly story, the message is an important one. Whether you are a child or an adult, collaboration is a significant component of learning. Collective contributions to learning experiences include sharing ideas, participation in conversations and meaning negotiation, team reflections, etc.

To close I will encourage you to practice "the worm" independently and with a group of friends. Did you learn more when engaged with friends? Perhaps we can all participate in this dance move during our next class like we learned how to tie a knot! LOL :)

References

Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard

University Press.

Picture # 1: http://www.appliedscholastics.org/

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HvLgfR7-QN4