Abstract:
This paper examines the teaching and learning of traditional dance at primary
school level in Zimbabwe as a key aspect of postcolonial curriculum reimagination
within the broader project of reclaiming a nation’s heritage. The paper used
the survey design to determine how a cohort of primary school teachers understood
traditional dance and how they taught and practiced it in primary schools
in Zimbabwe. The paper found that although the teachers had relatively fair
knowledge of the most popular dances, they had very low competency levels to
demonstrate how the dances were performed and done, thus limiting its practice.
The paper thus concluded that the teachers were inadequately prepared to teach
traditional dances in the primary school partly because of a general reluctance to
utilise indigenous knowledge systems as a basis of socially responsive curriculum
practice. It is recommended that there be a policy rethinking that should
place greater value on dance education as distinct from Music education as well
as an improvement in teacher preparation and methods in order to work towards
critical postcolonial dance recovery.
