Strange encounters in times of distancing: Sustaining dialogue through integrating language and dance in primary education

Abstract

<p>This article focuses on experiences of resuming contact instruction in a project that integrated<br>language and dance in a Finnish primary school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article<br>aims to explore how it is possible to sustain dialogue in times of distancing. It turns these exceptional,<br>messy conditions into an opportunity to reconfigure the practice of embodied language<br>learning. Through performative writing, the article weaves together the experiences and observations<br>of the first author, a dance teacher, and two school teachers, and presents their reflections<br>of embodied pedagogical practice in a transformed school reality. The narrative focuses on events<br>and encounters that deviated from customary classroom situations, and the challenges, difficulties,<br>and possibilities that emerged in seeking to explore pedagogical practices that made it possible to<br>sustain dialogue. The authors argue that dance and language integration was able to support dialogue<br>in early language education even when touching was not possible, materials not available, and<br>distancing changed normal practices. It engaged both pupils and teachers in exploring new ways of<br>communicating and co-existing in strange, more-than-human relations. The authors conclude that<br>integrating language and dance offers a pedagogical tool for sustaining dialogue in a complex and<br>continuously changing world.<br></p>