A/R/TOGRAPHY AS A POSSIBLE MODEL FOR THE BA PROGRAM IN DANCE PEDAGOGY
The change project led to a set of design principles collaboratively proposed by the staff. In the report submitted to the Dean on 31 January 2021, project leader Camilla Reppen and the project group wrote:
"From the processing of this phase through workshops and sorting and analysing data, a number of design principles have emerged. These are presented below in the form of statements to use in the development of a new programme. A design principle is defined as: an insight that shapes and frames the development of our future content. Design of (learning, innovation, change) processes."
Several of the design principles pointed toward the hybrid methodology of the artist–researcher–teacher, which was further developed into MODEL 2: AN A/R/TOGRAPHIC EDUCATION – A PROGRESSIVE SCENARIO as a possible model for the revised BA program.
THE START OF A CHANGE PROJECT
In the academic year 2020, a major change project for the BA program in Dance Pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts was launched. At that time, it had become clear that change was necessary due to a recognized rigid structure, an overwhelming number of teacher-led classes, a scheduled separation between theory and practice, and student-raised concerns about structural racism embedded in the program (Reppen et al., 2023; Østern et al., 2021).
To address these issues, a major change initiative was initiated by the then-Dean, Beata Alving, and a project group was established, led by Camilla Reppen. The group's task was to work with critical change and decolonization, and to create a contemporary and flexible curriculum in which theory and practice were intertwined (Reppen et al., 2023; Østern et al., 2021).
I was appointed Visiting Professor at Stockholm University of the Arts in January 2020 to take part in this change project group.
MODEL 2: AN A/R/TOGRAPHIC EDUCATION – A PROGRESSIVE SCENARIO
Quote from the report (Reppen et al., 2021), translated from Swedish to English:
Another possibility for a new organization of the BA in Dance Pedagogy, based on the analysis of the Scancards, is to imagine an a/r/tographic education model. A/R/T stands for the hybrid methodology Artist/Researcher/Teacher. "Hybrid" here means that it is both an artistic and educational practice, as well as a practice-oriented research methodology.
A/r/tographic programs already exist, so there would be models to look at.
A/r/tography was developed at the University of British Columbia in Canada by Rita Irwin and colleagues.
In such a program, it might be possible to emphasize the artist identity as a community artist and the teacher identity as a community educator. This reflects the community engagement and political commitment that emerged as a clear trend in the mapping conducted by the project group. The researcher identity would need to be practice-led and practice-based, and perceived as relevant to dance practice.
In concrete terms, an a/r/tographic study program would include extensive reflection through multiple modes of expression (bodily, visual, digital, written, etc.), allowing students to reflect from this triple identity across different courses. Students would create a large, ongoing a/r/tographic portfolio that evolves and builds throughout the program. Parts of this portfolio could be assessed as degree projects.
This exposition is part of the peer-reviewed article:
Østern, T. P., Reppen, C., O’Connell, S., & Daneberg, M. (2025). Choreographer/researcher/teacher: Developing a/r/tography as an approach to dance pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts in a professional learning community of teachers. Nordic Journal of Art & Research, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5460
FURTHER READING ABOUT THE PROCESS OF THE CHANGE PROJECT
EXPOSITION
Camilla Reppen's exposition
Abstract:
The Bachelors’s Programme in Dance Pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts, Sweden, has gone through a major restructuring leading to an updated program, on demand by students and staff. This exposition gives you an overview of the process of changing the program during the years 2020 - 2023. It guides you through the phases of the change project, highlights documents governing and forming the changes made, and links to research that were conducted during the project period and that deepened the knowledge created through the change process. Our first step was to listen into the field’s concerns and ideas about dance education today. We scanned the field for signals of change and created a collaborative map of dance pedagogical practices in contemporary times. From this map we derived design principles and scenarios for a new BA in Dance Pedagogy. After a workshop series with students of the department, it was decided that the new program should be based on the hybrid research methodology A/R/Tography. A new educational plan and course plans were created for the new BA. Courses corresponding to the positions as artist, researcher, and teacher of A/R/Tography were developed for the program, and dance genre specific courses were also created. All new courses of the program combines theory and practice, and students are prepared for a changing and complex work life combining artistic, teaching and researching practice. Please turn to project leader camilla.reppen@uniarts.se for more information.
taking, and creativity, in which clear decolonizing potentials, as well as challenges to change are expressed.
Abstract:
This chapter explores how student engagement and decolonizing curriculum design can be connected through an ambition to destabilize unequal power relations, invitations to democratize knowledge, and efforts to make marginalized narratives central in change processes in tertiary dance education in Sweden. Although student influence in tertiary education in Sweden is a legislated right, members of the project group working to decolonize and restructure the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Dance Pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts discovered a lack of dialogue with students in the department. This discovery motivated the development of a participatory action research project aimed at engaging student voices in the process of changing the curriculum. The author team, consisting of two teachers and one BA student, designed and carried out a workshop series. In this chapter, the efforts to create space for active student engagement are described and analyzed, the different perspectives added through student voices are explored, and issues of voice and ethics are actively integrated and contextualized.
References
Østern, T. P., Reppen, C., Lion, K., Lundmark, K., & Sjöstedt Edelholm , E. (2021).Future designs of tertiary dance education: Scanning the field for decolonizing potentials in a major change project at the Department for Dance Pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 5(4), 62-78. https://doi.org/10.23865/jased.v5.2982
Reppen, C., Lion, K., Lundmark, K., Østern, T. P., & Sjöstedt Edelholm, E. (2021). Reporting phase two in Project KDP 2023 [Unpublished internal document]. Stockholm University of the Arts.
Reppen, C., Lundgren, L., & Østern, T.P. (2023). Decolonizing tertiary dance education through including student voices in a curricula change project. In K. Schupp (Ed.), Futures of performance. The responsibilities of performing arts in higher education (pp. 72-88). Routledge.