2026 Theses Doctoral

Dancing with Possibility: Creativity and the Embodied 4Ps in Dance Education

Hathaway, Charlotte Rachael

This dissertation investigates how dance educators’ beliefs about creativity relate to their conceptualization and practice of creative pedagogy in the dance classroom. Addressing a gap in how dance educators navigate their artistic domain, the study employed a parallel mixed-method design grounded in pragmatic constructivism.

The research specifically examined dance educators’ beliefs about creativity across the constructs of Self-Efficacy, Environmental Encouragement, Societal Value, and Student Potential, while exploring how these educators describe and enact their pedagogical strategies, challenges, and successes in fostering student creativity. Quantitative data (N = 86) indicated high beliefs in Teacher Self-efficacy, Societal Value, and Student Potential, with Environmental Encouragement emerging as the lowest-rated construct. Qualitative data, from semi-structured interviews (N = 25) and classroom observations (N = 3), extended Mel Rhodes’ (1961) framework into a sociocultural and embodied model: Collaborative Persons, Playful Processes, Dynamic Press, and Kinesthetic Products.

Findings reveal a recognition–implementation gap where educators strongly value creativity yet depend on substantial personal investment to compensate for limited institutional support. The study culminates in The Embodied 4P Framework: A Model for Creative Dance Education, underscoring the need for systemic reforms to support inclusive, embodied, and culturally grounded dance pedagogy.