Content knowledge in teaching, an investigation into an adequate ‘milieu’ for teaching dance: The case of Indian dance in France

Abstract

Since the 1970s, scientific researchers have shown that the nature and practice of the knowledge being taught plays an important role in the organization of teaching. Teaching content, first in mathematics, then in physical education, has become the object of scientific research in didactics in France. This research questions the commonplace identification of teaching competence with pedagogy alone, as well as the sharp distinction between content and the pedagogical process. It suggests that the construction of knowledge in a given discipline is organically related to the process of its transmission. We will study the case of teaching Indian dance kathak in France, which illustrates the diversity of meanings that students encounter in order to evolve in a ‘different culture’ and to learn new knowledge. How can a well-articulated Indian dance teaching be organized, outside its own academic and cultural context? This problem is examined through the mesogenesis concept (the genesis of a ‘milieu’) and describes three stages of construction of a ‘milieu’, seen as a condition of communicability of knowledge. The results demonstrate how these stages reflect the students’ spontaneous reactions to kathak, subsequently leading them to discover its academic codes.