Cultural learning as a differentiated process in arts-based dance education: Uneven dimensions in preservice teacher learning

Abstract

This study examines how cultural learning is structured across dimensions in arts-based dance education for preservice elementary school teachers. The study focuses on how cultural values are interpreted, experienced, and internalized within the context of dance-based teacher preparation. While existing literature commonly treats cultural learning as a unified outcome of participation, limited conceptual clarity exists regarding how its cognitive, affective, and transformative dimensions develop in relation to one another. Addressing this gap, the study investigates three interrelated constructs: cultural value integration, learning engagement, and cultural value transformation. A descriptive quantitative design was employed using a 12-item questionnaire administered to 165 preservice teachers. The instrument demonstrated strong content validity (S-CVI = 1.00) and high internal consistency (α = 0.917). Descriptive statistics were used to identify patterned variation across dimensions of cultural learning. The findings reveal that cultural learning operates as a differentiated process rather than a coherent whole. Cultural value integration and cultural value transformation exhibited stable and consistently high responses, whereas learning engagement showed greater variability, particularly in its affective component. Item-level analysis further indicated that emotional engagement produced the lowest mean score and the highest response dispersion within the instrument, suggesting uneven affective activation across learners. The study advances arts-based and culturally responsive pedagogy by conceptualizing cultural learning as a structurally uneven process in which dimensions develop with different levels of intensity. The Mandala framework is employed as an interpretive lens to explain these dynamics as relational and non-linear rather than sequential. These findings underscore the need for pedagogical approaches that deliberately support affective engagement and facilitate the enactment of cultural values in practice.