Decolonizing Assessment in Dance Education: Ubuntu as an Evaluative Framework in Indigenous African Dance Education Practices

ABSTRACT

This article examines how the philosophy of Ubuntu is reflected in assessment and feedback provision systems of Indigenous dance education in African communities. In environments where urbanization, globalization, digitalization, and existing traces of colonialism are contesting Indigenous epistemologies, examining how communities value and leverage Indigenous philosophies to teach Indigenous dances is necessary. I draw on hermeneutic phenomenological stories and my participant observations to reveal that the complex assessment and feedback mechanisms support individual growth and community connections as a basis for knowledge production and holistic education. Manifested in music, community connection, embodied observations, community values and ethics, communal participation, and peer support, the assessment and feedback are engrained in mutuality, dialogue, connection, care, open-mindedness, moral maturity, inclusion, belonging, embodied participation, and individual innovation as ethos of interhuman relationships and relationality. Insights are provided on how dance practitioners can approach creating, performing, teaching, and sharing dance as community-building experiences and interhuman connections.

KEYWORDS:

• Ubuntu
• Indigenous dances
• African dances
• decolonization
• assessment in dance

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).