In postapartheid South Africa, ideas of self, identity, and one’s place in society pose a labyrinth of internal conflict and negotiation. In this article, we discuss the potential of a particular 7-week dance education course, offered to generalist preservice student teachers, as a possible location for self-transformation and, ultimately, social change. Our qualitative case study was rooted in symbolic interactionism, with social interactions becoming catalysts for transforming meanings of self in relation to the other. Participants, mostly nondancers, included 80 culturally diverse preservice student teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a first year bachelor’s degree in education (BEd). Students shared personal reflections on their dance education experiences via open-ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, and reflective journals. Our data indicate that the students’ dance education experiences generated transformative awareness of the self. This consciousness was primarily evoked by close interactions with diverse others through active, bodily involvement in dance education activities, which prompted more profound engagement with the self, stimulating discovery, liberation, affirmation and, ultimately, transformation of the self.

中文翻译：

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“我是因为我们在为社会变革而跳舞”！

在种族隔离之后的南非，关于自我，身份和一个人在社会中的地位的观念构成了内部冲突和谈判的迷宫。在本文中，我们讨论了为通才职前学生教师提供的为期7周的特殊舞蹈教育课程的潜力，作为进行自我转变和最终实现社会变革的可能场所。我们的定性案例研究扎根于象征性的互动主义，社会互动成为推动自我与他人之间的涵义转化的催化剂。参加者（主要是非舞蹈演员）包括80名文化程度各异的学前教育学生教师（PST），他们都获得了第一年教育学士学位（BEd）。学生们通过不限成员名额的调查表，焦点小组访谈和反思性日记分享了他们对舞蹈教育经历的个人看法。我们的数据表明，学生的舞蹈教育经历产生了自我的转变意识。这种意识的产生主要是通过积极，身体地参与舞蹈教育活动与各种不同的人进行密切互动而引起的，这种互动促使人们对自我有了更深刻的参与，激发了自我的发现，解放，肯定和转变。