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Arts & Communication Discrimination and dance students’ well-being

Specifically, this study could not identify specific forms detrimental relationships with well-being. As such, dance
of racism and discrimination that were experienced training environments should implement measures to
by dancers from different ethnic and cultural groups, reduce discrimination and increase racial equity. For
nor could it ascertain their effects. This area requires example, curricula could move beyond Eurocentric
further exploration, as existing literature indicates that practices that uphold Whiteness as the norm, 5-8,11 by
different ethnic groups may face particular forms of adopting color-conscious education following the
discrimination, which in turn will require anti-racist suggestions of Prichard. Peer group inclusion could be
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actions particular to those groups. For example, Black enhanced through carefully designed group work, social
dancers may face discrimination related to their body norms messaging (i.e., changing perceptions of peer
shape; 13,30 Latinx musical theater performers have behavior), as well as explicit discussion about inclusion and
reported being perceived as “too much,” while East exclusion within educational environments. Mentoring
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Asian performers might be perceived as “too little” or could be incorporated into training programs as an effective
hypoemotional. The survey was administered during way to enable underrepresented students to enhance social
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the colleges’ “show term,” which is a particularly busy capital, self-efficacy, and identity development. Finally,
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period for students as they rehearse and perform shows educational environments should ensure that there is
to professional standards. In the future, researchers appropriate mental health support available for students
should work with faculty to identify quieter periods who have experienced racial discrimination (e.g., counseling
when completing questionnaires that would fit more or psychotherapy). Although making such changes will be
easily into student timetables. Furthermore, future neither quick nor easy, they appear vital to enable dance
research efforts should ascertain the extent to which training institutions to meet their duty of care and to help
the stereotypes and biases documented in mainstream ensure that all students have a positive, enjoyable, and even
education are also present in professional dance training transformative experience through education.
environments. For example, a meta-analysis reported
that American teachers held the highest expectations Acknowledgments
for Asian American students and the lowest for African We extend our sincere gratitude to the colleges and students
American students. Similar findings emerged in a study whose participation and support were instrumental in
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of New Zealand educational environments, whereby making this research possible.
teachers reported the highest expectations for Asian and
White students, and the lowest for Māori and Pacific Funding
students. These expectations remained even when
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actual achievement was controlled for. Given that such This research was funded independently by the TIRED
biases influence how teachers treat students; this is an Movement and received no external funding.
important area for future research. Conflict of interest
The study findings are based on correlations, and thus,
relationships cannot be assumed to be causal; they have The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
instead been interpreted in line with previous literature. Author contributions
The choice of variables was also necessarily limited; future
research could examine different domains of well-being Conceptualization: All authors
in terms of both general and dance-specific factors, adopt Writing – original draft: Imogen J. Aujla
specific theoretical models, and additionally explore the Writing – review & editing: Stacey Green, Laura Grant
impact of different perpetrators to better understand Ethics approval and consent to participate
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teacher bias and peer behavior in the dance training
context. Some of these areas will be explored in more The study was conducted in accordance with the
depth in focus groups as part of the RED project. However, Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics
further research is certainly encouraged. Committee of The University of Bedfordshire
(22/03/2023).
5. Conclusion
Consent for publication
This study reveals that racial discrimination is negatively
associated with numerous indicators of well-being among Written informed consent was obtained from all
Global Majority dance students. Although scores on the participants involved in the study. Participants agreed to
PEDQ-CV were not notably high, analyses suggest that take part in the study and have the results published in the
even low-to-moderate levels of discrimination can have paper.

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 10 doi: 10.36922/ac.3165