Response to Blog Comments

Thanks to everyone who commented on my blog posts for your helpful suggestions and critiques. As the project has progressed I have started to get a better sense of what I want to focus on, which has helped me to narrow down the scope of my topic as a few people have recommended. It was also very good advice to try to do some research outside the Brown classroom, and I will certainly try to find a few examples of how West African dance is taught elsewhere, either by attending other classes in Providence/Boston area or by watching videos of classes on the internet. I have also found some interesting blogs and informal articles on the internet about some of the issues I am attempting to address in my research, which will be a valuable addition to my next fieldnotes or blog post. I will also try to make my next fieldnotes more personal.

At this point, I think I want to focus mainly on the effects that learning about Mande culture has on students, or at least what the value of teaching and learning West African dance in America is, and about how Mande and American cultures interact in the classroom setting. This will certainly require that I begin talking to more students about the class and getting their perspective on things (maybe by doing a group interview, as Kiri suggested), and I just recently interviewed the teacher of the class, Michelle, which was very helpful and informative. Again, thanks for all the useful feedback!