The Development of Western Dance Education in Thailand

พัฒนาการด้านการเรียนการสอนนาฏยศิลป์ตะวันตกในประเทศไทย

Abstract

The objectives of this dissertation were to study the development of western dance education, the administration of dance institutes, and ways to apply western dance knowledge to future careers of learners. The time period which the research focused on was from 1999 to 2020. The research employed a qualitative research method, including a literature review, observation, field surveys, the researcher’s personal experience, and in-depth interviews with directors and teachers in both public and private dance institutes and with learners aged 18 years old and above, whose dance skills were not identified. The data were analyzed, summarized, and presented in the research. The findings showed that 1) in terms of the development of western dance education, the component which had remained the same over the observed period of time was learners. On the other hand, the component which had been changed was the dance syllabus. Moreover, the components which had been added were teachers, western dance syllabuses, dance academic subjects, and dance institutes which provided western dance education, 2) in terms of the administration of private dance institutes, a new component was dance competitions. Furthermore, dance performances, class sizes, learning hours, and institutes’ budgets were the components which had been added, and 3) in terms of the application of western dance knowledge to future career of learners, the learning purpose of learners remained the same, which was direct application to dance careers. However, another learning purpose of learners, which was indirect application to other careers, had been added. It was also found that there were 7 factors contributing to the development of dance education. They were 1) trends and values, 2) parents, 3) attitude and behavior, 4) economy, culture, society, and politics, 5) class time, 6) media, and 7) COVID-19 pandemic.