Opportunities to reflect upon the teaching and learning experiences of others through the means of portraiture can offer one a chance to contemplate the resultant meanings and outcomes of one's own practices in dance from new "vantage points." Action researchers can gain greater understanding of their own as well as the teaching and learning experiences of others by engaging in reflexive processes of portraiture to frame, explore and interpret issues of importance under investigation. The focus for conceptualizing and constructing the narrative portraits for this research has been on understanding and interpreting the meanings and outcomes of my teaching experiences and pedagogical practices through the lenses of my students' perceptions of their experiences in the classroom.

This dissertation involves the painting of three portraiture studies that explore interconnected pedagogical ideas related to themes of emancipatory and critical pedagogical perspectives, constructivist and somatic oriented approaches, the development and practice of value systems and teaching and learning roles, and the becoming of identity in the dance classroom through processes of action research and reflexive inquiry. The essays reflecting these studies include: a self-portraiture reflecting foundational teaching experiences occurring early in my career teaching dance at an inner city high school, leading me to the themes explored in this dissertation; a portrait of my undergraduate dance technique classroom that explored emancipatory and critical pedagogical approaches, which considers the dynamic exchanges that occurred between members of my dance technique learning community and includes students' self-portrayals of their identity and roles as learners and members of the classroom learning community; and a collaborative pedagogical action research study I engaged in with a teaching colleague which involved our co-facilitation of graduate students in dance as participating researchers who were engaged in processes of self-reflective inquiry and self-portraiture as a means to critically reflect upon, challenge and initiate personal, communal and institutional change in teaching and learning practices in dance.

A useful outcome for this narrative research is its potential to provide a unique vantage point through which others could consider and perhaps challenge the perspectives and understandings they have gained from their own teaching and learning experiences. The understandings as well as the questions that arise for others from this research could provide a point of entry for dialogue, further investigation, and critical discourse, which could involve the reflexive narrative stories of many practitioners engaged in similar themes of pedagogical inquiry.