Students taking the lead with me at the centre?

I do a lot of thinking on the bus which is the only place where thoughts musings, observations of people and life take place and unfold.  I often wonder what a passengers journey or story is as to why they take a particular bus towards their destination.  On this occasion I noticed about 4 students get on the bus in school uniform.  It was a mid-morning. I imagined that they were probably year 10 students.  After walking past me to get their seats in the back I noticed they were not all wearing the same uniform so assumed that for a couple of them they attended different schools and on this occasion got together for an event which was evident   in visitor lanyards they were wearing around their necks.

 From the body language they all knew each other.  They begun a conversation which pricked my ears.  In a nutshell they were talking about running for candidacy at their schools for relevant school bodies/societies/councils I guess. They were talking about the formalities of  articulating  their ideas, procedures for electing to be a candidate and time commitment to take on the responsibility and  seriousness  the job entailed   representing the views of their fellow students.   They were very articulate and it was refreshing hearing what they had to say.  I pondered the question: were they naturally gifted communicators and listeners? what was their motivation and interest in becoming active citizens and reps for their schools? did they like politics? were they coached and guided in public speaking and expressing their views? who were their teachers and particularly those teachers/tutors who, identifying their gift/talent to 'run for office'  might have suggested they embark on this path? were there incentives for doing this? will one or two of them go into politics one day and might I see them on telly? which political party I wonder?  One particular student stood out who spoke assertively and confidently about cultural diversity and how government policies that influence his life living in a culturally diverse society are in his opinion sometimes dictated by a middle class who has no understanding or relationship to his own experiences as a young person....it was profound!   He also talked  about his relationship with different types of students at schools and his preferences for older students particularly 6th formers (years 12s and 13s) because he felt that he could have a better debate about issues that really mattered and concerned young people.  He talked about perceptions people had of him by the way he spoke and looked which went against people's (well within his student community) a stereotype of a  young black male.  His comment was "I can't change the way I speak- people were entitled to their opinion but this is who I am" As for the younger years, he felt that they didn't engage or take things seriously and were in his opinion not clued up to things except when it mattered to them to get or have 'things'.   This point was interesting because it brought into mind my classes when I teach particularly for the younger year 7s and 8s who are given dance incentives which are very generous but says their teacher they have to attend my class after school - interesting as attendance has been low but there is an expectation that their teacher will continue to give them 'things' and further incentives.    Back to this young person.  He said that a lot of these younger groups asked him to change and fix them.  His response was that it was not his job to change them - he couldn't do it.  If a student wanted to change then they would have to do it themselves, he can help them but not change them. I was completely blown away!  What also intensified my listening was when he talked about his school and how lucky he was to be there because it was a top performing school with outstanding ofsted ratings, high exam pass rates  but he  identified a flaw in the system in which he felt the reason why students got competitively top academic grades were due to the fact that students were expected to learn the facts by rote in order  to pass the exams. Some students, he continued did not have the understanding of what to do with the facts or apply them.  Learning for him was about knowing what to do with the information/knowledge you have gained and not just learn the facts.  In other words learning is not just about acquiring facts but how to relate it to real life situations, how to make it relevant in their lives as a skill or something that can translate into other areas of their lives.  I was so blown away and to add to this light- headed experience I had to get off the next stop and go on  towards my destination.Why have I posted this? well it made me really think about me and my role as a teacher and how what I teach is not just a series of steps and sequences.  The learning is to observe and ask them to apply and find different methods and ways of expression that is fit for their purpose in this 21st century and making what I do  bespoke to their needs and embrace another way of learning - taking the facts and detail away from the mind and applying it to their dancing bodies. Also what/where will they go with this in their educational career?  Will this physical experience engender  a different pathway a different way of knowing?

From an ethnographic  method of research and also from the non-positivist stance in me  sharpens my focus even more when I am out in the field gathering data as to the knowledge and understanding of young people's dance experiences through movement.  Its not about the learning of the steps (even though it is very relevant in terms of sequencing knowledge and understanding) but its also about learning and understanding not always found books and on Youtube.  As the research gets under way it raises more and more questions.  I am beginning to wonder whether I will ever arrive at a conclusion but thats okay! The student as a dancing body sharing a lived experience - discuss????.