In order to promote the celebration of cultural diversity within the music classroom we must carefully examine out own journey as music educators. As stated by Alexis A. Kallio and Heidi Westerlund, "Recognizing and ethically engaging with the inherent diversity of music education contexts demands a continuous interrogation of the norms and values underpinning policy and practice in music teacher education," (2020, p. 47). We must carefully examine how we teach, the political and social structures at play in our teaching, and our own personal biases in order to create effective change within the profession of music education.
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
As stated by the Educators Team at Understood "Culturally responsive teaching is a research-based approach to teaching. It connects students’ cultures, languages, and life experiences with what they learn in school," (2023, n.p.). In other words culturally responsive teaching takes every aspect of culture into consideration as it related to education. Culturally responsive teaching holds students at the center of its focus by using their assets to help craft instruction, learning goals and curricula, for example. By doing this, student's needs are more likely met, it fosters positive student-teacher relationships and helps teachers understand diverse cultures and their values.
Culturally Responsive Music Teaching
Music is intertwined with culture, politics and identity. When teaching music from diverse cultures we must include the societal and political background of the piece in order to learn more about the culture's value systems, means of expression and identity. Within the music classroom we must incorporate diverse musical traditions as a means of validation, acknowledgement, and empowerment (Rohan, 2011, p. 18).
Culturally responsive music teaching must also break down barriers that prevent students from getting an equitable music education, like school funding. As Rohan stated, "Many writers see a critical approach to music education as being not just desirable, but an essential contribution to the creation of a more just world," (2011, p. 21). Discussions around different cultural practices may led students to meaningful connections to social justice issues. In turn, this fosters critical thinking skills required to navigate the ever changing landscape of our society at large.
Steps Toward a More Culturally Responsive Music Classroom
The steps below are inspired by Abril's article Toward a More Culturally Responsive General Music Classroom published in 2013.
Get to know your students and see them as unique individuals with various strengths. "It is important to see students as valued members of the learning community, bringing their unique backgrounds, perspectives, knowledge, and skills," (p. 8).
Create a classroom environment that fosters vibrant social interaction. Allow space for different types of collaboration, discussion, questioning and analysis (p. 8).
Acknowledge that there are multiple perspectives and viewpoints. "In the general music classroom, teachers can engage students in thinking about the meaning certain songs hold for individuals or groups of people," (p.8).
Cultivate connections that go beyond the school walls. Connect school music and music heard outside of school at a local and global level.
Teach a variety of authentic repertoire from diverse cultures. Ask "questions [that] are centered on the students’ backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, and skills," (p. 9). This will allow you, the educator, to understand the student's culture and help inform repertoire choices.
“How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion” by Peggy McIntosh
As educators, we are always advocating for student's needs and fight for ways to reduce learning barriers. Along those lines, we must also identify ways that we get in the way of this process. We must check our personal biases and work on improving ourselves.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines bias as, "the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment," (Bias, n.d.). Bias can come from our upbringing, media consumption, and even musical preferences. In order to understand your personal bias, it may be helpful to take Harvard's Implicit Association Test (IAT). This test analyzes the answers the test taker gives to to simple questions in order to detect connections between stereotypes and evaluations of good or bad.
Westerlund reminds us, "in gaining control over one’s dispositions in order to negotiate and navigate new spaces of intercultural teaching and learning, one can never acquire the ‘correct’ attitude, knowledge, skills or outcomes to transcend all fields of play," (2020, p. 59). That being said, unpacking our personal biases is an on going process that changes over time and it may never be complete. We must step outside of our "cultural, musical, and pedagogical comfort zone" (Westerlund, 2020, p. 7) in order to consider a new future and a more just music education system.
In Mellody Hobson's 2014 TedTalk, we are challenged to think about how we interact with diverse groups of people and speaks about "color-blindness." Hobson reminds us that it is important to address social problems like these head on, "The first step of solving any problem is not to hide from it. The first step to any form of action is awareness," (2014, n.p.). Through the act of being aware of ourselves and our biases we can grow towards an inclusive mindset that makes room for us to notice the beauty in our differences. Hobson implies that through this process we can be role models for the next generation. In the music classroom this is no different, we must embrace a color brave approach to education, repertoire and teaching practices. Kelly-McHale reminds us, "The lack of sociocultural understanding...engenders isolation between the general music classroom and musical experiences in other contexts, thus creating a color-blind approach in the classroom," (2013, p. 210). Together, we can work to embrace race, adopt a color brave approach and encourage our students to recognize the value of cultural diversity.
Color blind or color brave? by Mellody Hobson
References
Abril, C. R. (2013). Toward a More Culturally Responsive General Music Classroom. General Music Today, 27(1), 6–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371313478946
Bias. BIAS | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bias
Educators Team at Understood. (2023, February 7). What is culturally responsive teaching?. Understood. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/what-is-culturally-responsive-teaching
Kelly-McHale, J. (2013). The Influence of Music Teacher Beliefs and Practices on the Expression of Musical Identity in an Elementary General Music Classroom. Journal of Research in Music Education, 61(2), 195–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429413485439
Rohan, T. (2011). Teaching music, learning culture: The challenge of culturally responsive music education (dissertation). University of Otago, Dunedin.
Westerlund, H., Westerlund, H., Karlsen, S., & Partti, H. (2020). Visions for Intercultural Music Teacher Education (H. Westerlund, S. Karlsen, & H. Partti, Eds.; 1st ed. 2020.). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21029-8
YouTube. (2014). Color blind or color brave? | Mellody Hobson. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKtALHe3Y9Q.
YouTube. (2012). “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion”: Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BY9UEewHw.