Culturally Responsive Choral Music Education

Culturally Responsive Choral Music Education visits the classrooms of three ethnically diverse choral teacher-conductors to highlight specific examples of ways that culturally responsive teaching (CRT) can enrich choral music education. Principles of CRT are illustrated in contrasting demographic contexts: a choir serving a sizeable immigrant Hispanic population, a choir with an African American classroom majority, and a choir comprised of students who identify with eighteen distinct ethnicities. Additionally, portraits of nine ethnically diverse students illuminate how CRT shaped their experiences as members of these choral ensembles. Practical recommendations are offered for developing a culturally responsive classroom environment.

Culturally Responsive Choral Music Education visits the classrooms of three ethnically diverse choral teacher-conductors to highlight specific examples of ways that culturally responsive teaching (CRT) can enrich choral music education. Principles of CRT are illustrated in contrasting demographic contexts: a choir serving a sizeable immigrant Hispanic population, a choir with an African American classroom majority, and a choir comprised of students who identify with eighteen distinct ethnicities. Additionally, portraits of nine ethnically diverse students illuminate how CRT shaped their experiences as members of these choral ensembles. Practical recommendations are offered for developing a culturally responsive classroom environment.

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application, Second Edition, presents teaching methods that are responsive to how different culturally specific knowledge bases impact learning. It offers a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. Designed as a resource for teachers of undergraduate and graduate music education courses, the book provides examples in the context of music education, with theories presented in Part I and a review of teaching applications in Part II. Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education is an effort to answer the question: How can I teach music to my students in a way that is culturally responsive? This book serves several purposes, by: Providing practical examples of transferring theory into practice in music education. Illustrating culturally responsive pedagogy within the classroom. Demonstrating the connection of culturally responsive teaching to the school and larger community. This Second Edition has been updated and revised to incorporate recent research on teaching music from a culturally responsive lens, new data on demographics, and scholarship on calls for change in the music curriculum. It also incorporates an array of new perspectives from music educators, administrators, and pre-service teachers—drawn from different geographic regions—while addressing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 social justice protests.

This volume problematizes the historic dominance of Western classical music education and posits culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) as a framework through which music curricula can better serve increasingly diverse student populations. By detailing a qualitative study conducted in an urban high school in the United States, the volume illustrates how traditional approaches to music education can inhibit student engagement and learning. Moving beyond culturally responsive teaching, the volume goes on to demonstrate how enhancing teachers’ understanding of alternative musical epistemologies can support them in embracing CSP in the music classroom. This new theoretical and pedagogical framework reconceptualizes current practices to better sustain the musical cultures of the minoritized. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in music education, multicultural education, and urban education more broadly. Those specifically interested in ethnomusicology and classroom practice will also benefit from this book.

Culturally responsive teaching is an emerging area of education. Due to an increase of people of color in the United States, there is a greater need to incorporate culturally responsive practices in curricula. This study uncovered the perspectives of three public high school Black or African American choral students and a Black or African American high school choral teacher in the Greater Hartford Region and their experiences with culturally responsive choral music. This qualitative phenomenological study revealed new perspectives on the effects of culturally responsive choral instruction. Four themes emerged from students’ post-study interviews: knowledgeable engagement, identity, connections, and musicality. This study also examined a choral teacher's perceived level of preparedness to teach culturally responsive choral music and reflections after implementing culturally responsive teaching through a post-study survey. A researcher-developed conceptual framework was created using scholarship from researchers including Gloria Ladson-Billings and Geneva Gay. The framework addresses students’ cultures, teacher reflexivity, choosing culturally responsive music, developing critical consciousness, developing a sense of community among students, and performing culturally responsive and traditional Western classical music. Gathering information from students' perspectives was significant due to the need for more literature about culturally responsive choral music. This project exemplifies how students’ experiences with culturally responsive music in public high school choral classes affect their perception of music within the choral paradigm. Furthermore, this study could encourage researchers to examine the effects of culturally responsive teaching in other courses in music education, middle or elementary school settings, or other areas of the world.

"'The Routledge World Music Pedagogy Series' encompasses principal cross-disciplinary issues in music, education, and culture in six volumes, detailing theoretical and practical aspects of World Music Pedagogy in ways that contribute to the diversification of repertoire and instructional approaches. With the growth of cultural diversity in schools and communities and the rise of an enveloping global network, there is both confusion and a clamoring by teachers for music that speaks to the multiple heritages of their students, as well as to the spectrum of expressive practices in the world that constitute the human need to sing, play, dance, and engage in the rhythms and inflections of poetry, drama, and ritual."--

"Discussion points include discourse on cultural barriers to learning in a music classroom and Culturally Responsive Teaching as a possible means to alleviating those concerns ... The discussion is intended to yield insights through real classroom experiences on how white, middle-class teachers with formal training in the Western Classical tradition can create a more equitable learning environment for all students."--Abstract.

This book provides important insights for educators in music, the arts, and other subjects on the role that music can play in the curriculum as a powerful bridge to cultural understanding. The author documents key ideas and practices that have influenced current music education, particularly through efforts of ethnomusicologists in collaboration with educators, and examines some of the promises and pitfalls in shaping multicultural education through music. The text highlights World Music Pedagogy as a gateway to studying other cultures as well as the importance of including local music and musicians in the classroom. “This book clearly articulates the role that music has played and continues to play in the context of the goals and aims of multicultural education.” —Constance L. McKoy, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro “This brilliant book describes the history of U.S. music education and argues for the need to include diverse musical traditions in our classrooms.” —Anthony Seeger, distinguished professor emeritus, UCLA “Provides a rich context for understanding how music can and should play a central role in the pursuit of a more diverse, culturally relevant education for our children.” —Steven M. Demorest, Northwestern University