Introduction to Music Education Jess Powers Culturally Responsive Teaching Statement 3/11/24 Culturally responsive teaching is defined as, “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Lind & McKoy, p. 19). Furthermore, this method of teaching allows us as educators to connect with students better by connecting their learning with their various different cultures. Doing so allows students to reach higher levels in their learning and develop stronger academic abilities as they move throughout their education. The culturally responsive approach to teaching is broken down into six primary characteristics. …show more content…
In the case of music education, this also allows for a greater variety of musical works to be explored beyond just the common practice. Culturally responsive teaching differs from the multicultural approach to education by emphasizing the importance of specific students’ cultural backgrounds, rather than just looking at them as a checkbox on a curriculum of what to teach. For me, as a future high school choral educator, culturally responsive teaching will be the foundation of my classroom. I believe that personal connection with students, their cultures, and their interests is essential. Getting to know your students can be as easy as simply talking to them. By learning about students and their interests, students feel validated and empowered in the classroom, allowing them to be more engaged during class. Additionally, I believe learning about students and their interests is critical to repertoire selection as well. From my personal experience, ensembles are far more productive and engaged when presented with music they enjoy performing. I feel that far too often music instructors miss this key element of repertoire
"Equal educational opportunity to all students means that teachers and schools promote the full development of students as individuals, without regard for race, ethnicity, gender, abilities, and disabilities." (Parkay & Stanford, Chapter 2) According to the article Educating/Fostering Culturally Responsive Teachers, it addresses issues of concern in the preparation of teachers, who will be expected to teach students from diverse backgrounds in a culturally responsive and educationally healthy way. The use of Standards as a framework provided specific indicators for determining the enhanced knowledge and skills those culturally responsive teachers needs in order to go forward. For example, as teachers describe the philosophy of education, understand how students learn and develop and apply that knowledge in their practice, teach students with respect for their individual and cultural characteristics, know their content area and how to teach it. Teachers facilitate, monitor and assess student learning. Teachers create and maintain a learning environment in which all students are actively engaged and contributing members. Teachers work as partners with parents, families and with the community.
Sheftel, B. (2002). Music Education Curriculum in Public Schools. PageWise, Inc, Retrieved August 6, 2003
What is more important to education? The content or the how the content is taught? Many policy makers today believe that the former is far more crucial to the development of our youth. With high-stakes testing and an entire industry of textbooks and test making, the current system places empirical results over all else. Unfortunately, this approach only helps with the lower levels on the depths of knowledge (DOK) and Bloom’s Taxonomy charts. It only helps with basic recall of facts and knowledge. A second area of concern with this type of teaching is that only instills one point of view in the pupils. This is also problematic for diverse classrooms with students from various backgrounds. Would an approach that reinforces critical thinking and higher levels of DOK be more appropriate? A technique that incorporates the diversity of the classroom and life experiences of those students can be explained by Christopher Emdin and Django Paris who are two advocates of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy or Reality Pedagogy.
Throughout the semester, various styles of music and the aspects of culture associated with these styles have been analyzed. Musical elements such as dynamics, texture, form, timbre, melody, instruments, etc., have been used to thoroughly explore each kind of music from different areas of the world, with an emphasis in music from Africa, India and Indonesia. These aspects of music go far beyond just music itself. Culture also plays a huge role in music and the accompanying musical elements. Each country and culture has a different style and distinctiveness that add to what makes the music of that certain culture unique. Music in Africa may differ dramatically from music in Indonesia or India not only due to those certain elements but also due to how it is interpreted by people and what it represents for those people. In addition to this, what one may consider music in one culture may not be music to another. These differences have been made apparent in the several demonstrations that we have been exposed to in class.
The field of music education is one with which I have become rapidly familiar. This statement is not to be confused with me claiming that I have an intimate knowledge of the subject matter. In my student teaching semester, I found myself immersed in a great number of ideologies toward the profession, many of which were in conflict. In regard to music education, my greatest quandary at this juncture of my career is choosing from the myriad of philosophies which relate to the field. In relation to the information I have gathered from those in the profession at the public school level, I have a disproportionately large amount of information from professionals who teach at the collegiate level and theorists who benefit music education by performing studies. If I were to perform research about the field of music education, my goal would be to gather information from these three sets of professionals which would bring my knowledge base about each to an equitable level.
Lebuta, Joseph A. & Smith, Deborah A. Music Education: Historical Contexts and Perspectives. (1997) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall.
Many schools today have instituted several different art programs. These programs range from music programs, both vocal and instrumental, visual art, drama and dance. The music classes encompass both vocal and instrumental teachings. Typically, children have specified music classes they ar...
As an educator one must understand that the children you will be teaching will all come from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different homes with different values. No one student will be the same, and no one student will learn the same. The role of a modern educator is to harness this idea of diversity and channel it into a positive learning atmosphere for children of all backgrounds. “I define culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2013, p.50.). The hope for all teachers is to capture the minds of their children, as educators we must learn how our students learn, adapt to their skill set and channel our curriculum to their strength.
According to Gay, culturally responsive teaching is employing previous experience, performance style of student, and cultural knowledge for the purposes of making learning more suitable and effective for students (Gay, 2000). In other words, culturally responsive teaching practice is using cultural experiences, perceptions of ethnically, and cultural features of student to facilitate when teaching. Furthermore, culturally responsive teaching practice teaches through and to the strength of students. Culturally responsive teaching practices is necessary in connecting the cultural knowledge of students, style of performance, and previous experience to the knowledge of academic with the goal of legitimizing what the students already know. Therefore,
Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth are burdened with the knowledge of their own fate. You can see throughout the play Macbeth and his wife lose more and more of their sanity and grow mentally disordered. Macbeth is a soldier and is very strong and brave on the battlefield. Lady Macbeth is a very strong and smart woman that knows how to handle herself. Lady Macbeth uses her husband to encourage bloodshed and death to get what she wants.
Culturally responsive teaching is very important in today’s day and age. Classrooms are filled with students from different backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Teachers need to put into consideration those differences when building curriculum and creating a classroom atmosphere. Subcultures might also need to be considered when teaching, such as the culture of the disabled. The culture of students with disabilities is one that may appear within many classrooms due to the increase of students with disabilities. Teachers who are able to maintain a culturally responsive classroom and curriculum will provide ideal learning opportunities for all students and encourage them to succeed. (Darrow, 2013)
Steven, Kelly, N. (2002). A Sociological Basis For Music Education. International Journal of Music Education. 43. Pp. 40-49
Cultural proficiency is seeing the difference and responding effectively in a variety of environments. Learning about organizational and individual culture, in which one can effectively interact in a variety of cultural environments (p. 3). In simple terms in which educators are not only able to effectively work with diverse populations, but also believe that diversity adds positive value to the educational enterprise (Landa, 2011, p. 12).
There are many challenges that teachers encounter when teaching children with learning disabilities, learners that are English language learners, or learners who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As a nation we are faced with the challenged that our schools are becoming more diverse. The majority of our schoolteachers are still predominately white females, but our student population is slowly changing. We are seeing more minority groups in our schools that are facing different challenges. The scary part of it all is that our teachers do not have the skills to accommodate those differences. “The nation’s changing school demographics are creating a demand for new teaching skills” (Utley, Obiakor, & Bakken 2011, pg. 5). Our student population
When evaluating myself on the Cultural Proficiency continuum, I’d place myself at “Cultural Competence” part on the continuum. This evaluation takes into account my experiences and practices while working in various schools and interacting with students of varied cultures, needs and ability levels as both a teacher and a learner. An effective educator is continually maintaining this dual role of teacher and life-long student in order to not grow stagnant within the classroom; this dynamic allows for growth along the continuum toward maintaining cultural proficiency.