Cantarelli Vita, J. (2016). Listening To Their Voices: An Ethnographic Study of Children's Values and Meaning Ascribed to Learning World Music in Elementary School General Music (Master's Thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI 10110170) (original) (raw)

OUR MUSICAL SCHOOL: ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS AND CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY IN ELEMENTARY GENERAL MUSIC

The current study has uncovered the complexities of childhood musical culture in a rural public school in Maryland with a diverse student population. Through daily interaction with her students, the researcher learned about their particular culture, including musical preferences, practices of music consumption and expression, and how students conceptualize music. The breadth and depth of knowledge the investigator was able to discover through participant observation during teaching duties demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographic methods in learning about students' musical culture for classroom music teachers. The use of this information proved to be productive in developing culturally relevant lessons that students responded to positively. In conclusion, the researcher found that pursuing an ethnographic project in order to create a culturally relevant pedagogy for her students was a worthwhile undertaking as an elementary general music educator.

Demystifying World Music Education: From Guiding Principles to Meaningful Practice

General Music Today, 2018

Over the past several decades, music education scholars have put forth a variety of convincing rationales for world music education. Yet the gap between theory and practice in this area persists. In theoretical ways, practicing music educators acknowledge the value of world music learning experiences, but many remain reluctant to fully embrace and embody this approach in practice. Through this article, one practicing general music educator shares her personal experience of writing, implementing, and subsequently observing another music educator utilize a new world music curriculum resource, inspired by the musical traditions of the Fon people in southern Benin. As our understanding of world music pedagogy continues to evolve, more practicing music educators should share their unique perspectives and experiences. These " snapshots " from the field can help other (perhaps more hesitant) music educators envision what this pedagogical approach might look like in their own classrooms.

Music Education as Global Education: A Developmental Approach

TOPICS for Music Education Praxis, 2019

Although there have been isolated pockets of discussion about the connection between music participation and global citizenship identifications, in many ways music education has remained on the sidelines of the wider global education movement. Sociocultural understanding has been discussed as a positive byproduct of music education, but not usually as an explicit goal. Yet, as Campbell (2013) argues, the consequences of an ever-changing, increasingly diverse and connected world “are considerable for systems of music education, and for individual teachers” (16). It is imperative for practitioners and scholars to consider the ways in which learning experiences in the music classroom can cultivate higher levels of global competency without diminishing musical learning. Through this article, I propose a developmental framework for understanding music education as global education(MEGE).My core argument is grounded by the work of scholars who contend music education cultivates a sense of group belonging, releases imagination, and fosters empathy. However, the framework I propose points this work more intentionally toward globalist ends and applications. Specifically, I argue music educators have unique potential to help students extend and deepen their understanding of “community” (Greene 1995). If today’s students can develop strong in-group affiliations at multiple levels of community (e.g. local, cultural, national/governmental, and global), they can become the types of citizens who will solve problems that extend beyond geographical borders, and collectively transform our world into a more just and humane place.

International Journal of Education & the Arts Where do teachers and learners stand in music education research? A multi-voiced call for a new ethos of music education research

Abstract We offer a multi-voiced performance autoethnography where contemporary music education practices are informed and imbued with the voices of teachers and learners. By dialogically and musically engaging with the very people who live, make music, and engage with learners in music classrooms, we promote contemporary qualitative forms of research and the (re)conception of a sociology of music education as a political and an ethical construction that needs to be grounded in serving communities of music practitioners. Through a pedagogical story, told from the perspectives of music teachers using their own voices, we begin an open conversation about the nature of power structures and struggles in music education research. We invite new possibilities in developing understandings of the complex socio-cultural dynamic of music making, music learning, music teaching, and music researching in all facets of contemporary society. By embracing a broader set of traditions—Arts-Based Educational Research and Creative Analytical Practices—that enable us to go beyond socio-cultural frameworks and orthodox beliefs that currently exist in the music education profession, we seek to (re)form a culturally contextualized, ethos-rooted, sociology of music education.

#SaveTheAmazon: Promoting global competence and making bridges in the middle school music classroom

Journal of Popular Music Education, 2022

This article offers an overview of a semester-long general music class unit in an international middle school. Due to international schools’ transient nature, students come from various backgrounds, and many do not have formal musical training. Using samba and popular music as a base for the unit, students developed critical awareness and explored socio-ecological issues in sustainability, resource consumption and environmentally friendly education about the Amazon rainforest. This action research will discuss the teaching strategies used in the classroom to promote student-led learning, problem-solving and collective music-making in times of hybrid learning and physical constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, students studied rhythms and developed musicianship while using popular music repertoire. Subsequently, students investigated the impact of deforestation in the Amazon basin and how it may affect the world. Finally, they learned about activism in art and were enco...

Prospects and challenges of teaching and learning musics of the world's cultures: an African perspective Perspectivas e desafi os de aprender e ensinar músicas das culturas do mundo: uma perspectiva africana

2020

Abstract. African music is an intrinsic part of some social event or occasion. The music is a communal functional expression closely bound up with daily human living and activities. Performance practice of African music is governed by function and context association, rule and procedure that determine how the music should be performed. These underpinnings provide that the effectiveness of African songs depend on the context in which the music is both heard and performed. The impact of globalisation has made the world become a small place, bridged and linked by modern technology. Musics of the world, both local and global, are available through the mass media. Many of such musics are used for teaching purposes outside their cultural contexts of performances. With these principles and belief systems underlying the practice of African music, how should the music be treated, transmitted/handed down in its transferred context? An attempt has been made to answer this question. The African...

Possibilities and Limits of a Multi/Intercultural Music Appreciation at Schools

This paper contains reflections from a work in progress research that aims to analyze the possibilities and limits of a multi/intercultural music appreciation at schools. The research takes place in a Brazilian public school and defends the critical multiculturalism, which has the conception of social transformation and it studies issues engaged with the difference. Furthermore, this work in progress research refers to the historical concept of Critical