Question

What are the benefits of including and acknowledging cultural backgrounds and experiences of
students in an elementary music classroom?
How can music be used as a medium for social and cultural consciousness at an elementary
level?
Rationale
As discussed previously this semester, culture will always be a part of a music classroom
whether it is purposely executed or not. Often, culture is absorbed by students as an invisible
concept. This can occur when teachers overlook the opportunity to educate and acknowledge the
varying individual backgrounds and experiences within a class. It is important for music
educators to show students that music can be used as a tool to unify and include all kinds of
people. When music teachers make a conscious choice to use resources that explicitly depict
aspects of other cultures and ethnic groups, cultural competency is achieved(Abril).
Although it is important to teach and introduce different cultures to students in an
elementary classroom, acknowledging specific cultures and backgrounds of individual students
can be beneficial to including minority groups. Aside from broadening the perspectives of
students, planning a culturally diverse curriculum is equally important to maintain an inclusive
classroom for students whose cultures may be considered to be in the minority. This can help to
show students that music is a unifying power that can bring different people together.
This topic is especially prevalent in the Harrisonburg area as the schools are made up of
increasingly diverse populations. An example of this idea can be largely observed through the
inclusion of refugees in a classroom. Understanding the therapeutic benefits that music can offer,
can help to inform music teachers on how inclusion might be achieved. As discussed earlier in
this semester, general music was originally titled general music referring to the public that would
be taught. It was titled this during a time of social justice, when students needed a way to come
together. (Abril)
Abril, C. R. & Kelly-McHale, J. (2016). Thinking about and responding to culture in general
music. In C. R. Abril & B. M. Gault (Eds.), Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and
Viewpoints (pp. 241-263). New York: Oxford University Press.
Sources:
Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL.
Caroline Lenette & Naomi Sunderland (2016) Will there be music for us? Mapping the health
and well-being potential of participatory music practice with asylum seekers and refugees across
contexts of conflict and refuge, Arts & Health, 8:1, 32-49, Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17533015.2014.961943?needAccess=true
Lee Higgins. (2007) Acts of hospitality: the community in Community Music, Music Education
Research, 9:2, 281-292. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17533015.2014.961943?needAccess=true
Cambell, Patricia Shehan. (2002, September). Music Education in a Time of Cultural
Transformation. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2307/3399881.
Marsh, Kathryn. (2012). The beat will make you be courage: The role of a secondary school
music program in supporting young refugees and newly arrived immigrants in Australia.
Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1321103X12466138