KAME contemporary pedagogies weeks 10-12

The first of two final contemporary pedagogies was presented to us by Isabel Rakuljic, a past Conservatorium music education student (Hopefully her name is correct here!). Her topic of discussion was culturally responsive pedagogy. Importantly, it was acknowledged that this concept can not simply be learned from a book, it is something that requires experience, communication and working together with students, teachers and the community. An interesting complexity highlighted was that of “otherness”, which can be an easy trap to fall into. Rather than viewing your own experiences and that of students with various backgrounds and musical experiences in a binary form, it is much more useful to view this as a spectrum, where similarities and differences can be explored and celebrated, rather than focussing on the differences in order to tick a box of ‘cultural diversity’. Similarly, Isabel also mentions that not all students are going to be passionate about their background or the associated music. Including music from cultures all around the world will certainly help to create a stronger music classroom, and it is the personal/experiential skills that I definitely need to develop and reflect on before biting off more than I can chew.

Second, pluralism in music education relates to finding a place for as many musical cultures as possible in music education. James made it clear that this does not mean to completely mix everything together and destroy a nicely planned unit/lesson/pedagogy, but rather to find a balance between as many musical styles and cultures as possible and appropriate. Repertoire choice represents one aspect of pluralism in music education, although music teachers must also consider how new styles of music can inform the experiences and lessons they create for students. Should a piano concerto be represented by the Nashville number system? should a twelve bar blues activity require a transcription exercise including details of time signature and key signature or should it be a performance activity? It becomes clear that new music in the classroom is not only for diverse listening purposes but also by “embracing the widening conception of musicianship made possible under conditions of pluralism” (Webb and Seddon, 2012). James has also mentioned to us that as music teachers it is often necessary to study the vocabulary behind various forms of music. One example he provided was a two part analysis of a performance by a DJ/EDM musician. First, he analysed the performance using the vocabulary common to most western art trained musicians, and second analyses the performance in terms of the actual technology that has gone into the making of that piece/performance, going into details such as “triggering samples and using filters/reverbs”.