Journal of General Music Education

A framework of cultural humility includes three main tenets: (a) commitment to lifelong, critical self-reflection; (b) recognition and mitigation of power imbalances; and (c) accountability to individuals and institutions. In this article, I aim at applying the concept of cultural humility to frame my analysis of musical diversity in music education. Through a cultural humility lens, music teachers may acknowledge their own beliefs, values, biases, and prejudices in relation to diverse musics. A commitment to lifelong introspection through self-reflection and critique may help teachers continue to investigate new ways to redress power imbalances inherent in music education, as well as build their relationships with students and communities bidirectionally.

There are many barriers to collaborative planning between music educators and special education paraprofessionals (SEPs). While allocated collaborative planning time would be best, the reality for many music educators and SEPs is that they are not given this time. I provide three alternatives to collaborative planning that were suggested by music educators and SEPs who participated in an informal learning community. Suggestions for advocacy as well as an advocacy sidebar are provided.

General music class is a space for students to engage in honest dialogue and reflection about the societal, cultural, and historical contexts of music, even when the subject matter is difficult. General music teachers can support students by opening “courageous conversations” about race, culture, and complex histories as they intersect with meaningful repertoire. The purpose of this article is to provide music educators with repertoire ideas and resources to assist in the process. Selections from Rhiannon Giddens’ album Freedom Highway are explored as a point of entry for dialogue about race, culture, courage, and justice in the secondary general music classroom. Songs about the Civil War, the Civil Rights era, and the Black Lives Matter movement are linked to inquiry-based strategies and the national music standards.

Music, movement, and imaginative play are essential for young children to explore and understand the world around them. It is important for educators of early primary students to consider how they can facilitate meaningful learning experiences that are practical, engaging, and allow children to investigate unfamiliar musical ideas in supportive, fun environments. This article introduces Cryptozoologica, a new work for flute, viola, and cello with Storyteller by Australian composer Jim Coyle, and describes how educators of young children can use music from a range of cultures and genres, including Western art music, to teach students to physically, cognitively, and imaginatively engage with sounds and stories. It includes the full score of Cryptozoologica and five lessons that encourage listening, movement, and play as a means of embodying musical understanding and knowledge.

General music education, if practiced with intentionality, has the potential to be a passionate act of hope with tremendous implications for the academic, social, and emotional needs of students. General music specialists have the capacity to expose students to the very best parts of life itself: joy, playfulness, respect, gratitude, creativity, persistence, resilience, curiosity, and so much more. The general music teacher is well positioned to help students develop relationships with long-held human insights and best practices in living an art filled, meaningful life. A few key skills students can learn in the general music classroom include cooperation, communication, positive peer interactions, recognition and support of the rights of others, dependability, responsibility, focus of personal attention, impulse control, delayed gratification, and acceptance of consequences. All 21st-century life skills that are integral to education and human development.

There are many models for structuring peer interactions in the music classroom. From peer mentoring to peer tutoring, to other structured interaction models that have emerged from other areas of education, music teachers have many options when considering how to include structured peer interaction activities. This article describes the various models of structured peer interaction activities that can be used in music classrooms and provides strategies for implementing these activities in ways that support students with disabilities.

Over the past several months, public schools across the United States have experienced a surge of migrant students.1 This sudden influx of these students has caught many schools and teachers off-guard as they struggle to find and pull together available resources to meet the newcomers’ needs. Although the U.S. has a long history of receiving immigrants from all over the world, the educational response schools provide immigrant students remains a controversial topic. In this column, I would like to briefly introduce the historical context into which public school education is situated in addressing immigrant students. Then I’ll share some research-informed advice for teachers to consider as they receive migrant students into their classroom. While I do not intend to be overly theoretical, I do hope that these research-informed ideas will inspire and intrigue teachers to learn from the migrant students and create a welcoming environment that better meets the needs of migrant students.

Many teachers believe in the importance of compositional and creative tasks but don’t find the time to assess those tasks and provide feedback to students. This column encourages teachers to determine why, what, and how assessments will be given. By planning out why (formative or summative), what kind of task will be assessed, and choosing a tool for how assessments will be given, teachers can maximize the amount of feedback they give to students and help students grow as composers. This column provides teachers with solid strategies and methods for implementing student composition assessments in general music classrooms.

In this column, I discuss how a student studying music in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme composed a soundscape for her experimentation report. When creating this composition, this student used GarageBand for Mac.