Image Map

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Race in the Music Room: Respect

Over the last several weeks I have been tackling the topic of inclusion for traditionally marginalized people and perspectives in music education, and today we're talking about race. This is an emotionally and politically charged topic for many, but also a particularly salient one! I most certainly do not claim to have all of the answers, or to even be raising all of the right questions, but as with all of the topics in this series, my hope is to spark reflection and conversation for music educators so that we can take productive steps forward.

Affiliate links are contained in this post. This does not change any part of the buying or viewing experience for you, nor does it have an impact on my views or on what I choose to share.

To help me address this topic I sought insight from two people of color who are music teachers I admire: Danielle from Music On a Cart and Czarina from Little Upbeat Class. I've also been doing a lot of reflection, reading, and talking with colleagues and others in the community over the last year in particular, so the thoughts below are a compilation of all of our ideas.

My focus in this series is threefold: reflecting underrepresented perspectives and people, responding to the needs and perspectives of marginalized perspectives and people, and respecting those differing perspectives and people as we do so. The topic of race is an enormous one, so I will be tackling the issue of reflecting students of color (representation) in a separate post. Today I want to focus on responding to and respecting a broader range of people and perspectives.

1. Take a hard look at your own biases and listen to people from other perspectives.

I've been saying this all through this series but it's worth saying again! It is impossible to expand our worldviews and perspectives in isolation. Obviously talking to people from differing backgrounds face-to-face is one of the most powerful things we can do in this area, but books and articles, professional learning communities (local or online), and social media are all excellent ways to hear from other perspectives and learn from experts who have been studying the topic as well.

You'll find a list of some specific resources for books and online resources later in this post, but I want to focus here on the idea of listening to people from different perspectives. If you are a white teacher, it can be embarrassingly challenging to find people of color to hear from. Looking for pop/ contemporary music to include in your choir concert that are "school-appropriate"? Whether you're looking on the radio, in a Facebook group for music teachers, or doing an internet search, my guess is (and my experience has been) you'll find a lot more songs performed and written by white people before you'll find anything by people of color. Looking for music teachers to follow on social media, authors to read in professional journals, or other ways to learn from experts in the field? The majority of the ones we'll come across initially are going to be white.

It is our job as teachers to seek out those differing perspectives, particularly those that are marginalized like people of color, and take the time to really listen and learn. This can't be about finding one African-American spiritual or one lesson idea from one teacher of color and patting ourselves on the back. The only way to deepen our own understanding and start to identify our own biases so that we can improve our teaching practice for our students is to listen with open ears over a long period of time and seek to understand.

I've included a resource list at the end of this post. Take the time to listen to some or all of them, and then, in whatever ways you can, amplify the voices of music educators of color. We need to help other music teachers find these resources and learn from these voices, and we need to better support our colleagues of color as well. Czarina put it this way (quote from her interview with Razan Abdin-Adnani): "As a woman of color in music education, I am the minority. The majority of music directors are white and usually male. Because of this, I have felt pressure to maintain the status quo in order to prove my worth. As I grew in my own voice and resilience, I realized that being a female-music-director of color is my strength. I am representation. This understanding led me to challenge the status quo, to fight injustice, and to be intentional about providing wider representation and a deeper understanding/appreciation of my students' identities in my teaching." When you find excellent resources from people of color, share them with colleagues!

2. Be proactive in eliminating songs that have a racist background as well as practices/ vocabulary that are offensive to certain racial/ cultural groups.

It is amazing how many songs that are part of the standard literature for many elementary music programs have racist backgrounds. Songs like "Jump Jim Joe", "Five Little Monkeys", and "Jimmy Crack Corn" are all songs that have appeared in many elementary music textbooks and resources and have been used in workshops for many prominent methodologies but all have racist backgrounds. If this is new information for you, you're not alone! But it's time to do some research. Here is an article by Aimee from O For Tuna Orff to get you started.

I've seen a lot of discussions on this topic among music teachers: should we or shouldn't we eliminate folk songs and other music that we've used (and loved) for years but find out have racist origins? There are differing opinions on this. Some teachers prefer to teach the song and have a frank discussion about its racist background, using it as a learning opportunity (Danielle has been able to do this successfully with her older private lesson students, for example). Others modify the portions that are racist by changing the lyrics or eliminating certain sections and use the edited version. Although there are some situations where these strategies might be worthwhile, as in Danielle's example, in most cases I (along with Danielle and Czarina) take the approach of replacing repertoire with racist backgrounds entirely. There is so much music out there in the universe- why would I continue to use a piece that is offensive to certain groups of people and promotes a biased, disrespectful perspective? It takes more effort to find new songs to use and create new lesson plans, but in our opinion it is most certainly worth the time and effort.

This concept goes beyond just song material- we also need to make the effort to learn about terminology and specific practices that are offensive to other people groups and eliminate them from our teaching. Yes, it can be exhausting to learn new vocabulary for referring to people groups or changing little habits that we have, but I believe it is our responsibility as teachers (and, really, as humans) to make the effort to change (and not insist that others should "stop being sensitive", as I've heard some say).

The best way to learn about terms and practices that may offend others is to develop open and honest relationships with people in your community and just ask! Different people groups, and even individuals, will have different opinions on what vocabulary is harmful. And there are so many little things we do as teachers that can offend students or parents but can easily be changed! I learned during my time in Korea, for example, that in some cultures it is like a death wish to write a person's name in red. I no longer use red when I correct papers- now I use another color like purple or green (and hey, it's more fun anyway)!

3. Don't be afraid to discuss race in class.

It can be intimidating to even bring up the topic of race in class, especially if you are a white teacher with classes that are primarily students of color. Take the time to do your homework, of course, but you as a teacher will never have all the answers. If you create a classroom environment where everyone can be open and honest in sharing their perspectives and listening to others', productive conversations can happen by learning from each other.

I teach a very short unit on jazz music in my 6th grade classes. As part of my introduction, I show videos of different styles of jazz from different time periods. As we watch Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald and talk about the way jazz changed over time, race naturally comes up. I used to avoid getting into the topic too deeply, but now if a student doesn't bring it up in the first few minutes I raise it myself! It's important for students to have opportunities to have honest conversations about race and become comfortable with the topic. It doesn't have to take over the entire class period- we all know how limited our class time is already- but if we raise it matter-of-factly whenever it is appropriate, we will create a classroom environment where students of all races feel more comfortable.

4. Don't make assumptions about students.

I mentioned this in my post on world cultures, but it applies to racial groups as well: don't assume that a student (or anyone else, for that matter) is of a particular race or identifies with a particular group. There are French people with very dark skin who certainly wouldn't call themselves "African American" (for example)! Avoid putting students on the spot or referring to them as an example of a particular people group- get to know the students and have private conversations with them if there is a reason their personal racial identity would be helpful to bring up in class. Remember that nobody's identity is one-dimensional or straight-forward. We are all multi-faceted individuals with unique perspectives, backgrounds, and stories.

5. Look for, and seek to change, ways that you favor the characteristic behaviors of one racial/ cultural group over another.

To truly respect and respond to students from varied backgrounds, we have to think beyond just racist songs and terminology. One area of ongoing reflection for me has been taking a hard look at the kinds of behaviors I encourage and discourage in my classroom (and in my school building as a whole). Are the behaviors I see as "negative" actually detrimental to student learning, or are they just harder for me to manage or uncomfortable for me personally? A simple example is hoodies. In the past I would automatically tell any student with a hood on to take it off in school. Now I only do so if the students are covering their mouths with it while singing, playing with the ties, or otherwise inhibiting their learning in some way. I have found that for some students, they put their hood on when they are upset and it helps them feel safe, which actually improves their ability to remain in class and participate. For others it is simply what they're used to, and by allowing those students to keep their hoods on they feel more comfortable in my class and feel their identity is more accepted. Perceiving the difference between those for whom putting their hood on is a distraction or a means to "check out" from the class, and those for whom it improves their learning, comes down to intentional relationships with my students (isn't that what it always comes down to?).

Another example is the way students enter my classroom. I used to be extremely strict about having classes enter the room silently so that their focus was immediately on the first lesson activity I had planned. Now in some classes (particularly the older grades) I allow students to come in having a quiet conversation or greeting with another student or (more often) with me, and I start our student-led warmup activity while a certain amount of chatter is still happening. I find for certain classes, students are much more comfortable and engaged this way and we get started just as quickly. Am I still a drill sergeant when it comes to walking silently in the hallway? Yep. Do I still have very clear expectations and structure for how students come into my room? Absolutely. None of this is possible without a foundation of structure and high expectations that are consistently enforced. But with that foundation established, I have found that students can handle a certain amount of freedom and, again, feel more welcomed in my classroom (which leads to increased engagement throughout the rest of class).

What about helping other students with answers? Of course there are times when I need to be able to assess each individual student's understanding of a particular concept so I cannot have students helping each other. But I have found shared/ cooperative learning opportunities to be tremendously helpful, whether they happen to be struggling with the topic or are able to help others! The point is to be open to the idea that behaviors we may be trying to prohibit may actually be ones that can help some of our students learn more effectively and give more equal importance to values of different people groups. Often it is a matter of finding different ways to manage the behaviors in a classroom setting. In every case it can only work with a foundation of high structure and clear expectations, combined with intentional relationships with each individual student.


Here is a list of some books, articles, websites, and social media accounts that can serve as resources for further thought and discussion. This is certainly not an exhaustive list! If you have other resources or people you are aware of, please share them below so we can all learn from each other!

I hope that this post serves to spark thought and discussion and that we can continue to learn from each other to better serve all of the students in our classrooms! To stay in touch and get more content delivered straight to your inbox, be sure to sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter.

No comments :

Post a Comment