JODY STARK
Jody Stark is an award-winning music educator who is passionate about making quality music education available to every child. In addition to teaching courses in music education, Dr. Stark coordinates the U of M music education program, and the summer Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály programs at the Desautels Faculty of Music. She is certified in Kodály and Orff-Schulwerk pedagogy and incorporates both approaches in her work as a teacher educator and clinician. Prior to becoming a teacher educator, Jody began her career as an elementary and early childhood music educator and choral conductor. She taught in both English, and french immersion for many years. Dr. Stark is thrilled to be at the Desautels Faculty of Music and is excited to work with the vibrant music education community in Manitoba.
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Decolonizing Elementary Music Education: A Pragmatic Exploration of a Comparative Musics Model
Introduction and Purpose
In spite of the fact that Canada is the most multicultural country of all western nations (Gören in Morin, 2013), the repertoire in Canadian elementary music resources and classrooms tends to be largely monocultural (Stark & Arcand, 2019). A common response in trying to diversify the music curriculum is to simply include repertoire from ‘other’ cultures. However, Hess (2015) notes that this additive approach does indeed “broaden the curriculum” (p. 339), but in a way that racial and cultural hierarchies remain untroubled. Hess advocates instead using what she calls a Comparative Musics Model (CMM) where music educators strive to teach music in a way that contextualizes the musics being studied, thus “(bringing) the intersections of race, class, gender, dis/ability, and nation to the forefront and (focusing) on the ways that these fluid categories intersect with each other and also the subject matter” (Hess, 2015, p. 341).
This paper shares findings and reflections from a collective case study that explores the potential of Hess’ (2015) model for an anti-racist, decolonizing music education. Seven elementary music teachers from one Canadian school division participated in the study and each participant constituted one case. The participants were introduced to Hess’ model and worked together over a period of five months to deepen their understanding about what teaching from such a model might look like in their own classrooms. The study sought to respond to the following research questions:
‘Imagined Communities’
Participants struggled to define Canadian-ness and to teach music from a variety of peoples or places without essentializing. Viewing the participants’ reflections through the lens of imagined communities (Anderson, 1991), it became clear that identifying as ‘Canadian’ is not only a function of where one is born or where one pledges allegiance, it is also an act of imagination. Anderson suggests that “nation-ness” is a collectively shared identity that is shaped and safeguarded by a particular community of individuals with common aims, characteristics and/or values (p. 3). Thus, a ‘nation’ is essentially a bounded entity whose boundaries mean that some people are included and some are not. The participants struggled with whose music and stories should/could be included in their music programs, and began to notice the problematic nature of the discourses of nationalism and multiculturalism (Bradley, 2006).
Disrupting a Song-Teaching Epistemology
Participants struggled to think differently about teaching and learning music. In particular, they found it difficult to reframe their work from that of teaching songs to focusing on teaching about human experience and differing perspectives through multiple musics. This especially became apparent when attempting to incorporate Indigenous perspectives. At a moment when Indigenous Canadians are asserting ownership of their musics, worldviews, and ways of life, the participants found themselves in the difficult position of being expected to represent Indigenous perspectives, but not being able to simply teach repertoire to this end.
Outside Challenges and Resistance, and also Support
All participants noted the difficulty in finding non-anglo resources for use in their teaching and also experienced various forms of resistance (and silence) from administration, students, other colleagues, particularly when framing their work as anti-racist (Bradley, 2006). On the other hand, participants also experienced moments of support and tremendous generosity as they strove to learn about and explore other musics in their work with students.
Significance of the Study
Elementary music teachers are influential members of their school communities. Not only do they teach every student in the school, but they are often leaders in shaping their school’s public events and celebrations. At a moment when decolonizing narratives are being met with resistance in political and social spheres and nationalism bordering on fascism is occurring in many countries, this research is meant to contribute to a pathway for engaging students in a more pluralistic understanding of cultural identity.
References
Anderson, Benedict. (1991). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. New York, NY: Verso.
Bradley, Deborah. (2006). Music education, multiculturalism and anti-racism: Can we talk? Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 5(2), 2-30.
Hess, Juliet. (2015). Decolonizing music education: Moving beyond tokenism. International Journal of Music Education, 33(3), 336-347.
Morin, Rich. (2013, July 18).The most (and least) culturally diverse countries in the world. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/18/the-most-and-least-culturally-diverse-countries-in-the-world/
Stark, Jody & Arcand, Jennifer. (2019). Exploring an imagined Canadian identity. The Canadian Music Educator, 60(2), 19-23.
In spite of the fact that Canada is the most multicultural country of all western nations (Gören in Morin, 2013), the repertoire in Canadian elementary music resources and classrooms tends to be largely monocultural (Stark & Arcand, 2019). A common response in trying to diversify the music curriculum is to simply include repertoire from ‘other’ cultures. However, Hess (2015) notes that this additive approach does indeed “broaden the curriculum” (p. 339), but in a way that racial and cultural hierarchies remain untroubled. Hess advocates instead using what she calls a Comparative Musics Model (CMM) where music educators strive to teach music in a way that contextualizes the musics being studied, thus “(bringing) the intersections of race, class, gender, dis/ability, and nation to the forefront and (focusing) on the ways that these fluid categories intersect with each other and also the subject matter” (Hess, 2015, p. 341).
This paper shares findings and reflections from a collective case study that explores the potential of Hess’ (2015) model for an anti-racist, decolonizing music education. Seven elementary music teachers from one Canadian school division participated in the study and each participant constituted one case. The participants were introduced to Hess’ model and worked together over a period of five months to deepen their understanding about what teaching from such a model might look like in their own classrooms. The study sought to respond to the following research questions:
- In what ways do current models of elementary music reinforce colonial understandings of music?
- What might a Comparative Musics Model approach to teaching music look like in an elementary music context?
- What kinds of teaching resources would be helpful in supporting such an approach
‘Imagined Communities’
Participants struggled to define Canadian-ness and to teach music from a variety of peoples or places without essentializing. Viewing the participants’ reflections through the lens of imagined communities (Anderson, 1991), it became clear that identifying as ‘Canadian’ is not only a function of where one is born or where one pledges allegiance, it is also an act of imagination. Anderson suggests that “nation-ness” is a collectively shared identity that is shaped and safeguarded by a particular community of individuals with common aims, characteristics and/or values (p. 3). Thus, a ‘nation’ is essentially a bounded entity whose boundaries mean that some people are included and some are not. The participants struggled with whose music and stories should/could be included in their music programs, and began to notice the problematic nature of the discourses of nationalism and multiculturalism (Bradley, 2006).
Disrupting a Song-Teaching Epistemology
Participants struggled to think differently about teaching and learning music. In particular, they found it difficult to reframe their work from that of teaching songs to focusing on teaching about human experience and differing perspectives through multiple musics. This especially became apparent when attempting to incorporate Indigenous perspectives. At a moment when Indigenous Canadians are asserting ownership of their musics, worldviews, and ways of life, the participants found themselves in the difficult position of being expected to represent Indigenous perspectives, but not being able to simply teach repertoire to this end.
Outside Challenges and Resistance, and also Support
All participants noted the difficulty in finding non-anglo resources for use in their teaching and also experienced various forms of resistance (and silence) from administration, students, other colleagues, particularly when framing their work as anti-racist (Bradley, 2006). On the other hand, participants also experienced moments of support and tremendous generosity as they strove to learn about and explore other musics in their work with students.
Significance of the Study
Elementary music teachers are influential members of their school communities. Not only do they teach every student in the school, but they are often leaders in shaping their school’s public events and celebrations. At a moment when decolonizing narratives are being met with resistance in political and social spheres and nationalism bordering on fascism is occurring in many countries, this research is meant to contribute to a pathway for engaging students in a more pluralistic understanding of cultural identity.
References
Anderson, Benedict. (1991). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. New York, NY: Verso.
Bradley, Deborah. (2006). Music education, multiculturalism and anti-racism: Can we talk? Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 5(2), 2-30.
Hess, Juliet. (2015). Decolonizing music education: Moving beyond tokenism. International Journal of Music Education, 33(3), 336-347.
Morin, Rich. (2013, July 18).The most (and least) culturally diverse countries in the world. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/18/the-most-and-least-culturally-diverse-countries-in-the-world/
Stark, Jody & Arcand, Jennifer. (2019). Exploring an imagined Canadian identity. The Canadian Music Educator, 60(2), 19-23.