Alexandra Finnie

Culturally Affirming Music Education

Professor: Dr. Whitehead

My experiences in the Culturally Affirming Music Education class with Dr.

Whitehead broadened my understanding of the ways that culture and perspective affect

each individual student (Bandura, Kant). The first part of our class centered around

discussions and readings from Lisa Delpits book, Other Peoples Children. Our class

discussions about this book opened my eyes to the importance of considering student

perspectives based on their cultural backgrounds and home-lives (Campbell). These

discussions contributed to my understanding of the importance of listening and getting

to know each individual student (Da Feltre). Lisa Delpit states that we need to be

willing and able to learn from others in order to see the world through their eyes (p.

74). Some small ways that I have been incorporating these ideas into my teaching have

been by spending the time and being open to listening to my students when they want

to share information about their home-lives with me. I also ask questions about their

out-of-school activities and interests (humanism).

The second part of our class involved participating in an African Drumming and

Dance Ensemble. I found this portion of the class to be very inspiring. It helped broaden

my understanding of the purposes and importance of music in Africa, and it allowed me

to learn in a hands-on style (Comenius, Dewey). We learned the drum patterns by

rote and repetition (Gordon).

First, Dr. Whitehead taught us various drumming patterns. Then, he taught us

several dance moves. After we learned each pattern and each dance step, he showed

us how they work together and how they relate to the dancing, so that we could connect
and organize all of this new information (Piaget). Dr.Whitehead used a particular to

general approach (Pestalozzi) when teaching the entire routine of all the drum parts

and dance parts - we learned several small parts of the overall routine before building

on our previous knowledge, adding to our schema, and combining it all together

(Piaget).

However, when teaching us each individual drumming pattern, Dr. Whitehead

used a whole-part-whole approach by demonstrating the entire pattern before playing

it slowly and breaking it down with explanations (Gordon, Gestalt). Then, he played the

pattern again as a whole so that we could understand how each small movement fits

together to create the entire pattern. This experience has inspired me to include a

bigger focus on playing by ear (Gordon), and to continue to use modeling as one of my

teaching tools (Bruner).

Dr. Whitehead also shared the meaning of this music in the African culture, and

the significance and purpose of the drum pattern that we learned within their culture.

This discussion reinforced my understanding of the importance of contextualizing the

music that my students learn (Ausubel), so that they can connect to the music on a

deeper level and broaden their understanding of the music. This past year (2016-17), I

taught high school chorus. We performed Two South African Folk Songs arranged by

Ruth Morris Gray as one of our selections for our Spring concert. I created an

assignment in which my students watched videos that explained the importance and

uses of music in Africa, and how these freedom songs were developed during the

Apartheid in South Africa. After watching the videos and answering several questions,

we discussed the meaning of the songs together as a class. This assignment helped my
students understand the cultural significance of the songs, and helped make the songs

more meaningful to them (Campbell). The result was that they sang with more

conviction and energy once they understood the meaning of the songs, and they

broadened their understanding of South African musical culture.

The third part of our class centered on individual projects where each participant

picked a culture (often our own) to research. Then, each class member presented and

taught a song or dance from that culture to the rest of the class (Lave & Wenger). I

based my project on a Hungarian song because of my cultural background. This was an

especially meaningful part of the class for me because I was able to share some of my

own cultural customs and traditions with my peers, which has inspired me to want to

create opportunities for my students to share their cultural perspectives with me and

each other as well. This project also helped develop a community of learners (Dewey)

through a humanist approach because all of the class members were able to share

about ourselves and learn more about each other through experiencing music of various

cultures.