Week 8: Blog Post Culturally Relevant Pedagogy & Elementary Music Education

Starting off, a culturally relevant pedagogy can be defined as “an effective way of centering the cultures, languages, and experiences that diverse students bring to classrooms so as to increase their engagement and academic achievement” (Lopez, 2011, p. 77). Teachers “must gain knowledge of the cultures represented in their classrooms, then translate this knowledge into instructional practice” (Lopez, 2011, p. 77).

So my future classroom, I would start off by building a relationship with each and every student that walks through my door. I would try to build an understanding of where they are coming from and ensure that this classroom will become a safe place to share any thoughts or feelings if need be. I feel like most classrooms these days are very westernized in a way that a majority of the classroom posters are in English and feature white people on them, there is also only one flag hanging in each classroom (Canada) and, (the odd one might have the Saskatchewan flag as well). So I would first like to add all the other cultural flags that my students are from and distribute them hanging around the classroom. This may look a little crowded by it will signify that we just don’t only care about Canadians in our classroom but other cultures and places as well. From there, we would try and learn the words to each cultural song from the students who are from there. We may have the lyrics to each song being projected on the projector of the classroom with English subtitles below to help the other students who may not know the song. This creates a sense of community as we will now not only sing O Canada, but other cultural relevant songs as well.

My second move would be to implement more culturally responsive posters. I am always a fan of a giant welcome sign that hangs on our front door but says welcome in 30 different languages. My classroom will be a prominently English speaking classroom, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have other languages in books and posters around the classroom that promote diversity and allow students to learn about their classmates cultures and practics through the use of storytelling and books.

Through the use of music education, it provides “opportunities to experience the traditions that underpin one’s environment that can not only increase their musical understanding but also develop students socially and emotionally, thus strengthening their sense of place” (Brook, 2013, p. 2). I know that simply listening to different genres can be boring and repetitive for the majority of students. I am a very kinesthetic learning, so I would want my students moving and keeping active while developing a sense of place. For elementary students, I would incorporate more musical instruments into our programming. I know students can begin to take music as an elective during their middle years but it wouldn’t hurt allowing students to practics freely during elementary school. They can form groups and try and practice playing along with different cultural songs. That way students are actually being active during this learning experience and can develop a sense of place by learning about all the different types of songs that represent different environments throughout their communities.

Brook, J. (2013) . Placing Elementary Music Education: A Case Study of a Canadian Rural Music Program. Placing elementary music education- a case study of a Canadian rural music program.pdf – Google Drive

Lopez, A. E. (2011). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Critical Literacy In Diverse English Classrooms: A Case Study of A Secondary English Teacher’s Activism and Agency. Culturally relevant pedagogy and critical literacy in diverse English classrooms A case study of a secondary English teacher’s activism and agency.pdf – Google Drive