It’s Time for a Shift in Music Education
Music as a Vehicle: A Practical Guide to Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Music Classrooms is the practical guide trusted nationally by music educators and the leaders equipping their teams. Move from theory to action and make culturally responsive teaching real in your classroom or across your program.
Shipping available in the U.S. only. International orders, please choose the eBook.
Want to read it before you commit? Download the free preview.
Interested in a live Book Talk Session for your team? Learn more here.
Buying it for yourself?
Whether you’re a brand-new music teacher or a seasoned veteran, Music As a Vehicle gives you a clear framework, real classroom examples, and over $1,000 in implementation tools you can use Monday morning.
Buying it for your team?
Fine arts supervisors, district professional learning coordinators, and Educational Service Agency leaders use Music As a Vehicle to give their music teams a shared language and a common framework for culturally responsive practice. Bulk orders available, and pair the book with a live Book Talk PD facilitated by Ashley.
About the Book
Music for every student is what every music educator believes in. Making it real in the classroom is harder. Music as a Vehicle: A Practical Guide to Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Music Classrooms closes that gap.
Drawing on her career as a PK-12 music educator and educational consultant, Ashley Cuthbertson shares the step-by-step framework that has helped hundreds of music educators create affirming learning environments and design fresh, engaging music curriculum and instruction that meets the diverse and ever-evolving needs of today’s learners.
This book is a must-have for music educators looking to:
- Gain clarity on how to remove obstacles and barriers to equitable learning in their music programs
- Go beyond the surface, to deeply understand the cultural frames of reference of their learners in order to create an affirming learning environment where learners feel a sense of belonging
- Learn a process for selecting repertoire that provides pathways for learners to learn more deeply about themselves, others, and the world around them
- Design music curriculum that connects to the real world, providing relevant learning opportunities that will engage learners
- For leaders: build a shared framework and common language your whole music team can use to move from belief to visible, measurable practice
Ashley’s approach is the answer to the urgent call to make engaging, high-quality music education that connects with all learners the norm, not the exception.
Praise for Music As a Vehicle
What your team gets when you bring this book in
When a music team reads Music As a Vehicle together, they don’t just gain knowledge. They gain a shared starting point for change.
Shared language
For talking about culturally responsive practice across the team.
A common framework
That helps teachers move from belief to visible classroom practice.
Implementation tools
Every reader can use immediately, not theory they have to translate.
An optional live Book Talk
Facilitated by Ashley, designed to deepen your team’s engagement with the framework.
About the Author
Ashley Cuthbertson, M.Ed, NBCT (she/her) is a nationally recognized author, keynote speaker, and the founder of A. Cuthbertson Consulting, a national educational consulting firm specializing in culturally responsive practice and equity in arts education.
She is the author of Music As a Vehicle: A Practical Guide to Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Music Classrooms and the architect of the Music as a Vehicle® and Arts as a Vehicle™ frameworks, which anchor her writing, speaking, and consulting practice. Her work is built on a single belief: the arts are a powerful vehicle for success in learning, career, and life.
Through A. Cuthbertson Consulting, Ashley partners with schools, districts, and organizations nationally to make culturally responsive and equity-centered practice visible and measurable, giving arts leaders concrete evidence of student impact they can point to. Her professional learning programs have served thousands of music and arts educators across the U.S. and internationally.
Prior to founding A. Cuthbertson Consulting, Ashley spent 12 years as a PK-12 general music, choral, and band educator and served as a district teacher leader and adjunct professor at Loyola University Maryland and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and holds a Master of Education from Loyola University Maryland and a Bachelor of Music from James Madison University, with additional certifications in Arts Integration and the Kodály approach.
Born and raised in the Washington DC metropolitan area, she enjoys attending concerts and shows, trying new restaurants, and traveling to anywhere there is a beach.
Every copy includes the Resource Toolkit. Valued at over $1,000.
Every reader gets the full Resource Toolkit, including every member of your team if you order in bulk. The toolkit is a collection of downloadable resources, templates, and instructional examples designed to help readers apply the book’s strategies immediately.
The Resource Toolkit includes over $1,000 worth of supplementary resources, including:
- Removing Equity Barriers in Program Policies, Practices, and Procedures Guided Worksheet (value $49)
- Unpacking Values and Beliefs Worksheet (value $29)
- Cultural Proficiency Scenarios in Music Education Guided Worksheet (value $59)
- Activities to Build Classroom Community List (value $99)
- Breaking Through Barriers to Belonging Guided Worksheet (value $19)
- Creating Classroom Goals and Expectations Protocol (value $99)
- Repertoire Through a Culturally Responsive Lens Starter Database (value $99)
- Find the Story Template (value $19)
- Selecting High Quality Repertoire for Music Programs Checklist (value $19)
- Unpacking Standards Examples Across K-12 Music Disciplines (value $49)
- Authentic Music Assessment Examples Across K-12 Music Disciplines (value $49)
- Unit & Concert Programming Examples Across K-12 Music Disciplines (value $99)
- Universal Design for Learning in Music Crosswalk with Instructional strategies (value $99)
- Daily Instructional Template for Rehearsals and Lessons (value $19)
- Daily music rehearsal and lesson plan examples Across K-12 Music Disciplines (value $99)
- And much more!
Want to read it before you commit?
Download the free preview to read the introduction now.
Join the 800+ music educators, leaders, and advocates who’ve gotten their copy
*Shipping only available in the U.S. For international orders, please order the e-Book
Interested in a live Book Talk PD Session for your team? Learn more here.
Already read the book? Here’s what’s next.
Bring it to life with your team
Pair the book with a live Book Talk PD Session facilitated by Ashley. Designed for music and arts teams ready to turn the framework into shared practice.
Go deeper
Explore the MAAV Book Study and other team programs designed to take your team from awareness to aligned, visible practice.
Help spread the word
If the book has shaped your practice, share it. Leave a review, tag Ashley on LinkedIn, or refer a colleague who needs this resource.
