Culturally Responsive Music Education as a Tool for Advocacy

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I often open my speaking engagements and professional development workshops with a few questions to the group to check to see who’s in the room.

One of the questions I ask is: “How many of you know that what we do in our music programs matters as a vital part of a well-rounded education?”

Now, I’m typically speaking and working with groups of music educators, so every hand in the room goes up. And it’s true! Music is a vital part of a well-rounded education, in fact, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) specifically states that we are to provide a well-rounded education for every child, no matter their personal circumstance, which includes academic success in the arts.

One problem however, is that while music educators everywhere know that what we do is a vital part of a well-rounded education, without consistent advocacy efforts our music programs face defunding, understaffing, and at worst closure.

There are many underlying causes, but one clear solution to support advocacy efforts is to consistently demonstrate high quality music programs that engage students in relevant, real-world contexts of music making that support their understandings of themselves, others, and the world around them. And that’s where Culturally Responsive Music Education comes in and can be one of our strongest tools for advocacy for music education.

The case for music education advocacy

People everywhere have an appreciation for music and the arts. Music and the arts are uniquely part of the human experience, but when it comes to music and art programs in our schools, often those are the first programs to go when a school is faced with budgetary constraints.

Additionally, music and art teachers often feel as though we are “the lowest rung on the ladder” in comparison to our colleagues in disciplines such as language arts, math, science, and social studies. Often what we do isn’t seen as vital for a student who is struggling to read or understand fundamental math concepts.

One reason for this problem is because so often music educators aren’t engaging students in relevant, real-world contexts of music making.

Music educators, become music educators because we love music! We have already had powerful experiences with music and already see the value and why it matters. Unfortunately, the way our music curriculums are set up, it assumes that the students we’re teaching also already see the value of music and why it matters, so we skip the part where we make the learning relevant.

And because students don’t see the relevancy, they aren’t able to see why music matters, or how music is a vehicle to construct understandings about ourselves, others, and the world. They don’t see how what they learn in their music program matters to their real life.

And as a result, these students grow up to be adults who may love music, but don’t see why it’s necessary as part of school. And some of these adults grow up to be the decision makers who decide if a music program stays or goes.

Our current music curriculums often engage students in musical tasks that are only necessary within the four walls of a band room, choir room, or general music classroom. And because the curriculum isn’t connected to relevant, real-world tasks, no wonder many of our students struggle to see the value of music. 

This can be frustrating to music educators, because like I said, we love music! And we want our students to love it, too. However, if we’re going to successfully advocate for our music programs, then we must stop operating from a “music for music’s sake” kind of perspective because that assumes that the learner already sees the inherent value. But in many cases, our students don’t see the value of music because we have not made it explicit.

See, music educators love music and so we are quick to want to get to the notes, rhythms, and techniques of performing music. So quick in fact that we forget to stop and ask “why?” “Why would a student want to learn this?” “ “why would learning this matter to my students?”

These are vital questions that we must answer first before we ever design a rehearsal, concert, or lesson because these questions are how we ensure that we can make the music learning relevant to the lives of our students and connect the learning to skills and understandings that will serve them outside the four walls of our music rooms.

Culturally Responsive Music Education as a Tool for Music Education Advocacy

Research has proven many times that music education leads to better academic performance, enhanced cognitive function, and better socio-emotional awareness. In fact, a recent study from the University of Southern California that focused on adolescents found that music education does in fact boost well-being.

The research is there to support advocacy efforts, and now music educators must ensure that how and what they’re teaching is in alignment with the powerful force that is music education.

Culturally Responsive Music Education “utilizes the prior knowledge, experiences, and interests of our young musicians to engage them in relevant musical tasks that help them to construct understandings about themselves, others, and the world through the medium of music (Cuthbertson, 2023).”

It is vital that we move beyond basic musical skills and concepts only teaching, and begin first with the relevant, real-world tasks that a particular musical standard is suggesting (I wrote more about connecting standards to real-world contexts of music making here).

And by relevant, I’m not talking about teaching hip hop or pop music (although those should absolutely be a part of our music curriculums!). I’m talking about, “what is the real reason why a person/musician would interact with this in the real world?”

Here’s a quick example: 

Perhaps you know the folk tune “Hot Cross Buns.” It’s a very commonly used piece in beginning instrumental classes and general music recorder classes.

On the surface, it’s pretty basic. Music educators like it because it’s repetitive, and only uses three pitches so it’s very accessible to beginning instrumental musicians. And because it’s pretty basic, we often teach it as such: we get our students to learn the notes, they play it, and we move on.

But what if instead, we began from a place of “why” with this piece? When we ask “why” and dig a bit deeper, we can see that “Hot Cross Buns” is an English street cry. A street cry is a type of song or chant that was used way back in the day as a form of promotion or advertisement. Someone selling a product or service would literally “cry out” on the street a catchy tune or chant to let people know what they have.

Do our students today have experience with advertisements or promotions? Absolutely! We are all bombarded with marketing messages all day, everyday, and that includes our young musicians!

Starting with the “why” of this piece (advertisements) allows us to make this hundreds of years old tune relevant. Instead of “we’re learning this piece to learn these three pitches”, now we can move to “we’re learning this piece to learn more about how people use marketing messages.” Now we’ve connected this simple folk tune to a relevant, real-world connection that’s outside the four walls of our classroom.

And we can go even further. Instead of just learning the pitches, playing the song, and moving on, we can now: 

• Connect to the purpose of the piece and connect that to something students are already familiar with (marketing messages)
• Understanding the purpose of the piece informs how we respond and perform it using musical expressive elements that convey the purpose (you wouldn’t whisper to advertise your product or service, you would shout! Now we can talk about dynamics and articulations)
• Engage in the artistic process to create our own street cries (today they’re typically known as ‘jingles’) to promote something we value utilizing the musical concepts that we learned when we were initially introduced to the piece
• Learn about musical careers where people create jingles for a living
• Learn a variety of jingles and examine how marketing messages can be used to persuade

With the jumping off point of one seemingly basic tune, we have not only engaged our young musicians deeply in a real-world, relevant task (people make their whole living off of creating jingles!), but we have also utilized music as a vehicle to construct understandings that will serve our learners outside of our beginning instrumental classroom. We’ve now made music learning relevant to them and demonstrated why music matters.

Teaching in this way, it’s so clear that music is a vital part of a well-rounded education. This is the kind of music curriculum and instruction that we all need to be utilizing as we continue to advocate for our music programs. 

Picture this: 30 years from now, the students in our music programs will be adults. And some of those adults will be decision makers: lawmakers, administrators, school board members. When faced with a budgetary decision where cuts need to be made, what kind of background experiences do you want those decision makers to have had in regards to music education? 

For me, I wouldn’t want those decision makers to have experienced a K-12 music education where they sang in a choir or played in the orchestra and learned great repertoire, but only learned about the musical skills and concepts.

Instead, I would want those decision makers to have had a rich K-12 music education experience where they experienced musical learning that connected to their frames of reference, engaged them in purposeful, relevant, real-world musical tasks; and they engaged in learning where music was the vehicle to learn more about their own multifaceted identity, the experiences & identities of others, and how to better understand the world around them.

I think that the decision makers who can think back on their K-12 music education experience and see the relevancy and value are the ones who won’t be so quick to cut the music program, in fact maybe they’ll be quick to ensure that the music program is well-funded.

In this way, what and how we teach everyday becomes an important tool for advocacy and integral to advocacy efforts.

When we utilize Culturally Responsive approaches in our music programs we are in fact utilizing one of the most impactful and powerful tools for advocacy because when it’s clear and explicit that what we do is so much more than just teaching notes, the argument to cut our programs becomes null and void.

How are you advocating for music education?

I would love to hear your thoughts on how you’re engaging in music education advocacy efforts! Share in the comments below!

Also, let me know what you think of this post! If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter where I send blog posts and other resources and tips each week to help support you ensure all of your young musicians thrive by centering equitable and culturally responsive practices in your music program!

Until next time,

Ashley

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