2024-03-28T12:31:59Z
http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/do/oai/
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1000
2011-06-03T21:15:11Z
publication:lme
Musicking in a Warmer World
Small, Christopher
2011-05-29T16:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/1
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1004
2011-06-16T00:28:30Z
publication:lme
Asperger's Syndrome and Its Implications for Private Piano Instruction
Parkes, Erin
Recent research demonstrates that diagnoses of Asperger’s Syndrome are steadily increasing. The increased occurrence carries with it a responsibility for music educators to be aware of the symptoms, as well as learning and behavioural issues with which it is associated. Yet since the increase in diagnoses has been so recent, many teachers are not equipped to deal with the complexities of teaching these special students in a manner which allows them to achieve their full potential. The purpose of this presentation is to educate music teachers on the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome and implications for private piano instruction. A brief review of literature will be used to explore the cognitive, physical and behavioural difficulties associated with Asperger’s Syndrome, as well as original research in the form of case studies. The possible manifestations of these issues in private piano instruction will then be explored. Some strategies for meeting the challenge and providing the best possible learning environment for these students will be suggested based on research in psychotherapy and occupational therapy, as well as case studies of successful student-teacher interactions.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/5
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1007
2011-06-16T00:32:21Z
publication:lme
WebQuests for Pre-Service Music Education
Grant, Christina
Pre-service teachers with little or no training in music often resent participating in a mandatory music class for their teacher certification. In order to make pre-service teacher education music courses more relevant, (especially for those seeking certification for middle or secondary school), they must be provided opportunities to explore creative ways to connect music with other subject areas. There has been some evidence in support of WebQuest technology as a vehicle for increased motivation in pre-service teacher education. A WebQuest is an inquiry-based activity during which learners interact with information and resources on the Internet. Potential factors affecting motivation might include a preference toward inquiry-based activities, a preference toward technology-based activities, the use of real-life examples or activities; and group practices or hands-on activities. This study examined the effects of WebQuests on non-specialist pre-service teachers’ motivation specifically for teaching music. Mixed methods were used to collect data during a pre-service teacher education course in music education, and during practice teaching placements. Participants explored WebQuests as an opportunity to practice their musical knowledge in a unique manner, to enhance understandings of how to adapt technology into their teaching, and to explore the effectiveness of WebQuests for the music classroom and integrating music across the curriculum. Findings of the study strongly supported the use of WebQuests as a vehicle for motivating non-specialist teachers and increasing their confidence in integrating music education into their own teaching.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/8
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1005
2011-06-16T00:30:13Z
publication:lme
The 101 Pictures-A Content Analysis of Picture Compositions Made By Music Teacher Students
Calissendorff, Maria
Since four years back music teacher students at University College of Music Education in Stockholm (SMI) have had as their first task in pedagogy to write about good and bad teacher they have met during their school attendance. The task also includes describing what kind of teacher they would like to be by themselves. The written text has been completed by a holistic summary in the form of a picture (painted, drawn, collage, etc) on a good and a bad teacher. In the next lesson there has been vernissage and the students have, from the pictures, told about their experiences about bad and good teachers. What has had strong affect on the students is the holistic summary. The pictures are in many times giving emotionally experiences that hardly had been possible to formulate in words. For many of the students it’s also easier to reflect and express themselves verbally, than read and write texts. It can be of importance to be able to express oneself in pictures, to have it as a tool to communicate with. Today it’s known that some people have a more developed visual ability than other. They both like pictures and are learning easier through pictures. So pictures are playing a part in education and learning. But there’s a fact that the higher up the hierarchy of education you come, the less common it seems that there are pictures with the benefit of verbal material. When the amount of pictures became over hundred there was a wish to take advantage of them before the quantity becomes too large and also to make them available to more than first year students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students choose to, through picture compositions, produce their memories and experiences of good and bad teachers they had encountered. A further aim with this paper is to highlight alternative forms of accounting. How can picture compositions be analyzed and compiled in an appropriate manner? The method used was content analysis and the outcome was analyzed in the theoretical framework of authenticity. Conclusions were that a good teacher is authentic and that’s showed in the pictures by a heart which beats for both students and teaching, a big happy mouth, bright eyes, ears – that both hear and listen – and a teacher at the same level as her/his students. About alternative forms of accounting the students appreciate to do in ”different ways” but for the examiner there’s a need of caution. How many teachers in higher education have the knowledge to assess picture compositions? Based on this study the use of compositions in teaching has more to be seen as a complement to the written text and a way to increase the pleasure for the students with their first account.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/6
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1003
2011-06-16T00:01:36Z
publication:lme
Deciding to be a Music Teacher: A study of New Teacher Education Students' Life-Narratives
Czarnecki, Andrea
This paper describes a qualitative study of undergraduate music education students' life-story accounts focused on experiences that motivated them to become music teachers. Asmus (1994), Vispoel (1994) and Rickels (2009) suggest that teaching and learning experiences during childhood are highly influential in this decision-making process. Sources also support the theory that a key factor motivating music students to pursue a career in music education is prior experience in a teaching role. This paper reports on a grounded theory (Charmaz, 2005) study addressing the research question: What are the factors that influence music students to pursue a career in music teaching? Ten participants were selected from students in year one and two of a five year music education program. Data were elicited by requesting students' to create life experience maps (Bernard, 2004), engaging students in presentations of their life-narratives in groups of five participants, group discussions of commonalities among their stories, small focus group interviews, and individual interviews with two selected participants. Final data consisted of artifacts of the 10 students' visual presentation of their life stories, video recordings of their verbal presentations, recordings of the group discussions and individual interviews, and presentation and interview transcripts. Analysis involved constructing individual narratives and then doing thematic life-story analysis (Creswell, 2005). This analysis resulted in emergent themes from their life-narratives and the identification of hierarchies and relations of factors that appear influential in their choice of teacher education. Presentation of the findings draws strongly on the constructed participant narratives. Relevance of this research lies in its potential to understand potential music educators' decision making. This may help inform the selection of candidates in music teacher education programs. Findings highlight the importance of the teaching and learning discourse, and may provide opportunities for increased relevance in the field of music teacher education.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/4
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1001
2011-06-15T23:58:11Z
publication:lme
Perceptions of Female Students in a Same-Sex School: Gender Stereotypes and Musical Instruments
Buttu, Sommer
The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of gender and musical instruments of female students in a same-sex school. This naturalistic study focused on the experiences, perspectives and observations of students in their real-world environment. Data sources included: student survey, junior and senior focus groups, individual interviews and a teacher-researcher reflective journal. Research questions included: (a) How do students in an all-girls’ school perceive gender stereotypes (as previously identified in research) in relation to musical instruments? (b) How do students in an all-girls’ school describe their experiences of playing their instrument in a co-education environment? (i.e.: Honour Band, Band Camp.) The findings of this study revealed that the participants possessed an overwhelming perception that: gender stereotypes exist - however the participants do not feel them in their particular school. The impact of the student’s environment, both inside and outside of school played a key role in the experiences of the students. Students who had experience playing their instrument in a co-educational environment expressed a heightened awareness of societal pressures and expectations in relation to gender and musical instruments; in addition, they cited the presence of competition in the co-educational environment.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/2
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1006
2011-07-07T19:58:28Z
publication:rwkex
publication:musiceducation
publication:rwkex_posterpresentations
publication:faculties
publication:lme
publication:musiceducationpres
Teachers’ Perceptions of Elementary Music Education in Ontario
Anderson, Elizabeth
It could be argued that one of the most significant constraints within which music leaders in school work is that of curriculum. In the past 18 years, the Ontario Ministry of Education has released three Arts curricula for the elementary grades. In 1995, the New Democrat Party under the leadership of Bob Rae produced The Common Curriculum: Policies and Outcomes, Grades 1-9, followed closely by a new document in 1998 under the Harris “Common Sense Revolution” government. The expectations for music in this curriculum were considered by music education advocacy groups in Ontario to be too difficult to be taught by non-music specialists. Most recently in 2009, the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training under yet another new leadership of the Liberal government and Dalton McGinty, released the latest elementary music curriculum. This study will investigate the perceived challenges and opportunities that music teachers, both specialists and generalists, have met when teaching the 2009 Ontario elementary music curriculum. Contributing to this research will be a curriculum writer/consultant, a representative from a music education advocacy group in Ontario, and two music educators to preservice teachers. Data will be collected through interviews and voluntarily contributed documents and artifacts.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/7
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1006/viewcontent/Anderson__Elizabeth_Poster_Presentation.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1002
2011-07-08T20:54:51Z
publication:lme
Music Lessons as a Source for Well-Being and Lifelong Involvement with Music
Mõistlik, Marit
Rüütel, Eha
This paper presentation is based on outcomes of two studies which were carried out in 2008 and 2010. The objectives of the first study were to analyse the experiences and memories gained in general music lessons at school in relation to the current musical activity of the person and his or her attitude towards music; how music lessons have influenced the musical behaviour of a person after graduating from general school and what is the role of the music teacher in that process. I would like to present some results from that study where the following themes were discussed ((1) the most vivid memory from music lessons; (2) an emotion from music lessons; (3) the purpose of music lessons; (4) personality of the music teacher; (5) the importance of music; (6) involvement or lack of involvement with music at present) in the light of outcomes from the second study.The second study explored connections between creative lessons (music, arts and crafts and physical education) at general education school and 13-14 year-old pupils’ leisure activities, creativity and well-being. The idea of this study was to search for links between active participation in creative activity, creativity and well-being. In this presentation I will particularly focus on relations between music lessons and well-being. Could we draw lines between feelings felt before entering a music lesson and general absence from school? Or how is the school's environment connected with that before mentioned entering feeling of a lesson? Are there any differences between boys and girls? Why some pupils stay distant from music and possibilities to change it? How could music teachers encourage pupils in their lessons to start a life-long involvement with music? In this presentation I would like to discuss the idea of music lessons as a source and a resource of well-being in the present and life-long involvement in the future. And what seem to be those difficulties which keep music lessons from being that source at the moment.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/3
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1002/viewcontent/Moistlik_LME_poster__Marit_Moistlik_.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1008
2011-06-16T00:35:16Z
publication:lme
Teacher as Champion: The Culture of the Music Classroom
Kissel, Mark
My research poster focuses on the numerous factors that influence high school teenagers in music programs, including self/peer relations, home and family, their extended community, as well as teachers and administrators. The music classroom is a program unto itself: on one hand, a place to learn the skills that enhance students to become better musician, while on the other a culture that takes on its own identity. Music teachers have played an important part in the creation of this identity. Yet in our new post-modern classroom, the long-established role of the music teacher is no longer the sole champion of the program; rather, they have taken on a new role, one that shares the responsibility of creating and maintaining the culture of the classroom with numerous partners, including the student and the broader community. The research is divided into three sections: the first defines and examines the role of the music teacher first as a modern educator, then looks at what today’s music classroom appears to be, and the role of the music teacher as an transformational educator and champion in the post-modern organization; the second section identifies key culture concepts within the music classroom and program and how students both influence and determine the outcome both on their own and with the teacher champion, and; the third section sets about determining intrinsic factors within the school community and their relationship upon the music student, teacher, and classroom program. The goal of this research is to understand how the music teacher constructs a positive, welcoming environment and culture in the music classroom, and to understand the bond that exists between the teacher, students, and external community in creating a successful music program.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/9
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1010
2011-06-16T00:36:28Z
publication:lme
Teacher Learning and Leadership Program for Experienced Teachers
Allen, Sandra
This program, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, OTF and in conjunction with the Renfrew County Board of Education is an action research project designed to support generalist elementary teachers who are teaching music in their classrooms. In the Renfrew County District School Board, the French teachers have been given the added assignment of teaching the Arts curriculum. The teachers who are currently teaching The Arts, specifically music, have little or no experience either in the subject area itself, or in teaching music in a meaningful way to young students. There have been frequent requests for help; however it is difficult to share many years experience and education “on the fly.” The plan for this project is to help teachers become more comfortable exploring the music curriculum with their students in a way that will develop skills intended to increase their ability to think and act musically and with personal meaning. Often the school music teacher is a student’s first experience with formal musical training. Opening a world of creative, hands-on learning will help students make educated choices and strive for creativity and quality music both in school and out. Helping teachers open those doors gives all parties a chance to aim for that quality and give them the skills and understanding to make music their own. This action research project worked with 4 different teachers and their classes in 5 once a week sessions each. The teachers enthusiastically participated in a musical unit with each of their classes and were keen to continue the programs on their own and to seek out further musical experiences through workshops and courses.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/11
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1009
2011-06-15T23:52:30Z
publication:lme
Music Education and Reading Education: How to Connect Them?
Lessard, Andrée
Bolduc, Jonathan
While many students have difficulty to read at the onset of the elementary level, music seems to be an effective way to improve their reading abilities. In fact, numerous approaches have been implemented to facilitate the development of reading abilities. Despite their pertinence and validity, complementary approaches have been put forward to limit the recurring difficulties students encounter at the beginning of the elementary level. Among these, several authors place a particular emphasis on the musical world. This could be explained by the growing number of studies discovering the numerous links between musical learning and others non-musical learning domains. Among these links, recent researches demonstrate the beneficial role of musical education on the development of the written language through the activation of mirror neurons, phonological awareness and metacognition. Correlational studies also show an undeniable link between music learning and reading learning. These results inspired us to examine the steps to follow to create an efficient program of reading instruction that would incorporate music instruction. To evaluate the efficiency of a reading and music program, a quasi experimental study has been designed and performed with second graders. While some children participated exclusively to a reading program, another group participated in a program combining music and reading. This poster will first highlight components that are included in lessons of this second program. Important objectives in reading acquisition will be exposed, such as decoding, fluency, comprehension, morphosyntax and vocabulary. They will be linked with music acquisition objectives such as rhythmic and melodic discrimination. Secondly, examples of different combinations of reading and music objectives of the lessons will be presented such as a way to work on decoding, comprehension and rhythmic discrimination in the same lesson. Finally, some of the preliminary results of the study will be exposed. A list of recommendations will be dressed in order to design reading and music activities adapted for the elementary level. This presentation reach the conference theme as it highlights the importance of music for larger education goals. As reading is considered a priority in education by politicians, the link between music and reading is another way to show that music is not only complete by itself, but is also powerful in general education.
2011-05-29T17:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/10
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1009/viewcontent/poster_Lessard_Bolduc_LME_London2011.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1011
2011-06-04T00:13:11Z
publication:lme
In Harmony (England)
Hallam, Richard
This short presentation will briefly cover 4 areas: The context The programme The evaluation The future
2011-05-29T21:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/12
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1011/viewcontent/In_Harmony_England_LME_Canada_2011.pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1011/filename/0/type/additional/viewcontent/In_Harmony_England_Canada_May_2011_Leading_Music_Education_International_Conference.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1013
2011-06-16T00:40:30Z
publication:lme
Choral Crossovers: Singing the "Other" on the Canadian Prairie and the Outskirts of the Kalahari
Robinson, Kathy
Choral musicians and music educators throughout the world have been singing a more globalized repertoire with increasing frequency in the past 10 years. While western musicians grapple with teaching and learning these “new” musics and broadening their perspectives on music and music making little, however, is known about musicians in non-Western traditions teaching, learning and playing western music -- a practice which has been going on for a far longer period of time. Singing expresses and embodies Black South African culture (Louhivuori, Salminen, & Lebaka, 2005) and its choristers devote a significant portion of their lives to singing and participation in choral festivals and competitions (Stevens, 2007) where western choral repertoire gets top billing. Choral singing in Canada, which Thomas Turino (2008) deems of a presentational nature where music is distanced from everyday life and its performers from their audience, increasing embraces aural traditions from around the globe, and South Africa in particular, where the enthusiastic participation of the audience is an integral part of the music experience. How does the South African chorister immersed in her highly participatory tradition since birth cross musical boundaries to sing western music before judges and audiences? Conversely, how does the Canadian chorister schooled in western music cross musical boundaries to sing South African traditional music learned aurally and shared with full body engagement? Of what benefit is this boundary crossing to choristers on both continents? This paper examines how Black South African and Canadian choristers, in their own words, negotiate the disjuncture between singing music of their traditions and that of unfamiliar others. Data were gathered via personal interviews with 16 choristers from a Galeshewe SATB choir that participates in adult choral competitions and 16 choristers from an Edmonton SATB choir known for their singing of repertoire from Southern Africa. How and why western choral repertoire is learned in South Africa and Southern African music is learned in Canada as well as the role and function of this “unfamiliar” music in these choristers’ lives will be presented followed by implications for music educators.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/2
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1015
2011-07-09T00:29:57Z
publication:lme
Freedom’s Children, Music Education and the Student Voice
Finney, John
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/4
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1012
2011-06-03T22:22:22Z
publication:lme
C. Small, R. Scruton, B. Bernstein and a Platypus Walked into a Bar… A Slightly “Tongue-in-Cheek” Examination of the Purpose of Music Schooling in the Postmodern Era of the Western World
Froehlich, Hildegard
2011-05-30T16:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/1
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1014
2011-06-16T00:41:47Z
publication:lme
Musicking and Empathic Connections
Laurence, Felicity
"African Madonna" is a choral work composed by the presenter for children's choir and adult soloists, in which issues of empathy and solidarity between peoples is addressed. In the course of the piece, a view of Africa and its people is expressed and demanded in such texts as "Africa, beautiful Africa, you can give us a new picture of ourselves...." Drawing upon Christopher Small's account of musicking, and conceptual resonances between this and theories of empathy, this paper will explore the potential of this kind of musical work to kindle and express consciousness of issues of social justice, taking in this case a recent historical perspective within a South African context. Paraphrasing Christopher Small's own deceptively simple question in his investigation of the nature of musical meanings, I will ask what might have been "really going on" in two performances of this piece separated by time and circumstances, and will also examine from this theoretical view the attendant pitfalls that occur when too much trust is given to music's (assumed) agency - the 'power of music' -to effect sustained and sustainable positive transformation at individual and collective levels.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/3
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1017
2011-07-09T00:34:57Z
publication:lme
Developing Organic Music Teacher Education Programs
Jones, Patrick M.
Too many music teacher education programs are conceived as if they are independent of their larger institutions. They also ignore the musical ecology of the communities from which their students come and into which they graduate. The causes for this include professional indoctrination, professional and personal biases, deficiencies in expertise, and political realities. This leads to a lack of variety among programs, isolation within institutions, limited resources, disconnection from the musical ecology in which programs are situated, and teacher preparation that is not as relevant as it could be. In this paper I advocate for music teacher educators and university arts administrators to develop programs that are organic to the institutions and contexts in which they are located, in touch with the musical ecologies in which they are situated, and focused on preparing students for the settings in which they will teach.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/6
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1021
2011-07-09T00:27:58Z
publication:lme
Radical Change in Music Education and the Professional Development of Music Teachers
Philpott, Chris
Finney, John
A sociological analysis of curriculum development in music education in England shows a frustrating impact on the distribution of achievement and social justice. What chance then of the most recent developments in learning and pedagogy having a radical impact on music education? In light of this question this paper will explore a meta-pedagogy for the professional development of music teachers (initial and ongoing) which is fit to facilitate radical curriculum change. It would seem that the status quo in music education has been perpetuated by models of teacher education in which teachers (and pupils) have been consumers as opposed to makers of knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy. It can be argued that the most effective professional development for music teachers is that which employs the insights we now have about the material nature of learning. In short, if the implications of the relationship between informal and formal learning and pedagogy are to make a radical impact on music education, then the professional development of music teachers needs to embrace this wisdom into the heart of learning how to teach. This paper will explore a meta-pedagogy for the professional development of music teachers driven by the same processes that underpin what we seem to be discovering about musical learning. Such a meta-pedagogy might promote the following virtues: explicitly ‘living’ the learning where the relationship between formal and informal learning and pedagogy is embedded into the very process of professional development; facilitating the ‘excavation’ of the tacit and intuitive experience of musical learning in teachers (Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’) through reflexivity; by embracing 1 and 2 opening what Bernstein calls ‘discursive gaps’, where change is possible through the creation and interpretation of knowledge by teachers and pupils.
This meta-pedagogy will be illustrated through case studies from initial teacher education. While such a model cannot not guarantee the direction of curriculum change, it can promote sustainable developments in the pedagogical knowledge of teachers and thus, potentially, the distribution of achievement and social justice in music education.
2011-05-30T20:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/10
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1020
2011-07-09T00:38:32Z
publication:lme
50 Years: The Stockholm Institute of Music
Calissendorff, Maria
Lindeborg, Ronny
Seven people met in Stockholm in the autumn of 1960 to found a private institute for music teacher education destined to become an alternative to the established public conservatories. This was a clear reaction against the hegemony of traditional teaching practices, offering a distinct approach based on close ties to educational practice, group tuition and singing in all courses. There was at the time a general lack of qualified music teachers in Sweden – only one half of the music teachers (50%) in the compulsory school were formally educated, and only one quarter (25%) among instrumental pedagogues. There were therefore both qualitative and quantitative arguments to support the expansion of formal music teacher education. Our review is based on archives from board meetings, annual reports, various registers and commemorative works during the fifty years this University College has been in existence. SMI's legislative history helps clarify the music educational modernization occurring during the second half of the 20th century. Modernization emphasized the rationalism behind one-to-one teaching while SMI promoted a group-teaching methodology. This was perceived as better tailored to meet pedagogical needs and the childrens' desires to develop their practice together with their peers. With regard to the current discourse on practical knowledge, SMI is of particular interest. Students at SMI work as music teachers parallel to their studies. The balance between theory and practice is still a unique and compelling reason for students to choose studying at SMI. Apart from being able to address current issues in teaching practice from direct experience, the degree design promotes the possibility to continue living and working in the home community and to combine study and income-generating employment. SMI has undergone an institutional metamorphosis from the first decades forming a study centre for adult education, evolving through a college identity to become an established university college with accredited music education degree programs. SMI has played an important role as an alternative and example in the areas of practice-oriented and distance education. Despite SMI's marginal institutional position, small-scale organisation and meagre economic resources, it was at the turn of the 1980's the single largest producer of instrumental and vocal teachers in Sweden. It has currently an increase in students auditioning to attend the music teacher programme, from 60 applicants 2009, to 106 applicants in 2010, an increase of nearly 80 per cent.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/9
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1016
2011-07-09T00:26:29Z
publication:lme
Music and Identity Construction in Grenada West Indies
Sirek, Danielle
Considerations of self identity and nation identity are central to postcolonial theorizations of West Indian culture, with an accompanying understanding of African diasporic identity as ‘an ongoing, ever-changing process, in which perceived African pasts are constantly renegotiated, constantly subjugated to new and changing realities’ (De Jong 2006). In Grenada, West Indies, music in and as culture is evidently a powerful force in constructing perceptions of an identity that has been not only constantly fluid and multi-scoped, but also oppressed, subverted, and corrupted by colonial and post-colonial hegemonic structures.Christopher Small (1998) places the meaning of musicking in the ‘ideal’' relationships that are forged during the musicking process. It is through 'exploring, affirming, celebrating' (Small 2010) relationships with others and the Other, I suggest, that perceptions of self identity and nation identity are formed. Grenadian people use music not only in constructing a ‘true’ Grenadian identity, but also in making that identity known to the Caribbean nations and the greater world-at-large. Using a ‘Smallian’ lens, this paper seeks to illuminate some aspects of the influence of ‘musicking’ in Grenada upon perceptions of identity, with reference to recent fieldwork in Grenada, music and identity construction in other settings, and insights which may arise into music as culture with regard to identity in our own North American – European context.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/5
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1019
2011-07-09T00:36:32Z
publication:lme
Repositioning the Elements of Music: A Student Framework Worth Listening to
Countryman, June
Rose, Leslie Stewart
In this presentation we trouble the persistence in North American music education of the elements as the unit of analysis. Teaching the elements of music remains a Canadian curriculum mainstay, an anachronistic, simplistic requirement that, we contend, engenders pedagogies that are less than relevant and inspiring and can even be oppressive Presented as a body of knowledge belonging to academic musicians, these verbal/ analytical elements elicit pedagogies focussed on identification skills, definitions and closed-ended questions and dictate singular ways of listening and expressing. We describe how, under the pressures of standards and accountability, music teachers resort to academicking their music classrooms, confining musical understanding, thinking and expression solely to the realm of verbal language, disregarding the holistic, body/mind/spirit experience of musicking.
We use our experiences of the ways high school students respond to music in listening contexts to inform our understandings of what a meaningful, relevant music education might look like. Students love to talk about music as well as to create and perform it, but in different ways than an emphasis on the elements might dictate. We share what we learned from our students: they already possess a framework for talking about music, a framework worth listening to.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/8
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1022
2011-07-08T21:31:20Z
publication:lme
"Rhythmic Music" in Danish Music Education
Pedersen, Peder Kaj
In Danish state schools from elementary to upper secondary school music is part of curricula at all levels. It is widely accepted that both individuals and culture benefit from art subjects, creative activities etc. This type of motivation was sufficient support for maintaining music as a subject at all levels of the educational system from around 1960 to around 2000. This tradition dates back to the 1920s, when the first Social Democratic government in Danish history (1924-26), with Nina Bang as minister of education (probably the first female minister worldwide), in the field of music made an alliance with innovative concepts of music as a subject rooted in 1) “folkelig” music (a term associated with the Danish Folk High Scool movement and musically with composers as Carl Nielsen, Thomas Laub and others) and in 2) the establishing of music as a university subject founded on up-to-date paradigms in European musicology in the early part of the 20th century. When jazz entered the (musical) life of young Danish (high)school-children around 1930, it also changed the agenda of discourse in professional and academic circles engaged in music. Students, composers and performers caught interest in this new genre of music, and in Denmark this interest manifested itself in attempts to integrate jazz in the musical education of the youth. A unique genre, the so-called ‘jazz oratorios’, was created by the composer Bernhard Christensen (1906-2004) and the librettist Sven Møller Kristensen (1909- 91), and endeavors to establish courses in jazz in the public educational system were made by Bernhard Christensen and others as early as 1934. The term ‘jazz’ was avoided and the Danish term ‘rytmisk musik’ (‘rhythmic music’) was invented to emphasize the didactically qualified educational content of the activity and to avoid what was associated with jazz, especially by its opponents. This paper aims at taking stock of the situation in Danish music education during the last decade and at specifying the situation of ‘rhythmic music’ within this context.
2011-05-30T20:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/11
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1022/viewcontent/PederKajPedersen_RhythmicMusic_.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1018
2011-07-08T22:51:39Z
publication:lme
Music for Life: Promoting Social Engagement and Well-Being in Older People Through Community Supported Participation in Musical Activities
Creech, Andrea
Within our current social context where extraordinary demographic transitions are underway, where the numbers of old people suffering from depression is increasing and where there is an accepted need for initiatives that support older people’s well-being and productivity (Age concern, 2008) little attention has been paid to the potential for music-making to effect a significant contribution to the quality of life of older people. This research explored the role of music in older people’s lives and how active participation in making music, particularly in community settings can enhance their social, emotional and cognitive well-being. The specific aims were to investigate the way in which participating in creative music making activities could enhance the lives of older people, to consider the extent to which this may impact on social, emotional and cognitive well-being and to consider the processes through which potential benefits were achieved. A further aim was to explore barriers to participation and to consider implications for effective practice. The research comprised three UK case studies, the Sage, Gateshead, the Connect Programme of the Guildhall School of Music, and Westminster Adult Education Service, which each offer a variety of musical activities to older people. In each case study a sample of older people (total N = 398) some of whom had recently begun musical activities (novices), others who are more experienced were recruited to complete questionnaires about their musical background, musical self-concept and musical preferences. The questionnaires included measures of well-being; these were the CASP-12 quality of life measure, developed for use in research on ageing (Wiggins et al., 2008), and basic psychological needs scales (Deci and Ryan (2000). The questionnaires were completed before and after nine months of active engagement with music. A control group (N=102) who participated in activities other than music completed the same measures. In- depth interviews were carried out with a representative sample of participants, followed by observations of musical activities and focus group interviews as well as interviews with the musicians facilitating the activities, participants’ family members and representatives from charitable organisations working with older people within the wider community. Higher scores on the CASP-12 and the basic needs scales were found consistently amongst the music participants, in comparison with the control group. The music participants attributed significant social, emotional and health benefits to their active music making. Many participants re-invented a prior musical self-concept, for example, through memories of music-making at school, suggesting that musical opportunities early on in the life-course may have a cumulative and long-term influence on resilience in older age. This research supports the view that active music-making has powerful potential benefits for older people but that in order for these benefits to be maximized facilitators/teachers require appropriate training that meets specific needs and addresses barriers to participation.
2011-05-30T17:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/7
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1018/viewcontent/Creech_Music_for_Life_NDA_Leading_Music_Education.pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1018/filename/0/type/additional/viewcontent/Creech_Project_Portfolio_6_April_2011_1_.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1024
2011-07-09T00:30:47Z
publication:lme
Reforming Music Pedagogy
Barnes, Yuan
This paper proposes the profound need for a reform in music pedagogy where creativity is nurtured and improvisation and composition are both catalysts and symptoms of this change. A look at the creation, formation and development of the present public education system reveals that the current way of doing things is no longer meeting the needs of students nor society. Some have argued that both the content and method of music education as we know it have become elitist, competitive and alienating, and, in hopes of ensuring excellence, fear in students has also been instigated. Educators are encouraged to reconsider their own views of the function of music education in present-day society. This paper proposes the necessity for music educators to educe or draw out creativity in their students, allowing them to become more fully human and in turn meet the needs of an ever-changing culture and society.
2011-05-30T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/13
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1023
2011-07-08T21:55:05Z
publication:lme
The Implications of South African Children’s Multimodal Musical Games for Music Education
Harrop-Allin, Susan
My paper is based on ethnographic research into South African urban township children’s musical games. Young learners’ unsupervised, self-choreographed and designed musical games are rich music-dance practices which, I suggest, constitute important kinds of local musical knowledge. As such, I propose that these games are potential resources for music teaching and learning that may be ‘recruited’ in different ways. I am interested both in how these musical games are hybrid, mixed multimodal forms specifically located in South African township culture, and their implications for pedagogy. In this paper, I present some of the games that are particularly interesting in their combination of expressive, artistic modes in complex ways. I consider them with relation to their cultural and musical hybridity, the artistic capacities they demonstrate, and how children’s musical games relate to their identities and meaning-making. I argue for the need to engage with indigenous cultural practices, and acknowledge the richness of children’s embodied musical knowledge as a way of producing new pedagogical and performance possibilities.
2011-05-30T20:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/12
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1023/viewcontent/Susan_Harrop_Allin_LME_conference_presentation_for_proceedings_June_2011_final.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1028
2011-07-09T00:40:24Z
publication:lme
Philosophy and Problems of Physical Education: Is Music Education Really All That Different?
Freer, Patrick
“It is perhaps surprising that there should be a need for a chapter in this book about the aims of a subject that has been a recognized part of education for almost a century” (Whitehead, 2000, p. 7). This sentence is the first in a book about the philosophy of a school subject that is required of all children during their elementary years, yet which becomes increasingly marginalized and fragmented during the secondary schooling years (Capel & Piotrowski, 2000). The subject matter? Physical education. Music education and physical education have long coexisted in schools. Music teachers frequently, but unfairly, characterize the relationship between these two subject areas as a competition for enrollment, student interest, and community support. This competitive situation can be readily seen when schools are forced to choose programs for elimination in the current economic climate (Melton, 2010; White, 2010). A primary purpose of this paper is to highlight philosophical and theoretical commonalities between the two disciplines such that music educators may establish points and arguments in collaboration with colleagues in the physical education profession. It is anticipated that this goal may additionally lead to joint research and philosophical projects in support of a fully liberal education for all students. This paper reviews foundational and current literature in both disciplines to identify parallel and divergent matters concerning pedagogy, sociology, advocacy, and curriculum. Attention is then given to how these issues have been supported by philosophy and theory. For example, there are concurrent discussions about the purposes of musical and physical education, whether they exist for immediate achievement or for lifelong participation. There are debates about the role of instruction for all students (general music and physical education) and more specialized instruction for selected students (performing ensembles and athletic sports). This is further emphasized in discussions about the role of generalized instruction as a potential precursor to specialized instruction. Questions arise about the training of teachers in both subject areas, whether teacher preparation programs should emphasize content expertise or pedagogical knowledge. Other current issues in both fields include gender equity; cultural diversity; the role of local, national and international organizations in the life of the profession; and considerations of instrumental versus pragmatic benefits of an education in the discipline.
2011-05-30T21:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/17
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1026
2011-07-09T00:42:58Z
publication:lme
There's No Place like Home: Community Choir Shallaway and the Production of Cultural Identity
Galway, Kiera
This paper considers the role of music in producing a cultural identity specific to Newfoundland (while recognizing that no culture is unitary). I focus on the community youth choir Shallaway and the ways their explicit commitment to fostering a collective cultural identity are implemented musically and socially. After the collapse of the cod industry, Susan Knight sought a way to help re-invent Newfoundland culture and society. Her solution was to form a community youth choir committed to preserving and disseminating Newfoundland culture and to facilitating the development of future leaders in the province. As she says, “The ethos and philosophy of the choir is about developing our young people to be strong, independent, confident and committed to this place with a very strong sense of cultural identity.” In this paper, I examine some of the musical and non-musical ways Newfoundland community youth choir Shallaway develops individual and communal cultural identity among its members. Content analysis of the choir’s website, mandate and promotional materials offer background for considering how the choir’s choice of repertoire (both traditional folk material and commissioned works) reflect and produce historical and social narratives, and interviews with choir members offer insight into how the choir’s young singers internalize these narratives. Part of music’s power (in terms of identity) is its ability to define a space without (geographical) boundaries. I argue that what makes music special for Newfoundlanders is its ability to define a place without boundaries –that is, ‘Newfoundland’ music denotes and invokes that culture wherever and whenever it is performed, remembered or otherwise present. As a Newfoundlander recently defected to the “mainland”, I think often of the responsibility our province’s young people bear in building the province’s economy and culture. I’m not alone - klatches of faithful Newfoundlanders tend to form in almost every province, a collectivity I playfully term ‘the Newfoundland diaspora’. The tension between staying at home, helping to revision the future of our place, and moving away to seek one’s individual fortune often plays out in the folk and popular music of our region. Through focus group sessions with former Shallaway members now living away from home, I investigate how the “home and away” dichotomy operates among choir members who have chosen to leave the province. I also look at music’s role in fetishizing the distant ‘home’, and its power to invoke and create collective memory in the ‘diasporic’ community.
2011-05-30T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/15
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1027
2011-07-09T00:32:05Z
publication:lme
The Funky Mamas: Sustained Music Making and Learning within a Community of Practice
Bolden, Ben
A little over a decade ago five young new mothers began making music together. Informal playing and singing at play groups and play dates led to an invitation for the musicians to perform more formally at a local library. Now, with two critically acclaimed CDs and many more children, The Funky Mamas perform regularly at festivals, fairs, theatres, and a variety of community events across the country. For some time I have been fascinated and inspired by this collective of professional mother-musicians and the music they produce. From my observations, these individuals have—in many diverse ways—enriched their lives and the lives of those around them through music making. As a music educator, I was profoundly curious to learn more. The driving impetus for this learning is my desire to figure out how music educators might set students up to have this kind of rich and sustained relationship with music making throughout their lives—beyond the classrooms and studios. To this end I designed a qualitative case study research project to explore and examine the music learning and making of the musicians within this unique community. What skills, knowledge, and understandings have The Funky Mamas developed? How have they learned what is necessary to engage in the rich, meaningful, and life-enhancing music making that has become so central to their lives? What experiences have they lived? Data were collected through interviews, the elicitation of narrative accounts, and field observations that provided windows into these musicians’ formal and informal music learning experiences, musical biographies, lifespan musical development, and the nature of their relationships with immediate and extended music communities. In order to interpret and make sense of the gathered data, I employed a theoretical framework informed by Etienne Wenger’s Communities of Practice, Learning, Meaning and Identity (1998), in which learning is viewed as a result of social participation, and identities are defined in relation to communities of practice. I also considered findings in relation to Green’s (2002, 2008) conceptualizations of formal and informal music learning. Emergent themes examined here include community, identity, personal growth, and lifelong learning. The Funky Mamas provide an example of musicians who have taken music making far beyond classroom and studio experiences—they are lifelong music makers and learners. I draw from the research results to illuminate the learning experiences that enable these musicians to make and learn music in this context. I go on to suggest how music educators might support and empower similar learning through their own teaching. In direct response to the problem of students’ limited ongoing musical activity beyond formal music education experiences (Mantie & Tucker, 2008; Myers, 2008), findings from this study enable me to conclude the paper by offering implications and suggestions for music educators who strive to provide meaningful and pragmatic music learning experiences that will empower their students with the ability to engage in rich and personally fulfilling music making throughout their lives.
2011-05-30T21:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/16
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1030
2011-06-15T23:14:00Z
publication:lme
“Changing the World One Song at a Time”: Interrogating Constructions of Community in <em>Common Thread Community Chorus of Toronto</em>
Yerichuk, Deanna
Community choirs enact notions of community often based on the assumption that community singing bridges and celebrates cultural diversity through shared musical experiences. What makes Common Thread Community Chorus of Toronto unique among community choirs in Toronto is an explicitly political focus to its musical community-building efforts. This paper explores how the construction of community within Common Thread is predicated on the notion of cultural inclusion through musical, social, and political dimensions. Drawing from research conducted with the choir in 2010 that explored the social and musical experiences of choir members, I argue that the relationships between choral members’ socio-musical experiences and the choir’s construction of community are predicated on particular notions of multiculturalism and inclusion based on a partially visible White normative centre. I will first interrogate how community is constructed within the choir through a complex system of multicultural/multilingual repertoires, musical practices, and sociocultural accessibility measures. The second part of the presentation will focus on Common Thread’s construction of community situated within larger local and global activities and discourses of social justice. Drawing from political theory and adult education theory, I explore Common Thread’s construction of community through the problematic field of identity-differences. The concept of identity-differences locates individual and communal constructions of self in relation to others as complex composites of intersecting power relations. Identity-differences are collective and relational, which often (although not inevitably) insinuate the construction of otherness into its logic. This research raises significant questions for consideration in the development of choral rehearsal and performance practices and structures that seek to diversify membership through bridging differences within and beyond singing communities.
2011-05-30T22:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/19
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1030/viewcontent/Changing_the_World_One_Song_at_a_Time.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1025
2011-07-08T17:50:49Z
publication:rwkex
publication:musiceducation
publication:rwkex_researcharticles
publication:faculties
publication:lme
publication:musiceducationpres
So You Think You Can Glee? Implementation of Popular Styles in the Secondary School Arts Programs
Hutchison, Jennifer
This paper addresses the issues of popular culture, media- in particular television programmes such as Glee and So You Think You Can Dance Canada- and the effects on music and dance programs in the secondary school system. A comparison of the two performing art forms demonstrates many similarities and some significant differences in their current position within an educational context and the challenges that potentially face the two streams. A small-scale qualitative study was conducted using interview methodology seeking data from a dance teacher (secondary school and private studio) investigating this teacher’s opinions on the issues identified above and the similarities and differences between the two subjects-dance and music. This data is contrasted with the researcher’s own perceptions of the issues based on her experiences as a secondary school music teacher of nine years. An examination of the implications that are faced by music and dance educators is discussed in consideration of sociological theories of culture and education drawn from the work of scholars such as Bourdieu, Bernstein, Green and Wright. The paper identifies the relevance and challenges of implementing popular music and dance into the secondary school arts curriculum while examining the relationship of music and dance through an exposition of their commonalities. The connection of dance to music is established in their similar social function, personal identity relationships, relationship to cultural capital, gender issues and communicative forces. These similarities are further examined as both forms are confronted with challenges of how to negotiate classical technique with popular style infusion. An underlying factor of student perception and attitudes toward popular music and dance as a result of their portrayal in the television industry is revealed through the teachers’ perspectives. The challenge for dance and music in education arising from their association with visual media is discussed with particular reference to the issues facing students and teachers as they are forced to negotiate a discovery between the images presented by such shows and the ultimate reality of replicating that ideal.
2011-05-30T21:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/14
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1025/viewcontent/Jennifer_Hutchison_Conference_paper.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1029
2011-07-10T20:52:23Z
publication:lme
Maxwell's Music House and Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Music: A Study in Contrasting Commonality
Willingham, Lee
Paul Maxwell is very careful to praise his formal music education in classical theory, piano, and musicology. As a business major, he minored in music at Wilfrid Laurier University and studied music all through his elementary and secondary school years. His dream for a community music centre that featured live performances and instruction was forged in his fourth year of undergraduate study. At the age of 26, Paul Maxwell is into his third year of operation. This paper explores the relationship that is being forged between a community music-for-profit enterprise and a very traditional university faculty of music. At first, common ground is not abundantly evident. Yet, an interesting symbiosis between the Laurier’s Centre for Music in the Community and this spunky little neighbour across the street is emerging. Various aspects of the co-existence and growing mutual recognition of each other are described. Models of future collaborations are developed and a general response from the community at large about the effects of Maxwell’s Music house are reported. We pose the following questions and seek for some initial answers in relation to this investigation: How do we equip our music graduates with the skills and entrepreneurship for a career in teaching in and through music in our modern communities? Who teaches? Who studies? Whose and what music is taught? What models of music education can we find in our community and how do they inform our traditional (school) models of teaching and learning? What is the role of the academy in advancing the musical life of the community?
2011-05-30T21:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/18
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1029/viewcontent/WillinghamLME_Maxwell_sPaper.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1032
2011-07-09T00:44:20Z
publication:lme
Conceptualizing Principles of Optimum Experience in Irish Traditional Music
Johnston, Thomas
Irish traditional music to this day is primarily a rich oral tradition, its transmission from one generation to the next being one of its defining characteristics. It lives through this process of transmission from musician to musician, teacher to student, one individual to another, sustained by a cohesive system of principles and values that imbues each experience of the tradition with social meaning and cultural relevance. While the primarily aural, oral, non-literacy, and informal nature of the processes of transmission within the tradition have been widely referred to (Veblen 1995; McCarthy 1999; Vallely 1999; Smith 2005; O' Shea 2008; Ó Dubhthaigh 2009; O' Flynn 2009), what constitutes an ‘optimum experience’ of the tradition has received considerably less attention. This in turn has led to many questions existing around the concept of realizing “authentic musical traditions in context” within educational contexts. This paper presents Slí an Cheoil [The Way of the Music], a longitudinal classroom-based study which was designed to investigate the experience of Irish traditional music, by two music teachers and their students, in the context of post-primary music education in Ireland. A dialogical approach involving the perspectives of an inquirer from within the tradition, music teachers and students in a formal educational context, and several visiting Irish traditional musicians had considerable theoretical, ethical, and methodological implications for this study. For example, in terms of the ethical considerations, it was necessary to adopt an epistemological position between the modified objectivity of a postpositivist approach, and that of a constructivist approach, where findings often arose from close interaction and negotiation between the ‘inquirer’ and ‘inquired into’. In terms of the methodological design, action research methodology (utilising classroom observations and interviews) was the primary guiding methodology for the study, and grounded theory was the primary analytical tool for the data which emerged from the classroom observations and teacher interviews. While this paper gives an overview of the findings of Slí an Cheoil, it focusses on the principle of ‘aural learning’, and the five stages of aural progression which were identified over the course of the study.
2011-05-30T22:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/21
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1031
2011-07-09T00:41:15Z
publication:lme
"What is a Good Musician?": An Analysis of Student Beliefs
Randles, Clint
The purpose of this study was to discover relationships in student perceptions of what it means to be a “good musician” across grade level, with regard to gender, and according to different school music affiliation among an intact school culture. The specific problems then were to determine (1) what percentage of students choose to participate in school music, (2) if there is a trend in self-reported good musicianship across grade levels, (3) if there is a relationship between gender and music self-efficacy, and (4) which factors defining “good musician” are indicated most frequently among different grade levels. Subjects (N=1219) were students grades 4 through 12 at a moderate-sized suburban school district in Midwestern United States. Subjects were administered an online researcher-devised survey protocol inquiring about areas of musicianship. Results indicate a majority (56%) of students chose not to participate in school music, student self-perceptions of being a good musician decreased in relationship to grade level, girls indicated being a good musician significantly more than boys (p<.0001), and the category “Performs/Practices an Instrument” was the top cited response for each grade level.
2011-05-30T22:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/20
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1033
2011-07-08T00:51:20Z
publication:lme
Actualizing the (Im)Possible in Community Musical Theater: An Ethnography of Tallahassee, Florida Production of <em>Titanic</em>
Bracken, Jillian
Community musical theater actively engages individuals in music-making and dramatic performances across the United States. The American Association for Community Theatre (AACT) reports that community theatres in the US engage nearly 1 million volunteers in more than 46,000 productions for over 375,000 performances each year. In community musical theater, enthusiastic volunteers are afforded socially and musically meaningful opportunities to perform alongside other members of their community. Musical experiences in the realm of community musical theater afford individuals opportunities for meaningful musical and social interactions. This intensive study of music as a social activity chronicles the experiences of a community group in the southeastern United States as they present a production of Maury Yeston’s blockbuster musical Titanic. Participants’ approaches to music-making on the community level, their reasons for involvement, and their view of the relationship between community and professional musical theater are discussed. An understanding of community musical theater that considers its ability to shape and influence the most fundamental aspects of its participants’ lives reveals the power of this compelling variety of musical performance and its vital function in the larger community. This paper focuses on influences that define or confine musical experience and interactions that come to shape these musical activities. Community musical theater is explored as an important activity that affords individuals opportunities to fulfill a need to be musical through self-exploration and collaboration in a social environment. Community musical theater participants are positioned at the crossroads of what ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino refers to as “the Possible” and “the Actual.” The relationship between the Possible and the Actual is explored as it unfolds in three contexts: between community musical theater and Broadway, within the musical Titanic itself, and for the individual participant in community musical theater. This paper reveals the power of actualizing possibilities in community musical theater an Community musical theater actively engages individuals in music-making and dramatic performances across the United States. The American Association for Community Theatre (AACT) reports that community theatres in the US engage nearly 1 million volunteers in more than 46,000 productions for over 375,000 performances each year. In community musical theater, enthusiastic volunteers are afforded socially and musically meaningful opportunities to perform alongside other members of their community. Musical experiences in the realm of community musical theater afford individuals opportunities for meaningful musical and social interactions. This intensive study of music as a social activity chronicles the experiences of a community group in the southeastern United States as they present a production of Maury Yeston’s blockbuster musical Titanic. Participants’ approaches to music-making on the community level, their reasons for involvement, and their view of the relationship between community and professional musical theater are discussed. An understanding of community musical theater that considers its ability to shape and influence the most fundamental aspects of its participants’ lives reveals the power of this compelling variety of musical performance and its vital function in the larger community. This paper focuses on influences that define or confine musical experience and interactions that come to shape these musical activities. Community musical theater is explored as an important activity that affords individuals opportunities to fulfill a need to be musical through self-exploration and collaboration in a social environment. Community musical theater participants are positioned at the crossroads of what ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino refers to as “the Possible” and “the Actual.” The relationship between the Possible and the Actual is explored as it unfolds in three contexts: between community musical theater and Broadway, within the musical Titanic itself, and for the individual participant in community musical theater. This paper reveals the power of actualizing possibilities in community musical theater and how the music at the heart of this experience is so meaningful to its participants.
2011-05-30T23:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/22
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1036
2011-07-09T00:34:06Z
publication:lme
Music Education and Social Justice: Toward a Radical Political History and Vision
Woodford, Paul
Music educators in North America have a history of political avoidance. In this age of political and economic uncertainty, many music teachers are justifiably worried about the survival of their programs in the face of the continuing neoliberal assault on education, yet many remain curiously reluctant to become politically engaged (Jorgensen, 2004). Even those expressing an interest in social justice often avoid explicit talk of politics, which is strange considering that it is a political goal. This chapter attempts to provide the beginnings of a radical history and context for understanding the politics of social justice in American music education by revealing how much of the profession’s thinking during the past half century, and including a tendency toward political avoidance, was shaped by Cold War politics and the growth of neoliberalism. The Oxford Dictionary of English (2006) defines the word “radical” as involving fundamental change, which I am in fact proposing as an alternative to current practice, but it also refers to the roots of things. As readers will learn, the roots of many of our current problems and political dilemmas are in the Great Depression and Cold War when John Dewey’s socially progressive ideas were deliberately undermined by democratic capitalists seeking to stifle political dissent, in part through education reform, so that America could better flex its military, economic, and cultural muscles worldwide. Thereafter, and continuing more or less to the present day, music had to be taught for its own sake divorced from politics. In consequence, music teachers have a distorted sense of their own history as apolitical and unproblematic and consequently may fail to realize when their professional energies are being “harnessed to the services of power” (Phenix, 1959, p. 270). Today, and while the Cold War is a thing of the past, there are many interesting parallels with the 1940s and 1950s, and if music educators are to further social justice through their programs they will have to expose and confront the vested political interests that have long opposed social progress in their own field and in education as a whole.
2011-05-30T23:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/25
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1034
2011-07-08T23:18:59Z
publication:lme
An Immanent Pedagogy of Music
Ronningen, Anders
In this paper I will introduce a concept of pedagogy of music that I will call Immanent. I will approach it philosophically from two directions: Firstly, I will focus on the notion of Music, (or the ontology of music), and claim that within this notion there is always already a pedagogy enclosed, not to say immanent. I do for example – with Nettl - believe that the way in which a society teaches its music is a matter of enormous importance for understanding that music. Nevertheless, and quite contrary to that, in my ongoing PhD project I find that the activity of learning “music” in school (materialized in the textbooks of my study) is seen as something external to what music really is. These are textbooks with a fairly great amount of non-western classical music represented, but the teaching design is very much the same as with the western-classical music. This indicates to me that music is seen very much like objective knowledge, to be transferred with a tool (external to music), and this tool is (the Western) pedagogy. There are numerous examples on this in different kinds of books and writings. For example, it is possible to speak rather easily about “music pedagogy and its object” (music), hence separating the learning from the music, and hence defining music in contradiction to Nettl: as something existing autonomously, thinkable without any aspect of teaching and learning. Even if adopting a language of musicing or musicking, most people seem to keep a music-as-object ontology, and seeing musicking as a transitive verb, taking “music” as its object. Secondly, I will focus on (music) pedagogy. Several recent music philosophers and writers have commented on the fallibility of the traditional (Western Classical) pedagogy when it comes to other musics. While Lucy Green focuses on informal music education and have done thoroughly research on the use of informal teaching strategies and concludes that they are of most importance when teaching and learning pop-music, Peter Dunbar-Hall draws on his long time experience performing and teaching Balinese Gamelan-music and suggest the term ethnopedagogics to better reflect that different kinds of music are differently thought and learned. Both two perspectives – and numerous others - although recognising the close relationship between the music and its pedagogy, do (at least analytically) separate the music from its teaching/learning methods. My suggestion is not to make different pedagogies for different musics, but to expand the notion of music to also include the teaching and learning processes, and to focus on where “music” is: In the human beings as human doings.
2011-05-30T23:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/23
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1034/viewcontent/Ronningen_An_Immanent_Pedagogy_of_Music_final_draft.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1037
2011-07-08T16:42:54Z
publication:lme
Music Education as Dialogue Between the Outer and the Inner
Angelo, Elin
This paper is based on a study of a Norwegian jazz educators’ philosophy of work. This jazz educator is nationally and internationally recognized as a performer and educator, and is honoured for his work of bringing jazz education into the system for higher music education in Norway. The study is based on video observations, field notes, one interview and a questionnaire. Analysis of this material denotes three bipolar pivot points, which indicate a practice embodied as a constant dialogue between inner and outer aspects of music and human beings. These identified pivot points are named; ‘tradition/person’, ‘music as heard/ music as not-heard’, and ‘teacher/performer’. In the paper I will present and discuss these identified pivot points in a theoretical frame inspired by Martin Heideggers’ philosophy about arts and human beings, and Christopher Smalls notion of ‘musicking’. This discussion will relate to curriculums for basic music education in Norway.
2011-05-30T23:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/26
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1037/viewcontent/Elin_Angelo_LME_Paper.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1038
2011-07-09T00:46:31Z
publication:lme
Reflective Practice in the Secondary School Music Classroom: An Autobiographical Case Study
Vitale, John
Purpose: Reflective practice is an important characteristic for all professionals, particularly educators (Reiman, 1999; Ghaye & Ghaye, 1998; Loughran, 1996; Schön, 1991). As a steadfast supporter of reflective practice in education, I have faithfully recorded many of my music teaching experiences over 17 years. Realizing that I had an extensive pool of data at my disposal, I started the arduous process of sorting and categorizing these reflections about a year ago. Early into this process, I noticed that the largest number of reflections in both quality and quantity represented my last five years of teaching in a suburban Toronto high school (2004-2008), where I had the responsibility of solely restructuring and resurrecting the music program. These specific reflections are the focus of this paper -- a case study presented through an autobiographical research design rooted in phenomenology. In addition, findings from this study will also shed light on the multitude of hardships faced by all teachers of music, as well as providing effective strategies to reduce stress, avoid failure, and foster success. Theoretical Framework The very nature of autobiographical research is somewhat paradoxical, as the researcher studies his/her own experiences. Upon further examination, however, autobiographical research is sublime (Gusdorf, 1980). From an educational perspective, autobiographical research can “help both teachers and students redefine their educational experiences on their own terms and in their own voices” (Pinar and Pautz, 1998, p. 72). The concept of “own voice” resonated dramatically with me when I revisited my own reflections, as they captured the emotions of particular points in time where I was pushed to the very abyss of music teaching. Experiencing these reflections then and now, was and is, exceedingly therapeutic and cathartic. I was able to hear my own voice in way that I have not heard it before, allowing me to question and probe what I was thinking and why (Denzin, 1989; Grumet, 1980). In addition, autobiographical research also reveals many “patterns in experience” not easily demonstrable in other types of research frameworks (Bullough & Pinnigar, 2001, p. 16). Methods of Inquiry and Data Collection Given the many facets of qualitative research design, it was determined that a phenomenological approach was the best framework for this study (Mishler, 1990). In a nutshell, phenomenology addresses how humans experience the world (Moran, 2000; Sokolowski, 2000; Creswell, 1998; Rossman & Rallis, 1998, Moustakas, 1994; & Patton, 1990). The wide variety of reflections emanating from my last five years of teaching secondary school are representative of how I experienced the world of music teaching and are the primary source of data for this study. Reflections can be classified into three categories. The first category consists of 28 journals while the second is a large melting pot of anecdotal notes captured in various forms, such as my teacher daybook (lesson plans), post-it notes, rehearsal notes, and even restaurant napkins. The third category is electronic in origin, including reflections captured in 32 emails and conversations/comments recorded in video footage. Lagemann and Shulman (1999, p. xvi) have claimed that this type of raw data is now “more and more commonplace.” in autobiographical research. Through common trends and associations, thematic representations were extracted from the data and classified both texturally (what is experienced) and structurally (how it is experienced), ultimately producing noteworthy clusters of meaning (Cresswell, 1998).
Synopsis of Findings: According to the data, there were three principal themes that manifested themselves, namely; (a) stress and anxiety, (b) fear of failure, and (c) success. In the full paper, I will provide specific examples from the data (journals, anecdotal notes, and electronic reflections) that will animate these themes.
Scholarly Significance/Practical Impact: The process of reflection helped me get through a very difficult five years of music teaching. Learning transpires not from experience, but from thinking about and reflecting on experience (Dewey, 1933). As two years have now passed, there is another level of reflection that is much larger in scope and scale, namely, the process of reflecting on five years worth of music teaching. In sum, re-experiencing my experience. That is, revisiting, rearranging and reorganizing data about past experiences increases one’s knowledge and shed light on one’s views, values, ideologies and representations of the world (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001). These representations encapsulate the professional practice of teaching high school music, providing insight and transparency into the nature of this demanding role in education. Ultimately, the process of assessing reflections allows experiences to be linked with professional development (Howe et al, 2009).
2011-05-30T23:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/27
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1035
2011-06-20T06:16:52Z
publication:lme
High Quality Performances from “Community” Musical Groups: The Sometimes Conflicting Personal and Musical Requirements for a High Level of Performance Combined with Sustainable Personal Satisfaction in a Long Surviving Musical Group. The Case of The London Jazz Orchestra
Skidmore, Bill
Sociological functionalist theory provides a suggestive array of ideas with which to conceptualize any social structure. Starting with the idea that a structure must perform certain functions in order to survive and fulfill its task, this sociological model sets the subject social structure in its "environment" of other social structures to which it relates, regarding the whole as a "social system." In the language of one prominent theorist of functionalism, survival of any structure in a social system requires the abstract functions of "adaptation," "goal attainment," "integration," and "pattern maintenance" all to be performed successfully. These structural level requirements provide the abstract definitions of roles which must operate throughout the lifetime of any practical group. Functional models work well for task groups, military units, and the like, although close examination of such groups usually exposes important instances of group sustainability requiring contradictory or even non-functional roles to be performed. A community musical organization, members of which want to perform at their highest possible musical level while obtaining for themselves substantial reward in both musical and personal terms, can easily develop contradictory role demands. Over the twenty-two years of its existence, The London Jazz Orchestra has developed methods of handling these conflicting demands which may be analyzed from the point of view of the general functionalist model. Some practical conclusions may be drawn from this analysis.
2011-05-30T23:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May30/Program/24
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1035/viewcontent/LJO_paper.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1039
2011-07-09T00:47:46Z
publication:lme
Publish(ed) and Perish(ing): Tenured (Out) in Music and Music Education
Gould, Elizabeth
“We’re equals, aren’t we, double-oh seven?” M asks in a video made in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. As spoken by Judi Dench, the question is posed after a statement she knows to be inaccurate: “We’re equals. Aren’t we, double-oh seven?” M then deploys data to articulate how men and women are not equals in society, personally or professionally. Asking the question one last time, “Are we equals?” she concludes at the end of the video, “Until the answer is yes we must never stop asking.” With this presentation, I ask the question not in terms of equality, which is both impossible and undesirable, but in terms of actuality. Are we leaders? Leadership in any profession implies work that seeks to make difference, work interested in potentialities of change. Rather than prescribing or proscribing, excluding or silencing, leaders engage individuals and groups inside and outside of the profession to explore all aspects of its discourses and practices—with the feminist imperative to make it better, to make it a profession where dissensus is valued and space is created in which all may thrive. Are we tenure-ing?—anyone other than white men? Academic leadership is defined in terms of tenure, achieved primarily through publishing the right research in the right journals and the right books, all approved by the right reviewers and right editors. As leaders, we address in contingent and provisional ways ongoing concerns related to the “publish or perish” ultimatum and how it—in neo-Marxist terms, reifies; in post-structural terms, disciplines; and in critical feminist terms, legitimates specific parameters and paradigms of scholarly activities and so-called collegial relations—and when it is carried to its logical conclusion of denying tenure through vague and malleable criteria applied in secret and easily corrupted processes—how the ultimatum and abuses it supports then disrupt lives, damage and too often end careers, and impoverish the profession—and us within it. My purpose is Deleuzian (to incite perhaps one tiny revolution) and feminist (through an outrageous act for simple justice), as I enact potential uses of publishing and tenuring in music and music education that might do something-s, provoked by and addressed to lived experience in an ethics—as opposed to metaphysics—of presence; an ethics “in the presence of” (Stengers, 2005). Publishing and tenuring decisions exist in “a dangerous world” of irrational reason and false truths that renders them ethical only when we make them out of time as slowly as possible, hesitating in the presence of those who directly bear their consequences, which are always already material and real: actual. Addressing each other openly and publically, we engage compassion instead of contempt, respect instead of resentment, honour instead of humiliation, becoming leaders worthy of the very publishing and tenuring decisions we make. So. Are we leaders? Are we leading here? Hollaback.
2011-05-31T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/1
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1040
2011-07-13T22:26:46Z
publication:lme
Community Music and The Culture of Trans-border Peace in West Africa: The Case of the Assiko in Gorée (Sénégal)
Koubaka, Henri-Pierre
Close in rhythm to Caribbean the ASSIKO from Gorée in Sénégal has entertained generations of Africans even across the Atlantic ocean just by the mere fact that by nature it is a mixture of various African rhythms. Through its songs and dance steps African ethnic groups and communities of African descent have lived in peace thus discovering the beauty of their own culture and that of their neighbors’ as these were embedded in ASSIKO: singing together a song from another ethnic group, dancing together steps that are invented and made up based on somebody else’s dance has proved to be a tool for peaceful living, peace building, inter ethnic activities, creation of a space where peace becomes the most cherished thing... There are many songs that belong to West African folklore that cannot be translated in any African languages because of the blend of words that came from various languages to make up one song (Bambara, Wolof, Fon, Ewe…). Better yet songs and words have survived thanks to some necessary phonetical transformation that kept them going and alive passed on from generation to generation: Assiko si mama yé! is a phrase sung in Sénégal but no Senegalese language can translate these words: funny how people in Sénégal can still jam and dance and have a great time to this day with these words. How funny that as a teenager in our Assiko band my friends and I sang : ‘ give me money taxi driver , I no k ‘ and discover much later when our command of the English language got a little better that this was from a Ghana-Nigeria High life song that said ‘ if you marry taxi driver , I don’t care’. The Assiko is the fruit of several beats that have migrated to Gorée through slavery : songs from what is today known as Congo, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria made their way to this West African island where slaves were kept before being shipped to the Americas. On the island, slaves from different background taught each other songs in order to face the hardship they experienced on a daily basis. Eventually their songs made it to the Americas where they developed into other forms of spiritual and sports activities that were banned by the slave owners. This paper/interactive workshop explores concrete cases of ancient and contemporary Assiko songs and dances in Africa and in its Diaspora. Very little is known about the Assiko from Gorée while its counterpart from Cameroon enjoys more popularity; the paper/audio-video workshop investigates the differences and similarities that make this music style a communitarian activity late at night on the beach with instruments that require no electricity to play all night long.
2011-05-31T23:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/2
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1040/viewcontent/KOUBAKA_Final_Paper_Workshop.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1041
2011-07-09T00:48:40Z
publication:lme
Reinventing Ourselves as Musicians
Dolloff, Lori-Ann
As music educators most of us have come through a very well-defined system of musical training and education. We have excelled at a very narrow genre of music and that is what has brought us to study music in higher education. Thus the music with which we identify, and indeed, our musical identities are bounded not only by the specific repertoire that we play, but also by the ensembles within which we make music and the places where it is made. The study of Western European music is still the dominant curriculum in universities and teacher education programmes. World Musics though encouraged and promoted are still viewed as an “alternative” to the canon of Western Art Music. As teachers we are called to respond to a diversity of music making students and contexts, most of which do not correspond to our education—in schools or in university. We are called therefore to adapt, evolve and reinvent ourselves as musicians and music educators. Most of us do not give thought to the continuing evolution of our musical selves throughout our lifelong journey as teachers and musicians. In this presentation a narrative study of the life long journey of James, self-taught jazz musician, classical pianist, choral conductor and church musician will examine how we reinvent ourselves as musicians throughout our lifespan. James’ story covers 70 years of music making and teaching. A gifted pianist, his goal was to teach others through school music. That goal was not realized and music making and teaching took place in other forms and in other contexts. What are the challenges to adapting as we engage in musical leadership throughout a life? What are the opportunities that shape and reshape our musical identities. Through this narrative study, we will illustrate and examine the role of community in defining our musical identities and the multi-musical, multi-cultural selves that we inhabit as we perform those identities. The narratives of pre-service and beginning teachers will be set in dialogue with that of James in order to allow us to move forward and backward through the time continuum. This presentation will make recommendations for professional education that deconstructs normative identity frameworks and promotes a fluid, reflective stance toward identity construction. It is hoped that through this presentation all of us who take leadership roles in music will have the opportunity to engage with our multi-faceted identities. As individuals we are challenged to recognize those identity perspectives that hinder continued growth, celebrate our life long transformations, and identify where there is room for expansion of perspectives.
2011-05-31T18:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/3
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1043
2011-06-15T23:05:53Z
publication:lme
Musical Integrity and the Practice of Human Becoming
Whale, Mark
It strikes me that there are just two categories of “music” and “music learning.” In the first category, each “sells out,” as it were – one may also say reduces itself or is reduced – to a particular ideology, a trend in the market, a convention, a social theory, an educational idea, an apparent reality, a research result and so on. In the second category, music and music learning, in every moment of their practice and engagement – while, on the surface, they might appear to be following a particular convention or trend – in actuality have a self-critical sense of themselves that is kept vibrant and alive by their participants. That is, in the second category, music and music learning test and scrutinize themselves as they are tested and scrutinized. As a consequence, in this category, neither music nor the context in which it is learnt is ever merely a replication of a particular convention or trend but, in contrast, is the site in which that convention or trend is met – is re-evaluated and re-created as the living ground of human self-discovery. Simply put, whereas a learner in the first category might “like” (or “dislike”) Mozart or African drumming because she likes it (or dislikes it) – because she has blindly bought into a social/educational fad or her own “inclinations” that say it is “OK” (or not “OK”) – a learner in the second category self-critically articulates what it is she “likes” (or “dislikes”) about Mozart or African drumming. The focus of the latter student’s engagement has nothing to do with a pre-determined pre-ference, whether it springs from the familiarity of her “real” life or from the ideas of her “theoretical” education. Rather, the focus of her engagement has to do with her self-conscious questioning of her preference – a questioning that is enhanced by the music’s critical sense of its own preference for familiar or theoretical conventions. Importantly, the student’s questioning is not necessarily verbal – she can express her self-critical re-evaluation in her musical interpretation. But, whether verbal or non-verbal, what the student articulates both reveals and practices her self-critical thought, understanding, and consideration for how she engages music. Furthermore, her articulation amplifies her ability to share with both herself and with others what she finds interesting and meaningful, not only in music, but in the wider sphere of her existence. In short, as the student attends self-critically to the music, she attends self-critically to herself – to her integrity as a human being. In my paper I shall develop the concept of human integrity through Kant’s notions of human dignity and worth, Buber’s ideas of “meeting” and I-You, and the ideas of “truth” and “love” articulated by the character of Cordelia in Shakespeare’s play, King Lear. I shall expand on my own idea of self-critical engagement in music and in music learning, and I shall articulate how such engagement is related to these thinker’s ideas of human integrity – how music, far from being “an educational frivolity,” may be recognized as the practice and amplification of human becoming.
2011-05-31T19:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/5
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1043/viewcontent/Whale_abstract3.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1046
2011-07-08T18:12:04Z
publication:lme
Politics, Ethics, Leadership, and Professionalism. Or: Why Should the Leadership of Music Teacher Education Pay Attention to the Global Crises of Economy and Climate?
Johansen, Geir
This paper takes the relationship between the macro, meso and micro levels of society as its point of departure, with music teacher education as its case. The attention is directed towards how musical leadership, in this case the leadership of music teacher education faces dilemmas of an ethical, political and professional character and discusses if and how such dilemmas can possibly be dealt with. Based on a theoretical ground that affords the present social-cultural condition of our western societies to be described as one of modernity in its extremes (Giddens) we can see how the self driven dynamics of social systems (Luhmann, Latour) actualize terms such as the risk society and reflexive modernity (Beck). Within this, one of the driving, political forces at all levels is the neo-liberalist priorities of the New Right (Woodford). The situation directs attention to the coherence between the political ideals that, albeit unintended, lead to crises like global warming, the world economy decrease and the oil catastrophe in the Mexican gulf, and the marketization of higher education (Naidoo) which characterizes recent thought about educational quality worldwide. According to those neo-liberalist educational priorities the students have come to be regarded as customers and knowledge as a commodity, while concepts such as knowledge production, useful knowledge, and knowledge economy have come to the fore along with ideals of measurability and quantitative assessment. The present paper addresses 3 particular leadership challenges in this connection. The first challenge concerns the dilemma of keeping up with the prevailing politics and ideals promoting relevance quality in music teacher education whilst simultaneously training student music teachers to criticize those politics included its built-in notions of relevance. The second concerns the leaders’ maintenance of a system critical competence as part of their professionalism as a leader in connection with the dilemma between maintaining the present regime and being capable to adapt to new regimes and paradigm shifts in the future. The third concerns the possible responsibility to address the mismatches between societal development and humanist educational ideals along with non-instrumentalist notions of knowledge that stands out as particularly transparent when seen through a music educational lens – for the sake of education in general but also for the sake of society and culture at large.
2011-05-31T21:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/8
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1046/viewcontent/Johansen_LME_conf_II_powerpoint_without_abstract.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1042
2011-07-09T00:49:35Z
publication:lme
Free Improvisation, Democracy, and Education: A Bakhtinian Perspective
Kanellopoulos, Panagiotis
This paper stems from the need to develop theoretical perspectives that enable us to perceive the educational value of musical improvisation is ways that go beyond its currently dominant apprehension of it as a form of skill-based expertise. Based on the author’s earlier studies that discussed the possibility of advancing a Bakhtinian aesthetic of musical improvisation the aim of this paper is to outline a Bakhtinian pedagogy of musical improvisation. From a Bakhtinian perspective, improvisational musical practices emphasise the oughtness of musical freedom. To improvise means to delve into a process that enacts the Bakhtinian notion of “non-alibi in Being” (Bakhtin, 1993, 49). Improvisation cultivates a particular “attitude of consciousness” (ibid., 6) that apprehends improvised musical invention as a mode of musical practice where freedom and obligation co-exist. Moreover, improvisation allows for intense exploration of notions of identity formation, for it is there that one must pursue that which one does not know. Within improvisation, responses to my own and my fellow musicians’ sounds is a process of othering myself through pursuing the unknown. Thus, a conception of dialogue that rests on an interpretation of Bakhtin’s notion of the dialogic might allow us to get beyond the self-evident assertion that in musical improvisation there is constant human interaction. Dialogue, in the sense used here, emphasizes the existence of the speaker’s awareness of the sources. Most importantly, dialogue emphasizes the conscious awareness and pursuit of openness and unfinalisability – of utterances, selves, and interactions. A Bakhtinian pedagogy of improvisation would also emphasise two senses of outsideness which emerge from a Bakhtinian reading the improvisation experience. The first relates to reflection-in-action, of a move of stepping outside, “a placing outside oneself of the individuality understood through empathizing.” (Bakhtin, 1993, 14). The second relates to the role of the audience to create temporary finalizations. It will be argued that improvisation marks the initiation of an attempt to create a culture of democracy; for “Democracy must mean more than procedure; it needs the depth culture has to offer’ (Hirschkop, 1999: ix). The decision to improvise marks the initiation of a search for a public musical space which is marked by the absence of fear, where exploration of musical freedom is pursued, where everything might happen but not anything goes.
2011-05-31T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/4
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1044
2011-07-09T00:50:47Z
publication:lme
Academic (and) Hip-hop Stakes! The Meeting of a Street Culture and Academia in University-hosted Events in New York City
Soderman, Johan
This paper is a part of overarching project addressing the academization of hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is the latest form of African Music that has entered academic institutions in the same manner that jazz entered the academia in the 1940s. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to this academization can help music researchers to apply these mechanisms to other research topics. Social activism and education have been associated with hip-hop since hip-hop began 35 years ago. For example, one of the founders of hip-hop, Afrika Bambaataa, has talked about knowledge as the fifth element of hip-hop. Over the last ten years academic scholars and institutions have become interested in bringing hip-hop into university settings. According to the hip-hop archive at the University of Stanford, there are 300 courses and classes in the U.S. that are related to the hip-hop culture in some way. Throughout the last 25 years scholars have been writing academic texts about hip-hop. Consequently, there is a so-called “reader” which can be seen as one of the first signs of a creation of a new academic field of research. Recently, several scholars and activists have brought to the educational agenda a concern for engaging hip-hop as a pedagogical tool in K-12 schools. The ongoing academization of hip-hop can be divided into five distinct tracks or research inputs. First, the hip-hop scholars create their own track, which can be named the hip-hop academicus, and be seen as a Bourdiean field. The hip-hop pedagogy in K-12 schools constitutes the second track. Third, the academic dissertations made by Ph.D. students from the hip-hop generation at American universities constitutes another track, though it is related to previously mentioned tracks. . Fourth, the approaches and motifs from the universities when creating and designing programs, classes, and courses in hip-hop are another track with close connections to the other tracks. However, it is not the hip-hop scholars who design these programs, classes, and courses. Finally, there has been an increased amount of hip-hop scholarly and academic events, such as conferences and panel discussions, in the U.S. over the last five years, which is the main focus of this paper presentation. The aim of this paper presentation is thus to investigate symbolic fights, battles and stakes that are occurring in these academic events. The theoretical framework of this paper stems from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, including his work about the university setting and his theories about different fields and capital forms. The empirical data stems from four different scholarly and academic events in New York City during 2010. Panel debates and discussions during the conferences were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A broad approach of discourse analysis has been applied in analyzing the data. The paper intends to highlight the symbolic fights, battles, and tensions, classified in different categories which in turn are exemplified with quotes from the empirical data.
2011-05-31T20:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/6
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1047
2011-07-08T23:28:00Z
publication:lme
Playful Spaces for Musical Expression and Creativity: An Ethnodrama
Smith, Tawnya D.
Hendricks, Karin
Presented in the form of an ethnodrama, this paper features data from three studies to illustrate how current attitudes and practices in music education both foster and inhibit musical expressiveness and personal well-being. Stories of public school students, adult learners, and music teachers as performing musicians bring to light contemporary issues including (a) the influence of competition upon expressive performance; (b) isolation versus community music-making; (c) the impact of fear-based "motivation" systems; and (d) accessibility of free and creative music-making opportunities to a larger population of musicians. Experiences of high school students in an honor orchestra festival illustrate how externally-imposed achievement systems can impede opportunities for individual expressive freedom. In one example, students reported expressive performance to be least relevant of all surveyed musical skills during the festival's competitive seating audition. In this socially comparative climate, student comments revealed feelings of anxiety, confusion, and distrust. Musical expressiveness reportedly increased later in the festival as students rehearsed together, and reached a climax at the dress rehearsal (notably not at the concert). Student comments at all phases of the festival revealed a pervasive belief that the conductor was the ultimate expressive and creative authority. Adult learners featured in this ethnodrama demonstrate an internally driven motivation for music learning. While some adults shared stories of emotional sorrow and self-criticism related to having been deemed "untalented" earlier in life, some expressed gratitude for the opportunity to learn and create music at their own pace and in their own style. Especially meaningful to this population was the freedom to choose repertoire to which they could personally relate, and the freedom to choose when, where, and how often they would participate. Encouragement and support from teachers who express belief in their capability to perform and progress was important especially to those who had negative early experiences. Music teachers asked to perform for a community fundraising event demonstrate tensions between their multiple identities as teacher, performer, scholar, caregiver, etc. Each teacher reported various levels of distress, expressing concern that they would not be able to perform at the level they were capable. Findings help to inform how current conditions within the profession might stifle music educators in their own music making, and how suppression of expressivity may translate into unhealthy models for students, and negatively influence self-care and well-being. Research findings are presented in the form of an ethnodrama to capture the essence of interview and observation data. In the form of spoken dialogue, qualitative data from the three studies are woven together into a meta-analytical story that demonstrates how these studies relate to music education practices and their influence on individuals. Quantitative data are also reported as a voice in the dialogue along with relevant visual representations. Ethnodrama is utilized here both as an arts-based research method to analyze data from the three studies, as well as to present the findings in an evocative artistic form. As is typical with many ethnodramatic works the dialogue evolves toward a “utopian ideal,” and concludes by offering positive alternatives to current practices.
2011-05-31T22:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/9
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1047/viewcontent/Smith_and_Hendricks___Playful_Spaces_Online_Paper.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1045
2011-07-12T00:37:06Z
publication:lme
Enhancing the Music Studio Community and Self-Regulated Learning Through the Use of Electronic Portfolios
Troop, Meagan
Brook, Julia
Uptis, Rena
The body of research examining deliberate practice and self-regulation in musical instruction has grown extensively over the last several years and has indicated that students with higher levels of self-regulation develop superior performance skills. Recommendations from this literature have emphasized that skilled and expressive musical performances require the supportive development of self-regulatory behaviours. Developing these behaviours involves the incorporation of strategies that presuppose a certain level of discipline and organization on the part of the student. This study examines the implementation of an electronic portfolio, ePEARL, that was used in two studio settings to help students take more control over their learning and creative processes. ePEARL embeds self-regulation processes within an electronic portfolio, allowing students to document their work while at the same time developing planning, doing, and reflecting skills. This portfolio also builds community by allowing peers, parents and teachers to access each other’s work. ePEARL has been successfully used in classrooms in Canada, the United States, and parts of Europe to increase levels of self-regulation and achievement. Recently, this technology has been implemented in the music studio context. Using case-study methodology, we examined six students’ use of ePEARL over the course of four months. Using interview data from teachers and students as well as the observations of the portfolio use, we examined how students and teachers use ePEARL to plan, execute, and reflect on their music-making. ePEARL was an effective way to articulate musical goals and archive musical accomplishments. Students were able to solicit and incorporate feedback from their teachers, peers, and parents regarding their musical activities outside of their lesson time, which supported their learning. Overall, students enjoyed using the tool, and ePEARL was effective in helping set and achieve goals in the context of learning to play an instrument.
2011-05-31T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/7
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1048
2011-07-12T00:38:57Z
publication:lme
Expressing the Self: Critical Reflections on Choral Singing and Human Rights in Prison
Cohen, Mary
Duncan, Stuart Paul
Given our experiences assisting, directing, researching prison choirs and developing educational programs in prisons, we continue to examine the complex aspects of purposefully facilitated group-singing in prisons. Reflection upon the relationships among basic human rights, imprisonment and the penal system, prisoners’ needs and rehabilitation, and the effects of choral-singing affect our understanding of these multiple discourses. Our aim is to shed light on the similarities and differences among a complexity of such relationships through these research questions: (a) Among these ideas, what are the relationships and how do they inform our understanding of choral singing in prison contexts and basic human rights of incarcerated individuals? (b) What are the relationships among human rights and self-expression for people in prison? (c) What does research literature indicate in terms of successful reentry practices ? (d) In light of the answers to these questions, what implications might affect or inform music education? Article one of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” The life paths that many inmates have walked have often prevented such freedom both physically and mentally. One assumption of this paper is that as a society, we need to act toward prisoners “in a spirit of brotherhood,” particularly if we are concerned about their well-being, interactions with others, and self-perceptions as they live through incarceration and release from prison. This paper examines ideas that shape the processes and outcomes of choral singing in prisons. It articulates how choral singing is compatible with prisoners’ needs and assists with reentry. We argue that people’s basic needs include expression and positive relationship-building and that choral singing can be one means toward meeting these needs. Through a dialogical analysis using inquiry, information seeking, and deliberation (Walton, 2005), we examine these issues guided by three theoretical frameworks: theory of interactional choral singing pedagogy based on Small’s concept of musicking (Cohen, 2007), social development theory (Vygotsky, 1978), and situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1990). In the first section we explore the relationships of self-expression to human rights. We look at prisoners’ needs in light of these relationships. In the next section we highlight ideas attached to imprisonment and its relationships to reentry. Both concepts are defined and promising practices are highlighted. The third section explores the pedagogies and outcomes of non-religious-based choral singing in prison contexts. A brief historical description of these practices precedes a detailed account of ideas within these programs and their perceived benefits and challenges. The multiple discourses examined in this paper may conflict with one another and may attempt to assert power over one another and over people. In this section we examine these conflicts and argue that effectively facilitated choral singing in prisons satisfies some of the reentry needs of people in prisons. We conclude with research possibilities and implications for music education.
2011-05-31T23:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/10
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1048/viewcontent/Cohen_LME_abstract_ref.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1051
2011-07-12T00:41:04Z
publication:lme
"It Was Just a Part of Our Life": The Use of Community Music as an Effective Mode of School Transitions, Parent-child Interaction and Musical Development
Tiernan, Julie
This paper deals with a preschool music program based in the north-side of Limerick city, Ireland. Funding for this project was provided by the local primary school and the overall project was co-ordinated by a local charity, ‘The Northside Learning Hub’ (NLH), on the basis that the program should be operated within the school, in order to open its doors to the community. From concept stages, the NLH communicated with each interested party (pre-school teachers, primary school teachers, parents), including the community musicians involved, in an attempt to identify areas of common interest and concern. One such area of concern was that it has become increasingly difficult in this area of Limerick city to ignore the decreasing number of children moving from the local preschool to enroll in the ‘big’ school, or primary school ‘next door’. In 2009, despite the convenient proximity of the primary school to the preschool, only 2 children progressed, with other parents deciding to travel further afield for the continuation of their child’s education. For this music program, both the primary and preschool welcomed the opportunity to invite parents and children inside the school walls to address the issues of concern. This project resonated strongly with those ideas put forward by Konings in 2008, who believes that the first few weeks of a child arriving at a new school are highly influential as to how they will perform both academically and socially. We will welcome the children and their parents for a live musical performance and program, new faces will become familiar throughout the teaching and student populations. It is hoped that those who do progress between schools having engaged with this program, will find coping with larger numbers, new friends, teachers and subjects less intimidating. Creating meaningful opportunities for parents to interact with their children at such a young age is very important to the participating preschool. Despite the ongoing efforts of the preschool staff to engage parents in activities, it is not always possible to co-ordinate long term, interactive schedules. Edwards et al (2007, p.160) suggest that ‘music has been demonstrated to be an effective way to involve the parent and child in a program that addresses the needs of both within a group setting’. Research to date has highlighted that music can be used by parents to communicate with and relate to their children. (Abad&Edwards, 2004). It is hoped that with an increase in parental confidence in using music as an effective daily communication tool with their children that music will naturally become part of their lives. It has been highlighted by all groups that musical opportunities are not plentiful in the area. With the NLH opening a new school of music in early 2011, this ‘Junior Music Hub’ will act as a feeder and progression route, thus sustaining the project. This music program will create a platform and vehicle to enable smoother transitions, communications, interactio and musical development. In creating a space for music with both parent and child, perhaps music will also ‘just be a part of their life’. (Dillion,07,p.54)
2011-05-31T23:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/13
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1049
2011-07-12T00:40:10Z
publication:lme
Music as Communication, Identity, and Unification in One Global Community: An Ethnographic Case Study of the AIESEC On an Offline Community
DaCosta, Danna
In recent history, community has evolved from a geographically based concept to a broader branch of social networks working both inter and independently. The advent of the internet has further blurred physical lines, allowing community to be defined by common passions and interests rather than signposts at the edge of town. One example of this is the student group Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC). AIESEC International is a global student run organization found in 107 different countries and territories, and has a membership of 38,000 and counting. The purpose of this ethnographic case study is to understand how the AIESEC community utilizes music to facilitate communication, provide an international identity, and unify its members both on and offline. Established in 1948, AIESEC’s purpose is to promote peace and the fulfilment of their membership’s potential (retrieved from http://www.aiesec.org/ February 2010). AIESEC’s strives to foster leadership among its members through their core values of activating leadership, living diversity, demonstrating integrity, acting sustainably, enjoying participation and striving for excellence (retrieved from http://www.aiesec.org/ February 2010). This is evidence of what Wenger calls a “community of practice” (CoP), as AIESEC operates as a learning organization (Wenger, McDermontt, & Snyder, 2002) overlapping on and offline boundaries. Their use of music fosters communication, meaning and identity in the on and offline community. This research raises a number of questions: How does music unify a group of individuals in a global on and offline community? What role does the internet play in fostering group identity, meaning and practice in the AIESEC community? What factors makes this global student organization unique? First, this research has implications for the study of organizational learning communities in addition to the need to study interactions holistically in regards to online and offline communications. Second, the success of AIESEC as an international organization may shed light on future studies that examine how the internet can help maintain cohesiveness, identity and communication among groups of people that share the same career and/or interests, but are separated by geographical distances.
2011-05-31T23:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/11
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1050
2011-07-08T17:42:17Z
publication:rwkex
publication:musiceducation
publication:faculties
publication:rwkex_presentationslidedecks
publication:lme
publication:musiceducationpres
Musical Identity and Culture: Exploring the Korean Diaspora through the Lens of Piano Pedagogy
Jo, Elisha
Linton, Leslie
This presentation explores the nature of identity and pedagogy through the study of Western classical piano training. Two groups of university students – one of Korean Canadians and the other of Koreans in Korea – describe their training, their aspirations and their expectations. How do these students come to study piano? Who are they and how does their musical education form their sense of self? We started a comparative study of Korean and Canadian methodologies in Southwestern Ontario (London, Ontario) and Cheonan, Korea, an hour outside of the capital Seoul. Populations of these two cities are comparable although there are more opportunities for piano instruction in Korea. Korean students experience piano training early on as part of their daily education; they spend at least an hour everyday at music school practicing and having a lesson with teachers. This approach is unique to Korea whereas piano pedagogy in Canada is most often considered as an extracurricular activity with training provided for one hour a week. By the time students arrive at university, they have developed different strengths and weaknesses relative to their earlier training. The factors we examine in this presentation are historical reasons for the differences in pedagogy, place of the piano in Korean and Canadian culture, gender roles and shaping of new identities in new contexts.
2011-05-31T23:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/12
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1050/viewcontent/Elisha_Jo_and_Leslie_Linton_Korean_Diaspora.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1054
2011-07-12T23:46:26Z
publication:lme
Therapeutic Music Education: A Model Linking Experience of Music Education with Music Therapy
Mitchell, Elizabeth
Music therapists acknowledge inherent qualities in musical experiences that enable therapeutic growth to take place in their clients, within the context of a therapeutic relationship. Equipped with the belief that these basic tenets of music therapy hold tremendous relevance to music education, and inspired by a recent experience of profound personal growth through my voice instruction at the university level, I sought to investigate the concept of therapeutic music education. Defined as an educational setting in which the educator adopts and adapts facets of music therapy, within therapeutic music education, the boundaries between music therapy and music education are blurred. This qualitative, phenomenological study drew upon data analysis techniques and methods from grounded theory and first-person research. Through interviews with university music educators and university music students, as well as through the writing of my own reflective narrative, I explored educators’ philosophies and students’ experiences of therapeutic music education, seeking the essence of therapeutic music education, and its potential links to music therapy. A model of therapeutic music education with three main components, teacher’s awareness, music as medium, and student’s personal growth, emerged from the data. Within this model, there lies potential for a parallel process between the student’s musical and personal growth to unfold, a process contingent upon the presence of an educator who holds a holistic awareness of each individual and recognizes the unique qualities within musical experiences. From this model of therapeutic music education, parallels and links to music therapy are uncovered and discussed, and possibilities for future research and collaboration between the fields are considered. In particular, “music for music’s sake” advocacy within music education is paralleled with “music-centred” philosophy in music therapy. The stories shared by the participants present the notion that musical growth and personal growth are inextricably linked, and that musical development has a profound impact on the realization of human potential. If this is true, then the implications for both the fields of music therapy and music education are limitless, as are the possibilities for connection and dialogue between the fields.
2011-06-01T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/3
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1055
2011-07-12T00:42:44Z
publication:lme
Stimulate Cognitive Abilities by Music to Avoid Academic Failure: A French Experiment
Lecoq, Aurelie
Suchaut, Bruno
The idea that “music makes you smarter” and promotes both cognitive skills as well as verbal skills (Ho et al., 2003; Forgeard and al. 2000), spatiotemporal capacities (Rauscher and Zupan 2000), school performances (Wetter et al. 2009) or even boosts the IQ (Schellenberg, 2004, 2006) has received attention from researchers and general public. In this study we examined the effects of music practice on pre-school and school performance of kindergarten children, in particular concerning early writing skills. Here, one main question is investigated: what are the benefits of a specific music program in the curriculum for the cognitive abilities development on preschooler children (age 5)? Sample: A total of 487 children (49.6% male) from 30 public kindergartens participated to the study. At the beginning of the experiment (January 2010). The sample is divided into two groups randomly assigned: 226 of them received an extra classroom music lessons. The 261 children of the control group didn’t receive any special music training. Testing: We measured all children’s cognitive skills with existing cognitive tests battery: “NBA” (Ravard and Rabreau, 2005). The tests of cognitive capacities measure five dimensions: graphomotor skills, memory, spatial orientation, rhythmic organization and visual discrimination. Two series of tests were already realised: a “pre-test” (NBA1) at the beginning of the experiment and the “intermediate test” (NBA2) at the end of the experiment. The “final test” (NBA4) will be administered when the children will enter first year of primary school. Procedures: After children were pretested (NBA1), musical activities began in January 2010 and finished in June 2010. The program of the musical activities used for this experiment arises from "Music to the everyday life in the cycle 2”. It declines on five domains: singing, listening, instrumental activities, coding-decoding, rhythmic and physical activities. It was administered to each of the experimental classes through 2 hours lessons per week, generally 30 minutes a day. The control group did not participate in any program. After six months, all the children were tested (intermediate tests). A questionnaire was administered to collect socio-economic and school information; in particular parental occupation, mother tongue, nationality of the child, musical activity outside school. These variables were included to test for heterogeneity bias in cognitive performance of preschooler. Main findings: We used linear regression and difference in differences (DD) analysis to investigate the effects of the experimentation on cognitive skills of children. Linear regression shows that after six months of learning music, children of the experimental group exhibited substantially greater performance in musical skills. It attests that the experimental musical program has been correctly implemented. With DD analysis, we explore the differential impact of the music intervention on the cognitive skills. We control for parental occupation, country of birth of the child, musical activity outside school... We find that musical training has an impact on the graphomotor skills and rhythmic organization, students in the experimental group had better scores than students in the control group, this difference is statistically significant.
2011-06-01T18:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/4
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1052
2011-07-12T00:42:03Z
publication:lme
Riding the Contours of Marketing: Exploring the Depths of Educational Materials through Critical Theory
Linton, Leslie
Marketing companies shape and mold our perceptions of their products in various ways. They design their campaigns in ways that are strategically geared towards corporate interests (Woodford, 2005). When involved in educational materials, corporate interests do not include critical thinking and can only offer the illusion of choice (Woodford, 2005). In this way piano method books are all essentially the same because our end goals are never questioned and the hidden curriculum prevails; thus we stay on the curve or contour of marketing. The critical teacher, however, can escape the veil of corporate interest and participate in reshaping the pedagogical landscape. In this presentation, I explore the hidden curriculum through an evaluation of piano study in three areas: learning theory, capitalism, and social reproduction. First, piano study is based on a learning theory which is an historical commentary on the origins of piano pedagogy. Philosophical positions become so firmly established and deeply rooted in the language of music that it is often difficult to cast a critical eye. Second, an investigation into method books through Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism will show how teachers and students are taught to consume education. Capitalism, through Marx’s lens, explains how the teacher and student become separated from each other and how the method book becomes the teacher. This also describes Lukacs’ concept of how labour has become reified. In this way commodity fetishism and alienation show how teaching philosophies are both distributed and dis/tributed. Finally, Bourdieu’s cultural theory will examine how distinctions of taste are learned through one’s habitus, which then contributes to class. Lloyd’s (2008) inclusion of desire to Bourdieu’s cultural theory will be discussed, and combined with Marx’s commodity fetishism, I will show that by creating trance/actions private piano lessons have become a commodity and the student is the product.
2011-06-01T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/1
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1053
2011-07-12T23:29:19Z
publication:lme
Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice in Prison Music Education through Knowledge Transfer Workshops
Anderson, Kirstin
Overy, Katie
Music teachers working in Scottish prisons often find themselves isolated, under supported and without opportunities for further professional development in their field. This paper reports on a Knowledge Transfer workshop designed to bring together a researcher from the University of Edinburgh and music teachers that work in Scottish prisons to meet, reflect on their experiences and share current research and best practice. The researcher, also a music teacher with experience teaching in prisons, designed a workbook, Teaching Music in Prisons: Introductory information and ideas for musicians and teachers working in prisons, to supplement the workshop. Surveys were designed to gather participants’ reflections on the workshop and later used a second time to gather feedback on the use of the workbook in their practice. In addition to discussing what prisoners can gain from participating in a music class or music ensemble while incarcerated, this paper outlines the design of the Knowledge Transfer workshop and subsequent workbook, reflections from the researcher and participants on the workshop and participants reflections on the use of the workbook in their practice. Implications on Knowledge Transfer work to better support both researchers and teachers are discussed as well as the use of Knowledge Transfer to influence policy. Further suggestions on the practical task of designing knowledge transfer workshops, which can connect researchers and music teachers that work in the prison sector, are suggested.
2011-06-01T17:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/2
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1056
2011-07-12T23:30:02Z
publication:lme
Music Improvisation as Cultural Phenomenon and Its Implications for Music Education at the Undergraduate Level
Monk, Augusto
Improvisation is a valued skill in music making. In its pedagogical applications at the post-secondary level, improvisation is an essential component of the jazz curriculum; it is also part of holistic programmes that seek to expand on the experiential aspect of music making. In this second instance, pedagogues refer to this practise as free-improvisation. From a cultural perspective, the jazz curriculum teaches improvisation on a dated model referring to the swing and be-bop era. This pedagogical choice approaches improvisation within the confinement of rules, conventions, and formulas that are meaningful because they reconstruct a recognizable, well-established style. Consequently, the jazz model of improvisation and its pedagogy could be described as iconic in that it proposes to re-create a cultural object. Alternatively, the free-improvisation model revolves around provoking ideas from the 1960’s. As an alternative, I propose a model of music improvisation that intends to construct meaningful interaction (Blumer, 1969). From the pedagogical point of view, this model seeks to develop improvisational intelligence understood as a cognitive ability to conceive, create, and understand relationships between units of musical thought as these units are delivered. From a cultural perspective, the model conceptualizes music improvisation and its pedagogy as a necessity in music education within the current North American, ethnically diverse, urban culture.
2011-06-01T18:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/5
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1058
2011-07-12T23:20:14Z
publication:lme
Examining the Musical Identity of Pre-service Generalist Teachers: Origins and Implications
Linton, Leslie
Beynon, Carol
In this presentation, an attempt is made to investigate the ways of thinking and knowing about the ‘practice’ of music by generalist teachers using the parameters described by Jorgensen (2008) such as; tradition, values, dispositions and attitudes. This presentation is a report on the results of a study of generalist music preservice teachers conducted at The University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Education. The unveiling of the ‘practice’ of music in this population as their identities are in flux may reveal ways of knowing and understanding ourselves in society. The field of music education may gain a Meta perspective (Johansen, 2010) of itself through a sociological lens, in essence, making the familiar become strange (Wright, 2010). While contemporary literature and resources available support the preservice music specialist, there is very little focus from the field of music education towards the preservice generalist music teacher. Advocacy for specialist teachers is quite successful in many school systems; however, there are many more schools without adequate funding for specialist teachers. In 2005, indications show that there are instances in Ontario where 70% of the elementary school children are receiving music instruction from a non-specialist (Montgomery & Griffin, 2005). This leaves the generalist teacher to design and implement their own music program, or omit it from the curriculum entirely. In this study we wish to illuminate issues of identity and attitudes towards music teaching from non-specialists, and to address the origins of their beliefs and attitudes.
2011-06-01T19:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/7
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1057
2011-07-12T23:31:33Z
publication:lme
The Big Bang! The Importance of Making a Racket to Build Stronger Community Links
Marsella, Richard
Richard Marsella will outline his five years experience working in the Peel Region, developing the Parade of Noises, an experimental community performance piece featuring noise musicians like The Nihilist Spasm Band, John Oswald, Nash the Slash, Kid Koala, and others alongside 700 grade four students performing on homemade musical instruments. He will outline the design of each year’s Parade of Noises, and how the project evolved. He will discuss the incredible support required from all levels of government, especially at the municipal level. This paper focusses on community and music, and the impact unique experiences such as these have on the community at large. Marsella then transitions to share the story of the Regent Park School of Music, and how similar community parade experiences have recently occurred in this neighbourhood, led by dancer and choreographer Bill Coleman, along with composer/performer John Oswald. Marsella highlights alternative musical experiences and their benefit to the vibrancy of a community. He looks at R. Murray Schafer’s Coimbra Vibra, New Brunswick’s 30 year old tintamarre tradition, and the importance of making a great racket in a community. Part of the special model in all of the above instances is that they involve bulldozers, fire trucks, and the implementation of non-traditional community partners, such as Peel Waste Management, to delve into new areas of creative expression.
Community music is a major focus in Marsella’s work to date. He outlines the model of the Regent Park School of Music, and how its story is unique to the country, in its delivery of subsidized music lessons for youth in need. Serving different neighbourhoods such as Regent Park, as well as Jane & Finch, and Parkdale, Marsella will outline the similarities and differences when approaching programs for each community.
2011-06-01T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/6
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1059
2011-07-08T22:29:06Z
publication:lme
Adult Music Engagement: Perspectives from Three Musically Engaged Cases
Thornton, Darrin
The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of adult music engagement from the perspectives of musically engaged adults not currently participating in activities that are direct extensions of the typical K-12 music curriculum. Three participants were purposefully chosen and include an avid listener, a church praise team member, and a bluegrass rhythm guitarist/lead singer.
The following questions framed the investigation within an interpretative phenomenological approach to first construct the perspective of each case and second, to identify ways learning has occurred through music engagement over their lifespan: What are the musical life histories of these adults? How do adults place their current musical settings within the context of their lives? What meanings do these adults derive from reflections on their musical engagement? How have these musically engaged adults experienced musical learning throughout their lives?
Data were gathered from a series of one-on-one interviews. Constructed perspectives combined with the joint interpretation of data, by participants and the researcher, to provide an interpretive phenomenological analysis, which placed this data within the context of music learning. The emergent themes resulting from cross case analysis of transcript data are: connection to humanity, sense of fulfillment, and choice. Further interpretive analysis for learning yielded the following themes: formal learning settings, self-directed learning settings, and community learning settings. Triangulation was used to test the trustworthiness of these findings.
2011-06-01T19:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/8
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1059/viewcontent/Thornton__LME_Presentation_Final.pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1059/filename/1/type/additional/viewcontent/Jane.mp3
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1059/filename/2/type/additional/viewcontent/John.mp3
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1059/filename/3/type/additional/viewcontent/Max.mp3
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1061
2011-07-12T23:25:25Z
publication:lme
Director, Artist, Facilitator… Catalyst: Disruption and Sustainability of Music Leadership Within a School-University Partnership Project
Carlisle, Katie
The Inspire project is a partnership between a research university in the southeastern United States and an urban public middle school performing arts department. The impetus for Inspire derives from Musical Futures Connect projects at the Guildhall School of Music and Dance in London, UK. As principal-investigator, I developed a formative and experiential understanding of Connect projects through participant-observation of a Guildhall project, interview of Connect artistic director, Sean Gregory, and an interview with Guildhall graduate musical leadership programme alumnus, Lise Vaugeois. Key componnts of musical leadership within Connect projects are the ability to perform diverse roles and to engage in creative collaboration and flexible performance skills. Inspire emerged as an opportunity for the performing arts teachers (band, chorus, general music, dance, and drama) to collaborate within an integrative project. Within Connect projects, a selected cultural theme becomes a catalyst for musical exploration and experimentation while combining and blending large and small performing groups. The study documents the first year of the project (2009), whose theme explored African and African-American female musicians. The performing arts teachers sought to disrupt their previous compartmentalized presentations of Black History Month by creating a deeper process that developed performance and artistic skills in homogeneous classes and provided opportunity for creative collaboration between the classes. University doctoral students in music education and community artists worked extensively within the project to develop the process. The study asked what were the formative and experiential dimensions of the Inspire project in its first year (2009). The primary data source was focus group interviews with the performing arts teachers in the middle and end of the first year’s project, and after I had analyzed the data and presented findings to them as primary stakeholders in the project through the approach of fourth generation evaluation (Guba & Lincoln, 1989). One of the primary dimensions that emerged from the data was dynamics of music leadership. The performing arts teachers identified they engaged as director, artist, and facilitator within the project. All strongly identified as directors: in particular the need to direct technical and artistic skill development within the ensemble. All identified strongly as artists. They simultaneously acknowledged the need to be an artist in the classroom even though their focus on skill development shifted them to director behaviour. While some music teachers identified strongly as professional improvisors, they indicated they needed deepened pedagogic experience creating improvisation structures for students. While the teachers expressed discomfort in the role of facilitator, they identified the doctoral students and community artists facilitated and enabled greater opportunity for improvisation with students. The final interview resulted in the teachers: (1) recognizing their role as catalysts for students’ creativity and artistic development and (2) making strategic decisions that will act as catalysts for the sustainability of upcoming projects.
2011-06-01T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/10
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1060
2011-07-08T23:03:46Z
publication:lme
The Musical Personhood of Three Canadian Turntablists: Implications for Transformative Collaborative Practice
Snell, Karen
Over the past several years in particular, scholars in music education have been calling for better connections between community and school music making (e.g., Jones, 2005; Veblen, 2005). It seems that in many cases, teachers may be continuing the tradition of large ensemble band, orchestral, or choral programs because this is the way they were taught themselves and they are comfortable with the status quo, rather than because this is a meaningful way for their students to engage with music (Snell 2009; Woodford 2005). As a result, many youth in contemporary Western society have two musical worlds: one at school and one in their world outside the school walls. This fragmentation has implications for the musical personhood of children and adolescents as each of these worlds involves its own intricate web of formal and informal learning contexts, structures, and practices. This paper addresses this concern by looking at “DJ/turntablism” as both a currently popular way to make music in the community-at-large and a relatively new and unexplored area for teaching and learning music in schools. Moreover, in order to ground the current paper’s ideas in authentic “real world” music making, DJ/turntablism is explored through in-depth interviews with three currently practicing musicians. Because this particular kind of music making is ubiquitous in the lives of many contemporary Western youth, it is therefore also used by many young people to help build identity as they participate with this music in various ways in their daily lives. However, most educators and scholars have given little, if any, consideration to if, or how, this music could be used in school music classrooms to help contribute to this self-identity. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed three primary themes common to these musicians’ experiences. First, each one had difficulty connecting to formal music making in private lessons and/or school music classes. Second, all three participants sought out a form of musical performance which they believed provided them with more freedom to explore and experiment, thus allowing them to find their own musical personality and voice. Third, each of these three musicians talked about the importance of the collective community of DJ/turntablists in helping them throughout their musical careers. As such, this paper reveals how this particular kind of “music plays important roles in shaping identity and community [and] in promoting [the] personal growth” of these three musicians (Call for Papers, Leading Music Education Conference, p.1). Connected to each of these themes, this paper will consider the musical personhood of these three DJ/turntablists as something that is embedded in and continually informed by what Stetsenko (2009) calls a “transformative collaborative practice” (p. 7). She argued that “persons are agentive beings who develop through embeddedness in sociocultural contexts and within relations to others” (Stetsenko, 2009, p.3). This concept of personhood is particularly valuable for the ideas in the current paper because it acknowledges the value of the unique individual contributions of each of these three musicians, while also recognizing the importance of “the relational self” where, Individuals never start from scratch and never completely vanish; instead they enter and join in with social practices as participants who build upon previous accomplishments and also inevitably and forever change the social matrix of these practices (if only in modest ways), leaving their own indelible traces in history. (Stetsenko, 2009, p. 7) In this way, the social, relational, and praxial nature of the musical personhood of these three DJ/turntablists is relevant and informative for music educators to consider in light of the importance this or similar/related genres and practices of music could play in contemporary music classrooms.
2011-06-01T19:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/9
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1060/viewcontent/K_Snell_Turtablism___Personhood_PPT.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1062
2011-07-12T23:33:17Z
publication:lme
Teacher Leadership in Determing the Role of Evaluative Performances in Piano Students' Musical Development
Mitchell, Nancy
Evaluative performances, such as festivals and examinations, frequently play an important role in the musical education of piano students. Teachers and parents often believe that having students participate in these evaluations ensures a higher quality of instruction (Babin, 2005; Tye, 2004) and higher levels of student motivation (Davidson and Scutt, 1999). Evaluative performances are also touted as opportunities for students to learn from the adjudicator’s feedback. Drawing on data collected in a qualitative investigation of beginning and intermediate piano students’ experiences participating in evaluative performances, I will examine these assumptions and will provide guidelines for teachers in deciding when and how to incorporate evaluations in their students’ learning. Based on the interviews I have conducted with both current and former students, students experience evaluative performances in a positive way when they begin their piano studies with high levels of intrinsic motivation, choose to participate in festivals and exams, enjoy the repertoire that is part of the syllabus, value the formal recognition of achievement that is offered in a graded system, feel confident performing in front of others, and feel supported but not pressured by parents and teachers. Students who are less interested in learning the piano in general, who are forced to participate in evaluative performances, who find the required repertoire uninteresting, who do not value receiving grades and certificates, who experience debilitating performance anxiety, or who feel that their needs are unsupported or misunderstood by parents and teachers have much less positive views of festivals and examinations. Many students work toward an evaluative performance for an extended period of time, meaning that the way in which they experience the evaluative process can easily colour their views of piano study in general. Because highly trained teachers have nearly always participated successfully in a variety of evaluations themselves, they can sometimes assume that festivals and examinations are a necessary part of learning to play the piano, rather than approaching the learning process of each student in a more individualized fashion (Zenker, 2004). My research urges teachers to examine their practice and the assumptions that they have developed as a result of the ways in which they might have been taught. Parents and students are often introduced to festivals and examinations by teachers; therefore, it is crucial that teachers understand the various factors that influence how students experience these assessments and in what circumstances evaluative performances enhance students’ learning and overall impressions of piano study. When teachers have a rich and multi-faceted understanding of these important issues, they can use their position of leadership to ensure that all students engage in activities that will promote positive, meaningful learning experiences.
2011-06-01T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/11
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1063
2011-07-09T00:55:01Z
publication:lme
I Can't Speak but I Can Sing: How Singing Restored One Woman's Faith in Her Voice While Dealing with Spasmodic Dysphonia
Kleinerman, Kay
Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) is a voice disorder characterized by continuous, involuntary movements of one or more of the vocal folds during speech. There are three types of spasmodic dysphonia: Adductor SD – when sudden involuntary muscle spasms cause the vocal folds to slam together and stiffen; Abductor SD – when sudden involuntary muscle spasms cause the vocal folds to stay open; and Mixed SD – which has a combination of both Adductor and Abductor SD symptoms.
The cause of SD is, as yet, unknown - other than that its basis is neurological – and there is no known cure or successful long-term treatment. For most who are afflicted with SD, the onset seems to come out of nowhere, and often develops rapidly. Because the population of sufferers is small, (between 50,000 and 100,000 reported cases in the U.S), research into the cause of SD has little funding and is therefore negligible. Nevertheless, for those with SD, daily life can be physically and emotionally arduous, particularly as they struggle to literally make themselves heard, contend with the negative reactions of others, and deal with the emotional fallout of suddenly having what is often referred to in the SD community as a ‘broken voice’.
This study considers one woman’s struggle with SD, and looks at the transformative learning process engendered through participation in singing that enabled her to find new meaning with and about her embodied voice, and thus realize an enlarged sense of self. I examine how the holistic experience of learning to sing, and singing publicly for the first time at age 59, gradually allowed a shift away from limiting perspectives about living with a diminished voice, and toward a deeper sense of self-knowledge, sense of well-being, and renewed sense of agency. I discuss, as well, the entwined relationship between voice and identity, and how central voice is to how we perceive ourselves, and how others perceive us.
2011-06-01T21:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/12
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1064
2011-07-12T23:26:29Z
publication:lme
Music-Making at Prehistoric Sites Helping to Understand Present Intuition of Music
Adams, Dylan
This paper examines the potential for music education and experimental archaeology that exists in musicking at sacred prehistoric sites. Recent research in music education has highlighted the importance of improvisation, being in the moment and being able to tap into one’s own innate musicality (Wright and Kanellopoulos 2010). Research into the origins of music has suggested that music was a means of communication that preceded speech and has meaning for all homo-sapiens (Frayer and Nicolay 2000, Kunej and Turk 2000, Mithen 2005). There is also much evidence to suggest that music was revered as a powerful force in more recent prehistoric societies (Merriam 1964, Blacking 1973, Lewis-Williams 2005, Aldhouse-Green 2005, Levitin 2006). The challenge of investigating music in prehistoric cultures can therefore resonate synchronistically with exploring meaningful approaches to music education. An understanding of how music was used in the prehistoric past may help us to understand how we as human beings intuitively engage with music. The distant past is often a place of silence. Our knowledge of the distant past rarely includes an understanding or awareness of its soundscape. Therefore creating music with sounds that might have been heard in prehistoric societies could help us to interpret the times of our ancestors in ways beyond the capabilities of the visual world. When examining sound in this way we arguably pay much more attention to its detail and qualities than we do normally. We also try to uncover the cultural prejudices that filter our listening experience and hear with open ears. In addition, because making these sounds does not usually require extensive musical training, all participants are able to experience the beneficial effects of making music. Contemporary evidence from the fields of neuroscience, psychology and education has highlighted the power of music on human development (Sloboda 2001, Peretz and Zatorre 2005, Gardner 2006, Green 2008). Evidence such as this has provoked changes to the National Curriculum in Wales so that experiential learning, emotional intelligence, multiple learning styles, thinking skills and outdoor learning have now come to the fore. Educational projects that involve music-making at prehistoric sites situate themselves at the nexus between current anthropological research in the field and current research in music education, and creative development with children. Elitism pervades western music and our attitudes to organised sound. This in turn has caused us to block out sounds and lose any sense of reverence towards sound unless it happens to exist inside the sphere of our preferred musical or cultural tastes. These divisions are to be found throughout the educational institutions of the western world. I propose that musiking at sacred sites helps learners and educators alike to transcend cultural boundaries while at the same time perhaps giving insight into ancient musical practices. Research suggests that music-making should not be an élitist activity, but is something that all human beings can engage in and benefit from (Csikszentmihalyi 2002, Green 2008). Could engaging with music at these sites allow for a more egalitarian approach to musicking? Could it also enable us to feel and better understand the power of sound?
2011-06-01T21:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/13
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1065
2011-07-08T21:43:46Z
publication:lme
Bridging the Gap: Music Pedagogies as Culture-Specific Discourse Systems
Sprikut, Leonid
Despite their qualifications, professional experience, expertise and commitment to their vocation, many internationally educated music teachers in Ontario are estranged today from the music education mainstream. This process of separation results in the feeling of frustration and professional dissatisfaction among music educators-newcomers (Sprikut, Bartel, 2010, 29th ISME World Conference, Beijing). Increasingly, internationally trained music teachers choose to leave the teaching profession altogether, taking with them the wealth of knowledge, long history and rich traditions of their genuine pedagogic culture. This paper focuses on the phenomenon of the pedagogic cultural adaptation. The attempt is made to examine music pedagogy as a culture-specific discourse system, and some of the factors that facilitate the estrangement of the internationally educated music teachers and contribute to the disappearance of authentic pedagogic cultures are identified and explored. During the past few years, a variety of difficulties, immigrant educators experience while striving to integrate into the existing educational structure has been addressed in the literature. International scholars (Bascia, 1996; Beynon et al. 2004; Cho, 2010; Deters, 2006; Faez, 2010; Ng, 2006; Peeler, Jane, 2005) have started gaining deeper insight into the plight of these teachers in host societies around the world, and some of the issues that impede the newcomers’ successful integration were examined. However, while the existence of the problem is generally acknowledged, it appears that the paternalistic approach to the internationally educated teachers and their pedagogies still dominates the field. As a result, these teachers are denied a right to participate on an equal basis in both the educational discourse and educational process. In contrast, the set of examination lenses specific to music pedagogic culture, recently proposed by Bartel (2010) appears to be more culture sensitive, as it constitutes a significant shift away from the “cultural superiority” approach and towards recognizing cultural pedagogic equality in the context of pedagogic multiculturalism. In this paper, within Bartel’s general theoretical framework, a few aspects of the concurrent existence of diverse music pedagogic cultures are examined. In conclusion, some practical suggestions are offered for generating meaningful cultural dialogue and bridging the gap between diverse music pedagogic traditions and practices that coexist today in our society.
2011-06-01T21:30:00Z
text
video/x-ms-asf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/14
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1065/type/native/viewcontent/Sprikut_Bridging_the_Gap.wmv
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1068
2011-07-12T23:34:28Z
publication:lme
Music: What It Means to Us, and Why a Pragmatic Approach for Music Educators
Imhoff, James
We hear popular clichés about music telling a story or painting a picture; but musical meaning is a complex topic. Formalist philosophers argue that music has no semantic content; what do music teachers say? A recent survey conducted by the authors shows conflict between teachers and philosophers: one school of thought holds that music is a purely sensory or aesthetic phenomenon without meaning, others argue that music has emotional content, but not meaning in any sense that can be designated with words. Teachers, however, as evidenced by the survey, lean towards the more colloquial and informal notions. This conflict lies in narrow conceptions of both music and meaning. Musical meaning is often treated as a semantic or lexical concept, but empirical linguistics offers an alternative: pragmatic meaning, based on context and human interaction. Further, these arguments typically focus on “pure music,” as if lyrics, dance, and ritual are not part of the music. We argue that pure music is an unrealistic, positivist construct, whereas musicking, a human interaction, always happens in a pragmatically meaningful context. Finally, recent cognitive literature treats meaning as an embodied phenomenon: meaning is not seen or heard: it is felt.
2011-06-01T22:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/17
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1069
2013-02-10T21:03:01Z
publication:lme
Music in the Belly: Music and Mother-Child Interaction
Marjanen, Kaarina
This study explores the possibilities of and reasons for using music education as a support in very early mother-child interaction, throughout musically supporting the attachment.
Dr. Marjanen's PhD dissertation (The Belly-button Chord: Connections of Pre- and Postnatal Music Education with Early Mother-child Interaction) is available online at: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-3769-0
2011-06-01T22:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/18
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1069/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1070
2011-07-12T23:28:07Z
publication:lme
Researching Traditional Music Cultures: Youth as Ethnographers
Peters, Valerie
Biliodeau, Marie-Hélène
It is important to locate multi- and intercultural music education practices in the larger structures of society and within the local culture (Dodd, 2001; Ross, 1994-95). Curricular innovations need to present music as culture, as a form of human activity that requires active doing, a doer, something done, and a context (Elliott, 1989). Therefore, the current study proposes that students examine music cultures as situated, learned and taught, often by culture bearers, within a particular culture, reflecting the essential beliefs and values of that culture (Klinger, 1996). Also, the current study proposes to extend the research on youth identity formation to include the results of students studying the music of their own cultural heritage (Frith, 1987; Tarrant, North, & Hargreaves, 2002). This program of research proposes to investigate students’ understanding of their own musical heritage in the context of the local community surrounding the school and in collaboration with culture bearers (Klinger, 1996). This study offers a unique opportunity to understand how students construct their knowledge about their own music culture. In addition, the pedagogical strategies proposed are unique to music education classrooms. Students will act as researchers, using the tools of inquiry of ethnography (observation and interviews) in order to represent (in writing in a communal database, Knowledge Forum) their understanding of a local music culture by identifying concepts, beliefs and values embedded in cultural practices. The proposed research program will also investigate the link between cultural/ethnic identity and learning about one’s own musical heritage. Few studies have examined adolescents’ processes as they study musical practices embedded in social contexts (Peters, 2007). Purposeful sampling procedures have been used to identify two cases of special interest that have the potential to provide insight into the phenomenon that will be studied and to extend knowledge resulting from my thesis (Peters, 2007) to different geographic areas and different populations (Chisasibi, Cree Nation; Quebec City, French Canadian). Multiple case studies with different populations can provide rich information to inform best practices in multi- and intercultural music education linked to particular cultural contexts. This research paper will present preliminary data from one case study conducted in a secondary school in Quebec City during the 2010-2011 school year. The data will focus on how students construct and represent their understanding of their own music culture. A content analysis of the database entries allows the researcher to collect data on various aspects of the messages encoded in the communication product. Specifically, messages relating to how the students represent their own music culture and the concepts, beliefs and values that they perceive to be embedded in musical/cultural practices. Content analysis results in simple classifications or tabulations of specific information. Therefore, this presentation will focus on music’s role in shaping community and identity in connection with traditional music.
2011-06-01T22:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/19
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1071
2011-07-12T23:45:17Z
publication:lme
From Freire to Green: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
Wright, Ruth
Drawing on a theoretical background from the sociology of education, this paper considers the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu, Ellul and Freire with respect to issues of social justice in music education. The author proposes that music education holds within its grasp the potential to be a powerful liberatory force. Examining ways forward for music in schools with a goal of social justice, the author examines the possibilities for music educators to 'think globally, act locally' (Ellul, 1964) to redress issues of social and distributive injustice in and through music education. In particular, the potential of informal pedagogy as emancipatory practice will be discussed. The study will present a critical review of literature reflecting upon the application of sociological theory to music education and social justice. Analysis of empirical research (Folkestad, 2006, Green, 2006, Vakeva, 2006, Westerlund 2006, Wright, 2007) into informal learning as pedagogy will be presented with reflection upon the potential of such studies to serve as illustrations of emancipatory practice in music education. Music in schools has long suffered in many western societies from the label of elitism, the study concludes that music has a crucial role to play in liberatory education and that informal pedagogy provides a vehicle for powerful social change in and through music education. It provides teachers and pupils with the means necessary to 'think globally and act locally' to empower teachers and pupils and effect societal change.
2011-06-01T22:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/20
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1066
2011-06-23T00:26:54Z
publication:lme
Closing a Private Music Studio: An Experiential Study
Lierse, Sharon
The private music studio plays a crucial role in the education of the musician. One-to-one music tuition is one of the most effective means of learning a musical instrument and students can learn throughout the life-span. The student teacher relationship is vital in not only the technical and musical development of the student, but also in shaping the student’s identity and personal growth. This relationship can be described a personal, professional and positive. In 2010, the author was running a private music studio full-time in Melbourne, Australia. The students ranged from four years old to retirement age and for many students, they had remained with the same teacher since their introduction to music. The instruments taught were flute, cello, double bass and theory which gave diversity to the clientale in regards to choice and musical taste. The author was offered a Senior Lecturing position in Asia which comprised lecturing, research and private lessons. This was on condition of moving countries. Due to the difference in semester dates, the across had to close the studio at short notice mid-semester to start a new appointment. The reaction of the students and their families was predictably mixed. The majority of families were first or second generation migrants thus there was a level of understanding for embracing opportunities overseas. There was much shock, sadness and a feeling of abandonment. Likewise, the author not only had to accept and embrace the forthcoming career and cultural change, but shed a former identity which had shaped the author’s persona. The proposed paper will be an experiential study on closing a private music studio. Musical and social issues will be explored as well as the impact of the teacher on the student and the power of music in ones life.
2011-06-01T21:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/15
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1066/viewcontent/Lierse_Paper__Internet_Music_Education_Doc.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1072
2011-07-12T23:48:16Z
publication:lme
Transition Into the Teaching Profession: Induction and Mentoring Issues Surrounding Secondary Music Teachers
Kissel, Mark
The purpose of this study was to investigate the issues surrounding the transition into the teaching profession by specifically focusing on teacher induction and mentoring issues while explicitly addressing matters of concern by secondary music teachers in a large suburban school board in southern Ontario. Participants included beginning teachers with fewer than 5 years of teaching, mid career teachers with between 6 and 15 years of instruction, and experienced teachers with more than 16 years of practice. The processes of mentoring and inducting new teachers within the board were examined, along with their relationships between protégés, mentors, and administrators. Further, internal and external programs specifically designed and implemented for newer music teachers were scrutinized and discussed. Data were collected through 16 personal interviews as well as an analysis of key documents and literature on the subject. The findings suggest that although the necessity of mentoring and induction processes has begun to be recognized, there exists a fundamental relationship between mentoring and induction and the affect of the professional attachments to mentoring; the institutional and administrative supports that are enabled; and essential processes and practices between mentors and protégés. Together these three arms combine to support successful induction and mentoring initiatives that will help ease the transition into teaching.
2011-06-01T22:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/21
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1073
2011-06-06T22:28:51Z
publication:lme
The Creativity of Politics in Music and the Politics of Music Creativities in Education
Burnard, Pamela
2011-06-01T16:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/22
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1067
2011-07-12T23:27:22Z
publication:lme
Learning Processes In Aural Training: Perspectives of Brazilian Students From a Popular Music Course
Alcantara, Darcy
Feichas, Heloisa
This research is about the learning processes related to aural training of 13 students who were admitted in the Bachelor of Popular Music at the Music School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the year of 2010. The goal is to understand how those students built their knowledge and skills related to musical perception prior to college as well as the meanings and values they attribute to their learning processes. In addition, it aims to investigate conflicts and impacts on their musical practices, and expectations about the aural training classes at the university. The qualitative research used questionnaires and focus groups. Most students began to develop musical skills through informal learning practices (especially playing by ear), acquiring further formal knowledge on private lessons and music schools (reading and writing skills, and aural discrimination of musical elements, which are required for entering a music course). The practice of playing by ear was identified by the students as essential and the most relevant in developing skills related to listening. On the other hand, the acquisition of writing skills (considered as a differential in the labor market and contributing to a more autonomous musician), seemed to have had impacts on their musical practices: listening became more analytical, influencing the preference for genres supposedly more complex and blocking the creativity of some students. Generally, the aural training classes have been considered hard and unpleasant for all students, revealing a decontextualized teaching, mechanical and distant from the music itself. Although, their expectations about the classes at the University differ with regard to emphasis on theory or practice; objectivity or subjectivity in addressing the content; and against or in favor the diversity of styles, practices and profiles of students at a college. They also differ on expectations about which knowledge and skills musicians should be required to show on the entrance exams at the university (seen as a place par excellence of theoretical knowledge). Some of them attribute great importance to reading and writing skills, while others believe that playing by ear, composing and improvising expressively are much more relevant in joining a popular music course. Finally, research points out that the assessment of knowledge and skills related to aural training classes can be interpreted as a mechanism of exclusion and barrier of access to higher education. Since in the public schools Brazilian children still do not have plain access to music education, the chances of being admitted at a public university are linked to private mechanisms of acquiring formal knowledge from classical tradition, usually considered as “musical” in itself and applicable to any musical practice (even in popular music courses). The situation is aggravated by the fact that there are much more musicians applying for higher education courses than available posts at public universities. All these ideological aspects (the core of predominant social representations) are challenged by some students and legitimated by others, who internalize conflicts and recognize their inferiority in front of the dominant school culture.
2011-06-01T22:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/16
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1074
2011-07-13T22:01:48Z
publication:rwkex
publication:musiceducation
publication:faculties
publication:rwkex_presentationslidedecks
publication:lme
publication:musiceducationpres
Creating Arts Curriculum for the 21st Century
Phillips, John
This workshop will position the newly revised Ontario Arts curriculum document alongside contemporary issues and research in music education. The rationale for change, political impact and systematic implementation will underscore the contextual reference to this educational policy document. The session will be of immediate interest to delegates who are teaching within the Ontario context as well as those interested in music curriculum reform.
2011-05-29T17:30:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/13
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1074/viewcontent/John_Phillips_Leading_Music_Education___Curriculum_in_the_21st_century.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1075
2011-07-12T04:41:59Z
publication:lme
Conference Program
Don Wright Faculty of Music, The University of Western Ontario
2011-05-29T15:00:00Z
text
application/pdf
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/14
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/lme/article/1075/viewcontent/LME_program_print18may.pdf
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1076
2011-07-12T00:46:38Z
publication:lme
Sing me a Good Math Story: How Elementary School Students Use Song to Communicate Their Math Learning
Gadanidis, George
The Fields Institute has generously funded our first set of Joy of X performances for schools. Joy of X is a math & science performance project by George Gadanidis. Our goal is to celebrate mathematical and scientific thinking and help K-8 students, teachers and parents experience math and science as a fully human activity, that can be discussed with family and friends as one would with a favourite book or a good movie.
2011-06-01T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/23
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1077
2011-07-12T23:24:09Z
publication:lme
There's Madness in (Your Notion of) Method: The Popular Misconception of Method and Its Effects on Music Education
Louth, Paul
Drawing principally on the work of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend, this paper explores the problematic notion of method in music education and argues that popular notions of method have had a deleterious effect on the development of music education by discouraging educators and, by proxy, their students from embracing conflict or pursuing counterinductive ways of thinking about music. Feyerabend argues that in the natural sciences knowledge advances not according to principles traditionally associated with scientific methodology, but rather as a result of contradictions that are recognized between “partly overlapping” theories that are “mutually inconsistent.” Unfortunately, our collective failure to recognize the limitations of method with regard to scientific knowledge has led to the widespread yet mistaken belief that it plays the central role in the development of important theories. Thus, in the debate over whether the “objective” and “methodical” approach to research supposedly pre-eminent in the physical sciences is appropriate for a subject such as music, it generally goes unnoticed that “pure” scientific research is, strictly speaking, neither objective nor necessarily methodical, as Thomas Regelski (1996) has argued with regard to pervasive scientism in music education research. Beyond the realm of music education research, however, the popular yet mistaken idea that method is the key to theory development has arguably contributed to its enshrinement as not simply a useful scaffold for facilitating musical development but, in many cases, the only ostensibly suitable goal of music education. Indeed, the pseudo-religious worship of music education methods can arguably be traced directly to these misconceptions about the role of scientific method in the development of various theories about the world in general, particularly given the need for (scientific?) legitimation faced by so many arts educators. Through an historical examination of various discourses on popular music education methods and the published materials themselves, as well as an examination of the ways in which methods associated with music education theories have been received, this paper posits that a relationship exists between these discourses and the generally accepted belief that method necessarily plays a key role in the discovery of important new knowledge. Special attention is paid to the discourses surrounding two music education methods in particular: the Kodály method and the method associated with Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory. It must be stressed that the focus of this analysis is not the truth content of these methods, but rather the manner in which proponents discuss and propagate them. These examples show that, historically, we have suffered a series of localized and/or consecutive bouts of “totalizing discourse” that have resulted from this unfortunate tendency of associating rigid adherence to method with truth seeking. As an alternative, it is argued that Feyerabend’s notion of a “pluralistic methodology,” which involves the historicization of both theories and the methods they spawn through an awareness of a plurality of conflicting views, is better suited to the needs of music education, and should be embraced if music educators are to be leaders by approaching their profession more critically.
2011-06-01T19:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/24
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1078
2011-07-13T00:01:30Z
publication:lme
Rhythmic Kinaesthetics
Stewart, Jeff
2011-05-29T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/15
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1079
2011-07-13T00:04:38Z
publication:lme
Gamelan Workshop
Murtadza, Nur Intan
“It is not a zoo; we live in it too,” admonished Jowi Taylor, a world music programmer at CKLN in Toronto. Once considered ‘exotic’, the gamelan orchestra captivated Europeans at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889. In particular, Debussy’s encounters with the music are well documented. It is speculated that the delicate nuances of Debussy’s piano music are evocative of the soft shimmering sounds of the Javanese percussion. A little over a century later, gamelans are played by fifth and sixth graders in elementary schools in Canada, the United States, Japan, Great Britain and France to name a few. In addition, most universities and colleges in the aforementioned countries have their own gamelan sets. While many sociological and political reasons can be cited to account for the popularity of the gamelan orchestra, of particular interest to music educators, is the learning process. This gamelan workshop will provide a hands-on, embodied session for its participants to explore the learning processes in gamelan music making. It will be a site where participants play at the interface of pedagogies found in community music and university settings. I aspire here to create ‘praxial’ moments reflecting the research done by Lucy Green in her book, Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy (Green, 2008).
2011-05-29T21:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/16
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1080
2011-07-13T00:08:50Z
publication:lme
Injury Prevention Education: How Survivors Can Help the Next Generation of Musicians
Guptill, Christine
This research study used a phenomenological methodology drawing from the work of Heidegger, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, and Van Manen. Ten self-identified professional musicians from Ontario who had experienced playing-related injuries were recruited using purposeful, snowball sampling. They participated in two in-depth interviews at a location of their choice, from one to two hours in length. Six participants also attended a focus group session where preliminary findings were shared. Novels, movies, and other artistic representations, and the experiences of the researcher herself, also provided sources from which to draw upon in order to understand the lived-experience of professional musicians with injuries. The researcher also kept a journal, documenting field notes and the evolving understanding of the phenomenon. Interviews and the focus group were transcribed verbatim and identifying information was removed, with pseudonyms used. Analysis included data immersion; the generation of field and narrative texts; data transformation; thematic analysis; and the generation of a thick description of the phenomenon. The hermeneutic circle drove the analysis process, moving from detailed examination of parts of the data to the view of the whole until both could be seen simultaneously. Rigour was applied by opening up the inquiry to examination by an experienced researcher who was part of the researcher’s dissertation committee, and by the focus group. Lengthy quotes provided rich descriptions which allow readers to assess the accuracy with which the phenomenon is described. All ten of the participants recruited were music educators, in settings ranging from private studios, to the public school system, to universities. This study found that the participants experienced an absence of awareness of time and of their bodies when engaged in their occupation. They also experienced, to differing degrees, their instruments as extension of their bodily experience of playing music. Pain and injury changed this experience, with participants describing how time, their bodies, and the distance between their musical intentions and expressions became more apparent. Participants in this study expressed regret that they were not provided with adequate information about the prevalence of playing-related injuries and means of preventing injury as young musicians. They also expressed a desire to change these circumstances for future generations of musicians. For these participants, the experience of being injured changed what and how they teach. They provided a wide range of information and advice, which for some was as simple as checking with students to ensure they were comfortable, or adjusting posture. Others recommended practitioners and exercises, limited extra-curricular playing, and even advised students who experienced injuries not to pursue a performance career. Music teachers can have a strong influence on developing musicians. This study highlights the importance of increased deliberate efforts to provide injury prevention education in music performance curriculum and pedagogy. Such efforts are recommended by, among others, the National Association for Music Education in the US and performing arts medicine associations worldwide. Drawing on the findings from this study and literature from the fields of performing arts health and music education, we can begin to envision models of health promotion in schools of music that can be applied in both the Canadian and international contexts.
2011-05-29T23:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May29/Program/17
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1081
2011-07-13T22:07:30Z
publication:lme
The Role of Technology in Facilitating the Development of Community Music Ensembles by Colleges and University Faculty
Hopkins, Michael
Music faculty at colleges and universities are in a unique position to help found and develop new community music ensembles. Faculty often have a flexible time schedule, connections with music teachers and community musicians, access to technology, and a combination of administrative and technological skills that facilitate the development of a new ensemble. Technology plays a particularly important role in allowing music and other non-profit arts ensembles to be developed at low cost. In this workshop I will discuss the process of organizing and founding a non-profit music ensemble, and provide an overview of software applications and web-based services that can be used for marketing, accounting, and effective communications. Issues surrounding fundraising, board development, and public relations will be discussed. I will share with the participants my experiences as founding director of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and the growth process of starting the ensemble with $2000 of my own personal savings to an annual operating budget of $50,000 in three years. It is my hope that those attending this workshop session will recognize potential opportunities where they live and become inspired to use their skills and background as musical leaders for the development of music ensembles in their own communities.
2011-05-31T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/14
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1084
2011-07-13T22:17:04Z
publication:lme
Exploring Elements of Identity in Music Education
Sweet, Bridget
Identity is complex and may include influences of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and/or physical or mental ability. In addition, various aspects of personal identity are more prominent and recognized within different music education settings. Yet, as one researcher notes, "currently, schools are being asked to transform themselves into caring communities of learning, and teachers are being invited to assume the role of community builder. Although the idea of creating learning communities carries popular appeal, little attention has been devoted to helping teachers to change their classrooms into personalized, caring learning environments" (Irvine, 2004, p.75). In building personalized, caring music learning environments, music educators must begin to acknowledge the variety of aspects that comprise the identities of their students as well as within themselves. Tatum's (1997) categories of "otherness" (race or ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and/or physical or mental ability) provide music educators a framework on which to build an understanding of identity. Through understandings of “otherness” and acknowledgement of personal beliefs, music educators may develop sensitivity to individuals’ differences, allowing teachers and students to communicate and work more effectively in the music classroom. Ultimately, this may lead to more rewarding music experiences for both teachers and students. The proposed workshop will engage participants in small and large group activities that will probe issues of identity in music education. Through critical questioning, writing, reflection, and synthesis, participants will develop an understanding of personal identity and learn strategies for addressing these issues in the context of their own teaching. Part one of the workshop will establish a context and rationale for the importance of identity and its relationship to music education. Part two will allow participants to explore their own personal identity and beliefs through discussion based on Tatum’s categories of “otherness” as well as case studies dealing with issues of identity and diversity in music settings. The workshop will conclude with a summary of the emergent discussion and provide resources for further examination of identity in music education.
2011-05-31T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/17
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1082
2011-07-13T22:10:22Z
publication:lme
Working with Children in Challenging Circumstances
Mullen, Phil
This interactive workshop will give participants a background to working with children in contexts beyond the mainstream and also give them clear ideas on methodology and repertoire. It will enable them to understand how to build their own repertoire, focussing on simple and flexible template materials. It will also give them pointers in allowing young people creative expression and how to engage demotivated young people. It will underline key issues about leadership in this area emphasising side by side working and the idea of a warm space. The session will begin with a short introduction to the work I have been involved with in England through the Beyond the Mainstream strand of the UK's national singing programme Sing Up. I will then get the group to create an image of a child in challenging circumstances, guided by UK statistics on child poverty, mental health, achievement etc. We will then focus briefly on the research work of Edward Deci and the concept that intrinsic motivation is determined by need for competency, belonging and autonomy. This points the way for designing programmes for vulnerable children that minimise risk and optimise their motivation. Moving on to the music we will run through some vocal warmup work and move into voice percussion with the participants contributing creatively under my guidance. We will sing and improvise with some simple template songs that are suitable for young people with a range of challenges. This will be followed by a series of creative exercises- working from comic and sticker books, using tactile and visual stimuli to generate songs and improv. The last few minutes will be a question and answer and short feedback session.
2011-05-31T18:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/15
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1085
2011-07-13T22:20:38Z
publication:lme
Leading Adult Singers toward a Lifetime of Fulfilling Choral Participation
Meredith, Victoria
As the fastest growing age group in North America has surpassed the 85 and older cohort, it is not surprising that the average adult choir is maturing. Not only is choral singing an aesthetic, artistic expression, it serves as an important social connection for singers. Choristers frequently describe “the choir as family” and that their closest friends are people they first met in a choir. People who sing in choirs generally want to continue their choral involvement for as long as possible. With the advancing age of so many singers, choristers and conductors are presented with new challenges associated with age-related changes that tend to take place in voices and bodies. It is to the advantage of conductors of adult choirs to understand these changes and to have a working knowledge of how to help their choristers sing as well as possible for as long as possible. At the same time that singers are dealing with newly emerging vocal difficulties, frequently leading them to consider discontinuing choral participation altogether because they feel that they no longer sing well enough to contribute meaningfully to the ensemble, the social and aesthetic aspects of choral ensemble membership become increasingly significant. The voice follows the same Principles of Exercise Physiology that dictate the function of the rest of the body. Through an understanding of these principles, coupled with a working knowledge of the types of physical and vocal changes that aging singers tend to experience, leaders of adult choirs can use vocal and rehearsal techniques to delay, minimize, and even reverse the negative aspects of vocal aging. In this way, a knowledgeable choral conductor is in a position to help keep aging adults singing well and at a level that is fulfilling to them as singers while also making a meaningful musical contribution to the ensemble. This workshop session is divided into three parts. Part One establishes a context for adult choral participation as it identifies some of the benefits that individual adult singers report that they gain from their choral involvement. This information has been gathered by survey over a period of five years and is based upon input from approximately eight hundred adult singers, aged 29 to 88, from across Canada and the United States. Research from the medical field that intersects with the study of the aging singing voice is also considered. Part Two identifies types of physical and vocal changes that adult singers tend to experience and relates these to musical considerations such as rehearsal techniques and repertoire characteristics. In Part Three, participants will have the opportunity to experience first-hand vocal conditioning exercises designed not only to help adults deal with vocal changes but to improve vocal ability regardless of age. The specific function of each exercise will be explained as it applies to the aging voice, as participants work through a comprehensive vocal conditioning routine.
2011-05-31T20:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/18
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1086
2011-07-13T22:24:08Z
publication:lme
Ear Cleaning and Soundscape: Classroom Composition from the Sounds around Us
Friesen, Doug
Through Ear Cleaning (R. Murray Schafer) and soundscape composition, this workshop will look at music as a social interaction between students and their environment. It will focus on the benefits of process as it relates to personal creativity within a group and/or community. Composition borne of various musical traditions is often product driven, asking all students to create similar works as opposed to allowing them to individually decide what sounds good and what might not. Composition that begins with local soundscapes gives students the opportunity to listen creatively and decide what they would like to include, exclude, or change. This workshop explores classroom possibilities of the creative and ethical space between music and noise.
2011-05-31T21:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/19
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1088
2011-07-13T22:31:09Z
publication:lme
"Musical Life Histories:" A Practical Strategy for Enacting Music Education as a Practice of Social Justice
Vaugeois, Lise
How do we introduce important but challenging social issues, such as relations of power and the forms of oppression that affect so many people's lives, in a field which so often defines itself as apolitical and “just about the music?” In a recent publication, I write about the idea of using “musical life histories” to explore social and economic relations as they intersect with the production of different musics. Exploring musical life histories includes asking who is and is not present in different forms of music-making; how different forms of music are represented in various discourses; where race, gender and class reside within musical expressions; what forms of embodied expression are allowable in different musical and social contexts; and how different musics are situated in relation to discourses of respectability, degeneracy, virtuosity and emancipation. What does this kind of engagement look like in practice and how might this change depending on one’s teaching context? For example, would exploring musical life histories look different if one is teaching music at an elite private school, a school in a housing project, an arts magnet school, a middle class school, a school for new immigrants? Do the class expectations of students, parents and administrators influence what topics can be explored (or will be tolerated) in a music classroom? Jean Anyon explored these questions in her paper "Elementary Schooling and Distinctions of Social Class” in 1981 and these questions are still pertinent to our contemporary teaching contexts. Following a brief consideration of the philosophical grounding for my concept of “musical life histories” and issues raised by Anyon, I consider several musical examples drawn from school, concert and film music and work through, together with workshop participants, how these examples might be taken up as as tools for "consciousness raising" in differently situated classrooms. Shifting theory into practice is always an enormous challenge. This workshop provides an opportunity to experiment with different ideas and explore concerns and challenges arising from participants' own teaching experiences.
2011-06-01T19:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/26
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1083
2011-07-13T22:14:36Z
publication:lme
Singing into Your Authentic Self
Kleinerman, Kay
This workshop explores the connection between participation in singing and the development of personal leadership qualities and capabilities. The interactive teaching/learning method of this workshop is based on Transformative Learning. Singing can be a transformative learning process that enables a shift away from limiting perspectives and toward developing personal leadership qualities via experiential learning, learning within relationship, public performance and the inner journey of reflection and subsequent understanding that leads to individuation. As workshop participants start to discover the range, power and expressive capacity of their voices, they will begin to sense their own unique vocal strength and capability. They will learn how participation in singing can foster self-exploration, self-knowledge, and the development of certain qualities, habits of mind and ways of being that enable a personal transformation in service of a greater potential for leadership. They will also experience singing as an holistic endeavor that promotes a sense of well-being and joy. In addition to singing, this rich and engaging process includes breath and body relaxation work, journaling, partner and group discussion. Previous singing experience is not required in order participate in this workshop. Singers and non-singers alike are welcome.
2011-05-31T17:30:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/May31/Program/16
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music
oai:ir.lib.uwo.ca:lme-1087
2011-07-13T22:28:37Z
publication:lme
Lost in Eden: Guided Practice for the Musical Tourist
Picone, John
That young musicians know how to practice seems to be a given. The yardstick that measures effective practice is still, by and large, a factor of time: “How long should I practice?” The longer, it seems, the better. Literature examining successful musicians at the professional level indicates that effective, “deliberate” practice involves being able to draw appropriately upon an extensive repertoire of practice strategies. Metacognition is a key factor in this. Such effective practice only seems to emerge and evolve over a period of time, naturally developing with the musician’s maturity. This, of course, is only if the musician “sticks with it.” My experience as a music educator strongly suggests that too many young people are abandoning music education at an early age - after one high school course or a few months of private lessons - simply because “it’s too hard.” Reflection on my own practice suggests that, “Now, go home and practice carefully!” unfairly assumes the young musician knows how. This research asks if guided practice at an early age might, in fact, prove a catalyst in this natural emergence of effective practice, recognizing the fact that developing effective deliberate practice strategies at an early age might have a significant impact on intrinsic motivation that results from greater success in addressing musical challenges. In other words, what happens when, with the guidance of a music educator, musicians practice practicing? This workshop will present findings regarding performance success; overall attitude and motivation are based on interviews with the 20 musicians – ages 8 to 13 – and their parents, as well as on reflective journals kept by the musicians and myself over the course of one academic year. The workshop will also present video recordings of my working with young musicians in guided practice sessions which demonstrate teaching methods that are effective in developing deliberate practice strategies in young musicians. These guided practice sessions are with young pianists as well as young concert band musicians. Importantly, the cognitive development of the young musician engaged in guided practice is a matter of significant person growth in becoming an expert. That is, the child develops not only skills in metacognition, but also in progressive problem solving, two salient characteristics of genuine expertise. Finally, the attitudes and problem solving skills developed through guided music practice not only promote a lifelong pursuit of making music, but also begin to equip the young person for the lifelong learning of anything!
2011-06-01T18:00:00Z
text
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lme/June1/Program/25
Leading Music Education International Conference
Scholarship@Western
Music