Minutes of March 17, 2016 meeting

(See Agenda and Call for Webinar Proposals at the bottom of the document)

The CDSJ ASPA met during the 2016 NAfME Research and Teacher Education National Conference. The meeting, on Thursday March 17, 2016 was led by outgoing co­facilitator Karen Salvador and current co­facilitator Amanda Soto.

One initial point of conversation was the possibility of a CDSJ pre­conference at the next NAFME research and teacher education conference [Atlanta??? 2018], and Susan Conkling’s positive response: “Maybe so. Denise Odegaard is interested in your ASPA.” The co­facilitators will follow up as soon as possible to learn more about this possibility.

During the remainder of the meeting the ASPA members divided into sub­groups to work on ideas they had from the September 2015 meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina. Below are the summaries of the subgroup meetings from Atlanta we have received. We still need notes from two of the groups and have sent notes to the facilitators of those groups.

The Power, Space, Access sub­group (reported by Juliet Hess)

In attendance: Adam Grise; Karen Howard; Vince Bates; Jennifer Gowan; Camilo Leal; Nicole Robinson; Ruth Gurgel

We mostly brainstormed different ideas including:

  • Some work problematizing access (e.g. what is it exactly that we are advocating for access to…?!)
  • issues of class in music education
  • the importance of seeing yourself represented in the curriculum and in your teachers in school education
  • the segregation of social justice as a topic in music education
  • the importance of talking about the “tough topics”
  • the consideration of who participates in music vs. school music
  • stimulating discussion about access at the preservice level
  • the problematics of generalizing social justice

The group agreed to connect via Skype in May to discuss these ideas further and see what develops. One action or potential action is the desire to address access through a statement to NAfME or possible NASM.

The group devoted to talking to other MTE’s about cultural diversity and social justice (reported by Karen Salvador)

In attendance: Karen Salvador, Seth Glabman, Jake Berglin, Mike Raiber, and John Peasant, Jr.

We talked about:

“No silver bullet: How do we prepare students for the job they didn’t want?”

What do you do when you disagree with what you see from mentors teachers or what you are seeing from methods instructors at your institution?

How do you [MTE] teach about musical practices that you have not participated in? Or how do you teach [MTE’s] about culturally relevant pedagogy that you personally have not yet enacted? Example: One co­facilitator personally taught in an all­white suburban/rural district, kids nearly all middle class, left classroom in 2004 so no one was “out” as gay or trans in my elementary school, overt Christianity within instruction was an accepted “out” practice at this public elementary school] etc. Am I “qualified” to then teach on this? I have _tons_ of thoughts on this, but we ran out of time. ;­)

The group devoted to Marginalized Voices (reported by Brent Talbot)

Our group met to discuss the book project Brent has been working on with 16 authors on topics of marginalization in music education. We discussed suggestions for how the book might be best used and in ways that others could conduct similar projects within their own spheres of influence. Ideas generated were: writing articles for journals, creating special issues, writing about such stories in the columns of the MEA quarterly journals and newsletters.

The group devoted to Musical and Cultural Identity (reported by Carol Frierson­Campbell)

We talked very generally about five big issues:

  • How to make sure we honor the musical and cultural integrity of the musical cultures we teach (and that we teach our students to do the same), and also to deconstruct stereotypes (an example was a Black male student whom “everyone” assumed would want to teach in an urban school even though he was not from an urban environment).
  • How to create a repository for resources / models / perhaps host a retreat? Lesson plans? Skit or script for a skit? [AMANDA SOTO POINTED OUT THAT THERE IS A PAGE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE RESOURCES IN THE SMTE WORK GROUP GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER.)
  • How to make connections with the NAfME teacher conference, so that a) we know what’s going on in the “practitioner” world, and also b) so we can “send the message” about social justice to that world. (As an aside, there seems to be great curiosity about how/why the “higher ed” and “practitioner” conferences were separated, and in fact so few higher ed folks have been able to get proposals accepted at the “other” conference.)
  • How to honor challenges/objections to our attempts to be socially just, honor difference, etc. For instance, one person mentioned being in a situation where she had to de­escalate such a conversation and was able to honor both the person objecting and the intention of the activity. On the other hand, another person mentioned a situation where a number of cultures were being represented in a social­justice oriented conference and one of the participants simply could not make themselves participate in music representing an ethnicity they were uncomfortable interacting with.
  • How to help pre­service and in­service teachers deal with the complexity of so many diversities; ELL, special needs, multiple cultures (some groups want to assimilate and be “American” while others want their home culture honored, some Muslim cultures object to music, etc.)

After the meeting the co­coordinators noticed that a survey had been started during the Fall 2015 conference. Karen Salvador followed up with Rachel Brashier, who typed up the notes from the group who were talking about a survey, and learned that the original group had not followed up on the survey so the project did not move forward. If someone who was in attendance at the Sept 2015 meeting would like to follow up on the survey, please let the

co­facilitators know.

POSTED BY CAROL F­C ON 4­17­2016

*************************************************************************************************************

ASPA Meeting: Cultural Diversity and Social Justice NAfME Conference – Thursday, March 17, 2016 11:00 – 12:30 p.m.

Presiders: Karen Salvador, University of Michigan­Flint & Amanda Soto, Texas State University

Chastain E

SMTE Website: https://smte.us/aspas/cultural­diversity­and­social­justice/

Resource Wiki Page That You Can Edit: http://cdsjresourcepage.wikispaces.com/home

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/852073408152822/

Meeting Agenda

  1. Introduction & Welcomes – Sign – Up Sheet
  2. Website, Resources, Facebook Page Review
  1. The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education – Benedict, Schmidt, Spruce, & Woodford
  2. Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application – Vicki R. Lind & Constance L. McKoy
  1. Webinars
  2. SMTE Reports & Updates
  3. ASPA Goals & Accomplishments for 2016 ­ 2017
  4. Working Session
  5. Closing Thoughts
    1. Working Session Review
    2. Announcements for meetings, conferences, workshops, etc…’
    3. Transition of Leadership

 

CALL FOR WEBINAR PRESENTERS

Cultural Diversity and Social Justice ASPA Society for Music Teacher Education DEADLINE: July 1, 2016

The Cultural Diversity and Social Justice ASPA from the Society for Music Teacher Education is pleased to announce a call for webinar presentations for the 2016­ 2017 academic year. This ASPA is committed to promoting a social justice perspective for music teacher education by:

  1. Investigating and disseminating information on culturally responsive pedagogies
  2. Exploring and reporting on issues affecting recruitment and retention of a diverse teaching force.
  3. Challenging current perspectives of music, musicians, and music­making through online discussions and journal publications
  4. Raising awareness of factors affecting access to music teaching and learning through dialoguing and disseminating research among key stakeholders.

Presentations may be on any topic related to the goals of the ASPA. All presentations will be twenty minutes in length with 10 minutes for Q & A, will take place online, and will be recorded and posted the website for future reference. 6 – 7 presenters will be accepted.

 

SUBMISSION FORMAT

Please send an email with the subject heading “CDSJ ASPA Webinar Proposal” and attach a PDF or Word document including the following information:

  1. Your name, email address, academic institution (or independent status), and position. If you are

a student, please list your current degree program

  1. A brief explanation of your previous experience and/or research with criteria mentioned above. This should not exceed 1 paragraph.
  2. The title of the presentation
  3. A 250­word abstract describing your proposed presentation

Send submissions to Amanda C. Soto asoto@txstate.edu

All submissions must be received by midnight, July 1, 2016.

Notification of acceptance will be sent electronically by August 1, 2016.