In 2015, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education mandated that local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy, and worldviews be embedded in all K-12 curricula, but most BC music teachers have been unable to fulfill this directive because they are unfamiliar with Indigenous cultural practices. We designed this multiple case study, informed by Indigenous Protocols and worldviews, to address this gap of knowledge and understanding, so educators might learn how to enact the new curriculum 'in a good way' (i.e. in a way that aligns with Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing). We used document analysis and surveys to identify music educators and Indigenous community members who together had already been successful in embedding local Indigenous knowledge in music classes. We interviewed 51 music teachers, culture bearers, cultural workers, and students to learn how they had done this, and whether they found that such embedding had contributed to fostering cross-cultural understanding and respect. Participants reported that singing and drumming, taught orally in tandem with related stories, were the most prevalent forms of cultural practice, and that establishing relationships and following local Protocols led to greater cross-cultural understanding and respect.
British Columbia (BC) is becoming increasingly diverse, so I began this research in an effort to understand the practices of other teachers across BC regarding the inclusion of musics that reflect the cultural diversity of their students. With the introduction of a new curriculum in BC beginning in 2015, music educators across the province can now meaningfully include musics that embrace the cultural diversity of their students. Additionally, Indigenous musics, worldviews, and teachings have their own elevated position as part of the new curriculum and are no longer grouped together with other musics as part of musics from a variety of cultural and social contexts.Thus, I surveyed BC music teachers to understand their current practices, experiences, and attitudes using a mixed-methods questionnaire using both open-and closed-ended questions.Decolonization and historical, philosophical, and theoretical supports for non-Western music education are the frameworks for this research. I distributed my questionnaire via the BC Music Educators' Association listserve and conference, and I received eighty valid responses (N = 80). I discovered that 68% of participants currently utilize non-Western musics (nWM) in their own practices and of the 32% of participants who do not include nWM, 42% have used nWM in the past. Educators reported many benefits that they experienced through the inclusion of nWM, but they also reported some difficulties or barriers. Therefore, I will share the results of this exploration of the current practices, experiences, and attitudes of music educators in BC.
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