Multicultural Music: The Research

• Me’Haley Babich
• Posted 1/10/22
• 0 comments

Multicultural Music:

The Modern-Day Wonder in the Music Classroom

Part 2: The Research

As previously stated, many hurdles for music teachers come from inadequate training in multicultural music, lack of culture bearers in their local communities, and not enough administrative support in the form of resources.

Teaching music from, and relating to, music of other cultures is a part of the 2014 National Core Music Standards (National Association for Music Education [NAfME], n.d.). The requirement of including music from other cultures in the Core Music Standards, general music teachers need curricular materials that include multicultural music or develop individual lessons with authentic recordings, instruments, or knowledge of other cultures.

In some instances, little or no teacher education in multicultural music leads teachers to feel uncomfortable or reluctant to teach multicultural materials in the classroom. There have been many studies done to provide data about teachers’ attitudes toward multicultural music education. Results from those studies have concluded that many teachers feel unprepared to teach multicultural music due to insufficient training, lack of knowledge, and need for resources (Legette, 2003; Peterson, 2005; Wong, Pan & Shah, 2016).

One study surveyed more than 400 Malaysian general music teachers and collected information about their attitudes toward multicultural music. Researchers Wong, Pan, and Shah (2016) revealed that music teachers, several thousands of miles away from the United States, struggle to implement multicultural music education as music teachers in the United States.

Teachers surveyed reported feeling underprepared, not adequately educated, and ill-equipped to properly teach their students multicultural music (Wong, Pan, & Shah, 2016). It could be that the problems faced when incorporating non-native music into the curriculum are universal.

Legette (2003) created a study to examine public school music teachers’ attitudes, values, and practices for multicultural music education in the classroom, which concluded that an overwhelming number of participants (99%) believe that music from other cultures belongs in the general music curriculum.

Although teachers support inclusion of multicultural music education in the classroom, there were still several reasons given for not providing it. Some of the reasons for not offering multicultural music education include lack of knowledge, resources, and expertise.

Legette (2003) went on to explain, “it is quite probable that some music educators may view multicultural music education as an add-on component rather than a basic part of the curriculum” and is an area that warrants future research (p. 57). This belief could be due to the lack of teacher training of multicultural music education in undergraduate courses.

In an article by Campbell and Schupman (1992), the authors explain that many undergraduate music courses prepared students well as performers, active listeners, and even as future teachers of Western European music but failed to prepare students in the area of multicultural music. They observed then that:

Only recently did the National Association of Schools of Music, the major accrediting organization for schools and departments of music, consider a mandate for the inclusion of courses in not only Western concert music, but also contemporary pop music and music of world cultures.

Campbell and Schupman (1992)

Though this article was dated 27 years ago, some higher education institutions still do not offer courses for teacher preparation in the music of world cultures. As a result, course offerings for multicultural music in post-secondary educational institutions can vary significantly from school to school.

In a more recent survey of NASM-accredited institutions, Bell-McRoy (2014) found that most of these colleges and universities required only one or two courses containing multicultural music education in their undergraduate programs. Schools located in the Midwest had the highest number of opportunities for multicultural music education, while colleges in the South had the lowest amount of offered courses. Does this fit with your schooling experience?

Bell-McRoy also discovered that more prominent universities had more course offerings and smaller institutions had less. Through research, Teicher (1997) found positive correlations between pre-service teachers’ training in creating lessons and using multicultural music in the classroom and increased positive attitudes toward using multicultural music education in future teaching.

With this research in mind, I was curious about the effect of teacher training on general music teachers’ willingness to use multicultural music in their classrooms. Therefore, I decided to perform my own research. Read Part 3 to find out more. Multicultural Music: The Modern-Day Wonder in the Music Classroom Part 3: My Curiosity.

References

Bell-McRoy, Z. T. (2014). Multicultural music education in the music teacher preparation programs of NASM-accredited colleges and universities (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

Campbell, P. S., & Schupman, E. (1992). Cultural consciousness in teaching general music. Music Educators Journal, 78(9), 30-36. doi:10.2307/3398427

Legette, R. M. (2003). Multicultural music education attitudes, values, and practices of public school music teachers. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 13(1), 51-59. doi: 10.1177/10570837030130010107

National Association for Music Education. (n.d.). 2014 Music Standards. Retrieved from https://nafme.org/wp-content/files/2014/11/2014-Music-Standards-PK-8-Strand.pdf

Petersen, G. A., Jr. (2005). Factors contributing to Arizona elementary general music teachers’ attitudes and practices regarding multicultural music education (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Order No. 3164762).

Teicher, J. M. (1997). Effect of multicultural music experience on preservice elementary teachers’ attitudes. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45(3), 415-427. doi: 10.2307/3345536

Wong, K. Y., Pan, K. C., & Shah, S. M. (2016). General music teachers’ attitudes and practices regarding multicultural music education in Malaysia. Music Education Research, 18(2), 208-223. doi: 10.1080/14613808.2015.1052383

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Multicultural Music:
The Modern-Day Wonder in the Music Classroom

Article Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Research
Part 3: My Curiosity
Part 4: My Discoveries
Part 5: Resources to Get You Started