Cultural Responsiveness of Early Childhood Charter School Music Teachers in New York City

• In Event: Music Education in K–12 Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to uncover and analyze the pedagogical and curricular choices of early childhood music educators in different NYC charter schools and to interpret teacher beliefs about the cultural responsiveness and developmental appropriateness of their respective practices. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten teachers—seven of whom were observed—and analyzed to evaluate music teachers’ conceptualizations of their practice. Teachers articulated and delineated notions of musical and cultural literacy that swayed the curricular disposition of their classroom repertoires in subtle and taken-for-granted ways, reinforcing standard, status quo conceptions of music curriculum. African American and Latin forms, while present, were often integrated additively, and treated reductively in comparison to Western music and literacy conventions.

Author

• Andrew Aprile, Queens College - CUNY