A Narrative Case Study on The Standard Bearer-Educator Perspective of Teaching African American Spirituals

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Centering Marginalized Narratives in Music Education

Abstract

The purpose of this instrumental narrative case study was to explore the ways in which the teaching practices of a choral music educator-standard bearer for African American Spirituals reflect the meanings he attributed to the genre. Luis Urietta, Jr.’s (2018) Cultural Identity Theory and cultural inheritance were utilized as interpretive lenses. The participant’s lived experiences portrayed a musical identity development rooted in an aural ability to meaningfully imitate, alter, and create music with and for others. As a standard bearer-educator he celebrated all parts of his cultural self, including the portions that encultured him into formal music teaching and learning. By teaching spirituals as a cultural inheritance, he refined the reverence and responsibility with which stakeholders approached the cultural context.

Author

• Michelle Zazaax Gibson, California State University - Long Beach