Factors Influencing Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Middle School Choral/General Music Classroom Morgan C. Soja and D.

Brett Nolker
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Results
Experience with Diverse Genres
60

Reports of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

56 55 Extremely Experienced 41 Experienced

What we Know
One of the most pervasive and valuable elements of culture is music. Therefore, music educators have a unique ability to build cultural bridges between what students already know and content standards they wish to teach. In the Professional Teaching Standards, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction outlines expectations for culturally responsive teaching. In the first phase of this study, we examined survey data. Data collected were focused on teachers use, experience, and comfort with diverse genres. We also examined teachers responses to questions about familiarity, comfort, training, and use of culturally responsive teaching strategies.
50 39 30 47 47 40

57

4% 18%
31 27

Use of CRT

Never

30

28 23 23 19

28

20 9 4 0 0 0 4 0

20 15 10 3

23 18 13 6 0 1 0 5 1 6 9 3 3

Neutral

44%

Rarely Sometimes Often Frequently

13

Inexperienced

27% 7%

10

Extremely Inexperienced

Comfort with CRT 8% 12% 6% 30%

Extremely Uncomfortable Uncomfortable Neutral Comfortable

Comfort Incorporating Diverse Genres

General Music (n = 67)
50 45 40 33 30 21 20 10 3 5 0 1 0 0 6 1 1 5 0 4 2 2 16 11 7 0 11 13 7 Extremely Uncomfortable 13 Uncomfortable 30 29 24 25 25 33 35 33 28 23 33 Comfortable Extremely Comfortable

44%

Extremely Comfortable

Our Questions
How experienced are middle school choral/general music teachers with diverse musical genres? How comfortable are middle school choral/general music teachers with incorporating diverse musical contexts into the curriculum? Are middle school choral/general music teachers using culturally responsive teaching strategies?

16%

Familiarity with CRT 2% 32%

Not at all familiar Not too familiar Somewhat familiar Very familiar Extremely familiar

29% 21% Training with CRT 22%

Neutral

10 1 0 0

Methods
Four hundred and thirty-five middle school choral/general music teachers were invited to participate in the study by completing a researcher developed instrument which was distributed via the Qualtrics online survey program. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS.
0

Yes No

78% Choral Music (n = 90)

70

61
60

Extremely Comfortable 46 35 27 37 49 44 44 36 27 23 23 13 14 4 0 0 1 14 9 3 5 39 41 Comfortable

Conclusions
Overall, teachers felt more experienced with, and more comfortable including classical, pop, world, folk, and musical theater. Teachers felt less experienced with and less comfortable including rap/hip hop. Nearly half (44%) of participants reported that they never use culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and 78% indicated that they had not received any training related to CRT. The data suggest that professional development specific to CRT would be beneficial to music educators.

Participants
Of four-hundred and thirty-five invitations to participate, 120 surveys were started, and 90 were completed. The participants currently teach choral music only, general music only, or a combination of both choral and general music. However, all of the participants answered questions relating to teaching middle school chorus, and 67 participants answered questions relating to teaching middle school general music.

50

40

30

26

Neutral 24 23 Uncomfortable 12 Extremely Uncomfortable

20

10

10 6 2 0 0 3 6 0 2 1 6 4