Despite calls from The National Standards Curriculum (NSC) to incorporate music that reflects the wider society of Jamaica, the opinions and cultural systems of youth often go unnoticed in the classroom. This can create a disconnect between the established curriculum, students’ culture system, and how they are taught in the music classroom. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how secondary school music teachers practiced culturally responsive teaching by functioning as cultural organizers, cultural mediators, and orchestrators of social contexts for learning when student learning was (a) related to their preferred music, and (b) related to cultural systems beyond their preferred musical culture. Three music teachers from three public secondary schools in the city of Kingston, Jamaica, participated in this research. Using an instrumental case study design (Stake, 2006), I observed each teacher’s lesson online on three separate occasions and conducted three semi-structured interviews with each teacher. The data collected were analysed and used to describe the themes that emerged.
The findings from this study suggest that culturally responsive teaching does not only support ethnically diverse student populations but can function effectively with music teachers supporting students in Jamaica’s postcolonial environment. The teachers’ understanding of Jamaican culture did not necessarily align with students lived popular culture but learning about students’ preferred music and employing contextual teaching and learning was beneficial to the students. Understanding students’ cultural background, including their popular culture experiences, and including historical aspects of their culture to broaden their understanding of their own heritage, were critical to how teachers operated. Their teaching strategies included students’ preferred music and the teachers’ selected music, both used to develop a broad-based music curriculum aimed at engaging and expanding the students’ knowledge beyond what they already know.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/43567 |
| Date | 10 January 2022 |
| Creators | Williams, Roger Neil |
| Contributors | Bylica, Kelly |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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