| An ecolumn from the Mayday Group
Saturday January 28th 2012

Related Sites


Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education

MayDay Group's online journal. Publishes refereed and invites critical, analytical, theoretical, and policy development articles of international interest that illuminate, extend or challenge the Action Ideals of the MayDay Group.
Editor: Wayne Bowman

MayDay Media & Podcast

The new MayDay Group's Media and Podcast Center. Watch new video podcasts. Browse interesting videos and other audio links.

Interested in the Consortium for Research in Equity in Music Education (CREME)?

CREME was originally conceived to be a consortium of institutions (please see prior post); however, it has become clear that securing institutional affiliation is a bureaucratic nightmare at many schools. Thus, at the CREME conference in October 2010, “Race, Erasure, and Equity in Music Education,” the Steering Committee (consisting of all conference attendees) agreed to restructure CREME such that it is now a consortium of individuals; at the conference, 73 people representing 30 institutions from throughout the world became affiliates. This number does not include the individuals who expressed interest in CREME at the Musica Ficta Conference in Toronto; they are currently being contacted to determine whether they would like to affiliate with the restructured consortium. CREME welcomes anyone who would like to become an affiliate.

Also, Julia Eklund Koza recently learned that there is a Barcelona –based corporation called Crème, which sells skateboards and sports apparel ; it recently established a Facebook page using the title “Crème International.” To avoid confusion, we have decided to drop “International” from our title; thus, we will simply be CRÈME (all letters capitalized).

If you are interested in the work that CREME undertakes and would like to join as an individual, please let me know!

Attention Grad Students: Call for Papers – Visions of Research in Music Education

Call for Papers from Graduate Students, Visions of Research in Music Education

Visions of Research in Music Education invites manuscripts from graduate students for an upcoming issue dedicated to research by graduate students.  Papers should address topics related to music education from philosophical, historical, or scientific viewpoints.  Manuscripts should be 7500 – 10,000 words and should not have been published or submitted to other publications simultaneously.  Submissions will be subject to blind peer review.  Chad Keilman, a graduate student at Westminster Choir College, editorial assistant and production manager for the journal, will serve as guest editor.

Visions of Research in Music Education is a fully refereed international journal appearing exclusively on the Internet.  Its publication is offered as a public service to the profession by the New Jersey Music Educators Association, the state affiliate of MENC: The National Association for Music Education.  The publication is made possible through the facilities of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Princeton, New Jersey.  Further details may be found on the journal’s website at http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme/

Please submit manuscripts before November 1, 2010 by email to Frank Abrahams, senior editor, at abrahams@rider.edu.

Borders crossed

I felt I ought to update readers of my activities of recent months, to which I will at least party attribute my lack of attention to the site over the summer. In May I moved from Madison, Wisconsin, where I had lived and taught at the Univ. of Wisconsin for nearly 5 years, back to my home near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The cultural differences between the U.S. and Canada have been on my mind since my re-entry to Canada. Even small things like the procedure to change my driver’s license from Wisconsin to Ontario provided adventures that speak to cultural differences and societal expectations. As I prepare to teach courses at the University of Toronto, these cultural differences continue to raise questions for me.  One of the courses I am preparing to teach is titled Music Education in Cultural Perspective, designed for students in the music teacher education program. I suspect that over the coming weeks, the course and the discussions emerging from its readings may provide some interesting questions to wrestle with around the issue of cultural identity and curriculum. I look forward to sharing my musings on these and other issues.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

The term culturally relevant pedagogy seems to be gaining a lot of traction these days in education scholarship and practice. Tyrone Howard (2003) writes:

Culturally relevant pedagogy has been described by a number of researchers as an effective means of meeting the academic and social needs of culturally diverse students (Gay, 2000; Howard, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Shade, Kelly, & Oberg, 1997). Gay (2000) asserts that culturally relevant pedagogy uses “the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning more relevant to and effective [for students]…. It teaches to and through strengths of these students. It is culturally validating and affirming” (p. 29). An additional, and some would argue the most important, goal of culturally relevant pedagogy is to increase the academic achievement of culturally diverse students.  (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442646/)

This is all well and good, and I will state here that I basically agree with the description above; it covers the main elements. However, such definitions leave considerable room for variation in pedagogical approach – so the question I would like to ask readers: what does the term culturally relevant pedagogy mean to you as it relates to music teaching at various levels?

Deb

Announcement and Call for Papers: Race, Erasure, and Equity in Music Education

I am very excited to share the following announcement and call for papers for what I believe will be a truly exciting conference on equity and social justice in music education. The International  CRÈME Consortium has been a long time in the making, and we hope this conference will further the momentum to bring issues of equity and social justice in music education into the forefront of disciplinary thinking.

Call for Papers

Race, Erasure, and Equity in Music Education

A conference sponsored by the

International Consortium for Research on Equity in Music Education

(CRÈME International)

University of Wisconsin-Madison

October 20-23, 2010

The goal of this conference is to encourage, promote, and disseminate scholarship in the areas of equity and social justice in music education.  This is the first official biennial CRÈME International colloquium and one of only a handful of music education conferences ever to have focused exclusively on equity and social justice issues.   We seek to further the scholarly efforts and energy brought forth by the Musica Ficta conference at the University of Toronto in January 2008, and the First International Conference on Equity and Social Justice in Music Education at Teachers’ College, Columbia University, in October 2006.  The keynote speakers at the forthcoming CRÈME conference are prominent race scholars in multicultural education and sociology:

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University

Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Cameron McCarthy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Even though race and music education will be the primary focus of the conference, we welcome proposals for papers on any equity or social justice issue in music education.  The conference will include two session formats:  (1) individual paper sessions (25 minutes per presenter plus time for discussion at the end of each session), and (2) round table sessions (up to 5 papers in a 90-minute time slot).

If you are proposing a paper, please send the following:

1)  An abstract file including

  • Paper title
  • A detailed abstract of the proposed paper (maximum of 750 words in English),
  • One paragraph (maximum 100 words) describing how the proposal fits the major themes of the conference and will forward scholarly thinking within music education on issues of equity and social justice.

AND

2) A separate cover page including

  • Paper title
  • Author’s (or coauthors’) name
  • Author’s title
  • Institutional affiliation
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Preferred session format:  Paper session______ Round table session________  Either________
  • Any requirements you may have regarding assistance in making your presentation accessible, as provided for by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • Any technical requirements (projector, screen, CD player, speakers, and so forth).

Proposals are due by midnight, February 1, 2010, and should be submitted electronically to Dr. Teryl Dobbs at tdobbs@wisc.edu.  Only electronic submissions will be considered.  All proposals will be blind reviewed by a panel of qualified scholars.  Submitters will be notified of the reviewers’ decision no later than March 31, 2010.    PLEASE NOTE:  This conference will partially overlap with the annual meeting of music education researchers from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which will be held at UW-Madison on October 20-22, 2010.  CIC members will be given the opportunity to register for both conferences concomitantly.

Conference Co-Chairs: Deborah Bradley, Teryl Dobbs, Julia Eklund Koza

INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR RESEARCH ON EQUITY IN MUSIC EDUCATION (CRÈME INTERNATIONAL)

What is CRÈME International?

The International Consortium for Research on Equity in Music Education (CRÈME International) is group of colleges and universities whose faculty members and graduate students in music education conduct research on equity and social justice issues.  The Consortium has the following goals:

  • To generate and promote music education research in the areas of equity, social justice, and diversity,
  • To foster cross-institutional conversations and research projects in these areas,
  • To disseminate this research through scholarly conferences and publications,
  • To use this research to better prepare educators of music teachers, and
  • To increase cultural diversity among music education researchers, educators of music teachers, and music teachers by increasing the number of music education students from under-represented, under-served populations, and by striving to create culturally relevant, welcoming learning environments for all students.

The Music Education Area at the University of Wisconsin-Madison serves as the administrative hub for CRÈME International.   A CRÈME website is currently under construction, which will list affiliating institutions, announce upcoming conferences, describe research projects underway, and provide contact information for all participating researchers at colleges and universities that are CRÈME International affiliates.

How does an institution become affiliated with CRÈME International?

CRÈME International invites all interested music education scholars to affiliate their college or university with the Consortium.  There are four requirements for affiliation:

(1) At least one research project focusing on equity and diversity issues in music education must be underway if an institution is to be considered a Consortium member. The decision about whether a project addresses an equity or diversity issue will be left to the investigator conducting the research.  Graduate students from affiliated institutions are welcome to include their work in the database.

(2) One faculty member in music education must be designated as the institutional representative to the CRÈME consortium.

(3) The institutional representative must agree to keep the Consortium informed about music education equity work underway at that particular institution.

(4) Participating researchers at affiliating institutions must agree to have the following posted on the CRÈME International website: The researcher’s name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and, if applicable, a description of the equity research project(s) that the researcher is conducting.

Finally, institutions affiliating with the Consortium are strongly encouraged (not required) to host a biennial conference on equity and social justice in music education.

If one or more faculty members in music education would like their college or university to be affiliated with CRÈME International, those individuals should seek institutional approval, if needed, prior to requesting affiliation.  Once institutional approval is given, please send the following information to Julia Eklund Koza (koza@education.wisc.edu) via e-mail: (1) the name of the institution seeking affiliation,  (2) the name and e-mail address of all interested music education faculty members and graduate students, (3) the name and e-mail address of the faculty member who has agreed to serve as the institutional representative, and (4) a brief description of each music education equity and diversity research project underway.  The description should include the title of the project, the name of the investigators, and a 150-word abstract.  Please write “CRÈME Affiliation” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Questions?

If you have questions about CRÈME International, please contact Julia Eklund Koza (koza@education.wisc.edu).  Write “CRÈME Questions” in the subject line of the e-mail.