For White Folks Who Teach (Music) in the Hood

Introduction

Like many other teachers throughout the country, I entered the classroom this fall as a first-year teacher with classroom management weighing heavily on my mind. I had accepted a position in a racially majority-minority school district, positioned just outside one of the largest cities in America. I found myself in a completely new, complex culture and setting: one where I was often the only White person in the classroom, and a complete outsider. I struggled with classroom management and creating lessons that engaged the students. I embraced the advice of many and created “firm and consistent” expectations and taught traditional music skills of which I felt confident. However, this only seemed to help escalate the situation as my classroom felt more and more removed from the students’ interests and lives.

At some point during my search for resources for developing a stronger pedagogy, I turned to the book For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood (and the Rest of Ya’ll Too!) by Christopher Emdin for new, tangible ways to improve the classroom experience for my students, as well as myself. What I found within his writing helped transform my classroom. Emdin’s work focused on a culturally responsive approach to teaching and curriculum, and I believe music teachers, like myself, stand to benefit greatly from his theories. Through the application of Emdin’s philosophy, we can further develop our abilities to structure culturally responsive, creative, and educational learning spaces that encourage artistic and cultural growth, alongside diverse music skills.

While Emdin’s work focuses on educating urban youth (particularly African American students) and while it is an excellent tool for that demographic, I argue that in a nation with classrooms that continually grow more diverse, these responsive practices could, and should, be applied in every classroom in the nation (Banks & McGee Banks, 2009). What we, as music educators, must acknowledge is that as the demographics of our classrooms continue to change and develop, and relevant music skills and knowledge consequently transform, we must reflect these changes, as well. By embracing Emdin’s theories, I believe we stand to do exactly that as we begin to shift our pedagogy toward a more educative and inclusive experience through the inclusion of culturally relevant content, a reconceptualization of the norms of the classroom community, and the establishment of a democratic classroom through coteaching.

Understanding Emdin’s Reality Pedagogy and the Neoindigenous

To begin, we must examine the foundational belief in Emdin’s theory. In short, his pedagogy is founded on the idea that the urban youth are currently functioning as what he refers to as the “neoindigenous.” He relates the neoindigenous experience to that of the indigenous throughout the world as they were, and continue to be, stripped of their cultures and systems of belief and understanding. Through the process of cultural erasure and replacement that Emdin highlights, the culture of the indigenous is subsequently replaced with norms created and institutionalized by the colonizers. As Emdin argues, this process is currently taking place once again except with the youth of urban America. The main site of this whitewashing of culture, in Emdin’s opinion, is our public schools.

To reverse this trend of indoctrination, Emdin embraces the culture of urban youth as worthwhile and valuable to the educator in what he refers to as “reality pedagogy.” Instead of attempting to erase the foundation of the students’ lived experiences, Emdin calls for embracing and incorporating students’ various cultures in the classroom. Through this, he believes we not only preserve and include our students’ traditions and cultures but also allow “the teacher to circumvent the tensions that come from the cultural misalignments between school and community” (Emdin, 2016, p. 267). Instead of forcing irrelevant and culturally unresponsive expectations and curriculum onto urban youth, Emdin encourages that we as educators reassess what learning and teaching should look like, and incorporate the preestablished cultural understandings of our students into our classrooms.

Emdin’s theory is one that should create critical thought in the music educator. Educators of all subjects, including music, often confine our students to “official knowledge” and predetermined constructs of how a “good student” looks and behaves. This belief, for obvious reasons, potentially damages the educational experience of students as they are forced to learn skills and thoughts removed from their lived experiences and cultures and incorporated into the curriculum in response to political influence (Apple, 1993). For music educators, this demands a reenvisioning and questioning of what is a valuable music skill and what deserves instructional time in our classes. Is it always relevant to teach a music curriculum founded in note-reading, large ensemble performance, or other traditional elements of music education when it is culturally unresponsive to our student demographics? Are our models of classroom management and instruction relevant to the growing diversity of our students? When we look at the shocking underrepresentation of minority students in university music programs, are our attitudes and curriculums potentially to blame (Lind & McKoy, 2016)? These are questions that I urge music educators to consider.

Incorporating Culturally Responsive Classroom Content

As music education scholars such as Lind and McKoy (2016), Kruse (2016), and Allsup (2016) have shown, the inclusion of culturally responsive content in the classroom takes many different shapes. Gay (2010) points out, “These accommodations require the use of various culturally centered ways of knowing, thinking, speaking, feeling and behaving” (p. 45). Consequently, to be culturally responsive we, by definition, are dependent on the demographics of the classroom, the ages of the students, the locale of the school, or even whether the class is a course in general music, an emerging ensemble, a music technology offering, or any other type of music education setting. Therefore, we must be flexible and reactive to our own personal environments. Consequently, there is no way to dictate what is culturally responsive for your classroom. Instead, I encourage the idea of discussion with students to democratically elect subjects worthy of study or the creation of a class congress that helps guide the curriculum alongside the teacher. In my classroom, this conversation centered on a deep passion for hip-hop music among my students. Consequently, this resulted in the inclusion of, and focus on, hip-hop music in the curriculum.

To begin, music educators must realize that by applying hip-hop in this manner, basic music skills are not disregarded but can be restructured in a more engaging, responsive manner. Hip-hop offers many different avenues for exploration and application in the classroom and at any age level. Students can learn exclusively through hip-hop or hip-hop could simply be a tool for relating to your students. For example, the teacher can apply a music element found in hip-hop, such as rhythmic ostinato or polyrhythms, to facilitate connections between our students’ previous music understandings and the classroom content that is already being taught (Kruse, 2016).

However, hip-hop is not simply a tool for facilitating the learning of other music skills. Hip-hop is an art form all of its own, and learning the skills and culture of hip-hop is of tremendous value. For example, in a recent lesson, we applied hip-hop to discuss the issues of racial relations in America and the Black Lives Matter movement through the music and performance of Kendrick Lamar. Through this, the students were empowered to not only study the social issues and the larger hip-hop culture that the music represents but also focus on the intricate arrangements of the music, the forms of the songs, the time signatures, and the live performances of these songs. Through this inclusion of hip-hop, we responded to the need for not only music skills, but also development as an individual and a creative, intellectual mind in the music classroom. Hip-hop, often, features very advanced musicianship and complex lyrical themes that are frequently overlooked by educators. These elements of the music are often highly culturally relevant and feature important social issues and music concepts that should find a place in your classroom. However, this type of culturally responsive pedagogy is not limited to hip-hop and serves only as an example.

By definition, to engage in a responsive pedagogy, we must do exactly that—respond to our students. Hip-hop music education serves as an example of the power that is held in the inclusion of culturally responsive material in the music classroom. Through hip-hop, we can acknowledge that diverse music styles and cultures pertinent to many of our students’ lives also contain great educative opportunities. Through this type of curriculum and pedagogy, we encourage and embrace the diversity of our students while we create engaging and responsive lessons that arm students with music skills and knowledge that are practical, relevant, and musically beneficial. That is the power of the reality pedagogy in the music classroom.

Facilitating Through Pentecostal Pedagogy

The question that naturally arises next is, “How is this facilitated in the classroom?” For music educators, the ways that this may take shape in your classroom is dependent on your setting, resources, and skills. There is no way to prescribe something for all teachers in all settings. However, what must be discussed is the necessary classroom management philosophy that is a vital element of a culturally responsive pedagogy. For a truly culturally responsive classroom to be created, one must consider not only the content that is taught within the classroom but also the ways in which the classroom itself functions. As a result, classroom management strategies must be reflective of a culturally responsive attitude.

The fundamental way that this is accomplished in Emdin’s work is “Pentecostal Pedagogy.” This approach embraces the church as an example of the classroom as it can function in urban communities. Emdin’s belief is based in the concept of the church’s procedures and pedagogical techniques often being ingrained into many students from their cultural experiences. I find this to be largely problematic as it overgeneralizes and creates a stereotypical assumption of the church playing a central role in students’ lives. I am a teacher in what Emdin would likely include in his definition of the “hood,” and yet this idea of the Pentecostal Church being a central feature of the community is not true in our school’s location. Emdin’s assumption runs counter to his ideas of being inclusive and responsive and instead overgeneralizes student culture. However, what is of value in this approach is the vital implication that being responsive demands a reinvisioning of what a “good” classroom and student should look like.

The typical image of students quietly and passively sitting in their seats and receiving knowledge through what Freire (2000) would refer to as the “banking model” is thrown away in Emdin’s model. Instead, we use the behaviors that are found within the church as the model for behavior and norms. For example, in the Pentecostal approach, the students are allowed to “catch the spirit,” as Emdin refers to it. In the church, positive affirmation and outbursts are expected and welcomed during the service. When this is incorporated in the classroom, behaviors that originally were interpreted as disruptive, and were responded to accordingly, suddenly become an important part of engagement with the lesson. As Emdin (2016) puts it, “When students are keyed in to the instruction and have a personal investment in learning, the teacher will ‘lose control’ of the class.” (p. 274). While this, I believe, stereotypes cultural behaviors, I find value in the conceptual reconsideration of what effective engagement, teaching, and even classrooms themselves look like.

Responding Through Instructional Techniques

After reenvisioning student behavior and engagement in the classroom, Emdin encourages the reconsideration of our own behavior. Emdin models the ideal instructional techniques after a pastor in a congregation. The idea is simple and reduces down to managing the ebb and flow between direct instruction and discussion as a leader of a church congregations might. Once again, he overgeneralizes the role of the church in all our students’ cultures, but the idea is not without merit. For example, Emdin encourages the use of music at the start, positive affirmations of individuals, an increased use of call and response, and the clear establishment of when it is time to begin, discuss, and close the lesson. Through this, we are facilitating a classroom that has well-defined structures and social norms and, through actions such as positive affirmations of individuals, places the student at the center of the classroom and helps create a positive concept of self within the classroom. Simply allowing a student to be heard, or to say how his or her weekend went, can be of tremendous value.

To attempt to conceptualize this, imagine beginning an instrumental music class with a student’s favorite song playing in the background as students find their seats. You turn the music off, approach the front of the class, and raise your hand, signaling the start of class. Next, you introduce a 5-minute warm-up that asks students to put themselves into groups of four and create a short piece that summarizes their weekend. This takes almost no time from your instruction and instead creates a structured and, in Emdin’s opinion, culturally responsive start to the class. This inclusion of student voice along with the reassessment of what is acceptable learning behavior, then begins to found a democratically informed, culturally responsive classroom with students as the center.

Coteaching in the Music Classroom

By reconstructing our ideas of effective classroom management and positive student behavior and engagement, we have certainly taken a step toward a more democratic and responsive classroom. However, Emdin encourages one further step, and it is one that I believe is potentially the most beneficial element of his work. Emdin understands that students desire and deserve involvement not only through the inclusion of their lived experiences and interests but also through direct, hands-on involvement. Emdin suggests that the most effective and authentic manner of accomplishing this is through the utilization of coteaching. Instead of the typical coteaching with another adult teacher however, Emdin calls for coteaching along with a student. This means aiding them as they create and deliver lesson or unit plans, assignments, assessments, or any other regular function of any teacher.

Emdin also encourages the use of rewards for this additional responsibility. He argues that this reward simply must happen because students need to learn that they are rewarded for the work they do in the classroom. Emdin also claims that in response to grades being the “currency” of the classroom, the reward for the coteaching is extra credit. I take strong issue with Emdin’s reward-centric approach. In my teaching, I try to remove focus from the grades as the motivator. Instead, a desire to learn, participate, and develop are the key motivators. If those elements of the classroom are not there, I assume there is an issue somewhere with the lesson or the classroom environment in most cases. As a result, grades are not used to motivate or as a currency. Instead, the classroom is envisioned as a healthy democratic community with participating citizens coteaching for the benefit of themselves and their peers. As a result of this mentality, coteaching is used for three main reasons:

Yet the key to this type of practice is not simply applying it but applying it authentically. One example of what I would refer to as an “authentic approach” is to designate a student “expert” to teach a concept or to work with small groups of students who are struggling to grasp a concept. Structuring the classroom in this manner offers students a way to engage with each other, with the content and the ability to develop a sense of purpose and value in the classroom. Additionally, it typically results in students learning the material that was originally a struggle.

This occurs as a result of a student teaching the material in a new way that I had not considered that simply “clicks” with the student they are teaching. The ability to teach each other in this way is a direct result of students from similar backgrounds and experiences teaching each other through shared understandings that the teacher often does not possess. As students are members of their own specific cultures, they often demonstrate culturally responsive ways to educate each other when engaged in the practice of coteaching. As a result, the opportunity to watch students teach other is one that is incredibly informative for the teacher—especially as a cultural outsider.

Imagine, for instance, a student is struggling with a rhythm, yet the coteacher recalls a song with a similar rhythm that the two students both know from a song that they sing at recess. The coteacher is calling on cultural information that the teacher likely does not know to teach a concept. The coteacher then applies this song to help break down the problematic rhythm. The learning on both ends is intellectually involved, applied in relevant context, and also culturally responsive. Yet the teacher’s presence has been temporarily lessened, and the emphasis is instead placed on the classroom as a community and the role of the students as individuals within that community. The teacher can then take note of this teaching technique and apply it in the future if needed.

In other settings, I will also call on a coteacher when working with content that I think is valuable for them to discuss without me facilitating or interfering. The Kendrick Lamar lesson centered on racial and police relations in America, which is discussed above is an example of such a lesson. I introduced the content, and a student in our classroom proceeded to teach the remainder of the lesson. This, once again, places strong emphasis on the role of students as leaders and members of the classroom as well as engages them in new, beneficial ways and roles. Arguably most important, however, it repositions the teacher in the classroom and removes that voice from conversations so to create opportunities for students to discuss important, relevant matters in a constructive manner and among themselves.

Conclusion

As a result of the incorporation of the Pentecostal and Reality Pedagogy, my classrooms have transformed into learning spaces that I could have never envisioned beforehand. With the inclusion of the students’ cultures and giving up the attempt to erase it and substitute my own, classroom management has become an issue far from my mind as the classes proceed through culturally responsive avenues that resonate with students’ lived experiences and understandings. Through call-and-response activities, maintaining an organic ebb and flow to instruction and discussion, accepting affirmations during the lesson, recognizing and incorporating student cultures, and including student leadership, reality pedagogy functions to create cultural exchange that causes an organic, authentic learning space for students.

In the culturally responsive music classroom, our classes proceed through avenues that resonate with students lived experiences and understandings, and through this, we structure more inclusive and responsive learning spaces that simultaneously embrace traditional as well as 21st-century music skills. Through this type of culturally responsive pedagogy, we not only circumvent frustrations and dissonance that occur between the students and teachers as a result of cultural misunderstandings but also stand to create cultural exchange that facilitates an organic, authentic learning space for a diverse range of students. This transformed, responsive music classroom is the essential next step in a changing landscape of music skills and learners.