Demystifying World Music Education: From Guiding Principles to Meaningful Practice

Abstract

Over the past several decades, music education scholars have put forth a variety of convincing rationales for world music education. Yet the gap between theory and practice in this area persists. In theoretical ways, practicing music educators acknowledge the value of world music learning experiences, but many remain reluctant to fully embrace and embody this approach in practice. Through this article, one practicing general music educator shares her personal experience of writing, implementing, and subsequently observing another music educator use a new world music curriculum resource, inspired by the music traditions of the Fon people in southern Benin. As our understanding of world music pedagogy continues to evolve, more practicing music educators should share their unique perspectives and experiences. These “snapshots” from the field can help other (perhaps more hesitant) music educators envision what this pedagogical approach might look like in their own classrooms.

Keywords

Benin culturally diverse music education music education world music world music pedagogy

Over the past several decades, music education scholars and researchers have explored several distinct rationales for including world music in the curriculum. Authors discuss a musical rationale, highlighting the ways in which incorporating music from a variety of culturally diverse perspectives helps students achieve a deeper understanding of music elements and provides them with a broader base of sounds that can help them improve their aural, composition, and improvisation skills (Anderson & Campbell, 2010; Campbell, 2004; Volk, 1998). Some proponents of world music education also stress social rationales (Anderson & Campbell, 2010; Elliott, 1989), contending this inclusive approach fosters “multicultural awareness, understanding, and tolerance; promotes a deeper understanding and acceptance of people from other cultures; cultivates open-mindedness and unbiased thinking; and eradicates racial resentments” (Fung, 1995, p. 37). Still others point out the ways in which learning a diverse selection of music “broadens one’s view of humanities at the global level” (Fung, 1995, p. 39) and helps students realize that people in every cultural group share in the unique experience of being human (Campbell, 2018).

Various music education researchers have examined the legitimacy of the aforementioned rationales for world music education. Findings from their studies indicate students achieve both music and cultural learning, and in many cases demonstrate higher levels of cultural understanding and multicultural/intercultural sensitivity after engaging in culturally diverse music curriculum interventions (Abril, 2006; Chen-Hafteck, 2007; Downton, Peppler, Portowitz, & Bamberger, 2012; Edwards, 1998; Howard, 2015; Mellizo, 2016b; Nam, 2007; Nethsinghe, 2012; Sousa, Neto, & Mullet, 2005; Shehan, 1987).

World music educators and scholars have worked alongside culture bearers and ethnomusicologists to expand the availability of high-quality and culturally sensitive curricular resources (e.g., Global Music Series and Smithsonian Folkways) and to offer professional development training seminars and certificate programs (e.g., www.worldmusicpedagogy.com). Most recently, a new series of books (several volumes still forthcoming) unpacks the theory and practice of world music pedagogy at several different stages of development (Howard & Kelley, 2018; Roberts & Beegle, 2018; Watts, 2018). Yet, the gap between theory and practice in the area of world music education persists. In theoretical ways, music educators acknowledge the value of world music learning experiences, but many remain reluctant to fully embrace and embody this approach in practice (Campbell, 2018; Legette, 2003; Schippers & Campbell, 2012).

As our understanding of best practices in world music education continues to evolve, we should remember that often, our most powerful learning opportunities come from each other. Bridging theory and practice in this area will require music educators who have already begun to travel this “sometimes lonely journey” (Campbell, 2004, p. xvi) to share their unique experiences and perspectives. What do their lessons plans look like? Which principles of world music pedagogy do they find to be most important? How do these principles fit within traditional frameworks of standards and benchmarks? Are there moments of clarity from which we all can learn? What about moments of questioning? These important perspectives from the field can help other (perhaps more hesitant) practicing music educators envision what this pedagogical approach might look like in their own classrooms.

Background Information and Purpose Statement

As part of my doctoral work, I had an opportunity to travel to Benin, West Africa to experience music and culture. While in Benin, I studied and collaborated with culture bearers at the International Center of Art and Music in Ouidah (CIAMO), participated in music, dance, and visual art lessons, and attended several community music events, including the International Vodun Day celebration. I also had opportunities to interview musicians and observe the music teacher at CIAMO facilitate music lessons with local elementary age children. After returning the United States, I used the principles of world music pedagogy to write a curricular resource intended for my own early adolescent students within a general music setting (Grades 4–8). This unit, composed of 12 individual lessons, was inspired by the music and cultural traditions of the Fon people, who reside mostly in the southern part of Benin. Eventually, this set of music learning experiences became the basis for my dissertation study, through which I explored the effects of world music education on early adolescent intercultural sensitivity.

The purpose of the present article is to demystify and inspire increased practice in the area of world music education by recounting my own personal experience of writing, implementing, and subsequently observing another music educator use a new world music curriculum resource. First, I will unpack the guiding theoretical principles of world music pedagogy. Next, I will describe the ways in which these principles influenced my own curricular planning process and the resulting lesson plans. Finally, I will detail the ways in which one music teacher participant in my dissertation study embodied the principles of world music pedagogy in practice as she added her own complimentary, creative, flexible, and meaningful extension activities to these lessons.

Unpacking the Principles of World Music Pedagogy

Defining “World Music”

Although an in-depth discussion about the various ways in which terms such as world, multicultural, and culturally diverse have been defined and applied in previous music education literature is beyond the scope of this practically oriented article, it is important to clarify working definitions for the terms world music and world music education. Regarding the curricular materials I will describe within this article, the term world music can be understood as “music from various cultures, with an emphasis on the fact that music travels, establishes, and sometimes transforms itself away from its place and culture of origin” (Schippers & Campbell, 2012, p. 92). Using this definition as a guide, I conceptualized world music education as an all-encompassing term for the content, pedagogical tools, and strategies music educators use as they bring music from a wide variety of cultural settings alive in the classroom setting.

World Music Pedagogy

World music pedagogy is an emerging instructional approach that considers “how” culturally diverse music can be included in the curriculum in ways that honor both the original cultural setting of the music and the new instructional culture that emerges when this music is brought to life in an educational setting (Campbell, 2004, 2018). Proponents of world music pedagogy emphasize several important core principles.

Active Engagement Through Listening

As students begin to engage with an unfamiliar music culture, they should have ample opportunities for listening, which Campbell (2018) described as the starting point “from which all sorts of further musical and cultural discoveries flow” (p. 111). Campbell (2004, 2018) recommended a developmental series of listening experiences, all of which require active, hands-on participation on the part of the student. At the beginning stages, students learn to listen attentively for the ways in which certain music elements are used within the chosen music culture. Engaged listening activities require students to engage with the audio or video recording in limited ways (e.g., singing along, clapping along, patting along, etc.). Eventually, students have opportunities to re-create this music through their own performance (enactive listening) and “compose music that reflects the sounds and structures of the musical culture under study” (Roberts & Beegle, 2018, p. 4).

Transmission

Elliott (1989) and Schippers (2010) stressed the ways in which the essential values of any music culture are deeply embedded in its transmission processes. When introducing music drawn from unfamiliar cultural settings, educators should determine “what is considered important in the learning process . . . by the musicians and communities who shape it . . . and what aspects are seen as essential to transmit it successfully” (Schippers, 2010, Location No. 961).

Cultural and Contextual Connections

Because “music does not exist in a vacuum,” students should have opportunities to learn about “the musicians who perform it, compose it, listen to it, and value it” (Campbell, 2018, p. 117). Cultural and contextual information should be embedded throughout the learning experiences (not left until the very end). Integration activities that blend traditional subject-area boundaries (e.g., team-teaching with a social studies or language arts teacher) also have great potential to deepen and extend students’ music learning (Campbell, 2018).

World Music Pedagogy and Curriculum Development

The underlying structure of my own world music unit was deeply influenced by the aforementioned principles. Within each of 12 individual lessons, students had opportunities to partake in a variety of active, participatory music-making experiences. Among other activities, they performed traditional rhythms on instruments, learned traditional dance steps, and sang a song in the Fon language. Music was taught and learned mostly through aural techniques, which is common in Benin. Students actively engaged with audio and video recordings of culture bearers performing music in context, and eventually worked toward creating their own performances of this music. They read and discussed stories from the Fon folktale tradition, which Mama (1998) described as “one of the riches oral traditions in Africa” (p. ix). Additionally, students learned about various aspects of life in Benin (e.g., climate, history, economy, visual art, music, language, religion, dress, housing, food, access to clean water, and education) through a PowerPoint presentation, slideshow, and a series of YouTube videos recorded by CIAMO staff members in Benin. Students also had opportunities to write their own music compositions, inspired by the typical structure and instrumentation of Fon rhythmic time lines (Mellizo, 2016a). A sample lesson from this world music unit is included in the online supplemental materials.

Snapshots From the Field: World Music Pedagogy in Action

Although the music educators who facilitated this world music unit as part of my dissertation study taught the same content material (as outlined above), several teachers also created and implemented supplemental extension activities they believed would be meaningful for their students, within their own unique learning environments. For example, one teacher participant prompted her students to act out a traditional Fon folktale as a final unit project. At another school, students designed and performed original skits that summarized their music and cultural learning.

Within the following section, I will describe several unique music learning experiences that emerged as one music educator participant in my dissertation study facilitated this unit with her fourth to sixth grade students in a small, rural Wyoming public school. These “snapshots” from the field clearly illustrate the ways in which one general music educator embraced and embodied the rationales for (and principles of) world music pedagogy in practice.

Example 1: “Calabash de L’eau” (Water Drums)

During one individual lesson, students learned a traditional Fon rhythm called Tchinkoume. Tchinkoume, which originated in Abomey, Benin, uses calabash de l’eau (water drums). In southern Benin, this type of instrument is usually constructed by placing a floating calabash gourd bowl on top of water in a metal bucket (see Figure 1 for a picture of this instrument). A video example of children in Benin playing Tchinkoume in their music classroom at the CIAMO is included in the online supplemental materials.

Figure 1.

Calabash de l’eau (water drums) in the International Center for Art and Music at Ouidah (CIAMO) music classroom (Ouidah, Benin).

To extend this learning experience, the music educator asked her fourth to sixth grade students to construct their own water drums. They substituted plastic bowls for dried calabash gourds, created original designs, and painted these designs on their buckets. Figures 2 and 3 show a water drum, created by one group of students. They designed one side of the bucket (Figure 2) to represent Benin. The opposite side of the drum (Figure 3) represents the students’ community in Wyoming. This design choice exemplifies these students’ growing understanding that although humans around the world have differences (music and otherwise) that make them unique and special; we all share in the human condition (global rationale for world music education).

Figure 2.

Student-designed water drum. Djembe drums, iron bells, and the Beninese flag are included in this design.

Figure 3.

The opposite side of the drum represents the students’ community in Wyoming, USA. The symbol for the University of Wyoming Cowboys appears in the upper left-hand corner, and the students included their school colors and mascot in the center.

Example 2: A “Community” Shaker

During another lesson, the students learned about the importance of shakers and rattles in the Fon music tradition. Their music teacher extended this learning experience by asking them to collaboratively construct their own “classroom” shaker. Attempting to reinforce the collective nature of music making in Benin, she stressed the importance of each individual student’s contribution to the process. Each student selected and attached one bead to the community shaker (shown in Figure 4), and had opportunities to play the instrument once it was completed. This extension activity illuminates a central tenet of world music pedagogy: Honoring cultural/music values that are important to people within the original cultural setting, while simultaneously providing students in the classroom with opportunities to make their own meaningful contributions to the learning process (Campbell, 2004).

Figure 4.

Classroom gourd shaker, made by students in Wyoming.

Example 3: Global/Local/Ecological Connections

After the students finished creating the classroom shaker shown in Figure 5, their music teacher prompted them to consider the ways in which music traditions travel and sometimes “change” based on ecological considerations. In southern Benin, dried gourds are prevalent and inexpensive, and are therefore used frequently to make shakers, other musical instruments, and many household items. The teacher explained that musical shakers found around the world often look and function differently, due to the types of natural materials that are available in a given region. To further illustrate this idea, she built a musical shaker using two items she found on a nature walk in rural Wyoming (see Figure 5). Through this demonstration, she provided her students with a valuable opportunity to consider the ways in which the notion of “music authenticity” was relative. This instrument was inspired by the music traditions of the Fon people in southern Benin (global connection), but was adapted to fit the ecological reality of the place in which the students lived (local connection).

Figure 5.

Musical shaker inspired by the Fon music tradition, but made from a Wyoming turtle shell and antler.

Conclusion

Over the past several decades, music education scholars have put forth a variety of convincing rationales for world music education. The work of researchers in our field reaffirms our growing understanding that this approach is beneficial for students in musical, social, and global ways. Yet the barrier between theory and practice remains. Although practicing K–12 music educators recognize the importance of a “broader perspective” in music education (Campbell, 2004, p. xvii); many remain hesitant to “dive in,” due to perceived barriers such as a lack of time, knowledge, skills, training, and financial resources (Campbell, 2018; Schippers & Campbell, 2012).

At this point, I believe world music education scholars/theorists, ethnomusicologists, and culture bearers have done their part. We have an abundance of high quality resources, pedagogical information/tools, and training opportunities at our fingertips. What we need now are more concrete and honest “snapshots” that describe how practicing K–12 music educators, who find themselves in the trenches each day, are bridging the gap between theory and practice in the area of world music pedagogy.

This article represents my attempt to share a “snapshot” of world music education in action. After studying the principles of world music pedagogy, I used my emerging understanding of these principles to write a music unit that was sensitive to both the music traditions of the Fon people in southern Benin, and the musical needs of the early adolescent students in my classroom. As I observed another music educator add her own unique extension activities to these lessons, my personal understanding of these principles deepened exponentially. After facilitating all 12 lessons included in the unit, this educator (who teaches in a rural setting in Wyoming) reflected,

I loved teaching the lessons! Many students seemed to enjoy at least one aspect of the unit (making instruments, researching the country, learning the dance, watching the videos, storytelling and character miming, learning the simpler drumming patterns and layering them together). When we put the 5th and 6th graders together for rehearsals and a performance, students eagerly volunteered to participate. (personal communication, May 28th, 2015)

This educator exemplifies the openness, humility, and willingness to learn required to “turn theoretical thoughts into instructional realities” (Campbell, 2018, p. 177). Building a solid foundation of shared knowledge in world music pedagogy will require a deep understanding of its guiding theoretical principles, but it also requires practicing music educators who are willing to enact these principles, reflect on the outcomes of their actions, and ultimately share their reflections with others.

Supplemental Material

GMT805237_Supplementry_meterial – Supplemental material for Demystifying World Music Education: From Guiding Principles to Meaningful Practice

Supplemental material, GMT805237_Supplementry_meterial for Demystifying World Music Education: From Guiding Principles to Meaningful Practice by Jennifer M. Mellizo in General Music Today

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Supplemental Material

The online supplementary material is available at

Author Biography

Jennifer M. Mellizo is the K-8 general music, band, and choir teacher at the University of Wyoming Laboratory School in Laramie, WY. Her research interests include multicultural music education, world music pedagogy, early adolescent intercultural sensitivity, and the musical/cultural traditions of Benin, West Africa. Jennifer was named a Wyoming Arch Coal Teacher of the Year in 2014, and the Albany County School District Teacher of the Year in 2016.

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