Towards an Enriched Rural Conception of Music Curriculum & Pedagogy Anita Prest
Introduction
“It’s impossible to achieve proper balance and intonation in a wind band without a tuba,” the well-meaning adjudi- cator explains to me patiently (and perhaps patronizingly) at the regional music festival. It is one of my first years of teaching; I cringe, wondering if he thinks I am a poorly trained music teacher, unaware of this fundamental piece of knowledge. My students smile; they are aware of my unsuccessful efforts in recruiting a tuba player who has access to a vehicle and driver to transport the instrument. In my small school (360 students from grades 5-12) located in rural British Columbia, those students who live within a four-kilometer radius from the school walk to and from school every day (making carrying a tuba home difficult), and those who live farther away ride on school buses that do not have sufficiently large storage areas to fit the large instrument. Although I have begun to save for a second tuba so that my imaginary, hard-working tuba player can practice one at home and keep the second at school for rehearsals, the school music program cannot yet afford this luxury.
“You might want to encourage your students to take private lessons,” the adjudicator continues. Although I nod sagely in agreement, inwardly I scream in frustration, knowing that even if parents could afford to pay for private lessons, they would have to drive their children between 50-100 kilometers to the closest private music instructor. How do I explain to the adjudicator, without embarrassing my students, that sometimes parents cannot even afford gaso- line for their vehicles, never mind music lessons for their children?
“Amplified violins are not part of the wind band make-up. Are you sure you should encourage musicians of non- traditional instruments to participate in your group?” the adjudicator asks. “Yes, I am sure,” I respond silently. In my small school, I need to recruit at least 50% of the Grade 8 students in order for the Grade 8 Concert Band elective class to exist. Pragmatically, I will encourage any musician wishing to learn and be part of a group musical experience to join my class.
Eventually, the school music program purchased the second tuba, the band parent executive and I annually raised funds to subsidize a substantial number of students wishing to attend a university summer music camp 400 kilometers
away in Vancouver, and some parents were able to provide private lessons for their children who then shared their newly-acquired skills with their fellow students. My stu- dents performed better at regional music festivals, feeling more competent than they had in the past. We embraced festival rubrics and utilized the Canadian Band Associa- tion’s Voluntary Standards for Instrumental Music to develop technique, appreciating this three-tiered standards document that, while promoting skill development, also takes into account, unlike many other standards documents, the heterogeneity of educational contexts.
But along the way, I also came to the awareness that although part of my job as a rural music teacher was to devise and implement creative strategies to minimize the effects of lack of resources available to music teachers in rural schools, one of the so-called “deficient, backward, and socially undesirable” aspects of the rural setting (Reid, Green, Cooper, Hastings, Lock, & White, 2010, p. 265), I also had begun to conceive teaching music in a rural school differently. Initially, much of this process was unconscious. This article is an attempt to put my mental journey into words as I slowly became alert to the metropolitan bias that permeates modern education, seeping into our music cur- riculum and pedagogy by invalidating or making invisible local music making practices, and how I eventually learned to recognize, celebrate, and draw on those existing and unique features of my small community, both musical and non-musical, that had the capacity to enhance my students’ music making experiences. I began to teach my students with the community in mind.
Awakening to the possibilities of the rural through school-community partnerships
Gruenewald (2003) describes the principles of such a place- based educational philosophy. He states, “Place-based edu- cators do not dismiss the importance of content and skills, but argue that the study of places can help increase student engagement and understanding through the multidisci- plinary, experiential, and intergenerational learning that is not only relevant, but potentially contributes to the well- being of community life” (p. 7). Over the years, in creating opportunities in the community for my students to play for, play with, and learn from diverse community members, I had inadvertently adopted a place-based approach to music education in my rural context.
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http://www.canadianband.ca/Resources/StandardsEnglish.pdf 12
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