A Report on the 2015 Society for Music Teacher Education Symposium
Christopher M. Marra Jessica Vaughan-Marra
The 2015 Society of Music Teacher Education (SMTE) Symposium took place on September 17- 19 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The conference has been held at The University of North Carolina (UNCG) biannually since 2005. This year UNCG was host to 320 participants for the 10th anni- versary of the symposium. The attendance report represented 44 states and 3 countries. Though the majority of the membership is music teacher educators, over 70 graduate students attended the symposium as well (S. Conkling, personal com- munication, September 20, 2015).
The theme of the 2015 symposium, “Toward a Stronger, Richer Community,” was evident throughout the keynote speeches, presentations, poster sessions, and Areas of Strategic Planning and Action (ASPA) Meetings. The ASPA meet- ings were assigned to focus primarily the theme of “equity and inclusion” through their break out sessions. Thursday’s evening presentation began with greetings from symposium chairs, Dr. David Teachout and Dr. Susan Wharton Conkling. Af- ter an introduction from Kelly J. Burke, Associ- ate Dean of UNCG, NAfME President and Board Chair, Glenn Nierman, took the floor to give an update to the SMTE membership regarding NAfME’s work with the United States Senate on the Every Child Achieves Bill, which is intended to replace No Child Left Behind.
The evening continued with a beautiful perfor- mance by the Peck Elementary String
program
organized by Dr. Rebecca MacLeod of UNCG supported by Lillian Rauch. This program focuses on social justice through string music education. It began in 2008 as a volunteer exchange pro- gram where UNCG string music education ma- jors would tutor third through fourth grade string orchestra students. The group on stage Thursday evening was a combination of the UNCG string musician mentors as well as Peck Elementary String ensemble. They performed two folk tunes, Silvie and Nampaya Omame, for the attendees.
The Keynote speaker for the evening was Dr. 35
Gloria Ladson-Billings from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Focusing on the sympo- sium theme of “Toward a Stronger, Richer Com- munity,” as well as the ASPA’s concentration on “Equity and Inclusion,” Ladson-Billings directed the audience’s attention to the history of hip-hop music and how this art can be used as a form of relevant pedagogy. The enlightening address me- thodically guided the audience through hip-hop’s origins from African American slave music prior to New Orleans’s “Congo Square” to the blues and birth of jazz. Ladson-Billings continued through the music of the sixties and highlighted how church music was transformed to meet the calls of social justice through familiar tunes with new and relevant lyrics that reflected the calls of the Civil Rights movement. She concluded her presenta- tion by reminding the audience of how historians label the significant events of the past and how challenging it can be to identify these moments in the present. Hip-hop is not a fad and it is not go- ing away according to Ladson-Billings. She chal- lenged educators to foster the presence of culture and art form within discussion of history.
Friday and Saturday hosted the bulk of the sym- posium with 60 sessions, twelve ASPA meetings, poster sessions, and the first ever division meet- ings of the general membership. Many current and former Michigan music teacher educators were selected to present including ten current faculty members as well as twenty-four university alumni from across the state. The ASPA meetings provid- ed an opportunity for all participants to contrib- ute their thoughts and research (both former and future) towards one or more special action group. The ASPA topics include: Critical Examination of the Curriculum, Cultural Diversity and Social Justice, Music Teacher Educators: Identifica- tion, Preparation, and Professional Development, Music Teacher Socialization, Policy, Supporting Beginning Music Teachers, Professional Devel- opment for the Experienced Teacher, Program Ad- mission, Assessment, and Alignment, School/Uni- versity Partnerships, Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Recruitment, and Teacher Retention. A final mind-
Higher Education
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