Many elementary general music educators aim to teach a broad range of musical traditions to the children entrusted to their care. And yet in practice, actually doing so can be messy and complicated. How might a music educator meaningfully teach a musical tradition with which the teacher and/or students are unfamiliar? In this session, participants will engage in dialogue about these issues and explore a range of curriculum projects in which this messiness is tended to and embraced—projects particularly influenced by Emily Style (Curriculum as Window and Mirror), Patricia Shehan Campbell (World Music Pedagogy), and the presenters’ own decade-long experience as an elementary music teacher in a small town in Alaska. Participants will then collaboratively brainstorm further project ideas and develop specific plans for implementing those ideas in their own classrooms. Join us to learn more about teaching musical cultures within your elementary music classroom!
Target Audience
Elementary General Music Teachers
Additional Notes
Clinician Info
Jonathan Dillon
University of Utah
Jonathan Dillon is an elementary general music specialist and faculty member at the University of Utah. Prior to this appointment, Dillon was a public school music teacher in Alaska. Recent articles written by Dillon have been published in the Journal of General Music Education, the Journal of Popular Music Education, and the International Journal of Education & the Arts. Dillon was a 2017 BP Teacher of Excellence and was awarded a 2016 Alaska Arts Educator Fellowship by the Alaska State Council on the Arts.