An Inclusive Approach to

Music Education

By: Amanda Herold

Amanda Herold

Dr. Talbot

MUS-149

2 December 2018

Assignment #8 Final Project

Question: How can we conceptualize curriculum and school knowledge to better address

important questions of social change, contingency of knowledge, life in mediated worlds, and

inequalities?

Thesis: We can conceptualize curriculum and school knowledge to fit current issues and

advancements in knowledge by recognizing student identities early on, listening and learning

music from different cultures, allowing students to share music from their own culture, and being

inclusive in our teachings.

Explanation of Project:

Through this interactive simulator, I work to present a wide array of answers on how we can

conceptualize curriculum and school knowledge to better address important questions of social

change, contingency of knowledge, life in mediated worlds, and inequalities. From classroom

misconceptions to deciding whether to liberate your curriculum, you must make decisions to

create an inclusive classroom.

The simulation puts the player in the position of an 8th grade general music teacher in

their first year of teaching. As the teacher navigates through their first year, the teacher must
make decisions that can leave long-lasting results on the students. In the game, I include multiple

outcomes and endings to better describe the impacts an inclusive (or not inclusive) teacher can

have on a class. I believe this non-linear story approach was very fitting for answering my

question of “How can we conceptualize curriculum and school knowledge to better address

important questions of social change, contingency of knowledge, life in mediated worlds, and

inequalities?” because its multiple outcomes allow for a ton of replay value that can educate

others not familiar with having a social justice approach in the classroom. My goal through this

project was to have players of this game discover the answer to this question on their own

through exploring the effects of not properly addressing these important topics. The simulation

was created using a non-linear storytelling software called “twine.”

My response to this question as well as simulation topics were heavily influenced by these four

readings:

To Teach: The Journey in Comics by William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner

In To Teach: The Journey in Comics, William Ayers expresses “how to liberate the curriculum”

and seeing education as beyond the subject matter. In my simulation, curriculum can be liberated

through working to change the normal curriculum to meet the students’ world. When RJ

struggled to keep interest learning musical form, the teacher could choose to adapt the original

curriculum to better suit the needs of the class. This allowed students to better connect to the

material rather than learn about material that was not relevant to them.
Musician and Teacher: An Orientation to Music Education by Patricia Shehan Campbell

In Musician and Teacher: An Orientation to Music Education, Campbell addresses teaching

music in diverse ways. Campbell discusses the importance of adapting “communication and

delivery systems to students of a wide spectrum of ethnic-cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic

backgrounds” (Campbell, 223). Within the simulation, the teacher is put in many positions where

they must teach to many different students. Through the Musical Identity project, students from

many different backgrounds share and teach the class about their identity and musical interests.

This provides students with a greater cultural background that has the potential to be a later focus

of the class depending on the options chose by the teacher. Another diverse teaching challenge

addresses itself when working with Luke. Although the teacher does not originally recognize

Luke to be struggling with his writing and reading, the teacher is able to work with another

teacher and recognize that Luke needs different accommodations to learn. Upon finding this out,

the teacher can better teach lessons that meet Luke’s needs as well as the rest of the class.

Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner

In Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner discuss the idea of

languaging and its appearance in the both the world and classroom. Languaging is when people

“transfer [their] own feelings and evaluations to objects outside of [them]” (Postman and

Weingartner, 83). Within the simulation, a fellow English teacher complains about a “lazy”

student. The teacher must decide the proper approach to this statement and whether being “lazy”

is a real thing. If the teacher chooses to find meaning behind the student’s “laziness,” both
teachers realize the student was never lazy but suffered from dyslexia. The simulation not only

works to be language-centered, but also student-centered and question-centered by approaching

different types of students and the harder to answer questions of the classroom.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

In Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire focuses on the idea of historicity and its

importance in education. Freire reveals that the historical task of the oppressed is “to liberate

themselves and their oppressors as well.” It is not the responsibility of the oppressors to liberate

the oppressed, but instead, liberation must come through those who are dehumanized. When a

student asks a Muslim classmate if they are a terrorist, the teacher has multiple options to address

the situation. Although some may disagree with the teacher intervening to create a definition for

“Muslim,” the teacher asks Zara to educate the class if she feels comfortable and encourages her

to continue this conversation through helping teach a lesson on Islamic music.

Works Cited:
• Ayers, W., & Alexander-Tanner, R. (2010). To teach: The journey in comics. New York, NY:
Teachers College.
• Campbell, P. S. (2008). Musician and teacher: An orientation to music education. New York,
NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Postman, N., & Weingartner, C. (1969). Teaching as a subversive activity. New York, NY:
Delacorte Press.
• Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.

I affirm that I have upheld the highest principles of honesty and integrity in my academic work,
and have not witnessed a violation of the honor code.
Amanda Herold